Motivation

A parallel example of the story that I observed, shows employees perceive their jobs differently in an organization. When I was a teenager, my very first job was  working as a cashier/barista/baker at a small bakery/cafe  in West village. There were about 10 people working at the cafe without a manager. Everyone had different motivations and reasons working at the place. Most of them were taking the job as an extra income source since the wage was low. People called it " an easy job" as my trainer told me
that " All you have to do is making coffee and keeping the cash register." The job consisted lots of manual labor such as cleaning, making drinks, baking and lifting. In fact, I felt physically tired of standing and working long hours. However, I always felt happy going to work  every morning. During the happiest time of my life, I met all kinds of people from all over the world. Probably, as a new immigrant to NYC, I was amazed to encounter so many interesting people with endless stories. The best part of the work was that I could play any music I like in the cafe. Early morning, I would bake pastries listening to my favorite music alone, then customers would come in and enjoy and have pleasant conversations. I felt that all my lower-order needs were satisfied. However, others were getting dissatisfied with the job, since there was no manager, we had to take care of the whole management. The big boss who used to visit the store occasionally,  did not even try to recognize that some employees were doing manager's job. However, the employees including myself still liked the work as we had autonomy and great interpersonal relations. For instance, we had a very flexible schedule, and individual freedom.
The task itself at the work was a simple repetitive work, however it gave us an opportunity for personal growth in another way . I remember that many employees were ESL students who barely spoke English in the beginning. Later on, all of them improved their English dramatically because of plenty of opportunities to have conversation in English at work. Especially, I felt as if I was working and learning things at the same time which may not be invisible outcomes, but great experiences and personal growth. Unfortunately, when recession came, the store had to be closed due to the financial crisis. Everyone was so sad to lose the work because it was the place where we found a lot of good friends and joy. It might not be difficult to find another bakery job for the employees, but the one with open space for sociable interactions were.
I would like to influence employees by making them realize how everyone in the store is important for the harmonious operation. Making them happy will make customers happy too. Maintaing and improving hygiene factors will be the keys to sitisfy them at work. Recognizing and praising good outcomes of employees will also give employess good reasons to keep hard working. I believe that most people are motivated depending on their backgrounds or needs. They tend to find their own motivations in any kinds of jobs. I think being motivated at work is one's choice of thinking more than employers making them to be motivated.

Individual Behavior

I think that conscientiousness may be the most important personality trait that all managers should have at work. I used to think that having a manager who is agreeable and extrovert, is good for harmonious work environment . After working at several places over the 6 years. I have realized that drawing a line between public and private matters are necessary in order to maintain efficient and drama-free relationship between managers and employees. If managers are emotionally stable, and treating everyone kindly it will help everyone to stay calm and steady at work in any kind of situations. Although,employees  getting too close to managers may cause problems at work. The primary purpose work is getting things done and achieving goals altogether. It is essential for mangers to control and lead employees. First of all, they are meant to be dependable and organized leading  everyone to the right direction.
From my past experiences, a manager who was achievement oriented and serious, helped me to focus on work seriously. It was clear that a person with a strong sense of conscientiousness can provide efficient working guide to employees without confusions. Even if managers and employees are getting along comfortably, it is no use when things are not getting done properly at work. It is absolutely crucial to have a manager with talent, who can bring out high performance from a team. Surely, it would be ideal if the manager communicates with employees with a strong sense of emotional stability, people at work will be less anxious and tense while dealing with all kinds of stress from work.

Leadership

Leadership is the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish important tasks. A great leader plans, leads, controls and organize the management process efficiently. Having expertise can be helpful to work as a CEO, but it does not seem to be required to be a successful CEO when we see many real-life examples. According to Bloomberg Business Week, there are many CEOs who dropped out of college or never even attended college ,but made it to corporate top spots. They are the people who have had a "vision" to make it happen looking to achieve influence.
A famous example is Bill Gates, Time magazine called him " Havard's most successful dropout." His expertise may come from technical understanding or access to information relevant to the issue at hand. It can be acquired on the job, through experience. However, the most important factor as a successful CEO may be outstanding leadership skills that lead and grow gigantic corporations. It includes visionary leadership that brings to the situation a clear sense of the future and an understanding of how to get there. Imagining and looking at the bigger picture are the main roles of the CEOs. According to Exploring Management, traits that often shared by effective leaders, are drive, self-confidence, creativity, cognitive ability, business knowledge, motivation, flexibility, honesty and integrity. No matter what kinds of industries are out there, every organization needs an effective leadership by inspiring leaders.
In Zicklin business school in Baruch College, students are required to take various business courses including finance, management, accounting, and marketing regardless of their majors. The reason is that gaining knowledge in different subjects will help the students to understand business as a whole. At the same time, students can have a broad perspective when they have to solve problems in the future.  When one's expert power and referent power meet, the possibility of becoming an efficient leader will be unlimited.




sources:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988080_1988093_1988082,00.html


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_107139.html


http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-11-intel-succession_x.htm

HRM

Last year, I worked as a sales associate at a well-known cosmetic retailer for 3months . A friend of mine who was a manager at one of the branches referred me to the position. In the beginning, the human resource manager called me and had a brief phone interview. He was very friendly and polite asking about my past experiences and salary expectations. They usually hired people through referrals, as a result I did not have to go through rounds of interviews. On the training, there were about 20 people who were hired seasonally. The group was very diverse in terms of age, sex, race, nationality, sexual orientation etc. During the 3 days, I was learning about the products, history, sales skills of the company. I had become very knowledgeable about the particular products. The trainer informed the new hires that employees get 40% discounts ,they were also offering some products to the new employees. They were attracting employees by giving discounts and little gifts. The new employees including me was happy until then.
In the beginning, I clearly told my manager that I can only work up to 20 hours per week since I have to go to school full-time. But later on the manger called me to back up for the other people all the time. It was almost abusive. He would keep calling and texts late night demanding me to come to work. And he was mentioning that if the store hits certain sales goals we were going to get some bonus. During the holiday season, everyone in the store worked very hard and accomplished the sales goal. However, the manager turned out and said " I am sorry guys... the management decided not to give the bonus." I knew that the manager got a big fat bonus but the sales associates. I was upset not only because getting the bonus, but being used by the lie.
They also failed to give me the realistic job previews. While working, the manager kept asking sales associates to go outside giving aways samples and attracting people to come in to the store. No one in the management every mentioned standing outside
in 20-30 degrees. But they demanded it everyday to do so.  If I knew I had to do it, I would not have taken the job in the beginning. I was getting sick. As a result, it negatively affected my school  work too. 
I could not believe when I hurt my neck accidentally and called the manager that I was in an emergency room , his first words were " Oh my god, how many people are calling out? How can I run a business like this? Can you come after you get discharged? " Luckily I never went back.  I was wearing a neck brace for one month.
Interestingly, the manager kept calling me to come back to work. So many people were leaving the job. They failed to keep  the talented employees who achieved the sales goals.

I think the selection process of the HRM was proper since they were strongly  recommending the corporate employees to refer people to the positions. But they had numerous problems at developing and keeping the employees at the stores.
They should clearly inform the new employees what kind tasks are going to be given to them in the beginning ,not only the  fun sides of the job.
First of all, they need to respect people over their sales goals. They were driving people to work hard using the word "bonus" as a bait. But it resulted the massive turn-overs. I guess that  profit sharing for the gigantic corporation does not include the non-managerial workers who work directly affecting customer satisfaction. Probably, a labor union could have prevented this tragedy by stating a formal agreement between a union and the employer. If a clear labor contract existed by a union, an individual who is relatively powerless compared to the management, could have been protected from the abuse of the management .