UNIT IV: DIRECTING

DIRECTING:

Introduction

Directing is said to be a process in which the managers instruct, guide and oversee the
performance of the workers to achieve predetermined goals. Directing is said to be the
heart of management process.

In simple words, it can be described as providing guidance to workers is doing work. In field
of management, direction is said to be all those activities which are designed to encourage
the subordinates to work effectively and efficiently.

CREATIVITY & INNOVATION:

Creativity can be described as problem identification and idea generation and

Innovation is considered as idea selection, development and commercialization.

Steps involved in creativity

1. Preparation

This is the first stage at which the base for creativity and innovation is defined; the mind is prepared
for subsequent use in creative thinking. During preparation the individual is encouraged to
appreciate the fact that every opportunity provides situations that can educate and experiences
from which to learn.

2. Investigation

This stage of enhancing entrepreneurial creativity and innovation involves the business owner
taking time to study the problem at hand and what its various components are.

3. Transformation

The information thus accumulated and acquired should then be subjected to convergent and
divergent thinking which will serve to highlight the inherent similarities and differences. Convergent
thinking will help identify aspects that are similar and connected while divergent thinking will
highlight the differences. This twin manner of thinking is of particular importance in realizing
creativity and innovation for the following reasons:

4. Verification

This is where the entrepreneur attempts to ascertain whether the creativity of thought and the
action of innovation are truly effective as anticipated. It may involve activities like simulation,
piloting, prototype building, test marketing, and various experiments. While the tendency to ignore
this stage and plunge headlong with the breakthrough may be tempting, the transformation stage
should ensure that the new idea is put to the test.
MOTIVATION:

According to Koontz and O'Donnell, "Motivation is a class of drives, needs, wishes and
similar forces”.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Abraham Maslow is well renowned for proposing the Hierarchy of Needs Theory in 1943. This theory
is a classical depiction of human motivation. This theory is based on the assumption that there is a
hierarchy of five needs within each individual. The urgency of these needs varies. These five needs
are as follows-

Physiological needs: These are the basic needs of air, water, food, clothing and shelter. In other
words, physiological needs are the needs for basic amenities of life.

Safety needs: Safety needs include physical, environmental and emotional safety and protection. For
instance- Job security, financial security, protection from animals, family security, health security,
etc.

Social needs: Social needs include the need for love, affection, care, belongingness, and friendship.

Esteem needs: Esteem needs are of two types: internal esteem needs (self- respect, confidence,
competence, achievement and freedom) and external esteem needs (recognition, power, status,
attention and admiration).

Self-actualization need: This include the urge to become what you are capable of becoming / what
you have the potential to become. It includes the need for growth and self-contentment. It also
includes desire for gaining more knowledge, social- service, creativity and being aesthetic. The self-
actualization needs are never fully satiable. As an individual grows psychologically, opportunities
keep cropping up to continue growing.

According to Maslow, individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs. As each of these needs is
significantly satisfied, it drives and forces the next need to emerge. Maslow grouped the five needs
into two categories - Higher-order needs and Lower-order needs. The physiological and the safety
needs constituted the lower-order needs. These lower-order needs are mainly satisfied externally.
The social, esteem, and self-actualization needs constituted the higher-order needs. These higher-
order needs are generally satisfied internally, i.e., within an individual. Thus, we can conclude that
during boom period, the employees lower-order needs are significantly met.

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation

In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioural scientist proposed a two-factor theory or the motivator-
hygiene theory. According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that result in satisfaction while
there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of
“Satisfaction” is “No satisfaction” and the opposite of “Dissatisfaction” is “No Dissatisfaction”.

FIGURE: Herzberg’s view of satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Herzberg classified these job factors into two categories-

Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential for existence of
motivation at workplace. These do not lead to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if these factors
are absent / if these factors are non-existant at workplace, then they lead to dissatisfaction. Hygiene
factors include:

Pay - The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and
competitive to those in the same industry in the same domain.

Company Policies and administrative policies - The company policies should not be too rigid. They
should be fair and clear. It should include flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation, etc.

Fringe benefits - The employees should be offered health care plans (mediclaim), benefits for the
family members, employee help programmes, etc.

Physical Working conditions - The working conditions should be safe, clean and hygienic. The work
equipments should be updated and well-maintained.

Status - The employees’ status within the organization should be familiar and retained.

Interpersonal relations - The relationship of the employees with his peers, superiors and
subordinates should be appropriate and acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation
element present.
Job Security - The organization must provide job security to the employees.

Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be regarded as

motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction. These factors are inherent to work.
These factors motivate the employees for a superior performance. These factors are called satisfiers.
These are factors involved in performing the job. Employees find these factors intrinsically
rewarding. The motivators symbolized the psychological needs that were perceived as an additional
benefit. Motivational factors include:

Recognition - The employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by the
managers.

Sense of achievement - The employees must have a sense of achievement. This depends on the job.
There must be a fruit of some sort in the job.

Growth and promotional opportunities - There must be growth and advancement opportunities in
an organization to motivate the employees to perform well.

Responsibility - The employees must hold themselves responsible for the work. The managers
should give them ownership of the work. They should minimize control but retain accountability.

Meaningfulness of the work - The work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for
the employee to perform and to get motivated.

LEADERSHIP & LEADERSHIP STYLES:

Definition

Leadership is defined as influence, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive
willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals.

Importance of Leadership

 Aid to authority
 Motive power to group efforts
 Basis for co operation
 Integration of Formal and Informal Organization

Leadership Styles

 Autocratic style
 Democratic Style
 Laissez Faire Style

Autocratic style

Autocratic leadership is a classical leadership style with the following characteristics:

 Manager seeks to make as many decisions as possible

 Manager seeks to have the most authority and control in decision making
  Manager seeks to retain responsibility rather than utilize complete delegation
 Consultation with other colleagues in minimal and decision making becomes a solitary
process
 Managers are less concerned with investing their own leadership development, and preferto
simply work on the task at hand.

Democratic Style

Democratic Leadership is the leadership style that promotes the sharing of responsibility, the
exercise of delegation and continual consultation.

Laissez-Faire Style

This French phrase means “leave it be” and is used to describe a leader who leaves his/her
colleagues to get on with their work. The style is largely a "hands off" view that tends to minimize
the amount of direction and face time required.

COMMUNICATION:

Definition: Communication is the exchange of information using a shared set of symbols.

Process of Communication:

The figure below depicts the communication process. This model is made up of seven parts. They are
Source, Encoding, Message, Channel, Decoding, Receiver, and Feedback.

a) Source:

The source initiates a message. This is the origin of the communication and can be an individual,
group or inanimate object. The effectiveness of a communication depends to a considerable degree
on the characteristics of the source. The person who initiates the communication process is known
as sender, source or communicator. In an organization, the sender will be a person who has a need
or desire to send a message to others. The sender has some information which he wants to
communicate to some other person to achieve some purpose. By initiating the message, the sender
attempts to achieve understanding and change in the behaviour of the receiver.

b) Encoding:

Once the source has decided what message to communicate, the content of the message must be
put in a form the receiver can understand. As the background for encoding information, the sender
uses his or her own frame of reference. It includes the individual's view of the organization or
situation as a function of personal education, interpersonal relationships, attitudes, knowledge and
experience. Three conditions are necessary for successful encoding the message.

c) The Message:

The message is the actual physical product from the source encoding. The message contains the
thoughts and feelings that the communicator intends to evoke in the receiver.

d) The Channel:

The actual means by which the message is transmitted to the receiver (Visual, auditory, written or
some combination of these three) is called the channel. The channel is the medium through which
the message travels. The channel is the observable carrier of the message. Communication in which
the sender's voice is used as the channel is called oral communication. When the channel involves
written language, the sender is using written communication. The sender's choice of a channel
conveys additional information beyond that contained in the message itself. For example,
documenting an employee's poor performance in writing conveys that the manager has taken the
problem seriously.

f) Decoding:

Decoding means interpreting what the message means. The extent to which the decoding by the
receiver depends heavily on the individual characteristics of the sender and receiver. The greater the
similarity in the background or status factors of the communicators, the greater the probability that
a message will be perceived accurately. Most messages can be decoded in more than one way.
Receiving and decoding a message are a type of perception. The decoding process is therefore
subject to the perception biases.

g) The Receiver:

The receiver is the object to whom the message is directed. Receiving the message means one or
more of the receiver's senses register the message - for example, hearing the sound of a supplier's
voice over the telephone or seeing the boss give a thumbs-up signal. Like the sender, the receiver is
subject to many influences that can affect the understanding of the message. Most important, the
receiver will perceive a communication in a manner that is consistent with previous
experiences.Communications that are not consistent with expectations is likely to be rejected.

h) Feedback:

The final link in the communication the feedback and interprets it accurately, the feedback can help
the sender learn whether the original communication was decoded accurately. Without feedback,
one-way communication occurs between managers and their employees. Faced with differences in
their power, lack of time, and a desire to save face by not passing on negative information,
employees may be discouraged from providing the necessary feedback to their managers.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATON:

a) Filtering:

Filtering refers to a sender manipulating information so it will be seen more favourably by the
receiver. The major determinant of filtering is the number of levels in an organization's structure.
Sometimes the information is filtered by the sender himself. If the sender is hiding some meaning
and disclosing in such a fashion as appealing to the receiver, then he is "filtering" the message
deliberately. A manager in the process of altering communication in his favour is attempting to filter
the information.

b) Selective Perception:

Selective perception means seeing what one wants to see. The receiver, in the communication
process, generally resorts to selective perception i.e., he selectively perceives the message based on
the organizational requirements, the needs and characteristics, background of the employees etc.
Perceptual distortion is one of the distressing barriers to the effective communication. People
interpret what they see and call it a reality. In our regular activities, we tend to see those things that
please us and to reject or ignore unpleasant things. Selective perception allows us to keep out
dissonance (the existence of conflicting elements in our perceptual set) at a tolerable level.

c) Emotions:

How the receiver feels at the time of receipt of information influences effectively how he interprets
the information. For example, if the receiver feels that the communicator is in a jovial mood, he
interprets that the information being sent by the communicator to be good and interesting. Extreme
emotions and jubilation or depression are quite likely to hinder the effectiveness of communication.
A person's ability to encode a message can become impaired when the person is feeling strong
emotions. For example, when you are angry, it is harder to consider the other person's viewpoint
and to choose words carefully. The angrier you are, the harder this task becomes. Extreme
emotions – such as jubilation or depression - are most likely to hinder effective communication. In
such instances, we are most prone to disregard our rational and objective thinking processes and
substitute emotional judgments.

d) Language:

Communicated message must be understandable to the receiver. Words mean different things to
different people. Language reflects not only the personality of the individual but also the culture of
society in which the individual is living. In organizations, people from different regions, different
backgrounds, and speak different languages. People will have different academic backgrounds,
different intellectual facilities, and hence the jargon they use varies.

e) Stereotyping:

Stereotyping is the application of selective perception. When we have preconceived ideas about
other people and refuse to discriminate between individual behaviours, we are applying selective
perception to our relationship with other people. Stereotyping is a barrier to communications
because those who stereotype others use selective perception in their communication and tend to
hear only those things that confirm their stereotyped images.
f) Status Difference:

The organizational hierarchy pose another barrier to communication within organization, especially
when the communication is between employee and manager. This is so because the employee is
dependent on the manager as the primary link to the organization and hence more likely to distort
upward communication than either horizontal or downward communication. Effective supervisory
skills make the supervisor more approachable and help reduce the risk of problems related to status
differences. In addition, when employees feel secure, they are more likely to be straightforward in
upward communication.

g) Use of Conflicting Signals:

A sender is using conflicting signals when he or she sends inconsistent messages. A vertical message
might conflict with a nonverbal one. For example, if a manager says to his employees, "If you have a
problem, just come to me. My door is always open", but he looks annoyed whenever an employee
knocks on his door". Then we say the manager is sending conflicting messages. When signals
conflict, the receivers of the message have to decide which, if any, to believe.

h) Reluctance to Communicate:

For a variety of reasons, managers are sometimes reluctant to transmit messages. The reasons
could be:-

• They may doubt their ability to do so.

• They may dislike or be weary of writing or talking to others.

• They may hesitate to deliver bad news because they do not want to face a
negative reaction.

ORGANIZATION CULTURE:

Definition: It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by
people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and
with stakeholders outside the organization."

ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:

a) Stories: The past events and people talked about inside and outside the company. Who and what
the company chooses to immortalize says a great deal about what it values, and perceives as great
behaviour.

b) Rituals and Routines: The daily behaviour and actions of people that signal acceptable behaviour.
This determines what is expected to happen in given situations, and what is valued by management.

c) Symbols: The visual representations of the company including logos, how plush the offices are,
and the formal or informal dress codes.
d) Organizational Structure: This includes both the structure defined by the organization chart, and
the unwritten lines of power and influence that indicate whose contributions are most valued.

e) Control Systems: The ways that the organization is controlled. These include financial systems,
quality systems, and rewards (including the way they are measured and distributed within the
organization.)

f) Power Structures: The pockets of real power in the company. This may involve one or two key
senior executives, a whole group of executives, or even a department. The key is that these people
have the greatest amount of influence on decisions, operations, and strategic direction.

MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY:

Experts indicate that business owners and managers who hope to create and manage an effective,
harmonious multicultural work force should remember the importance of the following:

Setting a good example - This basic tool can be particularly valuable for small business owners who
hope to establish a healthy environment for people of different cultural backgrounds, since they are
generally able to wield significant control over the business's basic outlook and atmosphere.

Communicate in writing - Company policies that explicitly forbid prejudice and discriminatory
behaviour should be included in employee manuals, mission statements, and other written
communications. Jorgensen referred to this and other similar practices as "internal broadcasting of
the diversity message in order to create a common language for all members of the organization."

Training programs - Training programs designed to engender appreciation and knowledge of the
characteristics and benefits of multicultural work forces have become ubiquitous in recent years.
"Two types of training are most popular: awareness and skill-building," wrote Cox. "The former
introduces the topic of managing diversity and generally includes information on work force
demographics, the meaning of diversity, and exercises to get participants thinking about relevant
issues and raising their own self-awareness.

Recognize individual differences - Writing in The Complete MBA Companion, contributor Rob
Goffee stated that "there are various dimensions around which differences in human relationships
may be understood. These include such factors as orientation towards authority; acceptance of
power inequalities; desire for orderliness and structure; the need to belong to a wider social group
and so on. Around these dimensions researchers have demonstrated systematic differences
between national, ethnic, and religious groups.

Actively seek input from minority groups - Soliciting the opinions and involvement of minority
groups on important work committees, etc., is beneficial not only because of the contributions that
they can make, but also because such overtures confirm that they are valued by the company.
Serving on relevant committees and task forces can increase their feelings of belonging to the
organization.

Revamp reward systems - An organization's performance appraisal and reward systems should
reinforce the importance of effective diversity management, according to Cox. This includes assuring
that minorities are provided with adequate opportunities for career development.
Make room for social events - Company sponsored social events—picnics, softball games, volleyball
leagues, bowling leagues, Christmas parties, etc.—can be tremendously useful in getting members of
different ethnic and cultural backgrounds together and providing them with opportunities to learn
about one another.

Flexible work environment - Cox indicated that flexible work environments—which he characterized
as a positive development for all workers—could have particularly "beneficial to people from non-
traditional cultural backgrounds because their approaches to problems are more likely to be
different from past norms."

Don't assume similar values and opinions - Goffee noted that "in the absence of reliable
information there is a well-documented tendency for individuals to assume that others are 'like
them.' In any setting this is likely to be an inappropriate assumption; for those who manage diverse
work forces this tendency towards 'cultural assimilation' can prove particularly damaging."

Continuous monitoring - Experts recommend that business owners and managers establish and
maintain systems that can continually monitor the organization's policies and practices to ensure
that it continues to be a good environment for all employees. This, wrote Jorgensen, should include
"research into employees' needs through periodic attitude surveys."