Motivation and Leadership at EL&N

Introduction

EL&N owns six cafés that are Instagram-worthy in different areas across London. Inside any of the different cafés, customers find themselves in true floral paradises where tables are designed with little flower pieces, roses frame mirrors, and bespoke floral designs serve as lampshades and giant walls that are full of flowers (Florismart, 2018).

Employee Motivation

Business leaders have since ancient times sought ways to motivate their workers. While the construction of the Egyptian pyramids was a success as a result of the fear of the slave`s fear of physical punishment, in modern times, approaches that are scientific and more humane are required. Employees who are properly motivated are with no doubt more productive and also more creative and on the other hand, those employees whose motivation is poor could possibly hamper the success of a business and its growth (Lăzăroiu, 2015). Typically, an employee’s motivation, abilities and work environment influences their performance.

Reward systems play a huge role in the motivation of employees at EL&N in relation to their needs for external and extrinsic motivation through provision of appealing opportunities to their internal and intrinsic motivational needs (Mikkelsen, Jacobsen and Andersen, 2017). There are other factors that have the potential of motivating employees and these include the types of jobs they are required to perform, the added benefits they get for example, extended vacations and different types of perquisites like provision of accommodation by the company they work for, provision of medical insurance coverage for both the employees and their families and even funding for school going children. These days, the most common form of employee motivation, with no doubt is organisation of offsite events and recreation and fun events for the employees where they are free to engage in activities that have the potential of relieving their stress (Lee and Raschke, 2016).

The structure of the organisation is another factor that has the potential of motivating employees. It has been established that flat organisations are more able to motivate their employees in comparison to hierarchical organisations (De Vito et al., 2018).

Scientific management, the human resource approach and the human relations movement are examples of historical views of motivation. The scientific management approach assumed that the work performed was not pleasant for most employees and the earned money had more importance than the performed jobs` nature (Khorasani and Almasifard, 2017).

The emphasis of the human relations movement was on the organisational role that was played by social progresses and assumed that in the motivation of employees, the needs to feel more useful and the needs for belongingness had more importance in comparison to money. The human resource approach makes an assumption that there is some willingness in employees to make a contribution to the effectiveness of the organisation and they are able to make contributions that are genuine. The responsibility of the organisation according to this view is to create work environments that effectively and efficiently utilise the resources that are available (Hitka et al., 2019). This is the approach that guides the majority of the current thinking about motivation even though there are three integrative approaches that are able to more completely conceptualise motivation; process-based, need-based and reinforcement-based approaches.

Alderfer's ERG Theory

The Alderfer's ERG theory condenses the five human needs by Maslow into three categories namely; Existence, Relatedness and Growth (Turabik and Baskan, 2015). The existence needs are related to the different needs that are related to human safety and psychological aspects and are a prerequisite for human survival. As such, the Maslow safety and psychological needs are put together under one category because they share the same nature and their impacts on individual behaviours are the same. The needs of relatedness refer the human social needs where people try to build relationships with other individuals whom they care for. The relatedness needs cover the social needs in Maslow and are also part of the esteem needs that are derived from human interactions with others. Part of the Maslow esteem needs and the self-actualisation needs are covered in the self-actualisation needs. These needs are internal to individuals like personal growth and feelings of being unique. As such, the needs for growth are those needs that have an influence on the abilities of individuals to explore their maximum potential in their existing environments (Mangi, Kanasro and Burdi, 2015).

It is always necessary that the managers at EL&N always have a proper understanding that their employees have different needs which require being satisfied concurrently. In line with the ERG theory if EL&N`s managers only concentrated on one need at a time, the other employees would not be effectively motivated. Additionally, ERG theory`s frustration-regression aspect has an added effect on the motivation within the workplace (Snow, 2019). For example, in the event the employees are not provided with opportunities for advancement and growth, they might revert to the relatedness needs like the needs to socialise and to meet the needs, and in the event the circumstances of the environment do not permit, they revert to the needs for money so as to fulfil the socialising needs. Managers are better placed if they are able to realise and discover this because they are more able to take immediate steps to fulfil the frustrated needs such that the employees are capable of pursuing growth (Sesay et al., 2017).

Leadership

Leadership is a company`s managements capacity to achieve challenging goals, take decisive and fast actions whenever required, inspire others to give their best and to outperform competitors (Antonakis and Day, 2017). It really is not easy to place value on leadership and other organisational qualitative aspects when compared to commonly track quantitative aspects. Those individuals who possess strong leadership skills re usually observed to rise to executive positions. EN&L and all its workers receive direction from leadership. It is always important that employees have a proper understanding of the direction to which a company is headed and who they should follow so as to reach the destination. Some of the aspects involved in leadership include illustrating to workers how they can perform their responsibilities effectively and also the regular supervision of the completion of tasks.

For one to be considered an effective leader, they must exhibit strong characters. Ethics, trustworthiness, integrity, and honesty are traits commonly exhibited by leaders (Western, 2019). Leaders act just the way they speak and also earn the right to be responsible for the success of others within the companies. Clear communication skills are involved in strong leadership. A leader gets to speak and also listen to the other members of staff in addition to responding to their concerns and questions and always shows empathy. Effective communication skills help leaders in moving companies forward in addition to achieving new success levels. True leadership has the abilities to see the direction to which a company is headed and come up with clear plans on how to get to the desired position. Following industry trends, visualization and risk-taking for business growth are all required of leaders.

Leadership that is productive must always show optimism and provide the members of staff with positive energy. Good leaders show genuine concern about the welfare of others and are also supportive. They come up with solutions to different challenging situations and further inspire and reassure workers whenever things go south. They also establish ways through which members of staff can work together for achievement of maximum results in ways that are both effective and efficient.

Different leadership theories are used to explain why and how different people become leaders. The focus of such theories is often on the leaders' characteristics even though there are those that make attempts to identify the behaviors that can be adopted for improvement of the abilities of individual to lead in different situations. The early debates around the psychology of leadership often made suggestions that such skills were simply the individual in-born abilities (Northouse, 2018). What these theories suggest is that there are certain people who were certainly born as leaders. Other theories of recent times suggest that possession of certain traits help in the nurturing of leaders, but that a critical role is played by situational variables and experience.

Trait Theory of Leadership

An assumption is made by the trait theory of leadership that leaders are born and as such, the individuals who are most suited for leadership are those that possess the appropriate qualities and traits (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reachie, 2015). The theory often identifies the common leadership behavioral characteristics. This is one of the different academic theories that make an attempt to answer why there are some people who are good leaders while others are not.

The trait theory's basis is on the commonly identified leadership characteristics identified from both types of leaders; those who are successful and those who are not successful (Lee, 2018). Leadership's effectiveness can be predicted using this theory. Business knowledge, energy, tenacity, flexibility, sound cognitive skills and capabilities of making proper decisions and judgments, emotional intelligence, charisma, integrity, and creativity are some of the commonly identified leadership traits. The trait theories most ardent versions traditionally view these leadership characteristics as innate and as such, some individuals' physical makeup leads to them being viewed as born leaders (Nawaz and Khan, 2016). This theory is, however, considered to be out of date largely and its proponents hold the belief that the development of leadership involves the identification and further measuring of the quality of leadership, screening potential leaders from non-leaders and further offering training to those who show potential. Modern thinking actually suggests that these traits are nothing more than characteristics, which even though can be possessed naturally by some individuals, can also be learned and built into the thinking and behaviors of an individual and in such affecting individual potential of leadership. Modern thinking perceives leadership as a skill that could possibly be mastered and as such, it is possible to hone all the above characteristics. It is as such, always important to have a proper understanding of these traits. The understanding aids in the development of the areas of weakness such that one becomes a great leader (Yang and Lim, 2016).

Conclusion

It is possible for managers to take daily actions aimed at increasing the satisfaction of employees. Some of the consequential ways through which supervisors and managers can be able to create environments that are able to foster and increase the motivation of employees include; Effective and responsible communication, fostering of interactions between the normal employees with the executive and senior managers, provision of opportunities for employees to take-on responsibilities and self-manage themselves, address the complaints and concerns of employees, reward and recognize the employees and fostering the relationships between the employees and their supervisors.

Some of the ways through which leadership skills can be developed include; being passionate, modeling of great leadership for other individuals, developing a proper understanding of individual strengths and adequately utilizing them, setting goals that are concrete and further executing them, admitting whenever you are wrong, motivating and inspiring others and finding your higher purpose. The response from employees to those who are eager to help them grow and learn is greater. Leaders should always show passion for everything they are involved in, including in their pursuit to learn how to go about developing their leadership skills. Also, people tend to accord more respect to those who walk the talk. Being a role model is one of the core characteristics of being a transformational leader. Modeling the behaviors that one would like to see is the strongest message any leader can send to their team.

With no doubt, improving leadership skills takes effort and time and this begins with a thorough investigation of individual weaknesses and strengths. When one has proper knowledge of their innate abilities and gifts, they are more capable of putting them to work for them, while an understanding of one's weaknesses enlightens one on the areas that require to be improved.

References

• Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
• De Vito, L., Brown, A., Bannister, B., Cianci, M. and Mujtaba, B.G., 2018. Employee motivation based on the hierarchy of needs, expectancy and the two-factor theories applied with higher education employees. IJAMEE.
• Florismart. (2018). [online] Available athttps://www.florismart.com/trends-inspiration/london-cafe-must-see-flower-lovers/">https://www.florismart.com/trends-inspiration/london-cafe-must-see-flower-lovers/ [Accessed 12 Jul. 2019].
• Ghasabeh, M.S., Soosay, C. and Reaiche, C., 2015. The emerging role of transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), pp.459-467.
• Hitka, M., Lorincová, S., Gejdoš, M., Klarić, K. and Weberová, D., 2019. Management approach to motivation of white-collar employees in forest enterprises. BioResources, 14(3), pp.5488-5505.
• Khorasani, S.T. and Almasifard, M., 2017. Evolution of management theory within 20 century: A systemic overview of paradigm shifts in management. International Review of Management and Marketing, 7(3), pp.134-137.
• Lăzăroiu, G., 2015. Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, (14), pp.97-102.
• Lee, K.C.S., 2018. 3 The Great Man and Trait Theory of Leadership. Mastering Theories of Educational Leadership and Management.
• Lee, M.T. and Raschke, R.L., 2016. Understanding employee motivation and organizational performance: Arguments for a set-theoretic approach. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 1(3), pp.162-169.
• Mangi, A.A., Kanasro, H.A. and Burdi, M.B., 2015. Motivation tools and organizational success: A critical analysis of motivational theories. The Government-Annual Research Journal of Political Science, 4(4).
• Mikkelsen, M.F., Jacobsen, C.B. and Andersen, L.B., 2017. Managing employee motivation: Exploring the connections between managers’ enforcement actions, employee perceptions, and employee intrinsic motivation. International Public Management Journal, 20(2), pp.183-205.
• Nawaz, Z.A.K.D.A. and Khan_ PhD, I., 2016. Leadership theories and styles: A literature review. Leadership, 16, pp.1-7.
• Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
• Sesay, A.K., Seisay, I.G., Kamara, C.M. and Bangura, A., 2017. Using motivation as a conceptual framework for institutional capacity building and development. International Journal for Research in Social Science and Humanities| ISSN: 2208-2697, 3(12), pp.42-64.
• Snow, D., 2019. The Big Picture: How the New Use of an Old Theory will Enhance Leaders' Perspective on Management. Journal of Applied Business & Economics, 21(1).
• Turabik, T. and Baskan, G.A., 2015. The importance of motivation theories in terms of education systems. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 186, pp.1055-1063.
• Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.
• Yang, L.C. and Lim, V., 2016. Empirical investigation into the path-goal leadership theory in the central bank fraternity: leadership styles and job satisfaction (No. wp14).