Motivation, Decision Making, And Organizational Culture



13733981811554/27/2012Individual Assignment | AISHA AHMAD USMANcentercenterLUCTMotivation, Decision Making, And Organizational CulturePROLOGUEThe word administer is derived from the Latin words administrate, which means to care for or to look after people, to manage affairs. According to this wide definition almost every human activity involves some kind of administration. Even in primitive societies, simple activities like hunting, food, gathering, etc., could not be carried on without some form of organization. Somebody had to determine as to who will do what. Certain norms of behaviour had to be laid down to decide the distribution of work among the members of the primitive groups. Public administration has many definitions. According to some authors, public administration is centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behaviour of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct.Public Administration is the complex of governmental activities that are undertaken in public interest at different levels such as. The central, state or provincial (in a federal set-up) and local levels In a broad sense, therefore, Administration is common to both public and private affairs. Public Administration would then refer to that part of administration which pertains to the administrative activities of the government. Here again, it would be worthwhile to turn to the definitions of public administration given by some well known scholars.To achieve the organizational and individual goals in an economical and efficient manner, motivation is an important tool in the hands of management to direct the behavior of subordinates in the desired and appropriate direction and thus minimize the wastage of human and other resources.The assignment is mainly about the motivation, decision making and organizational culture as far as the public administration is concerned. It is going to highlight some relevance of the topic in the today’s public administration from the peak level to the ground level.IMPORTANT OF MOTIVATION Motivation is one of the most important factors determining organizational efficiency. All organizational facilities will go to waste in absence of motivated people to utilize these facilities effectively. Every superior in the organization must motivate its subordinates for the right types of behavior. The performance of human beings in the organization is dependent on the ability in the motivation. Motivation is an effective instrument in the hands of management in inspiring the workforce. Motivation increases the willingness of the workers to work, thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.?Best utilization of resources: - Motivation ensures best and efficient utilization of all types of resources. Utilization of resources is possible to their fullest extent if the man is induced to contribute their efforts towards attaining organizational goals. Thus, people should be motivated to carry out the plans, policies and programmes laid down by the organization.Will to Contribute: - there is a difference between "Capacity to work" and "willingness to work". One can be physically and mentally fit to work but he may not be willing to work. Motivation results in feeling of involvement to present his better performance. Thus, motivation bridges the gap between capacity to work and willingness to work.Reduction in Labor Problems: - all the members try to concentrate their efforts to achieve the objectives of the organization and carry out plans in accordance with the policies and programmes laid down by the organization if the management introduced motivational plans. It reduces labor problems like labor turnover, absenteeism, indiscipline, grievances, etc. because their real wages increase by the motivational plans.Sizeable increase in production and productivity: - when motivated properly, people try to put efforts produce more, thus increasing their efficiency and as a result of this general production and productivity of the organization increases. They (motivated employees) use the methods, system and technology effectively in the best interest of the organization.Basis of Cooperation: - In a zeal to produce more the member's work 'an s a team to pull the weight effectively, to get their loyalty to the group and the organization, to carry out properly the activities allocated and generally to play an efficient part in achieving the purpose which the organization has undertaken'. Thus, motivation is a basis of cooperation to get, the best result out of the efforts of the human beings on the job.Improvement upon skill and knowledge:- all the members will try to be efficient as possible and will try it improve upon the skill and knowledge to the progress of the organization which, in turn will provide the promised and more, ultimately enabling them to satisfy their needs - personal and social both.Acceptance of organizational change: - change is the law of nature. Due to several changes in the society, changes in technology, value system, etc. organization has to incorporate these changes to cope with the requirement of the time. If people are effectively motivated, they gladly accept, introduce and implement these changes without reserving any resistance to change and negative attitude, thus keeping the organization on the right track of progress.Better Image: - a firm that provides opportunities for the advancement of its people has a better image in the minds of the public as a good employer. This, image helps in attracting qualified personnel and thus simplifies the staffing function. This will also improve employee satisfaction and reduce industrial stifle.IMPORTANT OF DECISION MAKINGDecision making is an important process for organizational effectiveness. Decision making is almost universally defined as choosing between alternatives. It is closely related to all the traditional management functions. In the manufacturing area, effective decisions are aimed at achieving zero defects in recent years this focus has also been applied to the service sector in order to create zero defections. Decision making is an organizational process because it transcends the individual and has an effect on organizational goals.Every day is spent making decisions that affect each individual's life. Thus, it is best that every decision that we make takes all the considerations needed in order to have a very productive result. Accordingly, decision making is "the cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among alternatives; it is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions." () Thus, with the advent of technology, decision-making software and programs are being developed and made for the assistance and utilization of the general public, especially in the fields of management, marketing, health sciences and research.Making decisions in our daily lives and in the workplace can be one of the most overlooked processes. The daily routine presents us with hundreds of decisions, many quite small, but every now and then comes the big decisions that seem to turn life upon its head depending on the path we choose. Beloved American poet Robert Frost famously said, "two roads diverged in a wood -- and I? I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Just what did Frost mean by saying that he took the road less traveled by?Each of us in making decisions must choose which path we will travel by. We don't have to choose obscure paths to take the road less traveled by, but we do have to take paths that require courage in making decisions. For example, sometimes we are faced with decisions about personal relationships that have a great effect on work, school, or whatever responsibilities may be placed upon us.Decision-making makes it possible to adopt the best course of action in carrying out a given task. When there are different ways of performing a task, it becomes necessary to find out the best way and that is what decision-making is all about. The course of action finally selected should produce the best results.By choosing the best method of doing any work, decision-making ensures optimum use of the enterprise resources, namely, men, machines, materials and money. Resources are always scarce and therefore, it is necessary to make a proper use of the same.IMPORTANT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTUREOne of the most important building blocks for a highly successful organization and an extraordinary workplace is organizational culture. We define organizational culture as the set of shared beliefs, truths, assumptions, and values that operate in organizations.? Organizational culture has been described as how people behave when no one is looking. Furthermore, something is driving the development of your culture and sustaining it. Organizational culture is a result of that which precedes it.?Why is this so important to understand and what does this mean for you in your organization? It means that?if you want to address issues related to your culture, you must focus on the key elements that come together to create and sustain it.The thing that prompted me to make a study on this topic is the endless adoration to influence the subject by motivating them and making decision before undertaking any necessary action that would affect the subject or employees as far as business institutions is concerned. There is no company that can do well without motivating its employees by using different means to achieved that and rushing to the conclusion when it comes to the decision making is another shortcoming; but looking in to proper decision making makes other things to be very easy to approach. OBJCETIVESThe main aim of the assignment is to bring about the purpose of motivation and decision making in an organizational set up in relevance to the public administration.In it you would see how the topic of motivation is explained and gives light on how administrator would use it to galvanizes and improve the morale of his personnel in order to increase positive productivity and smooth achievement of targeted goals. Motivation is nothing more encourage staffs to do well in the organization by bringing the organizational goal upon any other thing, the assignment explained of these and more.It also explained how and why decision making is important and how come about the best of available alternatives for choices to decide upon. Since organizational goals are unlimited, it’s eminent to embark on vibrant decision making which would spawned the organization with alternatives to choose and help set goal out of available one which seem to be impossible to achieve at once but rather in a series form from the highest important to less important and eliminating the non relevant ones.Another aim is that to explain the import of organizational culture, which helps in giving direction to the organization to follow, every organization has its own culture which it to set goals and how to achieve those goals from public organization to private establishments culture is varied, the assignment explained some of these variables.2400301694180Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term?motivation?is frequently used to describe?why?a person does something. For example, you might say that a student is so motivated to get into a psychology program that she spends every night studying. Psychologists have proposed a number of different theories, including?drive theory, instinct theory and humanistic theory.Motivation?is a term that refers to a process that elicits, controls, and sustains certain behaviors. Motivation is a group of phenomena which affect the nature of an individual's behavior, the strength of the behavior, and the persistence of the behavior. For instance: An individual has not eaten, he or she feels hungry, as a response he or she eats and diminishes feelings of hunger. There are many approaches to motivation: physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining goals and research shows you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in a basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object,?goal, state of being,?ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as?altruism,?selfishness,?morality, or avoiding mortality. Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either?volition?or?optimism.?Motivation is related to, but distinct from, emotion.Extrinsic Vs. Intrinsic MotivationDifferent types of motivation are frequently described as being either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivations are those that arise from outside of the individual and often involve rewards such as trophies, money, social recognition or praise. Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within the individual, such as doing a complicated cross-word puzzle purely for the personal gratification of solving a problem.Intrinsic motivation?Refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. Intrinsic Motivation is based on taking pleasure in an activity rather than working towards an external reward.[8]?Intrinsic motivation has been studied by?social?and?educational?psychologists since the early 1970s. Students who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities.Push and PullThis model is usually used when discussing motivation within tourism context, so the most attention in gastronomic tourism research should be dedicated to this theory. Pull factors illustrate the choices of destinations by tourists, whereas push factors determine the desire to go on holiday. Moreover, push motives are connected with internal forces for example need for relaxation or escapism and pull factors in turn induce a traveler to visit certain location by external forces such as landscape, culture image or climate of a destination, push factors can be stimulated by external and situational aspects of motivation in shape of pull factors. Then again pull factors are issues that can arise from a location itself and therefore ‘push’ an individual to choose to experience it. Since, a huge number of theories have been developed over the years in many studies there is no single theory that illustrates all motivational aspects of travelling. Many researchers highlighted that because motives may occur at the same time it should not be assumed that only one motive drives an individual to perform an action as it was presumed in previous studies. On the other hand, since people are not able to satisfy all their needs at once they usually seek to satisfy some or a few of them.Self-controlThe self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset of?emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition (as measured by many?intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to certain tasks.?Provides an account of when people will decide whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.DECISION MAKINGDecision making is an essential leadership skill. If you can learn how to make timely, well-considered decisions, then you can lead your team to well-deserved success. If, however, you make poor decisions, your time as a leader will be brutally short.136525650875Decision making?can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final?choice.?The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. The thought?process?of selecting a logical?choice?from the available?options. When trying to make a good?decision, a?person?must?weight?the positives and negatives of each option, and consider all the alternatives. For?effective?decision making, a person must be?able?to?forecast?the outcome of each option as well, and based on all these?items, determine which option is the best for that particular situation.ProcessFirstly, decision making is a process with several stages. These combine to produce effective outcomes.? Of course in some instances, decision making may simply consist of someone making up their mind to do something. More often though, in life and especially in business, many decisions are not that simple.?More complex or important decisions are best made after a series of steps are taken. Whether the process used relies more on?intuition and decision making, or involves a rational decision making model, both involve?processes?to help you make good decisions.ELEMENTS OF DECISION MAKINGOptionAny decision making process should ensure that sufficient options are generated to enable a decision. Decision making firstly involves deciding where you?are?and where you want to?go. Then generate options which will show you?how?to get there. Making a decision without considering sufficient options is an easy mistake to make, so always try to generate as many quality options as possible. Without a good range of options choice can become stifled. Without any options, there is no decision to makeChoicesChoices can be difficult to make. In making a decision you'll probably rely on numerous inputs, and you'll certainly need to address a range of factors.?Inputs will include your own experience, knowledge, common sense and judgement, and possibly that of others involved in the decision. They will also include factors related to?types and?styles?of decision making.?Choices are typically made within?constraints. For example, the goals and priorities of the organization, and of your team, will no doubt shape your choices. Constraints provide the boundaries within which decisions have to be made.Therefore clarity about goals or objectives is essential for making better choices. Of course, your decision may well need to address several objectives, so you will need to analyze and prioritize these. Making a decision is rarely easy, and is often a compromise between what you really want, the ideal, and what can actually be done. It's rare that we have a completely free hand in making choices. However, it's always worth asking yourself: "if we had no constraints what would we choose?ActionsThe last element in our definition of decision making is perhaps the most important. A decision, even though well-made, is pointless without action. Decision making is about the future, about looking forward. Making a choice should take you forward - to action. Our definition of decision making can help you to focus. To focus on how to select the most appropriate actions, at the least cost, and with the most advantages.?Actions have consequences, both intended and unintended. The consequences can be detrimental or favourable to your objectives. It's therefore crucial to consider both the positive and negative effects which might result from your decisions. Then you'll need to put a plan?in place to eliminate or limit the adverse effects, and capitalize on favourable ANIZATIONAL CULTUREBasically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different than that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc. -- similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someone's personality.2476555245Organizational?culture?is the?sum?total of an?organization's?past and?current?assumptions,?experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together, and is expressed in its self-image, inner?workings, interactions with the outside world, and future?expectations. It is based on shared?attitudes,?beliefs,?customs, express or?implied contracts, and written and unwritten?rules?that the organization?develops over time and that have?worked?well enough to be considered?valid. Also called?corporate culture, it?manifests?in (1) the ways the organization?conducts?its?business, treats its?employees,?customers, and the wider?community, (2) the extent to which?autonomy?and?freedom?is allowed in?decision making,?developing?new?ideas, and personal expression, (3) how?power?and?information flow?through its hierarchy, and (4) the?strength?of employee?commitment?towards collective?objectives. It is termed strong or weak to the extent it is diffused through the organization. It affects the organization's?productivity?and?performance, and?provides?guidelines?on customer?care?and?service;?product quality?and?safety; attendance and punctuality; and?concern?for the environment. It extends also to production-methods,?marketing?and?advertising?practices, and to new?product?creation. While there are many?common?elements?in the large organizations of any?country, organizational culture is unique for every organization and one of the hardest things to?anizational culture?is the collective behavior of people that are part of an organization, it is also formed by the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, and symbols, it includes beliefs and habits.?It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling.?Organizational culture affect the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders.? Ravasi and Schultz (2006) state that organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behavior for various situations. At the same time although a company may have "own unique culture", in larger organizations, there is a diverse and sometimes conflicting cultures that co-exist due to different characteristics of the management team.?The organizational culture may also have negative and positive aspects.The assignment is related to the field of Public policy entirely as a result of in depth public issues and analysis which required the assignment topic to runs smoothly. Motivation can be used to encourage masses to backed new enacted regulation from a responsible party of concern and Decision making enlights the management to choose from available alternatives of policies. Public?policy?is an attempt by a government to address a?public?issue by instituting laws, regulations, decisions, or actions pertinent to the problem at hand. Numerous issues can be addressed by?public?policy?including crime, education,?foreign policy, health, and social welfare. While?public?policies are most common in the United States, several other countries, such as those in the United Kingdom, implement them as well. The process to create a new public?policy?typically follows three steps: agenda-setting, option-formulation, and implementation; the time-line for a new?policy?to be put in place can range from weeks to several years, depending on the situation.?Public?policies can also be made by leaders of religious and cultural institutions for the benefit of the congregation and participants, and the term can also refer to a type of academic study that covers topics such as?sociology, economics, and?policy?analysis. It is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the?state?with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and substantial?constitutional?law and implementing legislation such as the US Federal code. Further substrates include both?judicial?interpretations and regulations?which are generally authorized by legislation. Other scholars define it as a system of "courses of action,?regulatory?measures,?laws, and?funding?priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives."?Public policy is commonly embodied "in constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions."? When new?public?policies are created, there are generally three key things involved in the process: the problem, the player, and the?policy. The?problem?is the issue that needs to be addressed, the?player?is the individual or group that is influential in forming a plan to address the problem in question, and the?policy?is the finalized course of action decided upon by the government. Typically the general?public?will make the government aware of an issue through writing letters and emails, or making phone calls, to local government leaders; the issue is then brought forward during government meetings and the process for creating new?public policies begins.This is my little point to see the need of linking my assignment to the field of Public policy, as we all see what the Public policy is all about when it comes to direction people or employees.REFERENCES, N.R. & Heth, C.D.(2009).Psychology the Science of Behaviour.Toronto:Pearson Education CanadaJames L (1998). Understanding Employee Motivation. N/A June 1998,Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky (2000).?Choice, Values, Frames. The Cambridge University Press?, A. W., & Croft, D. B. (1963).?The organizational climate of schools. Chicago: Midwest Administration Center of the University of Chicago.Adkins, B. and Caldwell, D. (2004). "Firsm or subgroup culture: Where does fitting in matter most?"?Journal of Organizational Behavior, ................
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