Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Organisations: 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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This segment is to discuss Organisations,its theories,structures and forms(which are):-
Ministries and departments.
Corporations.
Companies.
Boards and Commissions.
Ad- Hoc and Advisory Bodies.
Headquarters and Field relationships.
Regulatory Authorities .
Public - Private Partnerships.

We begin.


ORGANISATION :
First and foremost,to define an Organisation,it is the framework or system through which Administration's objectives and guidelines are implemented and executed to achievement by the management. It facilitates the proper utilisation of men,material and money for the achievement of goals. It is a set or system of interacting elements each having a special function,act,office or relation to the organisation independently but work together in coordination and as a whole to achieve their as well as the organisation's goals and objectives.
Family is a primary unit of organisation where the family members work together to achieve the objective of the family that is well being and safety,etc. Similarly,in a business or governmental organisations,all departments and ministries and offices and employees work together as per the rules and regulations of the organisation in tandem to achieve the organisational goals and objectives and in the process their goals and objectives as well.



SYSTEMS THEORY OF ORGANISATION:
This approach/theory of an Organisation was first developed for physics in the structure of a molecule where it was found that atoms of an element joined together in a systematic manner or like a system to build a molecule of that element.It then later was found suitable to and extended to political science,public administration,management,etc as a modern approach to understanding administration and similar organisations. David Easton and Chester Barnard were the main proponents and contributors of this theory who analysed political as well as administrative systems minutely and the way they are structured and function and derived best possible ways of functioning for the same through their studies.
A system is a set of interconnected elements that function together in tandem to make up the whole being. So, a Systems approach administration is described as a system comprising subsystem,structure,people,action and interaction that enable it(administration or organisation) to perform certain functions. Every system influences its subsystems and is also influenced by its subsystems. This system rejects the closed system approach of an organisation or Classical theory of organisation where it was stated that an organisation is independent of the environment and society and is not connected to it. It states that the organisation and environment work together and have frequent exchanges in order to adjust and in the end there is homoeostasis ( stable state of equilibrium).It also rejects the theory of the Classical theory of taking decisions which are best and there is one best way of doing things,it rather supports the concept of 'equifinality(the property of allowing or having the same effect or result from different events' that means that anything done or decision taken in an organisation,no matter how it is done but the intention should be the same, of getting the work done and achieving the goal,then the end results will always be the same or as desired.
This approach/theory takes a holistic approach,that is it takes into account and studies all elements of an organisation like hierarchy and communications,personnel and procedures,informal as well as formal organisations and the interface(connection) between organisations and the environment It states that organisations and the environment it functions in are interdependent and should be analysed together and how they influence each other. This approach might not lead to a solution of all administrative problems but it surely lends help to generate awareness of the limitation and weaknesses of formal administration in tackling programmes of social and behavioural change. And this systems approach becomes all the modern in today's times where organisations are growing and expanding humongously and are transcending national boundaries with product diversification and growing complexity of operations functioning within them and so it is required to integrate them all within a framework/system for its systematic functioning. It is used as a criticism towards the closed system model of Max Weber's Ideal Bureaucracy theory.
David Easton says policy making and decision making are closely related & adopts the systems approach to analyse public policy making and implementation process in a dynamic political system and the cycle that is involved in it.

This diagram will help understand it in a detailed manner:
Inputs are given by the society/environment to the policy makers as to what is needed to be done and that goes in to the 'black box' (as Easton calls it) where decision making process takes place and then evolves the output in the form of administrative decisions and policies to be implemented. These implementations are then analysed by the society and environment again and then goes back as feedback inputs to the politicians/policy makers and then that again is taken into account and then once again it goes into the black box and decisions are taken as to how to improve it or discard it as per the situation demands and then there is an output again in the form of action. Again the feedback keeps going in and so on and so forth.





CONTINGENCY THEORY OF ORGANISATION:
Contingency(to make suitable arrangements for the future for an anticipated (most often)troublesome situation that might occur) theory is a class of behavioural theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation.

Some important contingencies(dependent factors for solving future issues) for companies that need to be strengthened are listed below :
1. Technology
2. Suppliers and distributors
3. Consumer interest groups
 4. Customers and competitors
5. Government
6. Unions .

The main ideas underlying contingency theory in a nutshell:
1)Organizations are open systems that need careful management to satisfy and balance internal needs and to adapt to environmental circumstances
2)There is no one best way of organizing. The appropriate form depends on the kind of task or environment and situation one is dealing with.
3)Management must be concerned, above all else, with achieving alignments and good fits.
4)Different types or species of organizations are needed in different types of environments.

William Richard Scott describes contingency theory in the following manner: "The best way to organize depends on the nature of the environment to which the organization must relate and adjust to".





TYPES OF ORGANISATIONS :


FORMAL ORGANISATIONS:
An organization that is established as a means for achieving defined objectives has been referred to as a formal organization. Its design specifies how goals are subdivided and reflected in subdivisions of the organization. Divisions, departments, sections, positions, jobs, and tasks make up this work structure. Thus, the formal organization is expected to behave impersonally in regard to relationships with clients or with its members. According to Weber's definition, entry and subsequent advancement is by merit or seniority. Each employee receives a salary and enjoys a degree of tenure that safeguards him from the arbitrary influence of superiors or of powerful clients. The higher his position in the hierarchy, the greater his presumed expertise in adjudicating problems that may arise in the course of the work carried out at lower levels of the organization. It is this bureaucratic structure that forms the basis for the appointment of heads or chiefs of administrative subdivisions in the organization and endows them with the authority attached to their position.




INFORMAL ORGANISATIONS:
The informal organization is the interlocking social structure that governs how people work together in practice. It is the aggregate of behaviours, interactions, norms, personal and professional connections through which work gets done and relationships are built among people who share a common organizational affiliation or cluster of affiliations. It consists of a dynamic set of personal relationships, social networks, communities of common interest, and emotional sources of motivation. The informal organization evolves organically and spontaneously in response to changes in the work environment, the flux of people through its porous boundaries, and the complex social dynamics of its members.
Informal organisations are always found in formal organisations and they are interdependent. Formal organisation is concerned with work only and does not give place to personal connections,so an employee will always want to let out and so it comes out in the form of personal connections between employees through sharing the same goals and motivations in life,parties organised by organisations regularly help these connections and this benefits the work of these employees immensely,as they work with more rigour to be up to their counterparts in status and recognitions as well as economically. So, within every formal organisation one will find an informal organisation,similarly,in every informal organisation you will find its member also observing some rules and regulations of that group membership. So,they are interrelated and if one is shut out,the other will necessarily disintegrate.




STRUCTURE OF ORGANISATIONS OR ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE:
Structure as per the dictionary means : The way in which the parts of a system or organisation are arranged or organised. Organisational structure is a system of task in which work of the organization is done. Structure of an organisation determines its form and function and how its parts(different departments,offices,etc) fit together to form the whole. Organisational structure's goal is to coordinate action and activities and also to identify the tasks of the employees to achieve the organisational goals and objectives.
Organisational charts,rules and regulations,decentralisation and centralisation,standard operating procedures,responsibility and authority,etc are taken into consideration while studying the structure of an organisation.



ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE TYPES:

Pre-bureaucratic structures:

Pre-bureaucratic (entrepreneurial) structures lack standardization of tasks. This structure is most common in smaller organizations and is best used to solve simple tasks. The structure is totally centralized. The strategic leader makes all key decisions and most communication is done by one on one conversations. It is particularly useful for new (entrepreneurial) business as it enables the founder to control growth and development.
They are usually based on traditional domination or charismatic domination in the sense of Max Weber's tripartite classification of authority



Bureaucratic structures:

Weber gives the analogy that “the fully developed bureaucratic mechanism compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine compare with the non-mechanical modes of production. Precision, speed, unambiguity,strict subordination, reduction of friction and of material and personal costs- these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly bureaucratic administration.” Bureaucratic structures have a certain degree of standardization. They are better suited for more complex or larger scale organizations, usually adopting a tall structure. The tension between bureaucratic structures and non-bureaucratic is echoed in Burns and Stalker's distinction between mechanistic and organic structures.

The Weberian characteristics of bureaucracy are:
  • Clear defined roles and responsibilities
  • A hierarchical structure
  • Respect for merit.

Post-bureaucratic:

The term of post bureaucratic is used in two senses in the organizational literature: one generic and one much more specific. In the generic sense the term post bureaucratic is often used to describe a range of ideas developed since the 1980s that specifically contrast themselves with Weber's ideal type bureaucracy. This may include total quality management, culture management and matrix management, amongst others. None of these however has left behind the core tenets of Bureaucracy. Hierarchies still exist, authority is still Weber's rational, legal type, and the organization is still rule bound. Heckscher, arguing along these lines, describes them as cleaned up bureaucracies, rather than a fundamental shift away from bureaucracy. Gideon Kunda, in his classic study of culture management at 'Tech' argued that 'the essence of bureaucratic control - the formalisation, codification and enforcement of rules and regulations - does not change in principle.....it shifts focus from organizational structure to the organization's culture'.
Another smaller group of theorists have developed the theory of the Post-Bureaucratic Organization., provide a detailed discussion which attempts to describe an organization that is fundamentally not bureaucratic. Charles Heckscher has developed an ideal type, the post-bureaucratic organization, in which decisions are based on dialogue and consensus rather than authority and command, the organization is a network rather than a hierarchy, open at the boundaries (in direct contrast to culture management); there is an emphasis on meta-decision making rules rather than decision making rules. This sort of horizontal decision making by consensus model is often used in housing cooperatives, other cooperatives and when running a non-profit or community organization. It is used in order to encourage participation and help to empower people who normally experience oppression in groups.
Still other theorists are developing a resurgence of interest in complexity theory and organizations, and have focused on how simple structures can be used to engender organizational adaptations. For instance, Miner studied how simple structures could be used to generate improvisational outcomes in product development. Their study makes links to simple structures and improviser learning. Other scholars such as Jan Rivkin and Sigglekow,and Nelson Repenning revive an older interest in how structure and strategy relate in dynamic environments.


Functional structure:

Employees within the functional divisions of an organization tend to perform a specialized set of tasks, for instance the engineering department would be staffed only with software engineers. This leads to operational efficiencies within that group. However it could also lead to a lack of communication between the functional groups within an organization, making the organization slow and inflexible.
As a whole, a functional organization is best suited as a producer of standardized goods and services at large volume and low cost. Coordination and specialization of tasks are centralized in a functional structure, which makes producing a limited amount of products or services efficient and predictable. Moreover, efficiencies can further be realized as functional organizations integrate their activities vertically so that products are sold and distributed quickly and at low cost.For instance, a small business could make components used in production of its products instead of buying them. This benefits the organization and employees faiths.


Divisional structure:

Also called a "product structure", the divisional structure groups each organizational function into a division. Each division within a divisional structure contains all the necessary resources and functions within it. Divisions can be categorized from different points of view. One might make distinctions on a geographical basis (a US division and an EU division, for example) or on product/service basis (different products for different customers: households or companies). In another example, an automobile company with a divisional structure might have one division for SUVs, another division for subcompact cars, and another division for sedans.
Each division may have its own sales, engineering and marketing departments.


Matrix structure:

The matrix structure groups employees by both function and product. This structure can combine the best of both separate structures. A matrix organization frequently uses teams of employees to accomplish work, in order to take advantage of the strengths, as well as make up for the weaknesses, of functional and decentralized forms. An example would be a company that produces two products, "product a" and "product b". Using the matrix structure, this company would organize functions within the company as follows: "product a" sales department, "product a" customer service department, "product a" accounting, "product b" sales department, "product b" customer service department, "product b" accounting department.
Matrix structure is amongst the purest of organizational structures, a simple lattice emulating order and regularity demonstrated in nature is:
1)Weak/Functional Matrix: A project manager with only limited authority is assigned to oversee the cross- functional aspects of the project. The functional managers maintain control over their resources and project areas.
2) Balanced/Functional Matrix: A project manager is assigned to oversee the project. Power is shared equally between the project manager and the functional managers. It brings the best aspects of functional and projectized organizations. However, this is the most difficult system to maintain as the sharing power is delicate proposition.
3)Strong/Project Matrix: A project manager is primarily responsible for the project. Functional managers provide technical expertise and assign resources as needed.




Organizational circle: moving back to flat:-

The flat structure is common in small companies (enterprenerial start-ups, university spin offs). As the company grows it becomes more complex and hierarchical, which leads to an expanded structure, with more levels and departments.
Often, it would result in bureaucracy, the most prevalent structure in the past. It is still, however, relevant in former Soviet Republics, China, and most governmental organizations all over the world. . Its design combines functional and product based divisions, with employees reporting to two heads.Creating a team spirit, the company empowers employees to make their own decisions and train them to develop both hard and soft skills.
This structure can be seen as a complex form of the matrix, as it maintains coordination among products, functions and geographic areas.
In general, over the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that through the forces of globalization, competition and more demanding customers, the structure of many companies has become flatter, less hierarchical, more fluid and even virtual.




Team:

One of the newest organizational structures developed in the 20th century is team. In small businesses, the team structure can define the entire organization. Teams can be both horizontal and vertical.While an organization is constituted as a set of people who synergize individual competencies to achieve newer dimensions, the quality of organizational structure revolves around the competencies of teams in totality.  Larger bureaucratic organizations can benefit from the flexibility of teams as well.




Network:

Another modern structure is network. While business giants risk becoming too clumsy to proact (such as), act and react efficiently, the new network organizations contract out any business function, that can be done better or more cheaply. In essence, managers in network structures spend most of their time coordinating and controlling external relations, usually by electronic means. The potential management opportunities offered by recent advances in complex networks theory have been demonstrated including applications to product design and development, and innovation problem in markets and industries.



Virtual:

A special form of boundaryless organization is virtual. Hedberg, Dahlgren, Hansson, and Olve consider the virtual organization as not physically existing as such, but enabled by software to exist.The virtual organization exists within a network of alliances, using the Internet. This means while the core of the organization can be small but still the company can operate globally be a market leader in its niche. According to Anderson, because of the unlimited shelf space of the Web, the cost of reaching niche goods is falling dramatically. Although none sell in huge numbers, there are so many niche products that collectively they make a significant profit, and that is what made highly innovative Amazon.com so successful.
In the 21st century, even though most, if not all, organizations are not of a pure hierarchical structure, many managers are still blind-sided to the existence of the flat community structure within their organizations.
The business firm is no longer just a place where people come to work. For most of the employees, the firm confers on them that sense of belonging and identity- the firm has become their “village”, their community. The business firm of the 21st century is not just a hierarchy which ensures maximum efficiency and profit; it is also the community where people belong to and grow together- where their affective and innovative needs are met.
Lim, Griffiths, and Sambrook developed the Hierarchy-Community Phenotype Model of Organizational Structure borrowing from the concept of Phenotype from genetics. "A phenotype refers to the observable characteristics of an organism. It results from the expression of an organism’s genes and the influence of the environment. The expression of an organism’s genes is usually determined by pairs of alleles. Alleles are different forms of a gene. In our model, each employee’s formal, hierarchical participation and informal, community participation within the organization, as influenced by his or her environment, contributes to the overall observable characteristics (phenotype) of the organization. In other words, just as all the pair of alleles within the genetic material of an organism determines the physical characteristics of the organism, the combined expressions of all the employees’ formal hierarchical and informal community participation within an organization give rise to the organizational structure. Due to the vast potentially different combination of the employees’ formal hierarchical and informal community participation, each organization is therefore a unique phenotype along a spectrum between a pure hierarchy and a pure community (flat) organizational structure."



FORMS OF ORGANISATIONS:
Different types of organisations are seen in the govt set up discharging functions of a varied nature and varied discretion and so that all are done smoothly. Appropriate autonomy is given to them as per the requirement.

1) MINISTRY/MINISTRIES:
It is a term used to refer to the office of the minister/political executive designated with a portfolio to direct,supervise,monitor,control and function in a specific area. It is highly significant and ensures democratic implementation of public policy. It is headed by a political executive and day to day activities and operations are taken care of by the administrators who are the permanent executive or the bureaucrats. So it is headed by a politician so that he handles it democratically because since he is elected by the people therefore he will always be cautious of the people'e choices and needs and will make the ministry work towards achieving that with all rigour as his claim to power and this ministry is dependent on that and this is why he was chosen. Ministry is the way of organising business related to a specific area under the direction of meta policy(bigger/broader policy).


2) DEPARTMENT:
A department is a part of a larger organization with a specific responsibility. It is that fundamental or basic arrangement through which the policy process could be organised in regards to formulation as well as implementation activities of policies. It functions under a Minister or can be independent of any ministry and function on its autonomously directly under the Prime Minister himself,like the Department  of Atomic Energy is directly under the Prime Minister and he takes all the decisions. It could not be merged under any other Ministry like the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,etc because it needed special attention with specialised people in that field and rapid action to approve decisions and research files to implement,therefore it was created for smooth functioning considering the urgency of the power situation in India as a growing nation The department is responsible for nuclear technology, including nuclear power and research.. Where a department or comes under a Ministry ( ex. the Ministry of agriculture has many departments under it) then it is headed by (politically headed) the Minister in charge of that portfolio but commissioned (administrative head) and day to day activities are headed by a senior bureaucrat having sufficient experience. It helps necessary communication and connectivity between the executive agency and the Ministry.

A Few Common Types of Departmentalization:
1) Functional departmentalization - Grouping activities by functions performed. Activities can be grouped according to function (work being done) to pursue economies of scale by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments for example human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering. Functional departmentalization can be used in all types of organizations.
2) Product departmentalization - Grouping activities by product line. Tasks can also be grouped according to a specific product or service, thus placing all activities related to the product or the service under one manager. Each major product area in the corporation is under the authority of a senior manager who is specialist in, and is responsible for, everything related to the product line.
3) Customer  departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of common customers or types of customers. Jobs may be grouped according to the type of customer served by the organization. The assumption is that customers in each department have a common set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists. The sales activities in an office supply firm can be broken down into three departments that serve retail, wholesale and government accounts.
4) Geographic departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography.
5) Process departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of product or service or customer flow. Because each process requires different skills, process departmentalization allows homogeneous activities to be categorized. For example, the applicants might need to go through several departments namely validation, licensing and treasury, before receiving the driver’s license.
Owing to the complexity of tasks and the competitive environment in which organisations operate, they often use a combination of the above-mentioned methods in departmentalization.


3) CORPORATION:
It is an organisational arrangement that owes its existence to some legislative instrument under which it has been created. That means it may or may not be present at the time of the constitution enactment(else it would be called a constitutional body) but was created later for a specific purpose by an act of parliament under a current govt. It is a business entity(an organisation or department or a company involved in the activity of buying and selling goods and services and earning money) and this arrangement is mostly found in areas where economic development is seen as a challenge or technological level has been a need. These corporations are granted the necessary discretion and autonomy in taking decisions and implementation and it helps the five year plans in being a success.It is controlled by the State/govt and helps manage the country's resources as well as allocate them correctly to the relevant plans and departments for utilisation for the welfare of the people.
A corporation is a legal entity who is seen as a legal person where all the individuals working in it are together called the corporation and this corporation just like a person has natural rights having his/her own identity can be sued and can sue in a court of law. It can acquire assets in its name and is seen acting as a separate,well defined cost or profit centre of the govt. The overall policy on how to run these corporations comes as per the govt. mandate but day to day operations regarding the same to achieve the goals and objectives are free from political stranglehold.
A good example here will be the Municipal Corporations which are created by an act of parliament (Corporations Act of 1835 of Panchayati Raj system which mainly deals in providing essential services in every small town as well as village of a district/city) and takes care,that is floats tenders for service deals to private as well as govt. suppliers and once the service provider is selected through the procedure specified for the same provides services of Water supply,Hospitals,Roads,Street lighting,Drainage,Solid waste,Fire brigades,Market places and Records of births and deaths in the district/city concerned under the supervision and direction of the Municipal Corporation. In matters of financial management they have been given sufficient autonomy too and its sources of income are taxes on water, houses, markets, entertainment and vehicles paid by residents of the town and grants from the state government.



4) COMPANY:
It is an organisational arrangement created for managing functions related to some 'commercial' area or job. It is also a legal entity/person competent to enter into contract and can be sued as well as sue and acquire assets in its name. It is a govt business company and performs commercial functions and operates according to market factors. It is started off with a corpus or principal business capital to start off with and then it is supposed carry out its business and earn profits for the government which will then be used for the benefit of the people through plan money. It can raise loans,public capital from various sources like IPO's,etc. It will have a liability created limited to its corpus or its assets that have been acquired by it during the period of its operation. Company is more market oriented as compared to corporations. A company is formed for profit earning and economic self sufficiency in areas where pvt sector would not like to enter due to heavy investment or high amount of risk like Railways,mining,etc whereas a corporation is basically created for developmental activities and is not concerned about profit or loss but collects its earnings as taxes in return for the services provided.These companies have been formed under the Indian Companies Act 1956.
List of government companies are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Government-owned_companies_of_India



5) BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS:
Boards and Commissions refer to such organisational units which are created by the executive for having deliberations(analysis and discussions) by specialists in that field. Politically impartial decisions and recommendations are achieved here as these organisations allow only the services of specialists and people having high standards of integrity(honest and moral). The decisions taken here are mostly rational(based on reason rather than values or emotions) since people taking the decisions here are complete specialists in the respective field. These Boards and Commissions are appointed by the govt. on an ad-hoc basis (made for a particular purpose or need and not planned in advance,urgent) as well as Standing basis (permanent). They hugely benefit the govt. as well as the people through their impartial and rational decisions and recommendations. In some areas they just have advisory functions like advising or recommending the govt on certain specific issues that the board or commission has been made for and in other situations there are boards and commissions that have been given substantive and executive powers as well.
Example of an advisory Board / Commission - Administrative Reforms Commission(Ad-hoc) & Law Commission(Standing) and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board,etc.
Example of substantive/functional commission and board: Election Commission,Union Public Service Commission,etc.


6) COMMITTEE:
It is a form of association where a group is created of a particular organisation or field to represent a larger organisation and either make decisions or gather information and analysis for it and its betterment. It frees the overall organisation of certain areas like analysis and deliberations and lets them focus on the business aspect and the core areas for which that organisation was made.These committees too can be ad-hoc as well as standing in nature.
Examples of committees: Haj Committee of India, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which are standing committees, Alagh Commitee,Public Accounts Committee(standing),etc.


7) COUNCIL:
It is a form of organisation where in various parts of the whole body or organisation have been provided equal representation in decision making process and helps in building consensus(group acceptable decision). Examples: National Development Council,Inter-State Council,South Zone Council,Council Of Ministers(who are collectively responsible for every decision).




8) AD-HOC AND ADVISORY BODIES:
The political executive as and when required to aid them in discharging their functions with all detail and correctly need to appoint various bodies on ad hoc or advisory capacity. Ad-hoc departments are created when there is a an urgent need for focus and resolution of a certain function where specialists are appointed to comprise a unit and work only on that and provide a fast and correct solution. Once that function is over these ad-hoc bodies cease to exist and the members are either employed in some other department or sent back to the departments they came form.
Advisory bodies are created in regard to various functional areas as and when executive is of the opinion that a deliberation and thorough analysis by specialists shall be useful before pursuing implementation of policy in a given issue/area. These advisory bodies may be created by the Cabinet Secy,Prime Minister's Office or any other appropriate levels as seemed fit by the executive.



9) HEADQUARTER AND FIELD RELATIONSHIP:
HQ refers to an Establishment that is meant to direct,supervise and monitor the execution of public policy which is done through the field(Area of physical activity) Establishments created at the specific geographical locations for the same. HQ and Field Establishments(FE) should always have a clear communication as that is the basic needed for smooth implementation of policies. HQ act as the head whereas the Field Establishments act as the hands. Headquarters receive instructions regarding policy directly from the higher authorities and it is passed on to the Field Establishments in communication understandable to them for implementing the same.
The following measures have been suggested to ensure the smooth functioning of these organisations and the proper implementation of public policy through them:
1) Effective and fast communication channels should be established between Field Establishments and headquarters.
2) HQ officials while giving instructions/directions to FE should provide sufficient detail so that FE's can easily understand and comprehend the same.
3) HQ officials should take into consideration the inputs provided by the FE before reaching conclusions in regards to programme schedules required to be implemented at the field levels as the FE have the ground knowledge of the situation.
4) Training programmes shall be organised so as to improve the competence of officials at Field level so that orders could be effectively implemented by them.
5) HQ officials shall carry out physical inspections in the FE from time to time to gather first hand information on the discrepancies and ground realities existing there and suitable actions required.
6) FE officials shall be provided with opportunities like seminars/conferences,etc at the HQ level in order to be aware of the core components of the policy programme and also get the necessary direction through which implementation could be improved.




10) REGULATORY AUTHORITIES:
These are Establishments which are created by govt. with the objective of regulating (controlling and monitoring) the functioning of organisations taking care of a special area/job. It provides the basic framework and facilities for the functioning of all those institutions/organisations which are carrying out enterprise/business in that particular field. It provides transparency. These bodies are highly significant in the time of Liberalisation,privatisation and globalisation since private players/companies are also entering the country and setting up business. These bodies carry out detailed research in regards to those areas/business areas that they have been set up for and help the govt. establish necessary norms,guidelines,rules and regulations so that quality and quantity,both could be regulated in regards to the production of goods and services in the concerned area of business/enterprise. It helps stabilise the technology as well as pricing for the goods and services provided that is reasonable to the people. It is through these regulatory bodies that a proper check is kept on govt as well as pvt enterprises in the market and thus leading to successful policy and planning implementation.
Examples: Securities and Exchange Board Of India,Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India.





11) PUBLIC - PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP:
It is a model of enterprise where both public and private entities are seen coming into an association to provide facilities for the production of goods and services. PPP( Public - Private Partnership) is seen as a model under which the govt. invests with capital/service and infrastructure and the private player provides the goods and services through its efficient and economic mechanisms of production and deliver in a competitive and timely manner under the guidelines established in their contract. This partnership helps in achieving the planned process of development. Thus,it helps in bringing together the private companies in working towards the goals of democracy and not just profit. So,this mechanism brings together the mechanism of transparency from the govt side as well as efficiency and economy through the pvt organisations side.



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The next blog will cover:

Accountability and Control: Concepts of accountability and control;
Legislative, Executive and Judicial control
over administration; Citizen and Administration;
Role of media, interest groups, voluntary
organizations; Civil society;
Citizen’s Charters; Right to Information;
Social audit.

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Tags - Organisations,its theories,structures and forms(which are):-

Ministries and departments.

Corporations.

Companies.

Boards and Commissions.

Ad- Hoc and Advisory Bodies.

Headquarters and Field relationships.

Regulatory Authorities .

Public - Private Partnerships.

Friday, July 27, 2012

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

Thank you for the continued support and feedback. They are immensely valued and looked forward to.

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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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