Supervision & leadership skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Supervision & leadership skills - Essay Example A) According to Charles Handy and his "motivation calculus theory", successful performance of any organization is based on "needs", "results" and "effectiveness" (Handy, 1993). The study of motivation calculus is concerned, basically, with why people behave in a certain way. Applied to Apple Corporation, motivation calculus can be described as the direction and persistence of action. The "needs' include individual characteristics, internal and external environment, and influences. It is concerned with why people choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue with a chosen action, often over a long period, and in the face of difficulties and problems. This type of communication provides additional channels of communication and provides a means of motivation, for example, through status, social interaction, variety in routine jobs, and informal methods of work. According to Handy, results imply the role of additional efforts and outcomes. In Apple, additional efforts help the company to increase revenue through continuous optimization of production. Handy relates motivation to 'psychological' rewards such as the opportunity to use employees' ability, a sense of challenge and achievement, receiving appreciation, positive recognition, and being treated in a caring and considerate manner. The main problem in Apple is that employees and Executives have a completely different vision of company's culture and climate. Nevertheless, new direction proposed by John Scutley was aimed to shift organization from transition period to stability (Gibbs, Beer, 1991). The effectiveness means that the results are achieved. In order to be effective Apple tries to be responsive to external environmental influences. Apple operates within a dynamic environment and it requires a structure and culture that are sensitive and readily adaptable to change. Culture is a major factor in the appropriateness of management's methods of motivation. In addition to arrangements for the carrying out of organisational processes, management has a responsibility for creating a climate in which people are motivated to work willingly and effectively (Handy, 1993). John Adair developed an action-centered leadership approach which states that the effectiveness of the leader is dependent upon meeting three areas of need within the work group. The need to achieve the common task, the need for team maintenance, and the individual needs of group members (Robbins, 2004). The needs create three overlapping circles. Sculley tells that "We are trying to understand what works on a small scale that can work on a large scale. Mostly we have not succeeded here yet" (Gibbs, Beer, 1991). So, without an explicit statement of strategy it becomes more difficult for expanding organisations to reconcile co-ordinated action with entrepreneurial effort. In Apple, a sense of belonging to the organization is very important. It is built upon the loyalty essential to successful industrial relations. When Apple was a relatively small company, the sense of belonging was created by managers through ensuring that the workforce is: informed, involved, sharing in success. Hotlinks discussion showed that there was a great necessity to implement a change in order to increase "revenue goals". When changes were introduced, many employees felt that they: "are in a transition now, because we have lots of new people. Thus there is a need to balance structure with flat organization and