The role of a Manager - The roles of managers, according to Mintzberg, can be grouped into 3 categories: interpersonal relationships, where mangers act as leaders, figureheads; the transfer of information, where managers act as spokespersons, monitors; and decision making, where managers act as negotiators, entrepreneurs (Robbins, 2001)
Management should stand back from leading the team by identifying facilitators to act as a catalyst and support to the members. Managers are more enablers, trainers, coaches, they are usually true leaders.
Managers should look to the needs of the individual both culturally and personally, they should provide them with the best possible job to match those needs, offer incentives which are individualized, and identify perceived attainable goals linked directly to their accomplishments. Managers should support the creation of facilitated teams with the remit of driven goal-setting exercises for new projects. .
Motivational theories - Motivational studies have been studied over and over, for many years. The root for these studies has been to determine some working theories that explain why and what motivates people, and how this motivation is dependent upon external and internal factors of their surroundings. To give an outline of what most Operational Motivation Plans are structured after, we will follow from the book "Organizational Cultures" (Glinow, 2003) that listed many different content and process motivational theories, a few of the main theories are:.
A) Needs Hierarchy Theory - Maslow's content motivation theory of five instinctive needs arranged in a hierarchy, whereby people are motivated to fulfill a higher need as a lower one becomes gratified. The five needs are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
B) ERG Theory - Clayton Alderfer's content motivation theory of three instinctive needs arranged in a hierarchy, in which people progress to the next higher need when a lower one is fulfilled, and regress to a lower need if unable to fulfill a higher one.