The Significance of Personality in Employee Motivation and Management

Questions 1:

Personality reflects the dynamic organization within an individual of those psychological systems that identifies the characteristics. Personality theory highlights the way an individual expected to react in a particular situation. It also determines individuals thoughts, believes and perspectives towards a specific incidents. The psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud illustrates personality of human depends on ego, id and superego (Deci and Ryan 2012). Now, all the co-founders of Outback have enough experience in the restaurants sector to understand the significance of providing the best quality services for maintaining the position in the market. In order to provide high quality services, employees of Outback have to provide their best effort continuously. For that reason, the co-founder of Outback always focuses on providing best possible rewards and benefits to the employees.

As per the article by Lewin (2013), individual’s personality plays critical role in acknowledging the contributions of others towards the fulfilment of organizational goals and objectives. Now, the personality of all the co-founders of Outback has induced to formulate an employee friendly organization. Co-founder of Outback, Timothy Gannon has mentioned that if the employees are kept in right environment with required support, they will go beyond their capacity for the organization. Thus, the personality id of the co-founders of Outback has induced to utilize high reward practices for their employees.

Question 2:

As illustrated by Petri and Govern (2012) employee motivation is an extremely important factor for any organization for utilizing all the resources at the desired level. Without motivated workforce, it will be very difficult for any organization to maintain competitive advantage in the market. Now, the management of Outback has always focused on providing high benefits and rewards for keeping the employees motivated towards their responsibilities. Thus, the management approach of Outback is perhaps following the outline provided by the motivation theory of Maslow hierarchy of needs.

As described by O’Neil and Drillings (2012) Maslow hierarchy of needs has highlighted different types of individual needs for remaining motivated towards professional responsibilities. Now, Outback’s management has not only provided higher benefits to the employees but also provided the opportunity to holds the share of the organization. As a result, it has fulfilled all the needs including psychological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization in an effective manner. Moreover, it has allowed employees to develop a sense of ownership towards the organization. It is likely to induce them to remain motivated towards all the provided roles and responsibilities.

Question 3: 

The management of Outback has made a conscious effort to empower the employees to keep the motivated and associated with the organization. In order to empower the managers, Outback has developed a scheme where managers have to invest US$25000 with five years contract to become a shareholder. It will allow the managers to receive 10% of the restaurants earnings every month. As a result, it has allowed managers to earn way higher about US$118600 per year compared to average standards of the industry. It has minimized the challenges related with high rate of attrition in Outback, which played a significant part in achieving massive success in the market. Moreover, managers also receive around 4000 shares at the end of five years.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Outback’s Employee Motivation Strategies

The management of Outback has also provided a share ownership plan for regular staffs so that they can feel sense of ownership about the organization. In order to motivate regular staffs, Outback will have to provide a clear career development plan. It will motivate the regular staffs to provide their best effort in order to hold the manager position (Kaplan, Katz and Flum 2012). The management of Outback will have to ensure that career enhancement will be used in terms of skills and knowledge only. The organization will remain unbiased or uninfluenced by any external factors at the time of judging employee performances.

Part 2: 

In the present competitive business environment, leadership styles and strategies is extremely critical for achieving success in the market. Innovative leadership strategies and styles have provided new dimensions to the organizations overall business procedure. Andy Penn, the current CEO of Telstra is one of the most prolific leaders present in the Australian market. Andy Penn was born in UK, holds an MBA degree from Kingston University. For 21 years, Andy Penn was associated with National Mutual that has merged with AXA Asia Pacific later. Andy Penn had joined Telstra as CFO in 2011. After 4 years of service, Penn was positioned as the CEO of the organization (Carton, Murphy and Clark 2014).

The leadership strategy of Penn has always tried to develop some attractive and innovative strategies in order to keep the organization move forward (Lees-Marshment 2012). The initial year for Andy Penn as CEO was rough, as the organization has gone through different internal and external turbulences during that time of the year. Still, Andy Penn has focused on initiating bold decision of reshaping the senior executive team of Telstra. After the joining of Andy Penn as CEO, Telstra has gone through different changes in the top half of the management. Still, the leadership styles of Penn have kept the belief and trust level of the employees.

As per the article by Burk (2012), understanding the need for changes is one of the prime attributes for a good leader. Specifically, the current changing business environment is inducing organizations to focus on variety of strategies and styles for achieving success in the market. As a senior leader of Telstra, Penn has focused on aligning the leadership style with organizational goals and objectives. The leadership strategy of Penn has focused on developing strong customer focus in order to ensure satisfaction level of the customers remains intact. On the other hand, the leadership strategy of Penn has included proper support and benefits facilities for the employees. Andy Penn has ensured the benefit or salary level of all level of employees at Telstra remains higher than the average market rate. Therefore, it has allowed employees remain motivated towards the provided responsibilities.

In addition, Andy Penn has focused on developing healthy working culture where all the new employees are well supported by the seniors. Moreover, all the new and old employees are provided with high level of training and development facilities so that they can enhance their professional career effectively (Kissi, Dainty and Tuuli 2013). As a result, it has allowed Telstra to maintain healthy working environment. Moreover, Penn has tried to enhance the effectiveness of the communicational network in order to fulfil all the requirements of the operational procedure within the given timeframe. It has allowed Telstra to resolve any issue before becoming too severe effectively. The decision of implementing considerable change in the   top management has illustrated the high ambition level of the Penn as leader. Therefore, it can be expected that Telstra will reach a new high under the leadership and guidance of Andy Penn in near future.

Question 1:

Leadership Strategies and the Success of Andy Penn at Telstra

In 1989, Semco Partners was a manufacturing company with employee size of around 800. Unlike other organizations, Semco has focused on developing their unique management rules and regulations for achieving success in the market. From the beginning, Semco has perceived all the employees as adult individuals who can take their own decisions. As a result, it has helped the organization to keep the satisfaction level of the employees remain intact. Therefore, it has provided massive success to the Semco Partners, as it has able to maintain 24% annual growth for more than decades. The employee size of Semco has increased up to 3000, where all the managers are chosen by the voting technique of the employees (Fee, Hadlock and Pierce 2013).   

Question 2:

Semco’s organizational structure does not follow conventional pyramid structure, as they feel it emphasize on power, distort communication, promote insecurity. It feels that utilization of pyramid structure provides too much power on fewer people, which is likely to create adverse impact on the successful fulfilment of the organizational procedure. It increases the possibility of develop plan and execution of the plan to move towards different direction (Dale 2015). For that reason, Semco has used organizational circle for reducing senior positions into three levels. Out of which, one circle includes five counsellors. Second circle contains head of eight divisions and third circle includes all other employees.

Question 3:   

Semco has focused on minimizing the organizational division as much as possible for accomplishing all the goals and objectives in an effective manner. The circle structure of the organization has completely broken the conventional organizational structure in a massive way. It has focused on three principles including employee participation, information transparency and profit sharing for encouraging employees to give their best at the workplace. It has provided full authority to the employees to select their job timing, leaves and salary level as well (Hughes 2012). Moreover, the entire senior position at Semco filled by the votes of the employees. Moreover, CEO of the organization rotated after every 6 months. It indicates the fact that Semco has not focused at all to formalize the organizational structure.  

Question 4:

Semco has focused on developing such work culture where employees will took care of their responsibilities by themselves. The values of the organization have focused three aspects including democracy, profit sharing and information. Therefore, each employee is provided with detailed information about the present condition and requirements of the organization. For that reason, each employee has able to understand the significance of performing specific responsibilities for organization (Ding and Wermers 2012). Therefore, Semco expects employees to take the responsibilities of the organization without the guidance or pressure from any senior authority. Moreover, the work culture of Semco has provided the authority to every employee to take decision about critical organizational matters. Therefore, employees do not have to wait for any permission from any senior authority before implementing any plan within the organization. It has allowed Semco to resolve all the issues in an effective manner.

Question 5:

The strategy initiated by Semco is unique, as it virtually runs with no managers. Therefore, it will be extremely hard for any business to replicate such type of organizational structure or business strategy for achieving success in the market. In present time, all the prime organizations focuses on utilizing pyramid structure for completing all the responsibilities associated with operational procedure. In fact, many organizations like Cognizant and Tesco have faced challenges due to the top-heavy structure, which affected the cost associated with the operational procedure. As per the article by Hefetz and Warner (2012), horizontal structure can be effective for small size organizations. However, in order to run big organizations, appropriate use of the leadership styles will become necessary. Moreover, providing so much liberty to the employees can actually divert the organization objective in a major way. For that reason, the management style of Semco is something special, which very unlike to be replicated in future.   

References:

Burk, R.D., 2012. New building level leaders’ perceptions: Experiences in the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership’s induction and mentoring program (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania).

Carton, A.M., Murphy, C. and Clark, J.R., 2014. A (blurry) vision of the future: How leader rhetoric about ultimate goals influences performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6), pp.1544-1570.

Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M., 2012. Motivation, personality, and development within embedded social contexts: An overview of self-determination theory. The Oxford handbook of human motivation, pp.85-107.

Ding, B. and Wermers, R., 2012. Mutual fund performance and governance structure: The role of portfolio managers and boards of directors.

Fee, C.E., Hadlock, C.J. and Pierce, J.R., 2013. Managers with and without style: Evidence using exogenous variation. Review of Financial Studies, 26(3), pp.567-601.

Hefetz, A. and Warner, M.E., 2012. Contracting or public delivery? The importance of service, market, and management characteristics. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(2), pp.289-317.

Hughes, O.E., 2012. Public management and administration. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kaplan, A., Katz, I. and Flum, H., 2012. Motivation theory in educational practice: Knowledge claims, challenges, and future directions. APA educational psychology handbook, 2, pp.165-194.

Kissi, J., Dainty, A. and Tuuli, M., 2013. Examining the role of transformational leadership of portfolio managers in project performance. International Journal of project management, 31(4), pp.485-497.

Lees-Marshment, J., 2012. Political marketing and opinion leadership: Comparative perspectives and findings. In Comparative political leadership (pp. 165-185). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Lewin, K., 2013. A Dynamic Theory of personality-Selected papers. Read Books Ltd.

O’Neil, H.F. and Drillings, M. eds., 2012. Motivation: Theory and research. Routledge.

Petri, H.L. and Govern, J.M., 2012. Motivation: Theory, research, and application. Cengage Learning.