Influence People to Strive Willingly for Group Objectives in Your Organization

1. Principles and practices of management
How will you influence people to strive willingly for group objectives in your organization (Target based industry)? Apply your interpersonal influence through communication process towards attaining your specialized goals? Answer: Group objectives essentially mean that a group of individuals recruited into an organization have the same objectives to achieve in the same time frame. There can be many such groups in an organization having their own group objectives. For Example: A medical device company can have a group, whose objective is to carry out research and development in a selected field of medicine. Whereas in the same company there is a group, whose objective is to market the medical device to a target population and another group whose objective is to ensure particular number of sales per month for that device. Usually when such groups have 10 or more individuals, it is often noted that even though the group achieves their objectives successfully, there will always be a percentage of individuals who are not as efficient as the others.

Hence these never strive willingly for the objectives because they know that in-spite of their low efforts or motivation, the objectives will eventually be achieved. This can discourage the others who are working hard and over a period of time the objectives will be difficult to achieve as demands increase and the efforts are submaximal from the team. Hence, it is vital to influence people to strive willingly in order to have a more efficient and successful team. Here are a few suggested ways that I would use to influence people to strive willingly in order to attain group objectives: a. Influencing intrinsic factors – Monetary incentives, bonuses, reasonable salaries. These are important as basic monetary requirements of an employee must be adequately fulfilled to ensure they remain loyal to the company and don’t go looking for better offers and work half – heartedly.

I would monitor performances of the employees in a group using a performance appraisal chart and incentivise those with bonuses for achievements beyond what is expected. b. Influencing extrinsic factors – Recognition, experience, seniority, awards, and employee of the month titles. It has been established that once basic needs are satisfied then the urge for achievement drives people to thrive. Gaining experience to get a better role with power and authority is often a much desired position in the company. Getting promotions and accompanying power with the position is a great incentive for motivation. Awards and recognition of the skills add values to ones repertoire of expertise and is hence another effective way to boost the morale of the employees. In the organization, I would set a day when these are applied and those who have worked hard are duly recognised, awarded and promoted as and when such reinforcement is felt needed by the board of directors. c. Applying motivational theories – Maslow’s theory of motivation says that once physiological and safety needs are met, then one thrives for need to build self-esteem and achieve more in their field of expertise.

By this theory, I will build self-esteem by positively reinforcing good behaviour, that is leading to achievement of goals and objectives. This can be done by recognizing and acknowledging these achievements in front of the entire company and by providing gifts for attaining such feats. Also based on this theory, I will provide employees with insurances and schemes that can provide security and protection to them and their families. Health insurances, life insurances and housing allowances will be provided to add value to the employees work environment and role. d. Having a balance score card – with different metrics in the score card. This will ensure that the group works as a team and they would win if everyone in the team works hard. This will limit the cannibalization of each other’s work. So I will create these scorecards for different departments – accounts, finance sales and have the teams score on their objectives.

This will also help identify early any underperformers if the score card begins to deteriorate. e. Individual goal settings – Even though working as a team is important, it is also vital to set individual goals. This will do two important things. One, it will make an individual’s responsibility clear and defined. Two, it will help to monitor the performance at an individual level and help one push himself/herself to become better in their work and improve their performances. f. Creating a value system of the company so that a bigger picture is seen – I would ensure this at the time of recruiting, to bring in people who synchronize with the value system of the organization. If there are a few who are mal-aligned then I will conduct workshops and group events that bring out the value system of the company strongly and give the feeling of unity to the employees. g. Tracking and monitoring or planning andtracking of the goals. Not at a micro-monitoring level, but at a  macro level, I would do this to see if the objectives are achieved in compliance with the value chain.

Hence milestone setting is done for the target goal and reviews of every milestone helps to know if everyone is contributing, if we are on track or if someone is overworked or underperforming. This is an integral part of project management. h. Quality management – I would assess quality of the objectives, the quality of the effort and assess if the work is being done with adequate effort and no one is being overworked or stressed in the process of achieving the outcomes. In addition to this the management must be in the right place to monitor these effectively. Management by objectives (MBO) is a system of management involving effective participation and involvement by each member of the organization. The disciple of MBO makes each individual output-centred, result- oriented, optimum-committed and achievement motivated. The first thing to do is to define the objectives and responsibilities accurately. Once the job responsibilities have been adequately defined, there are 5 main steps to be taken in setting and achieving objectives: 1. Objectives should, as far as possible, be quantified.

2. Managers must be relieved of constraints, which inhibit the achievement of their objectives. 3. The manager must be aware of his performance.
4. The performance appraisal must be fair and result in an appreciation management’s strength and weakness. 5. The performance appraisal must result in equitable reward being established between managers of the same grade. With this I will hope that the objectives of the team are attained with passion and determination. The employees are always welcome to share their grievance’s or their suggestions with me at any time.