The manager’s role is to organise resources and employees to achieve the best results for an organisation. How a manager perceives his employees however will greatly affect his skill at motivating staff and getting the best out of them. Consider these two approaches below.
The pessimistic manager
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
This attitude towards management and employees assumes that people at work are motivated firstly by money closely followed by basic security needs.
In order to control employees the pessimistic management may rely coercion, threats and tight control command and conquer. Alternatively the pessimistic manager could be passive and simply hope for cooperation. Neither of these solutions are productive styles of management. The first will result in hostility, employees may purposely under perform, and workers may unite in opposition to management. The second approach does not motivate at all, it may encourage apathy.
Looking at Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy one would assume that once a need is satisfied it no longer motivates. Therefore this management style hinders the satisfaction of higher-level needs. More money becomes the only form of motivation. Employees will use work to satisfy their basic needs only; their higher needs will have to be fulfilled elsewhere. As we will see later - employees can be most productive when their work goals align with their higher level needs.
As command and control environments rely on lower needs for motivation, needs that are usually met with or without responsibility, enthusiasm or creativity, and as such promotes an environment where employees dislike their work, avoid responsibility, have no interest in organizational goals, resist change, etc., thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Optimistic Manager
Maslow’s Hierarchy looks at mans basic needs for survival, needs that are most often easily met in the developed countries. Managers should also be interested in higher-level needs, needs that are continuing needs as in seldom completely satisfied, such as self esteem and self actualisation. As these needs are on going and not so easily attained, the promise of such can more easily be used to motivate and reward employees.
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
Here there is an opportunity to align organisational goals with personal goals by using higher needs such as self fulfilment as a motivator.
There may be employees that are not as responsive when offered the promise of higher need fulfilment. There may be employees that will still need a level of control to make them productive. They may however develop as they work in an environment that encourages responsibility and creativity and control can be relaxed as employees develop.
For more information about Higher Needs see
This Management Skills for New Managers course is aimed at recently appointed Managers. Using real world scenarios it covers the skills required to make the adjustment from working alongside your colleagues to managing and motivating them to work for you.
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