Activity Context This assignment measures your progress in mastering the following course competencies: Evaluate management theories in both local and global contexts. Apply a culture of inquiry to scholarly research and writing. Write and present in academically appropriate ways. Activity Instruction Review the literature with a critical eye and find scholarly sources that are relevant and helpful regarding your chosen topic. Work to find sources that expand your thinking to a global context. Review five or more sources you locate (you will need 10 or more sources in your final project). Given your selected topic, identify ideas and practices that support and run counter to your thinking, as these are necessary in any research you will conduct. Write an essay that organizes and summarizes the main ideas and key points from your selected resources. Summarize what you find, critically comparing, contrasting, and evaluating the literature. This assignment is more than simply reporting on what the authors state. It is comparing, contrasting, evaluating, and applying these to your own work. Write a 4–5 page essay in which you: Relate the information you found to the information you identified in your topic description. Indicate briefly how you understand the themes, main ideas, and key points. Include a title page with your topic in the title. Use in-text citations and a reference list. Use paraphrasing as much as possible rather than direct quotations. Cite and reference your sources in APA style. Demonstrate graduate-level writing mechanics. Include a reference list that is in APA format. Submit your 4–5 page essay in the assignment area. Put your 4–5 page essay through Turnitin before you submit it as an assignment. Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click the linked resources for helpful writing information. Resources Your Literature Review Scoring Guide. Turnitin. Writing Feedback Tool. APA Style and Format.

 

The Influence of Organizational Leadership on Employee Motivation for Organizational Productivity:

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Introduction

Armstrong, & Taylor, 2014 advances that employee motivation is a crucial pillar for organizational to realize full productivity that would enable the firm to have a competitive advantage over rivals. At the heart of employee, motivation is the leadership styles which are employed by the management in the daily management of the organization. Leaders have a significant role to play on how they influence the level to which employees are motivated at work. The principal motivation being driven by employee satisfaction with their work. As such, good leadership styles motivate employees which helps the organization to reach production potentiality. The paper would seek to examine the casual relations between leadership modes within an organization and the motivation of employees. Conversely, the results of the motivation of employees to the organization as a whole. In so doing, the paper would use the theoretical perspectives of the theory of the hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow to assess employee motivation. Leadership would also be used to give a distinction between the leadership styles.

Workplace Motivation

According to management scholars, (Armstrong, & Taylor, 2014) employee motivation are the commitment, energy, and creativity that employees of an organization inject in their daily duties. These thinkers have advanced that the two ways to motivate employees are either through employee involvement through empowerment or via incentives. According to them, employees can only be motivated at work if they have compelling reasons for working. Incentives are used to appeal to good results for a better outcome for the individual employees. Empowerment is the condition in which the employee works and investments made by the organization to equip such employees to deliver on their tasks.

Some scholar like Bolden 2016, posits that the importance of employee motivation is to assist the firm to meet its goals, objectives or vision. When the employee is motivated, they have job satisfaction which compels them to deliver their best for the organizations. Motivated employees inject good energy, have a positive attitude at the workplace, have reduced truancy cases, a positive mood which are integral components of service delivery (Comaford, 2018). The organization can attain a high output level. An organization can imagine unmotivated workplace of a majority of the employees, the results according to the thinkers would be catastrophic. Motivated employees, in contrast, have higher levels of job satisfaction, efficiency, commitment, and development. Therefore, it is advisable for organizations to motivate their employees.

Maslow`s Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs

According to Maslow`s hierarchy of needs theory of motivation, he proposed a five-tier system where a person had to satisfy the first lower need before advancing to the next system (Miner, 2015). From the bottom of the needs was the physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem concerns and self-actualization. The physiological needs comprise of basic fundamental needs like water, food, shelter. The leadership must be critical and provide employees with a good salary to afford the basics of life.  Safety needs include healthiness and wellbeing, financial security, personal security workplace safety measures. The management and the leadership of the organization can thus motivate employees by providing them with job securities, medical cover, retirement benefits, and safe and hygienic working environment.

The belonging needs according to Maslow are related to family, intimacy, and friendships. The leadership of employees must thus create a good organizational culture that embraces socialization, team building. He esteems level involves the self-esteem where personal dignity and achievements are key. The desire for reputation, build a status quo, prestige or respect from others is also paramount. On the self-actualization, Abraham Maslow advanced that people are motivated by realizing their potentials. He defined such as a potential that everybody has, and desires to achieve or accomplish. As such, organizations can motivate employees by giving them growth opportunities, mentoring programs, and training to better equipped to deliver on their assignments.  

It is however imperative to mention that some scholars have significantly criticized Maslow`s theory of the hierarchy of needs citing some reasons. First, the critics of the theory claim that similar needs within an organization govern not every single employee. People have different motivations, needs, and priorities in life. Secondly, the theory has been criticized that people can pursue different ambitions, motivations or needs at the same time without following a strict order as advanced by Maslow (Miner, 2015).

Leadership Styles

There are various leadership styles which contribute to the motivation and the lack of motivation thereof amongst employees within an organization.

 

• Democratic leadership Style

 

Democratic model of leadership is the system in which the leader can involve employees in the decision-making process of the organization (Iqbal, Anwar, & Haider, 2015). Leaders have built trust between employees and themselves and have established an integrated communication system. Per se, employees can approach the leadership on some issues, and their ideas would be absorbed. The leadership doesn’t discriminate on the employees. According to the theory in the hierarchy of needs by Maslow, it helps in the self-actualization stage to motivate employees by involving them in decision making plans.  Employees get satisfaction since the leadership can prioritize the needs of employees besides encouraging collective decision-making initiatives.

1.    Transformational Leadership

It is a system of leadership which seek to improve and challenge the status quo. It is a good motivation for employees and increases their job satisfaction. According to Iqbal, Anwar, & Haider, 2015, the employees can rise to the occasion since the leader would be mentoring them, assigning them challenging tasks which would be able to help them realize their full potentials. According to the theory of the hierarchy of needs, such leadership mode would be able to spur self-esteem build confidence in an employee. Employees are also able to reach self-actualization when they get challenging tasks, the confidence of the leader and opportunities for growth and career advancement.  

iii.    Autocratic leadership

It is vital to mention that the autocratic leader has been criticized for creating job dissatisfaction among employees. It is a hegemonic culture where leaders make decisions without considering employees thoughts and wishes. It is centred on the leader. Thus, the leader can decide, pass the information to the subordinates and expect immediate implementation or results. However, it must be seen that even though it is not a popular means of leadership in organizations, it helps to deliver results in some instances. It can only work best if blended with other leadership methods.

Organizational Role in Employee Motivation

Even though much focus has been on the causal relations between the leadership traits and employee motivation, the role of the organization with which both the employee and the leader works have a significant place in employee satisfaction. The organizations cannot be separated from instilling good working environment and leadership methods that run the operations of a firm. For a company to benefit to have a competitive advantage over rivals, the organization must acknowledge the role of employees. As such, a firm must instill a good reward or compensation system (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). Every employee would be rewarded effectively to match the level of work they do. Recognition would also be critical as it inspires better performance from employees. At this level, a leader can spot exceptional employee and feature him/her in the organization`s magazine, given cash, or a dinner with the boss. Promotion systems, mentoring and job security are all aspects that cannot be solely left leadership to motivate employees.

Conclusion

In summary, it is imperative to note that there is a lot of importance of employee motivation. It helps the firm to utilize production and maximize on the output. The employees get satisfied in their work hence increases production. It is only as such levels is a firm able to compete for market domination, brand identity, and expansion of the consumer base. As such, with a motivated workforce, the firm can internationalize to other regions and locations. Motivated employees are also able to foster a good organizational culture which makes mergers, partnerships, and acquisitions easy during transitional periods.

 

References

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Comaford C. (2018). Why Leaders Need To Embrace Employee Motivation. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2018/01/20/why-leaders-need-to-embrace-employee-motivation/#35d661512725

Iqbal, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), 1-6.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational Behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Ponsonby R. (2018). Seven reasons for employee motivation. London School of Science and Technology. Retrieved from https://www.lsst.ac/blogs/seven-reasons-for-employee-motivation/