Alternativas para salvar los abismos epistemológicos

For the evaluation of employees in most companies are used direct evaluation by supervisor, eventually this evaluation is accompanied by a self-assessment. In order to evaluation would be comprehensive and objective 360-degree feedback is used. This is the evaluation when an employee is evaluated not only by direct superior but also direct and indirect co-workers, subordinates, where appropriate by suppliers and customers and also it contains self-assessment. In order to ensure objectivity, the anonymous structured questionnaires are used, currently in electronic form.

Contribution off 360-degree feedback is:

 invoke enthusiasm, it gives employees a fair, good quality feedback and also personal development perspective  provides managers with information on the capabilities and needs of employees

 motivates for the successful behaviours and improvement

 creates a trust as well as subordinates are involved in important decision-making  creates a corporate culture focused on efficiency and better customer service

 detects and identifies priorities for training and staff development and assesses the effectiveness of these programs. [7]

The 360-degree feedback can be modified to the 180, 540 or 720 degree feedback. In the 180-degree feedback employees are evaluated by subordinates or superiors for example, performance assessment, or just colleagues at the same level. The 720-degree feedback marks later repeated 360-degree feedback

5. MOTIVATION

Motivation consists of factors that influence employees to behave a certain way. Motivation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation consists of self-generated factors that influence people to behave in a particular way or to move in a particular direction. [9] These include accountability, independence, opportunity to develop, to improve and interesting work that fulfil internally employee. Current economic situation and employees’ approach shows, that most employees need extrinsic motivation which consists of rewards and punishments, whether financial or non-financial.

Armstrong defines ten steps which can be made to highly motivate employees:  set achievable challenging goals,

 establish behaviour rules,  provide feedback,

 provide adequate financial rewards as well non-financial rewards as praise, appreciation, acknowledgement,  emphasize the relationship between performance and rewards,

 enable self-realization and autonomy,

 choose good manager, who can manage and motivate simultaneously,  educate employees to broader their experiences, skills and abilities,  allow career development.

There are many theoretical approaches and methods of motivation. In practice, most commonly used method is the carrot and stick method. Research shows that in the long term is inefficient (especially in times of crisis when there is a lack of funds and managers remain just punishment) and is ineffective for creative, artistic work. In such cases, it may do more harm than good, especially in the quality of performance and completion time.

However, this method works, it cannot be denied, but it is important to be properly used. It should rather be used for routine, repetitive types of work, where are clear procedures and processes. But that has not held disincentive, manager should stress to the importance and necessity of employee work, where possible, to allow the employee to self- suggested method of implementation the given task.

Newer approaches focus on individual motivation by type of personality. This approaches we consider as more effective, if they can be implemented in practice, because they can better exploit the potential of employee, managers can adapt their management styles, allow more efficient allocation of targets, and offer possibility to create more effective teams and work environment. There exist several approaches of identifying employee personality, for example Jung’s, Mayer Briggs’s, Eysenck’s, Benziger’s, DISC, OCEAN, the color code etc. For ease of application we have chosen as an example of personality types and their individual motivation Rey approach which is presented in the table below:

Power Players

They want to do everything right; respect and approval of their peers is very important to them; are committed to work, goals, and high levels of productivity; like to be leaders and demand high work standards of others; can become highly insecure if anyone challenges their beliefs; are very impetuous individuals.

To motivate power players offer them challenges that include things they like to do; offer them rewards and bonuses for good work; hide their insecurities, so avoid talking about their personal failures; appeal to their desire to be highly productive at whatever they do; appeal to them on logical, rather than emotional, terms.

Team Players

They want their feeling to be understood; appreciation and peer endorsements are very important to them.; are committed to people and to helping them achieve a quality focus; have high integrity levels and they demand honesty from others; are self-righteous and highly judgmental of others. If others do not meet their expectations, they are unforgiving; are easily depressed.

To motivate them give them award because they like to cover their walls with them; reinforce their need for security whenever the opportunity presents itself; limit the risk level of whatever assignment you delegate to them; promote creativity and allow them ample time to collect their thoughts on creative ideas; avoid demanding immediate action unless have their full cooperation; earn their trust and respect before you place demands on them.

Diplomatic Players:

They want to be independent and allowed to do their own thing; peer support and recognition are very important to them; are patient with people and seek to solicit cooperation in all they do; are excellent communicators; respect authority; can be insecure and hide their insecurities; want to please themselves first before they strike out to please others.

To motivate them be sensitive but firm when communicating; listen carefully to what they have to say and look for nonverbal clues of expression; accept their individuality and provide a work structure that's comfortable for them; constantly offer them ideas for goals and present them with opportunities for involvement; constantly monitor their progress toward completing assigned goals, and be prepared to initiate corrective action whenever appropriate.

Party Players

They want to be popular; anyone who offers them an exciting opportunity will become their friend for life; are very forgiving; enjoy life to its fullest and are optimists; demand trust in their relationships; appreciate the purpose of goals but don't like to set them; if they are involved in a situation that is not fun for them, they will become rebellious.

To motivate them always be positive; promote reward and recognition events for completing well-defined goals; allow them to verbally express themselves, listening carefully to what they say; don’t be too serious or intense when criticizing; totally control their schedules with regular follow-up sessions to make sure they're meeting their commitments.

Source: REY, D. 1998: 1001 ways to inspire your organization, your team and yourself, The Career Press

6. LEADERS’ AND MANAGERS’ APPROACHES

Many people consider the words management and leadership as synonyms but they should be distinguished:

"Management is concerned with achieving results by effectively obtaining, deploying, utilizing and controlling all the resources required, namely people, money, facilities, plant and equipment, information and knowledge."[10]

"Leadership focused on the most important resources, people. It is the process of developing and communicating a vision for the future, motivating people and gaining their commitment and engagement."[10]

Leaders carry the vision, new goals, are not afraid of change. Their approach is proactive rather than reactive. They focus more on long-term vision, for example visions that despite short-term losses can bring long-lasting success. Leaders can encourage the enthusiasm of their colleagues for a new target and what is more important they are able to inspire colleagues, energize, activate, and draw them into work. Also they are interested in how the new strategy will affect employees and try to empathize. The relationship in the workplace is important for them prevent defeat the target. Of course, neither the manager’s function is negligible. Even when managers do not like too much risky targets and their approach is more reactive, are necessary to ensure that all production factors ensure implementation of the strategy, and take care of running business when the leader's head is in the clouds.

But what is common to both is that, in order to improve engagement and motivation of employees, they should modify both management and leadership styles. For example, the transactional and autocratic style should be replaced by the democratic and transformational stale because they operate motiveless. The autocratic and transactional styles do not allow the participation of subordinates in decision-making process, impose its authority on the status, rewards and punishments. In contrast, the democratic and transformational style motivates employees by allowing them to participate in decision-making process, they outsource the responsibility and independence of the task. Leaders and managers have energetic and enthusiastic approach, interest in their subordinates and try to motivate them.

They should also strive to create a pleasant working environment, to communicate openly with subordinates also about such unpleasant matters such as layoffs and pay cuts. It is important to explain to employees the reasons for changes but they also raise the vision and objectives for the future and to awaken hope and optimism inside employees. Communication should also change, and not just in times of financial crisis, managers and leaders should meet with their subordinates, to show that they do care about them, to be human, to show them that their work contributes to meet the overall goal, and even though they job is not too important, to show employees that appreciate their work. In order to motivate employees, leaders should lead by example and make use of windows and mirrors approach. Leader for charging merits they should look out of window to assign them to those who actually deserved them. Leaders and managers should look to the mirror when looking for the culprit.

CONCLUSION

In the interest of every company should be to strive to implement new training and development tools such as coaching, mentoring and 360 degree feedback, as well as a different approach to motivating and managing employees. These tools will bring the company more accurate and objective view on the ability of its employees, ensure the continuous development of people, improve performance and staff productivity, better fulfilment and achievement of stated goals,

building a new corporate culture and higher involvement of employees.

At the time of current economic situation, companies should even more try to implement these tools into their structure because as Coffman suggests “The success of your organization doesn’t depend on your understanding of economics, or organizational development, or marketing. It depends, quite simply, on your understanding of human psychology: how each individual employee connects with your company and how each individual employee connects with your customers.” [12]