Ldr 531 Week 2 free essay sample

A positive influence plan is a valuable asset for a manager to possess to be able to properly evaluate his or her employees. By simply holding team building exercises, handing out achievements for well-done jobs, employee satisfaction surveys, and employee reviews companies can add this information to their influence plans. The plan assists lower-level and senior-level management to increase the morale, motivation, performance and satisfaction of a companys employees. These three factors along with a high morale are direct representations of a well-done influence plan, and all go to the benefit of not just the company but also to the employees. Motivations by definition are â€Å"the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. † (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 186). Without motivation, employees will simply lose interest in their duties and job performance will be severely lacking. Performance is the â€Å"accomplishment of a given task measured against preset standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed† (Business Dictionary, 2010, p. We will write a custom essay sample on Ldr 531 Week 2 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ). For an employee to maintain his or her sense of motivation and keep job performance at a high-level, job satisfaction must stem from the workplace. Satisfaction is â€Å"contentment (or lack of it) arising out of interplay of employees positive and negative feelings toward his or her work† (Business Dictionary, 2010, p. 1). Attitude Influence Attitudes in the workplace can range from tame to violent at times. Managers have an obligation to other employees and to the company to keep these attitudes in line with the companys wishes and should make changes accordingly to circumvent these issues from arising again at a later date. In a study conducted by David Maister, 5600 people were asked, â€Å"can employee attitudes be shown to be measurably correlated with financial success? The answer, as my study shows, is an unequivocal â€Å"Yes†! † (Maister, 2001, p. 1). Employees with bad attitudes can significantly affect not just the business but other employees around them. Attitudes affect only what an employee allows them to and attitudes have the uncanny ability to manifest themselves onto another employee. If an employee possesses a negative attitude in the workplace, other employees may change his or her attitude negatively. Vice-versa applies concerning positive attitudes. If management can keep a positive environment for its employees, then as Maister has shown, managers will influence a better profit for the company, increase productivity, performance, workplace satisfaction, and other outcomes of the company. Emotional Influence Another key factor that affects employees attitudes is emotion. Emotions may be used by organizations to affect both positive and negative change including work performance, motivation, and satisfaction. â€Å"Emotions must be managed to keep a healthy staff and a growing bottom line† (Gerson, 2002, p. ), Management sets the standards for emotional behavior in the workplace. Creating a positive emotional environment, managers can open the doors of communication and can demonstrate leadership through example. Although a positive emotional state is the ultimate goal of a manager; management must be aware of the impacts that both positives and negatives have on their empl oyees. According to a study conducted by the University of Missouri, moderation is the best way to handle both positive and negative emotions in the workplace (University of Missouri, 2002). Managers should attempt to be proactive in their attempts to remove negativity, and stress from the work environment. Managers should be sensitive, possess proper preparation, procrastinate less, manage time more efficiently, never go on the defensive, communicate effectively, and lead by example. Managers should be role models for other employees, meeting with employees on an individual basis, scheduling regular interval meetings, aid in preventing employee hostility, identify unwanted behaviors in the workplace, and send employees to stress management courses. Personality Differences Personality differences are items that managers cannot overcome completely and they have a direct tie to employee motivation, satisfaction, and performance. The most managers can accomplish with these differences is to analyze their personnel and be able to recognize traits or other characteristics that give insight into the personality of an individual. Personalities, for example, are â€Å"organized† possessive traits that employers look for to promote a great deal of productivity. Unfortunately, it can be said that those same individuals are â€Å"rigid. † These may also be the type of employees who decide that they do not want to budge from what works for them or what is comfortable for them. This makes those employees hard to teach and hard to work with. The best course of action for management would be to ask employees to take a self- assessment test that will give insight into the type of personality they are. From this information, managers can make more informed decisions on how to mitigate tension and increase productivity. Employee Values Employee values are influential on employee behaviors and vary from person to person. For managers, the analysis of employee values is a critical step for satisfaction, motivation, and performance in the workplace. With no guaranteed way to obtain this information, management has an arduous task ahead of them. Holding employee seminars and obtaining assessment information are just two of the ways managers can help to obtain this information. Working with employees to achieve their individual goals as well as the companys, a manager can obtain critical information in a discrete manner about each employee and apply ideas based on this information that can use an employees values to the companys advantage. Conclusion Managers have a duty to learn as much about their employees and obtain valued information that can create a higher morale in the workplace. This has all been shown to increase productivity, job satisfaction, job performance, and motivation. Regardless what companies do with this information, companies would be wise to have an influence plan that they follow.