Neo-Human Relations

Not only must workers work as hard as possible, but they should also be happy in their work. Happiness often stems from security; without this security, ill health will result. According to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ('Job Insecurity and Work Intensification') in July 1999, workers' fears of losing their jobs are at their highest level since the Second World War, and the stress is taking its toll on their physical well being. According to the study, two thirds of employees said they regularly worked overtime. 30% of full-time male employees claimed they worked more than 48 hours a week.

The cause of the stress was staff cutbacks. The same amount of work being done by fewer people leads to extra stress. The report found that those admitting to the greatest feelings of insecurity were five times more likely to be in poor health. Supportive relationships between managers and staff relieve the pressure, which will in turn lead to better health. The Human Resources function in this case would not just be to try and motivate the workers but also to encourage Directors and below to be supportive of their staff. Such support would include improved communication and greater transparency in management decisions.

There are two basic theories of motivation; content theories and process theories. Content theories focus on what actually motivates people; they study the needs that must be satisfied in order for the employee to be motivated. The need is either satisfied by an extrinsic reward (e. g. pay) or an intrinsic reward (e. g. recognition and praise). The Classical (Fayol), the Scientific (Taylor), the Human Relations (Mayo), and the Neo-Human Relations (Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor) schools of management thought are all content theories.

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Process theories, do not concern the needs which must be satisfied in order to achieve motivation, but instead they are concerned with the thought-processes that influence workers' behaviour. There are two such theories: 1. 2 Expectancy theory: This states that workers will only act when they have a reasonable expectation that their work will lead to the desired outcome. If they believe that they possess the ability and skill to achieve the goal, then their level of effort will be great and they will be motivated.

Equity Theory

This states that each worker will wish to receive a remuneration package (equal to their pay plus fringe benefits) in return for his or her efforts. Each worker will only be motivated if their remuneration package is seen to be fair (or equitable) in relation to the remuneration packages received by the other workers for their efforts. Frederick Taylor wrote in 1911 that workers are motivated mainly by money. So bonuses or piecework should link workers' pay to performance and perhaps.

One of the many interesting things Maslow noticed while he worked with monkeys early in his career was that some needs take precedence over others. For example, if you are hungry and thirsty, you will tend to try to take care of the thirst first. After all, you can do without food for weeks, but you can only do without water for a couple of days! Thirst is a "stronger" need than hunger. Likewise, if you are very very thirsty, but someone has put a choke hold on you and you can't breathe, which is more important? The need to breathe, of course.

Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the needs for esteem, and the need to actualise the self, in that order. Maslow's idea was that workers satisfy their needs from the bottom up. So the first things that motivate them are food, water, shelter, etc. Next they want security of employment, safety in the workplace, and so on. When those needs have been satisfied, people want to satisfy their social needs, so working in a team, for example, can motivate them.

Once these needs have been met, workers want praise and respect, perhaps status. The top level is about being able to reach your full potential and be creative. In Marks and Spencer the employees will have basic needs, safety needs, belonging needs. He looked at things slightly differently. He said that some things did not improve motivation if they got better and better, and only discouraged workers if those things were poor. He called these things "Hygiene Factors". Other things that do motivate workers he called "Motivating Factors".

Any good manager knows that happy, satisfied workers will generally perform better than those who don't feel as satisfied. However, managers have always had differing opinions about what it takes to satisfy workers. During the 50's and 60's, a man named Fredrick Herzberg during his research; he found that certain factors tended to cause a worker to feel unsatisfied with his or her job. These factors seemed to directly relate to the employee's environment such as the physical surroundings, supervisors and even the company itself.

He developed a theory based on this observation, naming it the "Hygiene Theory. " According to his theory, for a worker to be happy and therefore productive, these environmental factors must not cause discomfort. Although the elimination of the environmental problems may make a worker productive, it will not necessarily motivate him. The question remains, "How can managers motivate employees? " Many managers believe that motivating employees requires giving rewards. Herzberg, however, believed that the workers get motivated through feeling responsible for and connected to their work.

In this case, the work itself is rewarding. Managers can help the employees connect to their work by giving them more authority over the job, as well as offering direct and individual feedback.

Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor's theory X is very much the same as Frederick Taylor's view of what motivates workers. His theory Y is much more like Maslow and Herzberg's views because it says that workers will be motivated by responsibility and by being allowed making decisions.

Two conflicting theories regarding the human motivation to work put forward by the US psychologist Douglas McGregor (1906-64), which have relevance in human resource management. Theory X is based on the premise that people are inherently lazy, dislikes work, and will avoid it if they can. They prefer being directed to accepting responsibility; their only use for creativity is in getting round the rules of an organisation. Because they are motivated to work only by money, they require coercion and tight control to make them function adequately.

Theory Y, on the other hand, assumes that people wish to be interested in their work and, given the right conditions, will enjoy it. Motivated by the wish to achieve, and to have their achievements recognised, most people will work to the best of their capabilities, creativity, and ingenuity. They accept responsibility and the rules of the organisation they work for, imposing self-discipline on their work, given accepted targets. The generally accepted view is that if management follow Theory Y they will achieve better operational performance.

Training will increase the status of the workers as well as their self-esteem. Universities are now in competition as A-level passes continue to rise. With the competition for standards come also a variety of courses 1. 6 The Human Resource Management (H. R. M) Process In M;S Human Resource Management is the management of the people within Marks and Spencer, by recruiting, training and retaining employees with the necessary skills and competencies to perform their jobs effectively. H. R. M.was often referred to as 'Personnel' in the past, and it covers all the following areas:

1. Human Resource Planning (H. R. P).
2. Recruitment and selection of new employees.
3. Training and development.
4. Performance appraisal.
5. Remuneration packages.
6. Disciplinary procedures.
7. Grievance procedures.
8. Health and Safety issues.
9. Looking after the employees' welfare.
10. Dealing with the termination of contracts of employment.

The recruitment and selection process commences when the business realises that there is a vacancy in the organisational hierarchy, which needs to be filled.

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