Improving Staff Performance

Considering the theme of motivation, approaches and theories, can be divided in two different typologies: Process and Content theories. These approaches differ from the relevance that they give to the involvement of individuals in the motivation aspect and, especially, these have opposite thought concerning the way that individuals choose to motivate or be motivated. The relevant factor for content theories, are human set of needs and exigences, whose satisfaction represent for individuals the main purpose and aim; according to these considerations, motivational factors have to be focused on the contentment of these needs, in order to provide benefits to the entire organization. Process theories instead, propose a different evaluation about methods that humans use to motivate and to get motivated, process theories assume that individuals, to be motivated to reach a selected standard, set and choose their goals, in order to perform in the more efficient way to achieve them; all these processes are elaborated by an initial calculation.

A clear example of the use of motivation at work, is RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), which is currently one of the major bank in the UK and EU; according to Maslow's theories, RBS's managers, recognize that money and salary are not the only interest of employees, but, instead, there are more exigences which need to be satisfied in order to improve staff performance. Obviously, employees are encouraged in their work by a real prospective of financial rewards, such as salary increase and payed bonuses to extra hours spent or more effort given, but there are also some other non financial prizes, which can seriously attract employees and change their intentions for the future. Staff effort is recognized by a total reward package that includes the possibility, for the employee, to change and choose working hours, health and medical benefits and paid holidays; RBS's staff is also allowed to buy and pay holidays period and have more accessibility to RBS products, finally they are encouraged to avail of many offers and shopping vouchers offered by the company. Practically, what RBS is offering to its employees, is an enjoyable and attractable community, where the staff is encouraged to provide, to the benefit of the company, the best of themselves; every aspect of an employee's life is considered as fundamental, RBS tries to maintain in harmony the work-life balance, enriches workers annual program with social and philanthropic initiatives, offer to its staff flexible work conditions, in order to satisfy individual needs, understanding that these are may different to each person. These choices are sustained by a solid basis made of a competitive salary (compared to same work employees), and an efficient process of bonuses reward, employees are encouraged to work hard and care of every aspect of the company, doing that, they are sure that their effort will be rightly and richly recognized.

An other useful example of motivation methods used at work is provided by Tesco's, which is currently leader in his market and one of the most powerful and influent company in the UK.

Tesco’s objective is to improve skills and job satisfaction of the employees, so that Tesco’s can not only grow as a company, but can also improve their customers satisfaction. Tesco wants also to maximise sales and profits of the company, furnishing services for the public, to achieve a defined level and maintain the position number one in the ranking of UK retail company. Finally Tesco's target is to maintain itself as a leader in the UK market.

To achieve these goals Tesco set up a plan which purpose is to define target to each employee, this action is clearly linked to Locke's theory of goals, which represent one of the process theory having the easily direct application to motivate companies performance. The objective is to reward employes that achieve best results with defined prize and to give them an higher position in the same company; this behaviour could guide Tesco to an improvement of employees motivation and to improve the sense of belonging of them to the company. Workers can achieve higher performance when they receive accurate feedback and when well chosen actions mean a reward. Finally, Tesco decided to give to its employees the possibility to participate in main decision of the company such as, individuate target and objectives and define prize and rewards, this behaviour produce many positive effects for employees motivation that feel them self important and their performance could earn an higher level because having a role and contributing in company decisions make them feel more responsible about the action they take while they work.

RBS's strategy is clearly following the instructions expressed by Maslow in his theories, and RBS approach to the motivation aspect is developed according to the hierarchy of needs, developed by Maslow itself in 1943. As said before, RBS recognize the importance of its employees needs, and understand that these usually do not only contemplate a financial reward, but, instead, there are more factors to be considered; starting from physiological needs, which represent the basis and an important factor in human needs, the company wants to satisfy each level of the hierarchy, which also contemplates: Safety needs, Love needs, Esteem needs and Self-actualization needs. RBS understand as well, that priority in human needs, may changes by individual considered, and the objective of the company is to provide more flexible choices in order to satisfy everyone.

The theme of motivation represent a sort of key for managers and companies themselves, helped by theories and elaborated approaches, organizations are enabled to control and manage their staff, they are able to set out targets knowing the effort that each employee will put according to the motivation they will provide; motivation represent also an useful and relevant instrument to permit the construction of a solid and healthy internal environment which otherwise can represent a de motivational factor if not well supported by managers. To conclude, motivation is a complex and fundamental system that links personal attitudes to every single sector of an organization, represent as well a powerful tool to control and manage the environment of the staff, not just in order to produce expected results, but also to allow the company to maintain a certain position in the market, making it more steady.

References:

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

-TheTimes100 (2009) RBS [online] Available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/rbs/rbs_12_full.pdf [Accessed 21 April 2010]

-TheTimes100 (2009) RBS [online] Available from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/company_list.php [Accessed 21 April 2010]

Personality

Nature approach to personality refers to innate qualities, in other words to those qualities that are intrinsically part of the human behavior, humans born already having these qualities; the nurture approach of personality consist in all that we gain from personal experience, from the beginning of our life we are always involved in experience new situations, which contribute to form our personality. There is still an important debate about which approach forms our personalities, for someone is inherit (nature), for others evolve due to environmental conditions (nurture). The nomothetic approach, which is really close to the nature one, represent a measurable perspective and identify main traits of the human personality such as a collection of characteristics, which are describable and measurable; nomothetic approach is an important source of information for managers involved in the selection and training of individuals. The idiographic approach, really close to nurture one, identify the main traits of the human personality such as a consequence of environment experience, and consider the development of the personality a process of changing; it judge that people characteristics can not be compared because are not measurable. I feel my personality as an innate factor, I think main traits can be compared and characteristics measurable.

Here some articles about the debate:

- www.psychology.iastate.edu/~dgentile/Psy101_notes/nature%20or%20nurture.htm

- folk.uio.no/roffe/faq/node11.html

Taking the two tests, Framicon and What I am Like, results were: on the hand, on Framicon, I resulted as a sensitive and sociable person, who really cares about relations with other individuals and consider really relevant the emotional aspect of an human being; on the other hand, on What I am Like, was underlined my lower level of conscientiousness, meaning of a lack of constance and perseverance in achieving results, but also was marked the high level of neuroticism, extroversion, and agreeableness, these result mean that I care, as said in Framicon, about other people feelings, and that I, sometimes, feel anxious or tense.

I agree completely with the results of this tests, they showed my personalities in the way I consider it, underlining the importance I give to feelings and emotion, and illustrating how sometimes I can become tense or anxious and how I have some difficulties to gain expected results.

I do not consider these tests useful for a selection process, this because user answer in order to them in order to reach certain results, that means that these tests can be invalidate easily, prejudging the real results and objectives of the questionnaires. They also cover just a inconsiderable part of the human personality, and can not provide complete informations.

Personality play a considerable role in the management system, managers can influence the environment with their characteristic and qualities, and, especially through personality, managers can influence other individuals and member of the company. Personality is still a complex aspect that has not been yet deeply analyzed, and differing by individual to individual, is always a source of changing;

References:

---Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

HR planning

HR plans are fundamental in order to maintain the company organized and functional, they represent managerial aspect of staff organization, and provide focused analysis, useful findings and relevant result that managers can use to prevent any sort of event and to set out the strategy of the company. HR plans manage important factor such as recruitment, selection, career progression, succession planning etc., factors which are vital for a well-performed company; in other words, HR plans cover all those aspects which involve directly the staff and employees management sector, with out it a company will collapse because will be not able anymore to organize, communicate and link each member, function, sector and department. The importance of HR plans involve also all the strategical aspect of an organization, controlling and monitoring the changes in the staff, managers can easily forecast future results, and establish target and goals is much more easier; when managers direct operate on HRM, they directly influence the company, in fact HR represent the central part of an organization, and, just changing an approach, a method used by HR managers, all the company will be influenced and function will react according to the relevance of the change.

Candidate should be well presented, graduated, have at least two past experiences in the education sector, one at least in a university, possess analytical abilities, high level of IT knowledge, should be practical, disposable and live near the university.

-Main competitors in the zone

-Unemployment level

-Average habitants

-Communication

-Average salary

-Legislation and restrictions

-How the population is made

-Average age

References:

--Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

Role of Line Manager

Line managers getting involved in HR activities can produce some benefit and also some disadvantages, their role consist in coordinating procedures and operations between HR sector and highest level of the company; on the one hand they enable HR practices and polices, they are linked to higher level of management, provide communication among the levels and the sectors of a company, works and operate close to his own staff, meaning of stronger relations between members, and is better able to face and approach daily matters in the company. On the other hand, they do not possess those skill useful to manage and relate with the HR sector, their experience are more compatible to the top management, can be not really effective in training staff because do not have a real past experience in HR management, their role can be overloaded and finally often they suffer a conflict of priorities.

Line manager , in order to manage effectively people, has to be self-confident in himself and have to understand the considerable role that he is playing in the management process, he has to have a strong sense of his own security, this because he has constantly to face problems concerning people and staff. In order to provide a positive behavior, line manager has to be involved in decision making, has to be assured about possibilities of career progression and has to be assured about his job security; a good relation with own managers is really important also to enable to perform with out conflicts and contrasts. Usually line managers do not have a managerial knowledge, this why is really important for there contribute to the company, that they produce the maximum effort to earn as much information as possible to possess abilities and features appropriate to face any sort of matter.

Prospects profile of HR manager looks more suitable to a role of line manager, the candidate, in fact, is requested to interact, coordinate and relate to different levels of an organization, considerable relevance is given to the aspect of implementing and developing policies, practices and procedures. The role seems overload, a typical characteristic of a line manager, and often contemplate the interaction with other department and function, which are features of a line manager; finally the job profile explain that knowing company objectives and targets is fundamental, in fact line managers always have to coordinate set target to developed policies, and this sometimes can create conflict of interests and priorities for the line manager.

References:

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

-CIPD (2009) [online].Role of Front Line Managers. Available from:http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/maneco/general/rolefrntlinemngers.htm [Accessed 28 April 2010].

-Prospects(2009) online job offers [online] Availablefrom:http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/p!eLaXi[Accessed 12 April 2010]

Equal Opportunities

Equality and diversity represent two different approaches to manage differences existing between members of an organization; Equality is based on the avoidance of discrimination, considered fundamental to create an equal system and develop equal opportunities in order to produce benefits to the company and to the harmony of the organization. Differences are minimized, everyone is treated in the same way and discrimination is made unlawful. Diversity consider differences between members of the organization a potential factor that, managed in the right way, can motivate employees to produce an important effort in order to reach some goals; diversity factors are race, religion, age, gender, culture and a disability at work. Diversity approach allowed members of a group to perform according to their potential and their abilities, in other words manager receive from employees the effort they have the right to expect and, therefore, they can receive everything employees are able to provide. Differently from the equality, differences are not just an issue of the HR department, but instead represent a concern for all the employees, and differences are seen not just as an impediment to reach equal opportunities, but is also a concept influencing more aspects of the company such as the culture and motivation, managing them in a careful and correct way is possible to obtain positive results.

The article showed Margaret Mountford point of view about woman and their position at work, in her opinion, women should achieve senior position only for merit, without positive discrimination. On the one hand it is a right point of view, discrimination can cause problems in both ways, negative and positive, that is why, women should make more efforts to gain certain results and obtain higher position just by themselves, through the improvement of their performance; take advantage from a situation that, in the past and even nowadays, is really dramatic, is not respectful for those people who fought and still fight to obtain equal opportunities for women; finally, an equal environment should be formed on a solid basis made of equal opportunities, parity between genders and identical working conditions and treatments. On the other hand, people should motivate managers to start to employe more often women, this behavior in fact can create a chain reaction which can be really useful in order to improve the women position in the working environment; proposing women to get senior position, is not a meaning of positive discrimination, but is instead a way to avoid any sort of discrimination, offering an opportunity usually reserved for men; finally, considered the particular and different behavior of a woman, is correct to sets flexible work conditions in order to guarantee to women a system more appropriate to their needs.

Age represent an importan diversity factor, and both young and old people are victim of discrimination just based on the age they have, old people are commonly considerate inefficient, unreliable and oblivious, in opposite, young people are considered not experienced, unskilled and unprepared. An organization which want to face this problem, should start creating internal teams which involve both young and old people, spending time together in fact, differences and incomprehensions will be minimized; an other solution could enable old people to be involved in the training process, in this way, relations among young and old employees should become base on other aspects such as faithful and respect.

B&Q offers innovative equal conditions, is listed in the top50 companies where women want to work for four consecutive years, and, more than 15 years ago, removed its retirement age.

Sainsbury's strongly declare that it believe in diversity as a motivational factor and a meaning of improvement in the performance, equality is guaranteed to each member and equal treatments are considered the basis for an efficient working environment; all these aspects are proved by diagrams and focused analysis.

Speaking about differences, people normally think about something having just a negative aspect, this is not true in working environment, organization take advantage from the developing of a system based on diversity, there is no discrimination, every one is able to provide a different service according to personal abilities. Nowadays, companies developed methods and system to avoid discrimination, providing equal condition is the basis of the companies themselves and organizational initiative receive a considerable effort by managers in order to maintain the current situation and constantly developing this process that is not completed yet.

References:

-B&Q (2010) Our Ethics [online] Avialable from: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/corporate/content/environment_ethics/ethics/index.jsp [Accessed 25 April 2010]

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

-TheTimes (2009) Business [online] Available from:http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article6830916.ece [ Accessed 25 April 2010]

-Sainsbury (2010) Corporate Responsibility [online] Available from: http://www.jsainsburys.co.uk/cr/index.asp?pageid=53 [Accessed 25 April 2010]

Managing Performance

University measures my performance trough the effort and results achieved providing the requested assignment or attending exams, the value of how manage knowledge, the level of the knowledge itself and the way I present projects and test, are criteria used by the the university to evaluate my work. The lecturer illustrates me guidelines and methods to carry out the assignment requested and provides me enough source to increase my knowledge on the theme, tutors follow my involvement in this process, providing helpful suggestions and useful recommendations to clarify doubts and incomprehensions.

According to the Times article, mentors to be effectives have to possess certain qualities that can be useful to achieve results wanted; a mentor has to be experienced and successful, is important that he appear listening and skilled; on the emotional aspect they have to possess qualities such as empathy and sensibility, and even more important, they have to encourage a choice instead establishing it. General characteristics are usually more relevant than professional skills, that means that there is not the exigence of a mentor whose skills contemplate the same specific sector of the mentored. A mentor should encourage a person to challenge himself, should provide new skills, solve problems and help people to interact in a more efficient way in their job.

Mrs. Turazzi, my professor of chemistry during high school, can be considered my mentor, and for all that period she has been an example for my evolvement; she teach me how to perform better in order to answer correctly to requests, she improved my way to face an exams, assignment or test, providing me an helpful and detailed method of study; from her I learned the real meaning of effort and the relationship that links a good effort to expected results, I learned to set targets that have to be achievable but not in an easily way. Her manner were really rude and direct, she appear really interested in her student results but actually she was really careful to every aspect of a study process, knowing right motivations in order to increase our effort. She changed completely my way to face problems, encouraging me to continually challenging myself and constantly setting targets to achieve in order to improve my performances.

References:

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

-TheTimes (2009) Business [online] Available from:http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece [Accessed 28 April 2010]

Training and Development

The induction week I have to organized will try to provide to graduates every sort of information to prepare them to become firstly employees of the retail chain and therefore store managers, it is important that I have to cover every single aspect that might be useful for them to learn tasks precisely, according to what they will be requested during the next two years and to allow them to earn as much information as they can, to prepare themselves to become, in the future, store managers; they have to understand which qualities are important and which abilities will be useful in this job. Training sessions will be set in the morning during all the week, Monday morning there will be a formal lecture to introduce graduates in this particular environment, will be assigned a project, that has to be completed at the end of the week, which will request to provide examples and solutions to a particular case study related to the new job, therefore will be illustrate the plan of the week. Tuesday will be dedicated to e-learning and video learning, graduates will be requested to complete a questionnaire at the end of the session. Wednesday graduates will be coached and trained to work for a retail chain, at the end of the session there will be group activities about what learned during the morning. Thursday morning graduates will be requested to experience their first day in the company, during the on-the-job training, mentor will guide and comment every action of graduates, finally there will be a discussion where explain any problem sorted during the experience. Friday, the last day of the induction week, graduates will visit the rest of the store, focusing on the managerial activity, it will be possible to interact with employees and managers during all the morning, at the end of the day graduates will be requested to provide their completed assignment, each one, briefly summarizing results and findings will be encouraged to discuss and elaborate new ideas from the project they worked for. The effectiveness of the induction week will be evaluated by the analysis of the result of the questionnaire, mentor comments, graduates findings about the assignment elaborated and by their participation in discussion and debate; except Monday and Tuesday, for the rest of the week training session will take place in the store where they will work into, the other days sessions will take place in the conference room of the company.

-Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8^th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow