Directing is the heart of management function. All
other functions of management such as planning, organizing, and staffing have
no importance without directing. Leadership, motivation, supervision, communication are
various aspects of directing. Let us study the importance and principles of
directing.
Directing refers to a process or technique of
instructing, guiding, inspiring, counselling, overseeing and leading people
towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. It is a continuous
managerial process that goes on throughout the life of the organization. Main characteristics
of Directing are as follows:
1. Initiates Action
A directing function is performed by the managers along with planning, staffing, organizing and controlling in order to discharge their duties in the
organization. While other functions prepare a platform for action, directing
initiates action.
2. Pervasive
Function
Directing takes place at every level of the
organization. Wherever there is a superior-subordinate relationship, directing
exists as every manager provides guidance and inspiration to his subordinates.
3. Continuous
Activity
It is a continuous function as it continues throughout
the life of organization irrespective of the changes in the managers or employees.
4. Descending
Order of Hierarchy
Directing flows from a top level
of management to
the bottom level. Every manager exercises this function on his immediate
subordinate.
5. Human
Factor
Since all employees are different and behave differently
in different situations, it becomes important for the managers to tackle the
situations appropriately. Thus, directing is a significant function that gets
the work done by the employees and increases the growth of the organization.
Principles of Directing
1. Maximum
Individual Contribution
One of the main principles of directing is the
contribution of individuals. Management should adopt such
directing policies that motivate the employees to contribute their maximum
potential for the attainment of organizational goals.
2. Harmony of
Objectives
Sometimes there is a conflict between the organizational
objectives and individual objectives. For example, the organization wants
profits to increase and to retain its major share, whereas, the employees may
perceive that they should get a major share as a bonus as they have worked
really hard for it.
Here, directing has an important role to play in
establishing harmony and coordination between the objectives of both the
parties.
3. Unity of
Command
This principle states that a subordinate should receive
instructions from only one superior at a time. If he receives instructions from
more than one superiors at the same time, it will create confusion,
conflict, and disorder in the organization and also he will not be able to
prioritize his work.
4. Appropriate
Direction Technique
Among the principles of directing, this one states that
appropriate direction techniques should be used to supervise, lead, communicate
and motivate the employees based on their needs, capabilities, attitudes and
other situational variables.
5. Managerial
Communication
According to this principle, it should be seen that the
instructions are clearly conveyed to the employees and it should be ensured
that they have understood the same meaning as was intended to be communicated.
6. Use of
Informal Organization
Within every formal organization, there exists an
informal group or organization. The manager should identify those groups and
use them to communicate information. There should be a free flow of information
among the seniors and the subordinates as an effective exchange of information
are really important for the growth of an organization.
7. Leadership
Managers should possess a good leadership quality to
influence the subordinates and make them work according to their wish. It is
one of the important principles of directing.
8. Follow
Through
As per this principle, managers are required to monitor
the extent to which the policies, procedures, and instructions are followed by
the subordinates. If there is any problem in implementation, then the suitable
modifications can be made.
Leadership
Leaders and their leadership skills play an important role in the
growth of any organization. Leadership
refers to the process of influencing the
behaviour of people in a manner that they strive willingly and enthusiastically
towards the achievement of group objectives.
A leader should have the ability to maintain good interpersonal
relations with the followers or subordinates and motivate them to help in
achieving the organizational objectives.
Features
of Leadership
·
Influence the behaviour of others: Leadership is an
ability of an individual to influence the behaviour of other
employees in the organization to achieve a
common purpose or goal so that they are willingly co-operating with each other
for the fulfillment of the same.
·
Inter-personal process: It is an
interpersonal process between the leader and the followers. The relationship
between the leader and the followers decides how efficiently and effectively
the targets of the organization would be met.
·
Attainment of common organizational goals: The purpose of
leadership is to guide the people in an organization to work towards the
attainment of common organizational goals. The leader brings the people and
their efforts together to achieve common goals.
·
Continuous process: Leadership
is a continuous process. A leader has to
guide his employees every time and also
monitor them in order to make sure that their efforts are going in the same
direction and that they are not deviating from their goals.
·
Group process: It is a
group process that involves two or more people together interacting with each
other. A leader cannot lead without the followers.
·
Dependent on the situation: It is
situation bound as it all depends upon tackling the situations present. Thus,
there is no single best style of leadership
Importance
of Leadership:
·
Initiating Action: Leadership starts
from the very beginning, even before the work actually starts. A leader is a
person who communicates the policies and plans to the subordinates to start the
work.
·
Providing Motivation: A leader motivates
the employees by giving them financial and non-financial
incentives and gets the work done efficiently. Motivation is the driving
force in an individual’s life.
·
Providing guidance: A leader not only
supervises the employees but also guides them in their work. He instructs the
subordinates on how to perform their work effectively so that their efforts
don’t get wasted.
·
Creating confidence: A leader
acknowledges the efforts of the employees, explains to them their role clearly
and guides them to achieve their goals. He also resolves the complaints and
problems of the employees, thereby building confidence in them regarding the
organization.
·
Building work environment: A good leader
should maintain personal contacts with the employees and should hear their
problems and solve them. He always listens to the point of view of the
employees and in case of disagreement persuades them to agree with him by
giving suitable clarifications. In case of conflicts, he handles them carefully
and does not allow it to adversely affect the entity. A positive and efficient
work environment helps in
stable growth of the organization.
·
Co-ordination: A leader
reconciles the personal interests of the employees with the organizational
goals and achieves co-ordination in the entity.
·
Creating Successors: A leader trains
his subordinates in such a manner that they can succeed him in future easily in
his absence. He creates more leaders.
·
Induces change: A leader
persuades, clarifies and inspires employees to accept any change in the
organization without much resistance and discontentment. He makes sure that
employees don’t feel insecure about the changes.
Often,
the success of an organization is attributed to its leaders. But, one must not
forget that it’s the followers who make a leader successful by accepting
his leadership. Thus, leaders and followers
collectively play a key role to make leadership successful.
Qualities
of a Leader
·
Personality: A pleasing
personality always attracts people. A leader should also friendly and yet
authoritative so that he inspires people to work hard like
him.
·
Knowledge: A subordinate
looks up to his leader for any suggestion that he needs. A good leader should
thus possess adequate knowledge and competence in order to influence
the subordinates.
·
Integrity: A leader needs to
possess a high level of integrity and honesty. He should have a fair outlook
and should base his judgment on the facts and logic. He should be objective and
not biased.
·
Initiative: A good leader
takes initiative to grab the opportunities and not wait for them and use them
to the advantage of the organization.
·
Communication skills: A leader needs to
be a good communicator so that he can explain his ideas, policies, and
procedures clearly to the people. He not only needs to be a good speaker but
also a good listener, counsellor, and persuader.
·
Motivation skills: A leader needs
to be an effective motivator who understands the needs of the people and
motivates them by satisfying those needs.
·
Self-confidence and Will Power: A leader needs to
have a high level of self-confidence and immense will-power and should not lose
it even in the worst situations, else employees will not believe in him.
·
Intelligence: A leader needs to
be intelligent enough to analyze the pros and cons of a situation and take a
decision accordingly. He also needs to have a vision and fore-sightedness so
that he can predict the future impact of the decisions taken by him.
·
Decisiveness: A leader has to be
decisive in managing his work and should be firm on the decisions are taken by
him.
·
Social skills: A leader should
possess empathy towards others. He should also be a humanist who also helps the
people with their personal problems. He also needs to possess a sense of
responsibility and accountability because with great authority comes great
responsibility.
Incentives
The incentive is a positive motivational
influence on a person that helps improve his performance. Thus, it can be
said that all the measures taken by the management to improve the performance
of its employees are incentives. The incentives can be broadly classified as
financial incentives and non-financial incentives.
Financial Incentives
In today’s socio-economic condition money has become a very
important part of our lives. We need money to satisfy almost all our needs as
it has purchasing power. Thus, financial incentives
refer to those incentives which are in direct monetary form i.e. money or can be measured in
monetary terms.
Financial incentives can be provided on an individual or
group basis and satisfy the monetary and future security needs of individuals.
The most commonly used financial incentives are:
(a) Pay and
Allowances
Salary is the basic incentive for every employee to work
efficiently for an organization. Salary includes basic pay, dearness allowance,
house rent allowance, and similar other allowances. Under the salary system,
employees are given increments in basic pay every year and also an increase in
their allowances from time-to-
(b) Bonus
It is a sum of money offered to an employee over and
above the salary or wages as a reward for his good performance.
(c)
Productivity linked Wage Incentives
Many wage incentives are linked with the increase in productivity
at individual or group level. For example, a worker is paid 50 rupees per piece
if he produces 50 pieces a day but if he produces more than 50 pieces a day, he
is paid 5 rupees extra per piece. Thus, on the 51st piece, he will be paid 55
rupees.
(d)
Profit-Sharing
Sometimes the employees are given a share in the profits of the
organization. This motivates them to perform efficiently and give their best to
increase the profits of the organization.
(e) Retirement
Benefits
Retirement benefits like gratuity, pension, provident
fund, leave encashment, etc. provide financial security to the employees
post their retirement. Thus, they work properly when they are in service.
(f) Stock
Options or Co-partnership
Under the Employees Stock Option Plan, the employee is
offered the ordinary shares of the company at a price lower than its market
price for a specified period of time. These are non-standardized offers and
shares are issued as a private contract between the employer and employee.
These are generally offered to management as a part of their managerial
compensation package.
Allotment of shares induces a feeling of ownership in
the employees and they give their best to the company. Infosys, GoDaddy and The
Cheesecake Factory are some of the companies that have implemented the scheme
of the stock option.
(g) Commission
Some organizations offer a commission in addition to the
salary to employees for fulfilling the targets extremely well. This incentive
encourages the employees to increase the client base of the organization.
(h)
Perquisites
Several organizations offer perquisites and fringe
benefits such as accommodation, car allowance, medical facilities, education
facilities, recreational facilities, etc. in addition to the salary and
allowances to its employees. These incentives also motivate the employees to
work efficiently
Non-Financial Incentives
Apart from the monetary and future security needs,
an individual also has psychological, social and emotional needs.
Satisfying these needs also plays an important role in their motivation. Non-financial incentives focus
mainly on the fulfillment of these needs and thus cannot be measured in terms
of money.
However, there are chances that a particular
non-financial incentive may also involve the financial incentive as well. For
example, when a person is promoted his psychological needs are fulfilled as he
gets more authority, his status increases but at the same time, he has
benefitted monetarily also as he gets a rise in salary. The most common
non-financial incentives are:
(a) Status
With reference to an organization, status refers to the
position in the hierarchy of the organizational chart. The level of authority, responsibility,
recognition, salary, perks, etc. determine the status of an employee in the
organization.
A person at the top level management has more authority,
responsibility, recognition and salary and vice-versa. Status satisfies the
self-esteem and psychological needs of an individual and in turn, motivates him
to work hard.
(b)
Organizational Climate
Organizational climate refers to the environmental
characteristics of an organization that are perceived by its employees about
the organization and have a major influence on their behavior. Each
organization has a different organizational climate that distinguishes it from
other organizations.
Some of the factors that influence the organizational
climate of an enterprise are organizational structure, individual
responsibility, rewards, risk and risk-taking, warmth and support and tolerance
and conflict. When the organizational climate is positive employees tend to be
more motivated.
(c) Career
Advancement Opportunity
It is very important for an organization to have an
appropriate skill development program and a sound promotion policy for its
employees which works as a booster for them to perform well and get promoted.
Every employee desires growth in an organization and
when he gets promotion as an appreciation of his work he is motivated to work
better.
(d) Job
Enrichment
It refers to the designing of jobs in such a way that it
involves a higher level of knowledge and skill, a variety of work content, more
autonomy and responsibility of employees, meaningful work experience and more
opportunities of growth. When the job is interesting, it itself serves as a
source of motivation.
(e) Job Security
Job security provides future stability and a sense of
security among the employees. The employees are not worried about the future
and thus work with more enthusiasm. Owing to the unemployment problem in our
country, job security works as a great incentive for the employees. However,
there is also a negative aspect of this incentive that employees tend to take
their job for granted and not work efficiently.
(f) Employee
Recognition Programmes
Recognition means acknowledgment and appreciation of
work done by employees. Recognition in the organization boosts their
self-esteem and they feel motivated. For example, declaring the best performer
of the week or month, displaying their names on the notice board and giving
them rewards, fall under the Employee recognition program.
(g) Employee
Participation
Involving the employees in decision making regarding the
issues related to them such as canteen committees, work committees, etc. also
helps in motivating them and inducing a sense of belongingness in them.
(h) Employee
Empowerment
Giving more autonomy and powers to subordinates also
make them feel that they are important to the organization and in turn they
serve the organization better.
