PROCESS & TECHNIQUES OF DECISION - MAKING, COMMUNICATION, MORALE, MOTIVATION THEORIES - CONTENT,PROCESS & CONTEMPORARY, THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP - TRADITIONAL & MODERN

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The previous segments here,right from the beginning have till now explained Public administration- An introduction,Evolution of the discipline(i.e. subject of study in educational institutions),Wilsonian view of administration and Administrative Ideas - School of thoughts/Ideas, posted respectively in the order mentioned above.The next segment, that is today's one, is going to explain Administrative behaviour,i.e. Behaviour of administrators in their administrative capacities of an organization and what all influences them while taking decisions and handling different situations there,thus leading us to an understanding of the internal day to day functioning of an administrative organization and how everything and everybody in it work in perfect tandem to achieve its overall goals and objectives through a study of its employees behaviours.

So, here it begins.

PROCESS & TECHNIQUES OF DECISION - MAKING:
Decision making is immensely significant in the study of administration. Decision making is the process through which one optimal(best/most likely to bring success or advantage) alternative/choice is made from several possible alternatives/choices of solutions for a given issue/situation that will ensure maximum benefit and least risk than the others who were not selected. It involves choices also between the result and the ways/methods or techniques to get to that result. It also involves the cost and benefit analysis of the choices to choose from and the one that suits the best is then considered. Successful decision making techniques and methods and experience of administrators in the same has always ensured success. It is the mechanism through which an organisation achieves its goals. At each and every junction of policy formulation as well as policy implementation and also in pvt organisations,it is Decision making only that is present everywhere and all the time. The running of an organisation is based on decisions that are to be taken at every step. So,it can be understood as to how significant and essential is the process and techniques used in Decision making by the administrators in the running of an organisation. No decision is alone,all decisions are linked together in a sequential chain.
Chester Barnard was the pioneer of the decision making approach and considered it the 'essential process of organisational action'. Herbert Simon who was the most prominent, significant & detailed contributor of the Behaviourist school of thought and Decision making theorist has also stated that decision making apart from the above mentioned is also a decision to be taken between action and non-action.

The CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION  THOUGHT/IDEA consisting of scholars like Henri Fayol,Gullick etc had a very simple and rigid approach to the study of process of decision making that involved a series of steps like:
a) Formulation of the problem and of the goals and objectives.
b) Conceptualisation of alternatives and collection of relevant pieces of information.
c) Choosing the best course of action or alternative that would bring the best return
d) Implementing the decision
e) evaluating the effectiveness of the decision

Now, as one can notice that there is a very casual assumption here that all the above steps are simple to follow without and irrationality and that the administrator is bound to have all the relevant knowledge and sureshot prediction of success by choosing the best course of action(Decision). But, Simon argues in reality the process is quite complex and not as simple as mentioned above as there are many unforeseen factors that crop up. However,lets not forget that this classical approach of decision making was the basis for the building of the Behaviourist school and the idea of studying decision making in detail sprouted from the above missing links.
So, Simon then proceeded to put forward the theory of Decision Making which he calls "Bounded(limited) Rationality(understanding)  Decision Making of the Administrative Man while making decisions in an organisation". It states that there are limitations of human capacity in formulating and solving complex problems that arise from internal,that is, psychological facts of stress or motivations on one hand or external,that is, environmental factors on the other hand. Thus, decisions are made within such constraints of the circumstance by the administrator in a given situation. He calls such decisions 'satisficing' decisions by combining the words satisfying and sufficing(to be enough) for the situation to get resolved. He states that a 'one best solution' or completely 'rational' choice of decision can never be achieved as the administrator only has limited knowledge of a given situation and so according to him that decision is the best but actually there will always be a better choice which is not known to the administrator due to his knowledge constraints and coming in between of his habits,personal beliefs or intellectual capacity,informal groups and the relationships people share in an organisation,lack of time,limited span of attention,etc. So, an administrator actually makes a satisficing decision instead of a best or maximising decision that has only positive effects and gets the maximum rewards for the organisation as per the Classical theorists,which sounds idealistic,not practical.

That was the Classical school of thought's ideas/process of decision making.

Now,let's proceed to understand Simon's Behaviourist school of administration thought/idea's 3 aspects(parts) of decision making process:
1) Scheme of Individual's Decision Choice.
2) Fact - Value Dichotomy.
3) Bounded Rationality

In detail:
1)Under the first aspect of Individual Decision Choice,Simon has listed the following three steps that happen in it:
a) Intelligence activity stage:  The head of the organisation after studying the organisational environment has identified the problem to be solved and gives it the needed recognition so that the whole organisation is aware of it and proceeds to its next step of resolution.
b) Design Activity stage:  Once the problem is identified the head of the organisation begins searching for possible and suitable courses or strategies or alternatives of action that could help resolve the issue in the best possible manner and leading to positive and beneficial results for the organisation. He then goes through the merits and demerits of each of these alternatives and how they would work in regards to the issue and the speculation of results.
c) Choice activity stage:  Once the alternatives have been developed the administration proceeds to the choice activity stage which critically evaluates the different consequences of all the alternatives available. After the following is done,the decision is taken which seems the most appropriate and can fulfill the objectives of the organisation. This stage requires certain skills like judgement,creativity,quantitative analysis and experience in the decision making process.
Simon emphasises on rational decision making but 100% rational decision making is impossible as what is rational today might not be rational anymore the next day in a complex situation or issue where a large network of decisions is to be executed in different phases. But,maximum rationalisation can be achieved in a simple or one time issue/situation.

2) The second aspect,that is, the Fact - Value Dichotomy comprises of:
Simon in his writing asserts that each decision consists of a logical combination of fact(proven examples) and value(good and bad/morality,culture or virtues) propositions. He states that as much as possible decisions should be based on facts and not influenced by values much so that there is uniformity in decision making universally and also decisions based on facts are most beneficial as they are proven and tried and tested most of the time and well calculated. He however made an exception for values stating that values can take part in decisions relating to the fixation of end goals of a policy while factual judgements shall be seen pre-dominant in the implementation of such goals.

3) The third aspect that is bounded rationality has been already explained above. Simon has presented six types of rationality in decision making:
1) Subjective - A decision is subjectively rational if the decision maximises attainment when compared to the knowledge of the subject that the administrator has.
2) Objective - A decision is objectively rational where it is correct behaviour for maximising given values in a given situation.
3) Conscious - A decision is consciously rational where adjustment of means(methods,equipments and funds used to achieve an end/objective/goal) to ends(end result/objective or goal) is a conscious & planned process.
4) Deliberate: Decision is deliberately rational if the adjustment of means to ends has been deliberately sought.
5) Personal: Decision is personally rational if the decision is directed to the individual's goals.
6) Organisational: Decision is organisationally rational to the extent that it is aimed at the organisation's goals.

TYPES OF DECISIONS IN AN ORGANIZATION:
Two types of decisions have been identified occurring in an organization-
1) Programmed decisions: Such decisions which could be seen having repetitive components and where examples are present and somewhat of a routine nature with fixed variables. These kind of decisions are suitable to be delegated to lower levels of the organisation.
2) Non-Programmed decisions: Such decisions which are unique and non-repetitive in nature having a new environment and variables. These decisions are advised to be kept at the higher level of management.

Simon argues that rationality (principle of reason and logic/calculation) can be increased by:
1) Promoting high degree of specialisation.
2) Applying scientific tools in the process of decision making like PERT,computers,etc.
3) Promoting operations on the basis of market mechanism.
4) Promoting knowledge of political institutions.
5) Creating a wider base of knowledge so that rationality could be improved in problem solving.
6) Proper and clear communication of decisions from top management right to the bottom so all links and levels work in tandem and smoothly.
7) Trainings to be given to employees from time to time on decision making.



Now,apart from Herbert Simon's Decision making theory/approach let's explore some other models of Decision making by different theorists.

1) CHARLES LINDBLOM's DECISION MAKING APPROACH - THE IDEA OF INCREMENTALISM:
He was critical of Herbert Simon's approach and advocated that instead of changing the whole area of where the issue arises,small and partial adjustments should be made mutually which will then pass on gradually and without any conflict spread to the whole little by little that is incrementally(a series of increases). If a big decision is taken all of a sudden it might be opposed as the people would find it hard to adjust to. He calls it as his paper titles " The Art Of Muddling Through" that instead of rationalism,the approach of Incrementalism is the best way since a public policy is mostly a continuation of a previous policy or a better version of it and bears a strong resemblance to its predecessor and so little by little changes are required since the base is the same. The idea of this approach was basically acceptance by public and legitimacy and is of short term perspective. And for this approach a training is not required.

2)ETZIONI's MIXED SCANNING MODEL OF DECISION MAKING:
He has blended rationality and incrementalism in his model. He supported Lindblom's approach but did not agree with him on the rationality part that stated rationality should be done away with. He stated that in the beginning the whole problem area should be seen broadly and then later on focus may be made for detailed scrutiny of the smaller areas requiring urgent attention because unless the whole area is not seen a problem cannot be identified and the smaller areas will not come into focus.

3) YEHEZKIEL DROR - OPTIMAL MODEL OF DECISION MAKING:
Criticised Lindblom's approach as he felt that partial change as a solution to a problem is not possible as the inertia of the previous problem or the bigger problem will still persist and eat up these small and insignificant changes. He suggested a combination of rational factors as well as extra-rational factors linked with the decision and situation. he suggested a qualitative approach through a feed back mechanism. He was also in support of studying decision making as a subject of social science and making it inter disciplinary where knowledge and techniques from other social science subjects can be mixed and applied to decision making to broaden its scope and achieve maximum results.

4) GAME THEORY OF DECISION MAKING:
This is done in an environment where there are numerous organisations having the same goal and objectives and products. Here a decision maker takes a decision keeping in mind the opponents strategy as the topmost priority and to have the minimum loss and risk. Foreign policy,export-import policy etc may be seen as examples that follows this theory.

TECHNIQUES OF DECISION MAKING:

A) QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES(relating to numbers/calculations or loss and gain)-
1) Cost benefit analysis
2) Queueing
3) Probability
4) Simulation - creating a mathematical model of the situation
5) Monte carlo - a class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results. Monte Carlo methods are often used in computer simulations of physical and mathematical systems.
6) Linear Programming
7) PERT,CPM,etc
8) Game Theory
9) Marginal Analysis

B) NON QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES(cultural/moral/value/attitudes):
1) Application of intuition
2) Application of juristics
3) Decision making under influence of emotions
4) Influence of values and norms
5) Influence of attitudinal predispositions.


COMMUNICATION:
Communication is one of the most basic functions of administration and is one of the essential reasons for the success or failure of an organisation. If there is a systematic and properly developed communication system then the organisation booms.
Communication refers to sharing and transmitting of ideas,facts,opinions,information and understanding from one person or place or thing to another and is the heart of management as it helps various functional groups within an organisation understand each other's functions and concerns. It ensures co-ordination and helps get work done quickly and within time among various inter related units if there is clear communication through a systematised and developed channel. It can be in the form of orders,directions,suggestions,advice,reporting requests and feedback.

FEATURES OF COMMUNICATION:
1) It involves people.
2) It involves shared meaning
3) It is symbolic
4) It is a two-way process
5) It is a pervasive function,applying to all phases of management and to all levels of authority.

COMMUNICATION PROCESS:
Any communication involves-
1) A sender - Who sends out the message
2) A receiver - Who receives the message
3) A 'medium' through which the message is communicated. This message could be written,oral or non-verbal.
4) Message - It is the physical form into which the information is encoded(in to a series of symbols).
5) Channel - The mode of transmission of the message
6) Decoding - The interpretation of the message by the receiver.
7) Noise -The factors that hinder effective communication.
8) Feedback - Receiver's reaction to the sender's message.

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION:
1) VERBAL COMMUNICATION - It is a part of formal communication.Communicated through language and symbols and the most significant form of communication. There are 2 sub-forms of verbal communication - Oral communication and written communication. Oral communication - through phone,etc. It is fast paced and happens in real time. Written communication - letters,e-mails,etc. It is highly significant as what is written is clearly conveyed without any distortion and can always be recalled in time of need and is a written proof.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS:
1) Downward: When it flows from superior to subordinate. A clear communication here will reduce the uncertainties of the subordinate and the job will be done perfectly.
2) Upward - When it flows from subordinate to superior. Helps superior get the requisite field knowledge and subordinate feels motivated and time is cut down in taking decisions as subordinate can skip some levels and approach relevant official directly.
3) Lateral - When it takes place at the same level. Teamwork is enhanced and an open environment prevails.
4) Diagonal - When it takes place between manager and members of other work groups .
5) External - When members of one organisation communicate with another organisation members.

2) NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION - It is a part of informal communication.It refers to communication through facial expressions,pitch of voice,hand movements,body gestures and other signs used by individuals. Proper orientation and training is need for this type of communication as a lot of time such communication is misunderstood but if used effectively is extremely useful.

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:
1) Language difficulties
2)Frame of mind
3) Screening or filtering - Also known as tone down,that is the sender filters the message of some components that might not be acceptable to the receiver before sending it out.
4) Lack of desire
5) Ideological barrier ( differences in background,education and expectations)
6) Mutual distrust
7) Inattention
8) Resistance to change
9) Overloading - Giving too much information,more than what the receiver can comprehend.
10) Timing
11) Size of organisation
12) Lack of definite and recognised means of education

FORMAL VERBAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS:
1) Chain - When communication travels in a chain
2) Wheel - When one person can communicate with other who do not communicate amongst themselves.
3) Circle - Where each individual can communicate with each of the others.
4) Inverted - When two people communicate with a boss who has two levels above
5) All channels - Communication here is transmitted through all channels available.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS:
This network operates informally that is when individuals want to share feelings,emotions,opinions,etc with another in the organisation. It can be regarding his job or personal matters. It helps in motivating and employee when communicated through the informal channels to the management.
1) Grapevine or gossip network: Shared between individuals when there is some general interest of the group regarding the organisation and is fast paced.
2) Cluster network: General talk between individuals without and agenda.
3) Propaganda network: A group joins together to portray another as weak for their gains.
4) Rumour network: It has a powerful core and speaks through brief statements directly related to the receiver and the receiver feels threatened if he does not go by or pay heed to the message.

MORALE:
Also known as 'esprit de corps' (Henri Fayol's fourteenth principle of administration) is the amount of confidence felt by a person or group of people ,especially when in a dangerous or difficult situation at work/organisation.
A high morale person will not be afraid from  taking up challenges and accept orders. Whereas a low morale person will have limited attention of work and not be open to accept orders. The morale of a person shows his overall adaptability to the overall organisational situation. An employee keeps doing an individual assessment of his work and his organisation's status in society and his work environment and management's attitudes towards him and after assessing all this he reaches conclusions as to how to proceed. If his assessment comes out positive then he experiences high morale,but if it comes out negative then he experiences low morale and this can be made out by his behaviour and attitude towards his work mentioned above.
It is considered as a group phenomenon as mostly employees in a group tend to feel the same way and the factors they take into consideration is used by everyone while doing their own individual assessments.
Corruption in administration has a very negative impact on morale of the workforce. Employees seeing no way out tend to have no initiative and lack of will and desire to perform their jobs with optimum energy.
Miller has suggested to ways to curb deviant or corrupt behaviour of employees:
1) The framework of surveillance and scrutiny.
2) The framework of socio-psychological interventions like feedback and helping employees vent out their feelings to the management once in a while.

MOTIVATION:
Motivation is the enthusiasm or reason for doing something. Frederick Herzberg,Abraham Maslow,David Mclelland and David Mcgregor are major contributors to the motivation theory. Motivation is specific to an individual and is almost always an individual phenomena.
There are three reasons/aspects to motivation or the lack of it:
1) Needs: These are deficiencies that a person does not have but wants to have.
2) Drives: These are action oriented and provide energy thrust towards goal achievement. Its the very heart of motivational process.
3) Goals: Incentives or pay offs that provide private satisfaction but reinforce the everlasting chain of needs.
TYPES OF MOTIVATION:
1) Incentive and position incentive: Helps fulfill the four P's of motivation of employees - Praise,prestige,promotion and pay cheque.
2) Negative or fear motivation: This trend is mostly no longer used. It is when a person is coerced into doing a job because he is fearful of consequences if he does not do it.
3) Extrinsic motivation: Pay promotion,status,fringe benefits,retirement plans,holidays/vacations,etc. This motivation is largely monetary in scope.
4) Intrinsic motivation: Feeling of having accomplished something that is worthwhile. It is symbolised by praise,responsibility,recognition,esteem,status,competition and participation.
5) Financial motivation:salary,bonus,profit sharing,leave with pay,etc.
6) Non- financial motivations:Non financial/monetary in nature.Job enlargement,job rotation,job loading or more responsibility,Job enrichment,Job security,delegation of authority,status and pride,praise and recognition,competition and participation,etc.

Taylor propagated the 'carrot and stick' approach of motivation in his scientific management theory where he emphasised only on financial incentives and fear of punishment and non performance should be imposed on the employee to motivate him to work harder sincerely.

There are three schools of thought/theories/approaches of Motivation studies classified as the :

1) CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION: Theories of this school of thought are based on the needs,motives or desires  that drive employees to get motivated and job satisfaction and work harder. Let's understand it better:

a) MASLOW's NEED HIERARCHY THEORY: Maslow asserts that man's needs are basically five and are arranged in a pyramid from bottom to up starting with biological needs and ending at self actualisation. he states that the fulfillment of one need helps man to not want it any more and thus he is motivated to proceed further up and achieve more.These needs are: Biological needs like hunger,thirst and other physiological needs. Safety needs like security from physical and emotional harm and a wanting of a family and community. Love and belonging needs like affection,acceptance,friendship and affiliation. Esteem needs like self-respect,autonomy and achievement,status,recognition and attention,etc. Self actualisation needs like growth,realising one's actual potential and self fulfilment and becoming the best person one can be both professionally and personally
LIMITATIONS OF MASLOW's THEORY:
It is not been proven that once a need is satisfied that man will not want it again.
Not necessary that everyone will pursue self actualisation.
No practical evidence is presented to support his hypothesis that the needs are progressive that is if one is satisfied then man proceeds with motivation to achieve the next.
Hypothetical model of pyramidal needs that cannot be seen as suitable for explaining motivation at the work place as it is too generalised and prescriptive in nature.
RELEVANCE OF MASLOW's THEORY:
His theory has provided managers with atleast a framework to study and analyse human motivation and has helped them understand the general attitudes of employees towards work and to take appropriate steps to motivate them depending on what level of needs he is not having and would like to achieve. So,his theory applicable but is to be applied as per the situation.

b) HERZBERG's  TWO FACTOR OR TWIN FACTOR THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
 He believed that all individuals in a society have two sets of needs: to avoid pain and to grow psychologically.The twin factors that play a key role in motivation of an employee according to Herzberg are called Hygiene factors and Motivation factors. Motivation factors are the factors that lead to job-satisfaction and those are job enrichment,achievement,recognition,challenge. These have a positive influence on job satisfaction,efficiency and higher productivity of an employee. The presence of these factors motivate the employee but their absence does not lead to job dissatisfaction as an employee might still like his job as it is an d continue with no extra involvement or more involvement. So that is not considered job dissatisfaction which leads to lack of desire,opposition and drop in productivity,etc. Job dissatisfaction is caused by company policy and administration which are contradictory to the individual's goals,inept supervision practices,not up to the mark salary,interpersonal relations between employees and working conditions. Hygiene factors help remove this dissatisfaction by improving them. Absence of hygiene factors might lead to job dissatisfaction but its presence does not guarantee motivation as motivational factors are related to the specifics of the job and responsibilities associated with it as mentioned above and not anything outside the job profile of an employee. A hygiene seeker employee will not be concerned with the substantive aspects of the job for what he is in the organisation but will be interested in the complementary aspects of the organisation like his environment,etc. Whereas a motivation seeker employee looks for challenges in his job and is only bothered about his job responsibilities and how to netter and grow in it and is mostly an overachiever.

LIMITATIONS OF HERZBERG THEORY:
Conducted study on only 200 engineers and accountants of nine companies in only a particular area of USA, so a very limited study was done.
Not necessary that this always be the case,sometimes both get interchanged and each individual might combine features of both factors and get motivated if provided to him.
It has been seen that sometimes the hygiene factors also lead to a sense of job satisfaction.
RELEVANCE:
Outlined the factors specifically that an individual pays attention to in a organisation and this has helped a lot of managers to specifically take note of employees likes and dislikes and how to motivate him by improving those specific factors.

c) ALDERFER's ERG THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
Influenced by Maslow's theory,he revised it and presented his Existence,Relatedness and Growth theory of motivation. The existence group of motivation is concerned with a man's basic needs for survival and existence(refer to Maslow's physiological and safety needs). The Relatedness group factors of motivation that are similar to Maslow's love,need and external component of self esteem classification. Finally,the Growth needs states man's need of personal growth and development and can be found in alignment with Maslow's esteem category and self actualisation needs category.
However, Alderfer's theory is not rigid and suggests that more than one need can be operating at the same time and if a higher need is not being able to get satisfied then the desire to satisfy the lower need increases.
d) McGREGOR's THEORY X AND THEORY Y OF MOTIVATION:
Theory X is the negative theory of motivation and is not advisable except in the most required or inevitable situations whereas Theory Y is the positive theory and is suggested.
Theory X assumes:
1) Workers have a natural dislike for work.
2)Workers do not like taking responsibility.
3) Workers do not like challenging tasks.
4) Workers work better in an environment of standardized rules and procedures.
5) Workers lack creativity and innovation.
6) Workers like to be directed/ordered and perform better when specific orders are directed at them.
7) For the motivation of workers carrot and stick arrangement can be used.

Whereas the positive Theory Y assumes:
1) Workers show interest towards work when they have sufficient work assigned.
2) Workers take responsibilities when they are provided with opportunity for recognition.
3) Workers take up challenging tasks when superiors show trust in them.
4) Workers work better when they are allowed necessary discretion in regards to selection of procedure and methods while performing a task.
5) Workers can be creative and innovative where they are provided sufficient space for the same.
6) Workers perform better when their "self" is allowed to operate.
7) Workers are seen to be motivated when they are provided with opportunities for advancement,learning and recognition.

e) DAVID McCLELLAND's THREE NEEDS/MOTIVES THEORY:
1) Need for achievement: People have a compulsion to succeed and strive mostly for personal achievement rather than rewards. They want to do things better and more efficiently than what others have done.High achievers look for challenges and dislike succeeding by chance. Mostly people who are average achievers look for moderately challenging jobs and derive satisfaction after attaining them through calculated moves.
2) Need for power: Individuals seek for the power to influence or control the behaviours of others . Individuals seeking such needs like to be in a competitive and status oriented society and once that power is achieved it may be used constructively or destructively.
3) Need for affiliation: The desire to be liked and accepted by others . Individuals seeking these needs strive for friendship,co-operative situations rather than mutual understanding.


2) PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION:
Proponents of these theories specialise and concentrate on the processes and techniques to be used to drive motivation in employees rather than simply concentrating on the psychological aspects of individuals.They argue that major determinants of performance are motivational levels,abilities and traits and role perceptions. Let's discuss them in detail here.
a) VICTOR VROOM's EXPECTANCY THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
According to him people are motivated to do a job if they are convinced of the worth of that goal and if they see that their immediate actions will help them achieve it. His formula is: Force = Valence * Expectancy,here force is strength of a person's motivation,valence is the strength of one individual's perception of an outcome and expectancy is the probability that a particular action will lead to a desired outcome.
b) PORTER AND LAWLER EXPECTANCY MODEL OF MOTIVATION:
According to this theory the amount of effort people are prepared to put in to accomplish a job depends on three intrinsic factors:
1) Expectancy:Whether the effort will produce the desired results.
2) instrumentality: Whether the performance will lead to promotions
3) Valence: Whether the possible outcome is attractive for the concerned individual
c) STACEY ADAM's EQUITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
It is based on the assumption that individuals are motivated by their desire to be equitably treated in their work relationship. When expectations between employees and employers are suitably fulfilled it leads to mutual satisfaction and high morale and motivation.
d) EDWIN LOCKE's GOAL SETTING THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
This theory states that goal setting is essentially linked to task performance. It states that specific and challenging goals along with appropriate feedback contribute to higher and better task performance. In simple words, goals indicate and give direction to an employee about what needs to be done and how much efforts are required to be put in. The important features of goal-setting theory are as follows: The willingness to work towards attainment of goal is main source of job motivation. Clear, particular and difficult goals are greater motivating factors than easy, general and vague goals.
Specific and clear goals lead to greater output and better performance. Unambiguous, measurable and clear goals accompanied by a deadline for completion avoids misunderstanding.
Goals should be realistic and challenging. This gives an individual a feeling of pride and triumph when he attains them, and sets him up for attainment of next goal. The more challenging the goal, the greater is the reward generally and the more is the passion for achieving it.
Better and appropriate feedback of results directs the employee behaviour and contributes to higher performance than absence of feedback. Feedback is a means of gaining reputation, making clarifications and regulating goal difficulties. It helps employees to work with more involvement and leads to greater job satisfaction.
Employees’ participation in goal is not always desirable.
Participation of setting goal, however, makes goal more acceptable and leads to more involvement.
Goal setting theory has certain eventualities such as: a.Self-efficiency- Self-efficiency is the individual’s self-confidence and faith that he has potential of performing the task. Higher the level of self-efficiency, greater will be the efforts put in by the individual when they face challenging tasks. While, lower the level of self-efficiency, less will be the efforts put in by the individual or he might even quit while meeting challenges.
a.Goal commitment- Goal setting theory assumes that the individual is committed to the goal and will not leave the goal. The goal commitment is dependent on the following factors: a.Goals are made open, known and broadcast.
b.Goals should be set-self by individual rather than designated.
c.Individual’s set goals should be consistent with the organizational goals and vision.
3) CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION:

a) JOHN KELLY's ATTRIBUTION THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
It is based on the style of attributes(qualities) that individuals have in regards to their success or failures. Kelly observed that people have 2 styles of attributes to the same:
1)Where internal attributes are seen responsible for the individual's success or failures.
2) Where other external factors are seen to be responsible for the individual's success or failures.

Kelley suggested that in order to motivate an employee first their style/scheme of attributes should be identified and reinforced(made stronger) to get the desired behaviour from the person. People with internal attributes as mentioned above operate better than the ones who are easily influenced by external factors as training and proper opportunities help them get motivated and they are self motivated people. And the people who are influenced by external attributes can be motivated by improving external factors like supervision techniques,tools or other identified environmental factors as per the individual concerned
b) SKINNER's OPERANT THEORY OR ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION THEORY OF MOTIVATION:
He believes that causes of an individual behaviour in an organisation are outside the person and in the environment. Behaviour modification is achieved by operant(Involving the modification of behavior by the reinforcing or inhibiting effect of its own consequences (instrumental conditioning) conditioning. If an individual finds that the consequences of his behaviour are favourable to him then that behaviour will reinforce and become stronger as time passes and if not favourable then it will gradually weaken and disappear.This is operant conditioning.
The strength of this approach/theory is that it is so closely similar to requirements of a good management and it emphasises removal of hindrances and obstructions to performance,careful planning and organizing,control through feedback and expansion of communication.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MORALE AND MOTIVATION:
Though they both exist at the cognitive (connected with thinking or conscious mental processes) but their nature is sufficiently different. Morale driving factors are general in nature and are applicable to a group of people but motivation is individual specific as every individual has different motivations in life. A high morale prepares an individual with readiness to do work and with confidence to do a job whereas motivation is connected with doing actions that are mostly self determined and directed towards fulfilling a particular physical or psychological need of that individual. Morale is associated with the assessment of overall work situation while motivation is seen as the force associated with components of work and the individual's personal and professional interest as well as capacity.

THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP - TRADITIONAL AND MODERN:
Leadership means the ability to lead or to influence the behaviour of other individuals/groups towards a common desired action or objective and should possess more knowledge than his followers.
It is a very unexplainable concept till date as everyday new features are added to its concept.

Let's explore the theories associated with Leadership in order to understand it better.

TRADITIONAL THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP:

1) GREATMEN THEORY: It states that leaders are born not made and they can be easily identified with their extraordinary powers and nature and environment bow down to them according them the relevant recognition as befitting a leader. The limitations of this theory is that it lacks practicality and explains only mythological characters.

2) TRAIT THEORY: It states the traits of leaders and how to identify them. Those traits are fairness,intelligence,general knowledge,understanding,emotional balance,communicative ability and technical competence.Its limitations are that mere possession of traits does not guarantee successful use of it for leadership purposes and it does not identify universal traits based on some studies.

3) BEHAVIOURAL THEORY: It stresses that strong leadership is the result of effective role and behaviour of a leader. The behavioural theories of leadership are - Ohio State Studies,Michigan studies and Managerial Grid.
a) Ohio State Studies: - Carried out by Lippit and White under Kurt Levin who set out to analyse the most successful manager style of they following types - Autocratic leaders (total obedience demanding) leader, Democratic leader who involves his employees,Laisez faire leader(who lets employees do as it suits them). Out of these they found that the Democratic leaders were the most successful and the least successful were the Laissez faire leaders. They identified two variables linked to leadership style in organisations -
i) Initiating structure - Leader's behaviour in clearly outlining the relationship between himself and members of the work group and in endeavouring to establish well defined patterns of organisation , channels of communication,and methods of procedure.
ii) Consideration - Ability of a leader to establish rapport , mutual respect,and two way communication with employees.
They found that both the above variables were separate and a leader can have a mix of both

Criticism of the Ohio State Studies:
1)Researches ignored the impact of environmental variables on specific leadership behaviours.
2)Most people/managers will find it difficult to change their style for each situation they encounter.


b) Michigan Leadership studies: Researchers identified 2 concepts of leadership: 1) Employee orientation where a leader takes interest in everyone and each employee is valuable to him and 2) Production oriented who are task masters and view employees as tools to achieve organisational objectives.
The study favoured employee central leaders as it co related with higher group productivity and satisfaction.
Criticism it drew was that it also did not take into account environmental variables.

c) Managerial Grid: Blake and Mouton developed this conceptual framework for studying leadership and identified and used 2 variables - concern for people and concern for production. It describes five managerial styles : 1) Country club management- Thoughtful attention to people to lead to a satisfying and relaxed atmosphere. 2) Task management: Keeping human elements interference to a minimum by standardizing conditions of work. 3) Middle of the road or dampened pendulum- balancing work extractment with satisfactory moral of employees in place. 4) Team management: Work is accomplished through committed people and there is an Independence that is based on relationships of trust and respect.5) Impoverished management- Exertion of minimum effort to get required work done is appropriate to sustain organisational membership. According to them leadership is most effective when people and task management are both balanced.
The criticism they attracted was that they have little substantive evidence to prove their claims in all situations and the extreme positions explained by them are rarely found in organisations like impoverished management on one end and country club management on the other end.

CONTINGENCY(EMERGENCY SITUATION) THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP:
These theories depend on the diagnosis of a situation,the group and the leader. These are also called Situational theories. The three major contingency theories are:
1) Fiedler's Contingency Theory
2) House Path's Goal Theory
3) Hershey and Blanchard's Situational Theory

 1) Fiedler’s contingency model: It postulates that the leader’s effectiveness is based on ‘situational contingency’ which is a result of interaction of two factors: leadership style and situational favourableness (later called situational control).
Least preferred co-worker (LPC):
The leadership style of the leader, thus, fixed and measured by what he calls the least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale, an instrument for measuring an individual’s leadership orientation. The LPC scale asks a leader to think of all the people with whom they have ever worked and then describe the person with whom they have worked least well.
Situational favourableness:
According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both low-LPC (task-oriented) and high-LPC (relationship-oriented) leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. The contingency theory allows for predicting the characteristics of the appropriate situations for effectiveness. Three situational components determine the favourableness of situational control:

1. Leader-Member Relations, referring to the degree of mutual trust, respect and confidence between the leader and the subordinates.
2. Task Structure, referring to the extent to which group tasks are clear and structured.
3. Leader Position Power, referring to the power inherent in the leader's position itself.

When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable situation." Fiedler found that low-LPC leaders are more effective in extremely favourable or unfavourable situations, whereas high-LPC leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favourability.

Leader-situation match and mismatch:
Since personality is relatively stable, the contingency model suggests that improving effectiveness requires changing the situation to fit the leader. This is called "job engineering." The organization or the leader may increase or decrease task structure and position power, also training and group development may improve leader-member relations. In his 1976 book Improving Leadership Effectiveness: The Leader Match Concept Fiedler (with Martin Chemers and Linda Mahar) offers a self paced leadership training programme designed to help leaders alter the favourableness of the situation, or situational control.

CRITICISM:
1)Researchers often find that Fiedler's contingency theory falls short on flexibility.
2)They also noticed that LPC scores can fail to reflect the personality traits they are supposed to reflect.
3)Fiedler’s contingency theory has drawn criticism because it implies that the only alternative for an unalterable mismatch of leader orientation and an unfavorable situation is changing the leader.
4)The model’s validity has also been disputed, despite many supportive tests (Bass 1990).
5)Other criticisms concern the methodology of measuring leadership style through the LPC inventory and the nature of the supporting evidence.Fiedler and his associates have provided decades of research to support and refine the contingency theory.
6)Cognitive Resource Theory (CRT) modifies Fiedler’s basic contingency model by adding traits of the leader. CRT tries to identify the conditions under which leaders and group members will use their intellectual resources, skills and knowledge effectively. While it has been generally assumed that more intelligent and more experienced leaders will perform better than those with less intelligence and experience, this assumption is not supported by Fiedler’s research.
7)The contingency model does not take into account the percentage of "intermediate favourability" situations vs. "extremely favourable or unfavourable situations", hence, does not give a complete picture of the comparison between low-LPC leaders and high-LPC leaders.

RELEVANCE:
To Fiedler, stress is a key determinant of leader effectiveness, and a distinction is made between stress related to the leader’s superior, and stress related to subordinates or the situation itself. In stressful situations, leaders dwell on the stressful relations with others and cannot focus their intellectual abilities on the job. Thus, intelligence is more effective and used more often in stress-free situations. Fiedler has found that experience impairs performance in low-stress conditions but contributes to performance under high-stress conditions. As with other situational factors, for stressful situations Fiedler recommends altering or engineering the leadership situation to capitalize on the leader’s strengths. Despite all the criticism, Fiedler's contingency theory is an important theory because it established a brand new perspective for the study of leadership. Many approaches after Fiedler's theory have adopted the contingency perspective.
Fred Fiedler’s situational contingency theory holds that group effectiveness depends on an appropriate match between a leader’s style (essentially a trait measure) and the demands of the situation. Fiedler considers situational control the extent to which a leader can determine what their group is going to do to be the primary contingency factor in determining the effectiveness of leader behavior.

2) HOUSE PATH's GOAL THEORY:
The theory was developed by Robert House and has its roots in the expectancy theory of motivation. The theory is based on the premise that an employee’s perception of expectancies between his effort and performance is greatly affected by a leader’s behavior. The leaders help group members in attaining rewards by clarifying the paths to goals and removing obstacles to performance. They do so by providing the information, support, and other resources which are required by employees to complete the task.
House’s theory advocates servant leadership. As per servant leadership theory, leadership is not viewed as a position of power. Rather, leaders act as coaches and facilitators to their subordinates. According to House’s path-goal theory, a leader’s effectiveness depends on several employee and environmental contingent factors and certain leadership styles.

LEADERSHIP STYLES:

The four leadership styles are:
1) Directive: Here the leader provides guidelines, lets subordinates know what is expected of them, sets performance standards for them, and controls behavior when performance standards are not met. He makes judicious use of rewards and disciplinary action. The style is the same as task-oriented one.
2)Supportive: The leader is friendly towards subordinates and displays personal concern for their needs, welfare, and well-being. This style is the same as people-oriented leadership.
3) Participative: The leader believes in group decision-making and shares information with subordinates. He consults his subordinates on important decisions related to work, task goals, and paths to resolve goals.
4) Achievement-oriented: The leader sets challenging goals and encourages employees to reach their peak performance. The leader believes that employees are responsible enough to accomplish challenging goals. This is the same as goal-setting theory.
According to the theory, these leadership styles are not mutually exclusive and leaders are capable of selecting more than one kind of a style suited for a particular situation.

The theory states that each of these styles will be effective in some situations but not in others. It further states that the relationship between a leader’s style and effectiveness is dependent on the following variables:

1) Employee characteristics: These include factors such as employees’ needs, locus of control, experience, perceived ability, satisfaction, willingness to leave the organization, and anxiety. For example, if followers are high inability, a directive style of leadership may be unnecessary; instead a supportive approach may be preferable.

2)Characteristics of work environment: These include factors such as task structure and team dynamics that are outside the control of the employee. For example, for employees performing simple and routine tasks, a supportive style is much effective than a directive one. Similarly, the participative style works much better for non-routine tasks than routine ones.
When team cohesiveness is low, a supportive leadership style must be used whereas in a situation where performance-oriented team norms exist, a directive style or possibly an achievement-oriented style works better. Leaders should apply directive style to counteract team norms that oppose the team’s formal objectives.

RELEVANCE:

The theory has been subjected to empirical testing in several studies and has received considerable research support. This theory consistently reminds the leaders that their main role as a leader is to assist the subordinates in defining their goals and then to assist them in accomplishing those goals in the most efficient and effective manner. This theory gives a guide map to the leaders about how to increase subordinates satisfaction and performance level.

3) HERSHEY AND BLANCHARD's SITUATIONAL THEORY:
The fundamental underpinning of the situational leadership theory is that there is no single "best" style of leadership. Effective leadership is task-relevant, and the most successful leaders are those that adapt their leadership style to the maturity ("the capacity to set high but attainable goals, willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task, and relevant education and/or experience of an individual or a group for the task") of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence. Effective leadership varies, not only with the person or group that is being influenced, but it also depends on the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished.
Leadership styles
Hersey and Blanchard characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of Task Behavior and Relationship Behavior that the leader provides to their followers. They categorized all leadership styles into four behavior types, which they named S1 to S4:
S1: Telling - is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, why, when and where to do the task;
S2: Selling - while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socio-emotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process;
S3: Participating - this is how shared decision-making about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviours while maintaining high relationship behavior;
S4: Delegating - the leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress.
Of these, no one style is considered optimal for all leaders to use all the time. Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation.

The right leadership style will depend on the person or group being led. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of Maturity M1 through M4:
M1 - They are unable to take on responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic.
M2 - They still lack the specific skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for this job or task. (According to Ken Blanchard "The honeymoon is over")
M3 - They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on responsibility.
M4 - They are experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task.
Maturity Levels are also task-specific. A person might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in their job, but would still have a maturity level M1 when asked to perform a task requiring skills they don't possess.
A good leader develops “the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self-motivated rather than dependent on others for direction and guidance.” According to Hersey's "the situational book," the leader’s high, realistic expectation causes high performance of followers; the leader’s low expectations lead to low performance of followers. According to Ken Blanchard, "Four combinations of competence and commitment make up what we call 'development level.'"
D1 - Low competence and high commitment
D2 - Low competence and low commitment
D3 - High competence and low/variable commitment
D4 - High competence and high commitment

In order to make an effective cycle, a leader needs to motivate followers properly.

4) THE VROOM - YETTON CONTINGENCY MODEL:
The aim of this model is to enhance both the quality of decisions of the leader and its acceptability to the subordinates. According to this model, a leader should be both autocratic and participatory varying his style according to various situations and the factors affecting it.

5) TABER,GREEN AND OTHERS -LEADER MEMBER EXCHANGE THEORY:
Communication between a leader and subordinate plays a major part in effective leadership. It has been observed that a leader many a times would be more communicative with certain members and rare with others in the group as a result an inner group gets formed who are closer to the leader and this group will show more commitment to the goals of the leaders as compared to the other group and extract most of the benefits and rewards. Therefore,this approach recommends that a leader maintain sufficient communication and exchanges with all levels to avoid such unfeasible situations.

6) SITUATIONAL CONTINUUM THEORY : Tannenbaum and Schmidt suggest here that there are certain 'forces' that determine effective leadership and those are:
1) The Leader : His value systems,personality,attitude to delegations and confidence in subordinates and reactions in crisis situations as well as his natural inclination towards an autocratic or democratic style of functioning.
2) The Follower: Their ability to learn skills needed for the organisation,willingness to take on responsibility,personal aspirations and expectations from organisation and capacity to share in decision making implementation.
3) The Situation:Organisational structure whether centralised or decentralised , organisational culture,character of work groups whether co-operative or hostile,working conditions and environment,etc.
The researchers preferred a subordinated leadership style in general but also suggested a mix and match of the above as per the situation and the task of the leader is to integrate all of these and chalk out a plan of action accordingly to achieve organisational goals.



MODERN/CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP:

1) Charismatic leadership approach : Theorists of this approach/method support such a happening of leadership where influence operating on sub ordinates is seen as a function of some qualities which sub ordinates have made in their leader or a sub ordinate has assumed in his mind as a charismatic trait and has found that in his leader and so follows him. The leader has somehow manged to promise the employee of a bright future in the organisation and secured job satisfaction through his integrity.
The charismatic leadership theory has the following aspects:
1) Transformational Leadership approach - Such leaders help and guide their subordinate to work for the realisation of their full potential and not just limited to the completion of tasks assigned.
2) Moral Leadership approach: Such leaders exercise their influence through their behaviour or ideals or values where subordinates see him as an idealist and try to follow him/her.
3) Cross Cultural Leadership Approach: Leaders who have the capacity to influence people from different cultures and backgrounds equally and who by the leader's behaviour of non-partiality,high intelligence,sincerity,honesty,truthfulness get influenced and follow him/her.
4) Team Leadership Approach: An arrangement where the leader by his own performance sets examples and encourages the subordinates to achieve their potential and function in a similar manner that eventually reinforces everybody's work mutually.

This article concludes here.

The next article will be published soon and will discuss in detail the next segment,that would encompass:



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Theories – systems, contingency; Structure and forms: Ministries and Departments,Corporations, Companies, Boards and Commissions; Ad hoc and advisory bodies; Headquarters and Field relationships; Regulatory Authorities; Public - Private Partnerships.

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Tags - PROCESS & TECHNIQUES OF DECISION - MAKING, COMMUNICATION, MORALE, MOTIVATION THEORIES - CONTENT,PROCESS & CONTEMPORARY, THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP - TRADITIONAL & MODERN, HERBERT SIMON,BOUNDED RATIONALITY,PROGRAMMED AND NON PROGRAMMED DECISIONS,LEADERSHIP PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION,PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

 

Title: PROCESS & TECHNIQUES OF DECISION - MAKING, COMMUNICATION, MORALE, MOTIVATION THEORIES - CONTENT,PROCESS & CONTEMPORARY, THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP - TRADITIONAL & MODERN
Posted by:Dhduf
Published :2012-07-26T20:48:00-07:00
Rating: 3.5
Reviewer: 5 Reviews
PROCESS & TECHNIQUES OF DECISION - MAKING, COMMUNICATION, MORALE, MOTIVATION THEORIES - CONTENT,PROCESS & CONTEMPORARY, THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP - TRADITIONAL & MODERN

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Ditulis oleh Dhduf pada tanggal Thursday, July 26, 2012