Fluent Essays

I need your 2 peer review for this two discussion 100 word each peer review for both discussion. Two Discussion is attached discussion_3.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Discussion 1 By Jennifer Knoll The most important thing I learned from this week’s reading was the importance of followership. There is often so much focus on how to be a good leader, but this is the first time I learned what it means to be a good follower. I am a moral leader and fall in the post-conventional moral development category. I tend to speak up to my leader and provide advice, even if I am the lone voice with that opinion. Being active and an independent critical thinker, is the style of an effective follower (Daft, 2018, p. 202). A lot of times when I have spoken up, I felt the exact opposite, that maybe I should not have been so vocal or just have agreed with others. It made me realize that I was the follower that my boss needs, even if it is not the easiest thing to have the courage to do at times. I also thought another area that was really worth taking the time to understand was the different motivations to help employees be engaged in their work. This is really important in business, as an estimated only 30\% of the workforce is engaged in their work (Daft, 2018, p. 248). Engagement increases profitability and performance (Daft, 2018, p. 248). That is a lot of untapped potential, if businesses and employers understood how to engage these employees, the gains could be immense. I completely agree that when bosses do not provide timely, regular negative (or positive) feedback it can end up worst in the end. Followers need frequent, specific, and timely feedback to have the opportunity to improve and to show that the boss cares for the success of the employee (Daft, 2018, p. 216). Each time an individual makes a mistake, it likely causes the boss aggravation trying to clean up the mess. However, if timely feedback is given, the employee is aware of the issue and can correct it, saving the boss aggravation and allowing the employee performance to improve. If no feedback is given, the boss is “dooming the problem employee to non-improvement” according to Daft (2018). In this case, who is really responsible for the poor performance, the employee or the boss? Daft (2018) describes courage as accepting responsibility, moving out of the comfort zone, saying what you think, asking for what you want, non-conformity, and fighting for what you believe in. Not only does being a good leader require courage, but being an effective follower also requires the same behaviors. As an effective follower, I believe that fighting for what you believe in is the most important. You must always be true to your values and morals and not be afraid to fight for them or stand up against things that are not in ethical. This is especially true if there are pressures to achieve goals regardless of how you get there by the supervisor. It’s hard to pick what is least important, but if I had to pick, I would suggest asking for what you want, as it is a bit more self-serving. However, I also think it is absolutely important for your own career development. In order to grow the courage needed to be an effective follower you can take small steps towards your goals, align yourself with a higher purpose, get support from others, and use your passion to give you energy (Daft, 2018, p. 186-187). By creating a lunch environment that fosters communication and make it possible for people to get through the lunch line quicker, Google allows more time and a better environment for mingling. These hygiene factors will decrease dissatisfaction as well, meeting lower level needs of interpersonal relationships (Daft, 2018, p. 234). By creating this lunch environment, these needs can be met without lost work time. The small business owner should create incentives that speak to intrinsic motivations not just money. Depending on how many sales reps there are, he or she should get to know them and understand what really will motivate the staff. Path-goal theory may be something good to utilize (Daft 2018, p. 77). Using this method would speak to the individuals wants, but not put everyone fighting for the same slice of the pie, which compensation often does. Everyone may have different motivations and different tactics can be used to inspire top performance. References Daft, R. L. (2018). The Leadership Experience (7th Ed.). Cengage Learning Inc. Discussion 2 by Jeffrey kersey This week, our material covers the art of followership and motivation and empowerment. Again we see that leadership does not exist in isolation. Instead, leaders and followers are interdependent. It is essential to understand what followership truly means because, ultimately, we are followers more often than leaders. To be an effective follower, we should focus on positivity and self-motivation. Followership means having the courage to take responsibility for our actions and challenge our leadership. 1. One organizational observer suggested that bosses who won’t give negative feedback to followers who need it cause even more damage in the long run than those who fly off the handle when a follower makes a mistake. Do you agree? Discuss. Daft (2018) outlines the desirable characteristics of leaders as honest, forward-thinking, inspiring, and competent. An effective leader should provide clarity of direction by facilitating the visualization of the firms trajectory and match appropriate growth opportunities to the individual followers. While a leader can achieve short-term gratification by playing the nice guy, they fail to seize an opportunity for growth when passing failing to provide truthful feedback. Rather than telling, judging, or controlling the followers, leaders should embrace coaching whereby they empower, remove obstacles, and develop weak areas (pp. 214215). Leaders can most certainly fail their followers by either failing to provide critical feedback or by losing control of their emotions. 2. The chapter describes five ways in which followers need to use courage. Which do you feel is most important? Least important? How might a follower derive the courage to behave in new ways to be more effective? Discuss. Daft (2018) lists the following ways in which followers should use courage (p. 211): 1. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Assume responsibility Courage to challenge To participate in transformation Courage to serve Courage to leave Daft (2018) points out that hesitation is a common obstacle when it comes to followers challenging the decisions of their leadership (p. 211-212). But, we cannot build a productive leader-follower relationship on complacency. A follower must have the courage to assume responsibility for their impact on the team. A good follower will take the initiative to act on opportunities and give the organization their all. Of the varieties of courage the author discusses, the least important might be having the courage to leave. While I believe all five dimensions of courage are essential, the leader-follower relationship relies on complementarity. By this standard, the courage to go would be least mission-critical. Courage may come from various personal and positional sources of power. Personal sources include knowledge, skills, expertise, effort, and persuasion. An individual with knowledge or the right skillset can be indispensable to the team. Sources that come from a follower’s formal position include the flow of information, relationship networks, and physical locations that give the person visibility (Daft, 2018, pp. 210-212). 3. Google wants employees to mingle more but not to waste a lot of time. So as part of its “people strategy,” Google analyzes reams of data to determine the optimal size and shape for the cafeteria tables and the best length for the lunch line. If hygiene factors, as defined in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, will not provide increased satisfaction and motivation, why do you think Google would try to increase lunchtime mingling? Discuss. Hygiene factors constitute the first dimension of Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Hygiene factors encompass job dissatisfiers, including pay, policies, work conditions, and interpersonal relationships. If hygiene factors are deficient, then employee satisfaction tends to drop. Increased hygiene factors decrease dissatisfaction. However, they do not increase employee satisfaction and motivation. Nonetheless, the cafeteria mingling can provide opportunities for the second dimension of Herzberg’s two-factor theory to occur: motivators. Motivators fulfill high-level needs, such as our need for recognition and opportunity for growth (Daft, 2018, pp. 234-235). By strategically positioning employees during lunch, Google is setting the stage for a working lunch rife with motivators. 4. One small business owner says she doesn’t offer her sales representatives incentives because people try to sabotage one another to get more business and stop paying attention to smaller accounts. As a leader, how would you develop a program to motivate and reward high performers without promoting the wrong type of behavior? This business owner appears to be relying on the old carrot-and-stick approach to motivation, whereby she depends on extrinsic rewards and punishments. The problem with this strategy is that her sales team gets so caught up in the temporary extrinsic rewards they lose sight of the intrinsic value of a job well done. The equity theory states that people desire social equity in the rewards they receive for their work. If people believe their rewards are tantamount to the rewards of others for similar jobs, then they will be satisfied. If they perceive they are being slighted in compensation, their motivation will decrease. The responsibility is upon the leader to clarify which rewards their employees desire then determine if the employee has the skillset to achieve the job. But it will be the perception of equity or inequity in rewards that determines motivation. People appraise equity by weighing effort against outcomes (Daft, 2018, pp. 242243). This business owner needs to clarify her employees goals, then match their skillsets and knowledge to the available tasks. A reward system is necessary that accounts for both higher and lower level needs, including monetary rewards and social recognition. If an employee is underperforming, rather than punish that person, she could match them with a high performer for a while to improve their skills. References Daft, R. L. (2018). The Leadership Experience (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ... Purchase answer to see full attachment