Managing People and Organisation

1. Explain the validity of one process and one content theory of motivation and assess their applicability to scenario that exists within Scotia Airways. The process theories are about ‘how’ organisation should motivate its employees and about ‘the processes’ of motivation. One of the process theories is Edwin’s Locke’s Goal Theory. It is about setting specific goals which are challenging but acceptable for individuals. Individuals should receive feedback so that they could improve their work in the future. The investors in Scotia Airways have set specific goal – expand over the next 5 years. This goal is hard but achievable if the company’s members will work hard. The management team has already started to draw up preliminary plans. This means that this organisation already thinks about how to achieve its main goal and not wasting time. The company should set new objectives and new rules so that it would be easier to achieve its goal. Managers should give their staff feedback so that in the future they could improve work quality and performance. Content theories are about ‘what’ motivates employees to do their job better and deals with individual needs and goals. One of the content theories is Abrahams Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In Maslow’s hierarchy there are 5 levels (in the picture).

An individual tries to fulfil all these needs just working step by step. When he has reached certain level he tries to reach next one. Scotia Airways could use Maslow’s hierarchy theory to motivate more their staff. The first level is physiological – Scotia areaways have to make sure those employees main needs are fulfilled (water, breaks, food, etc). The second level is safety – Scotia has to make sure that workplace is safe and make sure that employees feel safe in organisation, for example, there has to be safety rules. The third level is belonging – Scotia Airways is already considered as a family cantered organisation so every employee should feel accepted and treated as a family member. The forth level is self-esteem – employees of Scotia Airways should feel accepted and should be respected by others. The fifth level is self-actualization – this is the top of pyramid and an individual has realized his full potential in organization. For Scotia Airways it would be easy t use this theory because it is already is seen as family focused organisation and it promotes social harmony and integration within the workplace. That means that most of the employees needs are fulfilled.