Managing People and Organizing Teams

MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZING TEAMS

1 Introduction

2 Understanding Behaviour

3 Organizational Behaviour

4 A Background– Selecting The Right Person For The Job

5 Instruction In The Best Methods

6 Motivation

7 Hack man Job Characteristics Model

8 Working In Groups

9 Becoming A Team

10 Decision Making

11 Leadership

12 Organizational Structures

13 Stress

14 Health And Safety

1 INTRODUCTION

            OB = organizational behaviour

            There are 3 main concerns in OB; staff selection, staff development, and staff motivation

            We will look at how the project leader can encourage effective group working and decision making while giving purposeful leadership where needed.

            The issues in this chapter have impact at all stages of project planning and execution, particularly in;

            Some objectives can address health and safety during the project (step 1: Identify project scope and objectives)

            Although project leaders might have little control over organizational structure, they need to be aware of its implications (step2: Identify project infrastructure)

            The scope and nature of activities can be set in a way they will enhance staff motivation ( Step 4: Identify the products and activities)

            Many risks to project success relate to staffing (Step 6: Identify activity risks)

            The qualities of individual members of staff should be taken into account when allocating staff to activities (Step 7: Allocate resources)

2 Understanding behaviour

Behaviours associated with complex and challenging mental health, dementia or other neurological conditions include aggression, wandering, agitation. These apparent changes in the personality of the person with the disease are a major source of distress both to the person who is presenting the behaviours and to those who experience them – the caregiver, the family members, and the service providers in all sectors of the health-care system.

People differ from each other in their needs and values. Group effort eases their task of achieving organizational goals effectively. Human relations can be defined as motivating people in organizations to work as a team. Although human relationships have existed from quite some time in the past, the study of human relations has developed only recently. Social sciences like sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics and political science have contributed to the development of OB and human relations.

Goal of Human Relations

Create a win-win situation by:

   satisfying employee needs

   while achieving organizational objectives

Win-win situation:

   occurs when the organization and the employees get what they want

Four Myths of Human Relations

Myth 1: Technical skills are more important than human relations skills

Myth 2: Human relations is just common sense

Myth 3: Diversity is overemphasized

Myth 4: Leaders are born not made

The Total Person Approach

Realizes that an organization employs the whole person, not just his or her job skills

People play many roles

   throughout their lives

   throughout each day

Organizations view employees as total people

Organizations are trying to give employees a better quality of work life

Levels of Behavior

Individual behavior – influences group behavior

Group Level Behavior-– consists of the things two or more people do and say as they interact

Organizational Level Behavior

Organization – a group of people working to achieve an objective

Created to produce goods and services for the larger society

Organizational behavior – the collective behavior of an organization’s individuals and groups

STEPWISE FRAMEWORK:

3,4 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: A BACKGROUND

            OB was studied by Frederick Taylor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

            Taylor attempted to analyse the most productive way of doing manual tasks

            Taylor had 3 basic objectives:

   to select the best people for the job

   to instruct them in the best methods

   to give incentives in the form of higher wages to the best workers

            Taylor’s view emphasize on the financial basis of staff motivation, however, the other issues of motivation should be encouraged staff not just on such rewards.

            Theory X and Theory Y by Donald McGregordraws attention to the way that expectations influence behaviour

Theory X holds that:

            The average human has an innate dislike of work

            There is a need therefore for coercion, direction and control

            People tend to avoid responsibility

Theory Y holds that:

            Work is as natural as rest or play

            External control and coercion are not the only ways of bringing about effort directed towards and organization’s ends

            Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement

            The average human can learn to accept and further seek responsibility

            The capacity to exercise imagination and other creative qualities is widely distributed

            One way of judging whether a manager espouses Theory X or Theory Y is to observe how staff react when the boss is absent:

            If there is no discernible change then this is a Theory Y environment;

            If everyone visibly relaxes, it is a Theory X environment

Therefore,

            A “reward” does not have to be a financial reward- it could be something like a sense of achievement

            Theory X and Theory Y illustrated how the state of mind of workers influenced their productivity

            SELECT HE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB

Taylor stressed “ the need for the right person for the job”.

Examples of question;

     What sort of characteristics should they be looking for?

      Is an experienced programmer better than a new graduate with a first

class mathematics degree?

Recruitment is often an organizational responsibility

There are 2 types of candidates that are distinguished by Meredith Belbin:

@eligible candidate

@suitable candidate

            Eligible candidates have curriculum vitae (CV) which shows, for example, the

‘right’ number if years in some previous post and the ‘right’ paper qualifications.

            Suitable candidates can actually do the job well

            A mistake is to select an eligible candidate who is not in fact suitable

            Thus, Belbin suggests we should try to assess actual skills rather than past experience and provide training to make good minor gaps in expertise

            And it also has the general approach for recruitment process

            5 INSTRUCTION IN THE BEST METHODS

   Create a job specification

   Create a job holder profile

   Obtain applicants

   Examine CVs

   Interviews (e.g. aptitude tests, personality tests and the examination of samples of previous work)

   Other procedures (e.g.  medical examination)

What is the purpose of instruction?

The purpose of instruction is to help people learn. The goal of instructional designers is to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable. Some people view training as a process of finding out who the brightest employees are. But performance in a course is not very highly correlated with the basic ability to be good on the job. We believe that an instructional designer's job is to help everyone to learn and be successful.

Challenge: How to make good instruction?

The key to improving our instruction is to know what methods of instruction to use when. It's helpful to think of different methods of instruction as different tools for a carpenter. If you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail to you. And you won't be able to make a very good piece of furniture. So what we need is a knowledge base about methods of instruction to supplement the creative, "art" aspect of training. Such a knowledge base would offer optimal methods for given situations.

But what are the important situations that call for different methods? How can we tell what methods (tools) to use when?

What are the relevant kinds of learning?

Perhaps the most important aspect of the situation is the kind of learning that is to be facilitated. Knowing about the kinds of learning helps us to do a better job of teaching them. The most basic distinction is Benjamin Bloom's three domains:

     Cognitive learning (thoughts), such as teaching someone to add fractions.

     Affective learning (feelings, values), such as teaching someone to not want to smoke.

     Physical or motor learning (actions), such as teaching someone to touch type.

6 MOTIVATION

   The taylorist model

   Masloww’s hierarchy of needs

   Herzberg’s two factor theory

            Hygiene or maintenance factors

            Motivators

   The expectancy theory of motivation

            Expectancy

            Instrumentality

            Perceived value

The third of Taylor’s concerns was that of motivating people to work

            Thus, we are going to look at some models of motivation.

            The Taylorist model

            Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

            Herzberg’s two-factor theory

            The expectancy theory of motivation

The Taylorist model:

            Taylor’s viewpoint is reflected in the use of piece-rates in manufacturing industries and sales bonuses amongst sales forces.

            Piece-rates can cause difficulties if a new system will change work practices.

            If new technology improves productivity, adjusting piece-rates to reflect this will be a sensitive issue.

            “Piece-rates” are where workers are paid a fixed sum for each item they produce.

            “Day-rates” refer to payment for time worked

            Rewards based on piece-rates need to relate directly to work produced

            So, this model emphasizes on the reward system

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

            The motivation of individual varies.

            Money is a strong motivator when you are broke

            However, as the basic need for cash is satisfied, other motivations are likely emerge.

            In practice, people are likely to be motivated by different things at different stages of their life .

Herzberg’s two-factor theory:

            Some things about a job can make you dissatisfied.

            If the causes of this dissatisfaction are removed, this does not necessarily make the job more exciting

            There are two sets of factors about a job:

   Hygiene or maintenance factors

   Motivators

            Hygiene or maintenance factors, which can make you dissatisfied if they are not right, for example the level of pay or the working conditions;

            Motivators, which make you feel that the job is worthwhile, like a sense of achievement or the challenge of the work itself

            A model of motivation developed by Vroom and his colleagues.

            It identifies three influences on motivation:

            expectancy: the belief that working harder will lead to a better performance

            instrumentality: the belief that better performance will be rewarded

            perceived value: of the resulting reward

            Motivation will be high when all three factors are high

            A zero level for any one of the factors can remove motivation

            7 HACKMAN JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL:

            Managers should group together the elements of tasks to be carried out so that they form meaningful and satisfying assignments.

            Oldham and Hackman suggest that the satisfaction that a job gives is based on 5 factors

            The first three factors make the job ‘meaningful’ to the person who is doing it

            These three factors:

- skill variety: the number of different skills that the job holder has the opportunity to exercise

- task identify: the degree to which your work and its results are identifiable as belonging to you

     task significance: the degree to which your job has an influence on others

            The other two factors are:

     autonomy: the discretion you have about the way that you do the job

-feedback:  the information you get back about the results of your works

            Methods of improving motivation;

     Set specific goals: these goals need to be demanding and yet acceptable to staff. Involving staff in the setting of goals helps to gain acceptance for them.

     Provide feedback: Not only do goals have to be set but staff have to have regular feedback about how they are progressing

     Considering job design: Jobs can be altered to make them more interesting and give staff more feeling of responsibility

            Two measures are often used to enhance job design;

       job enlargement-> The person doing the job carries out a wider variety of activities. It is opposite of increasing specialization

      job enrichment -> The job holder carries out tasks that are normally done at a managerial or supervisory level

8. WORKING IN GROUPS:

            A problem with major software projects is that they always involve working in groups, and many people attracted to software development find this difficult.

            It is not easy for people from different backgrounds to work together as a team so it is suggested that teams should go through five basic stages of development.

9 BECOMING A TEAM:

   Forming

   Storming

   Norming

   Performing

   Adjourning

Forming: The members of the group get to know each other and try to set up some ground rules about behaviour

Storming: Conflicts arise as various members of the group try to exert leadership and the group’s methods of operation are being established

Norming: Conflicts are largely settled and a feeling of group identity emerges .

Performing: The emphasis is now on the tasks at hand

Adjourning: The group disbands .

Model of Team Development

            Belbin suggests that ‘co-ordinator’ and ‘implementer’ are better descriptions than ‘chair’ and ‘team worker’. A new role is added: the ‘specialist’, the ‘techie’ who likes to acquire knowledge for its own sake.

            A team need a balance of different types of people:

o The chair o The plant

o The monitor evaluator o The shaper

o  The team worker

o The resource investigator o The complete-finisher

o  The company worker

The chair: not necessarily brilliant leaders but they must be good at running meeting, being calm, strong but tolerant

The plant: someone who is essentially very good at generating ideas and potential solutions to problems

The monitor-evaluator: good at evaluating ideas and potential solutions and helping to selecting the best one

The shaper: rather a worrier, who helps to direct the team’s attention to the important

issues

The team worker: skilled at creating a good working environment

The resource investigator: adept at finding resources in terms of both physical resources and information

The complete-finisher: concerned with completing tasks

The company worker: a good team player who is willing to undertake less attractive tasks if they are needed for team success

To be  a good team member you must be able to:

     time your interventions, e.g. not overwhelm the others in the team;

     be flexible;

     be restrained;

     keep the common goals of the teamin mind all the time.

Group performance:

   Categories

   Additive tasks

   Compensatory tasks

   Disjunctive tasks

   Conjunctive tasks

10 DECISION MAKING:

   Structured

   Unstructured

   Some mental obstacles in good decision making

    Faculty heuristics

   Escalation of commitment

   Information overload

   Group decision making

   Obstacles

—  Measure to reduce disadvantages in group decision making

            Decision can be categorized as being:

            structured: generally relatively simple, routine decisions where rules can be applied in a fairly straightforward way

            Unstructured: more complex and often requiring a degree of creativity

*Another way to categorize decisions is by the amount if risk and uncertainty that is involved*

            To make it more efficient and effective -> training members to follow a set procedure

            Brainstorming techniques can help groups to create more ideas .

            11 LEADERSHIP:

   Position power

   Coercive power

   Connection power

   Legitimate power

   Reward power

Personal power

   Expert power

   Information power

   Referent power

   Leadership is based on the idea of authority or power

   Power may come either from the person’s position (position power), from the person’s individual qualities (personal power) or may be a mixture of the two

   Position power;

            coercive power: the ability to force someone to do something by threatening punishment

            connection power: which is based on having access to those who have power

            legitimate power: which is based on a person’s title conferring a special status

            reward power: where the holder can give rewards to those who carry out tasks to his or her satisfaction

   Personal power;

            expert power: which comes from being the person who is able to do a specialized task

            information power: where the holder has exclusive access to information

            referent power: which is based on the personal attractiveness of the leader

Leadership style:

There are 2 axes: directive vs. permissive and autocratic vs. democratic:

   Directive autocrat

   Permissive autocrat

   Directive democrat

   Permissive democrat

-directive autocrat: makes decisions alone, close supervision of implementation

- permissive autocrat: makes decision alone, subordinates have latitude in implementation

            Directive democrat: makes decisions participatively, close supervision of implementation

            Permissive democrat: makes decisions participatively, subordinates have latitude in implementation .

12 Organizational Structures

An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims.[1] It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment.

Structure gives members clear guidelines for how to proceed. A clearly-established structure gives the group a means to maintain order and resolve disagreements.

Structure binds members together. It gives meaning and identity to the people who join the group, as well as to the group itself.

Structure in any organization is inevitable -- an organization, by definition, implies a structure. Your group is going to have some structure whether it chooses to or not. It might as well be the structure which best matches up with what kind of organization you have, what kind of people are in it, and what you see yourself doing.

It is important to deal with structure early in the organization's development. Structural development can occur in proportion to other work the organization is doing, so that it does not crowd out that work. And it can occur in parallel with, at the same time as, your organization's growing accomplishments, so they take place in tandem, side by side. This means that you should think about structure from the beginning of your organization's life. As your group grows and changes, so should your thinking on the group's structure.

E L E M E N T S  O F S T R U C T U R E

While the need for structure is clear, the best structure for a particular coalition is harder to determine. The best structure for any organization will depend upon who its members are, what the setting is, and how far the organization has come in its development.

Regardless of what type of structure your organization decides upon, three elements will always be there. They are inherent in the very idea of an organizational structure.

They are:

            Some kind of governance

            Rules by which the organization operates

            A distribution of work

14 HEALTH AND SAFETY:

   Top-management-safety policy

   Delegation of authorities regarding safety must be clear

   Job descriptions reg-safety

   Deployment of safety officer

   Consultation on safety

   Adequate budgeting for safety costs

Responsibility for safety must be clearly defined at all levels. Some points that will need to be considered include:

            Top management must be committed to the safety policy

            The delegation of responsibilities for safety must be clear

            Those to whom responsibilities are delegated must understand the responsibilities and agree to them

            Deployment of a safety officer and the support of experts in particular technical areas

            Consultation on safety

            An adequate budgeting for safety costs