There are a variety of management styles in the field of training and development. With there being so many styles, can training help managers adopt a more autonomy-supportive motivating style toward employees. Will the employees of these managers in turn show a greater workplace engagement? Research shows managers that participate in training, have a more significantly supportive management style. This paper will discuss the managers’ motivating styles and the benefits to employees when managers become more autonomy supportive.One of the most challenging parts of a manager’s job is the managerial effort to support employees’ motivation.
A key determinant of how effectively a manager nurtures and supports employees’ motivation is the manager’s motivating style, because the quality of a manager’s style affects employees’ work-related motivation. Recognizing the important relationship between managers’ styles and employees’ motivation; a question arise, Can management style be meaningfully influenced by training?The research conducted sought out to determine whether or not managers could be trained to motivate employees. With the newly developed motivating styles will it be effective and reciprocated by the employees. The research will also investigate whether or not the employees of trained managers have a higher quality of work place motivation and greater workplace engagement.
In the training and development literature, management skills and strategies are generally accepted as malleable, as flexible, learned behaviors, and are therefore teachable or trainable (Bryce 2000).However, management style has historically been considered a deeply rooted characteristic, a hard-wired brain dominance characteristic, personality trait or individual difference that defines the individual as a manager (Bryce 2000). Yet few studies have been carried out to test whether or not management style can, indeed, be taught, and whether or not explicit style training transfers effectively, so it is recognized not only by the managers themselves, but also by the employees who work under them. Management style is distinguished from management skills and strategies in hat it is less discrete, more integrated into the interpersonal behaviors of an individual, but also influences how that person communicates about skills and delivers strategies (Bryce, 2000). It is often difficult to distinguish management style from other similarly integrated, and potentially related, personal characteristics such as personality, but it should be examined and investigated separately because of the influence it can have on work climate and on employee work characteristics and performance.
Management style can be defined as the characteristic way that a manager interacts with employees in the workplace, and particular with subordinates. A subset of management style is manager motivating style, defined as the characteristic way that a manager seeks to motivate employees in the workplace. Diagnosing and supporting employees’ motivation is complex and challenging, but it is well worth the effort in terms of potential gains in both productivity and workplace culture.One reason that makes employee motivation complex is that it varies not only in it amount but also in its quality.
There are different types of employee motivations that exist which can lead to a positive workplace involving engagement, performance and job satisfaction. An approach to motivation that investigate how social conditions contributes to the undermining of people’s motivation, functioning, and well-being is self-determination theory. Social conditions include the workplace climate and manager’s motivating styles.Training managers on motivation requires understanding the types of employee motivation. Identifying the types of motivation is important to understand the effect on the person’s thoughts, feelings, during the work performed.
This can have an impact on work related outcomes such as innovation, engagement, job satisfaction, and commitment to the job. Autonomous motivation is self-authored and personally endorsed as one’s own (Ryan &Deci, 2000). There are two types of autonomous motivation that are associated with employees’ functioning, intrinsic motivation and dentified regulation. Intrinsic motivation involves employees engaging in an activity because they find it interesting and satisfying.
They usually express this with comments like, “I enjoy what I do. ” The other type of autonomous motivation is identified regulation. This involves identifying with the activity performed and the time spent seems important and worth the effort. Most employees express identified regulation through comments as, “The work I do is important to me. ” Controlled motivation is that which is pressure-based and imposed by forces (i. e.
eople, rewards, deadlines) outside the person (Ryan & Deci, 2000). A type of controlled motivation is external regulation. This involves employees doing an activity because they expect to gain an external contingency to do so. The motivation is externally controlled because the employees are energized into to working by incentives and to avoid consequences. If the incentives are not present and the consequences are absent, the employees are not motivated to do action. These people can be often heard expressing themselves such as, “I work because the boss is watching.
Many managers agree that motivation is important and that the quality of employees’ motivation is important, but they are frequently unsure what they should do to motivate employees constructively or how they might interact with employees to promote high-quality work motivation. The outcome for some managerial strategies that are designed and focused to enhance employees’ motivation can have a negative effect in the workplace. The motivation that promotes in employees controlled rather than a supportive style can result in lower quality work motivation.It is important to focus on motivating styles that will positively affect employees’ motivation. An example of the validated motivation theory is goal-setting.
This theory in fact, is accepted among most as an useful motivation theory. The basis of the theory consist of the thought, employees are more motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback. Working towards a goal increases motivation which increases productivity to reach the goal. Managers should consider adapting an autonomy-supportive motivating style that nurtures employees’ on the job interest, known competence, and valuing the work they are involved in.Another approach could be one that is controlling, in which managers will neglect and frustrate employees. The managers will pressure them to act in a specific way that the managers direct.
The managerial effort to identify, support and nurture employees’ inner motivational resource will be a worthwhile endeavor. Research has shown employees with autonomy-supportive managers, compared to employees with controlling and pressuring managers, display an impressive range of positive workplace outcomes, including enhanced job performance, effort and engagement (Gagne & Deci, 2005).There are things managers can say and do to support employees’ autonomous motivation. This involves gaining an awareness of what employee posses and then finding ways to coordinate employees’ strengths with their required workplace behavior. The benefits from recognizing the employee’s identity can be especially important when introducing a new task or initiative on a project.
An autonomy-supportive manager would find ways to make the task more interesting, satisfying or preferred thing to do.An effective communication channel between manager and employee can also support managerial effort with the motivation style. The key is to rely on non-controlling language in communicating workplace requirements, through messages that are informational and flexible, instead of controlling messages that are rigid and pressuring. Non-controlling language helps employee diagnose the cause of the motivational problem, while the informational language helps employee make strides to a solution.
This has found to be especially important when managers respond to employees’ behavioral problems and poor performance.In most cases, manager functions for the organization as the person responsible for focusing and controlling the efforts and energies of the employees who report to them. This traditional view places managers in a position where they are likely to adopt a controlling motivating style which rely on external contingencies, pressuring language and imposed demands. In contrast, an autonomy-supportive motivating style is characterized by a dialectical relationship between manager and employee that allows managers to identify, nurture and develop constructive inner resources within employees’ ongoing motivational development (Gagne & Deci, 2005).
Can managers learn how to become more autonomy supportive in their interactions with others? It can be successful, with two key elements underlying theory-based and practical insights and behaviors that help people become less controlling and become more autonomy supportive. Training managers how to avoid controlling sentiment, pressuring language and controlling behaviors, while becoming more autonomy supportive means learning the other person’s perspective. The managers will need to become mindful of the inner motivational resources other posses and learn how to be nurturing.The training should include exposure to information on and illustrations of how to support employees’ workplace motivation. The training can consist of a group-delivered informational training session on how to support employees’ autonomy. Another component of training is a group delivered question and answer session to refine managers’ efforts to support employees’ autonomy.
The training can also provide an individual study using a study specific booklet on how to support employees’. The training booklet should be developed specifically for the topic.The goal is to create a manual to help managers develop strategies to incorporate. The book should include concrete examples of how to address employees’ motivational problems, have sections covering different types of employee motivation, illustrations of an autonomy-supportive motivating style when practiced in the workplace setting and the benefits to employees being supported.
The training can begin with an informational session that should include an overview of the motivation theory. Once all the theories are introduces and the concepts are understood, small group discussion can occur.During the small group discussion, managers can voice any concerns. The subject matter experts will all join a group, answering any questions that may come up regarding the application and foreseeable obstacles and limitations. After the concerns are addresses and the discussions have simmered down, the training booklet can be presented. The training booklet will contain the applications that the managers can review and practice at their workplace.
The training should conclude with questions and answers. The trainers should remain on-site to respond to any individual questions.Research has shown that managers are able to expand their otherwise entrenched styles toward employees to incorporate a significantly greater use of autonomy-supportive strategies. The managers motivating styles can be expanded overall toward a greater autonomy support, through learning to rely more on non-controlling language, explanatory rationales and acknowledgments of employees’ negative performance. Employees can benefit when the managers who supervise them expand their managerial motivating styles to adopt a significantly greater use of autonomy-supportive strategies.
One can assume employees’ motivation and engagement are paralleled to managers’ styles. Managers that adapt the use of autonomy-supportive strategies to understand, address, and cope with employees’ motivation contribute in the gain of quality of employees’ work and management. Effectively training managers to motivate employees can contribute in important ways to employee satisfaction, performance, and retention.
