Aditya Verma HBO 1 Final Exam 17th Jan 2018

1. In the new age economy or 4th Industrial Revolution which requires complex problem

solving, creativity, people skills, judgement and decision making, the competitive

advantage has become the ‘people issue’ rather than traditional economic capital.

Companies like Google, Facebook have shifted focus to manage their human

resources more effectively by ensuring culture, organizational structure and processes

that create greater job satisfaction. This in turn translates into customer loyalty, as the

employees at the ‘cutting edge’ greatly influence the customer loyalty; customer

loyalty in turn translates into more revenue and better financial performance in stock

market. To close the loop, better the financial performance, more the rewards and

recognition (monetary or non-monetary) for the human resource which in turn further

improves their motivation to perform better, this results in a ‘virtuous cycle’. Thus, it

is quite evident, that companies that invest in becoming great places to work perform

better the others.

2. Negative affect such as anger, fear can be employed by managers to achieve positive

organizational outcomes. In terms of performance appraisal, the

transactional/instrumental approach of basing the pay directly with performance

instils a sense of insecurity and fear of losing out on the bonus pay or even the fear of

losing the job. Compensatory models based on commission linked to performance is

one of the ways where fear, a negative affect, is employed by managers to lead

positive organizational outcomes.

3. Intrinsic motivation differs from extrinsic motivation in the following aspects. The

sources of motivation are different, for extrinsic, the source of motivation emerges out

of instrumental reasons and the locus of initiation and regulation of behaviour is

 located externally to the person, whereas, intrinsically motivated emerges from the

sheer interest that presents optimal challenge, and whose locus and regulation of

behaviour is located within the person. Also, in intrinsic motivation the needs for

competence and autonomy are satisfied.

Factors that extinguish intrinsic motivation such as focusing only on monetary returns

from the job or having a supervisor that monitors and controls every action, tend to

extinguish intrinsic motivation.

In order to get employees motivated intrinsically, managers must a) provide autonomy

support, based on Self-determination theory, b) set challenging goals based on goal

setting theory. Autonomy support can in turn be provided by the following actions: a)

providing meaningful rationale, b) acknowledging others’ perspective, c) increasing

self-efficacy d) providing un-conditional support e) support choice by minimizing

pressure and control f) meeting frequently & informally. Similarly, goals setting can

create intrinsic motivation and managers must do the following a) create ‘specific

goals’, b) goals shouldn’t be easy, difficult goals result in higher performance c)

providing constant feedback & d) it also requires the employees to be committed,

have self-efficacy and be amenable to be held accountable for the goal achievement.

In the case of Barbara Norris, one of the nurses complained about not getting timely

feedback on her performance, similarly, in the case of zero wage raise again?, it was

discussed that if regular and timely feedback mechanisms are in place, the employees

will have more opportunities to improve or to brace themselves for the consequences.

4. Group-think takes place where teams are highly cohesive, homogenous and display

high degree of conformance. Having a diverse set of team members, advocating

critical thinking, respecting dissent of opinions in form of devil’s advocate, promoting

thinking out of box are some measures through which teams can overcome tendency
 of groupthink. Having high level of emotional intelligence also acts to counter

tendencies of groupthink, as self-awareness is the first step to improvement, as

discussed in Ricardo Semler case.

5. Organizational culture is the set of norms, beliefs and behaviour that are shared

amongst the employees. It is moulded by and moulds the employees in turn. Amongst

other factors, leadership is a prominent factor in shaping an organization’s culture.

Culture acts as the ultimate instrument of behaviour regulation through informal

means. A positive work culture is an enduring environment that guides the decision

and behaviour of all employees, even in absence of its leader by a set of values that

can be designed into it, i.e. it is self-regulating in nature. In cases of Ricardo Semler

and Tony (Zappos), the leaders strove to create a culture that would created a buy-in

of all employees and other stakeholders into the business. Also, organizational history

doesn’t always remember all leaders, but the legacy of these leaders is forever

imprinted in the minds of all contemporary employees. This is also a prudent way to

institutionalise the systems so that they endure even when the leaders are no more in

that position, as discussed in Barbara Norris case.