Identifying sources of employee(s) satisfaction.

LOWER LEVEL NEEDS	HIGHER LEVEL NEEDS
Conditions: Reasonable hours, work pleasant environment and adequate equipment. “I approve of the physical working conditions”.	Job Interest: Satisfaction from actual job content and its execution “I like the kind of work that I do”
Supervision: Immediate empowerment and encouragement. “I like the way I am treated by those who supervise me.	Achievement: Motivation to reach targets, to perform tasks at high levels of effectiveness. “I feel I achieve company goals in my work”
Security: Confidence in the company feeling belonging to the company. “I feel good about the future of the company”	Commitment: Feeling pleased to belong to the company and identifying with it. “I am proud I work for this company”.
Management: Good management methods. “I think management makes necessary changes to be competitive.”	Responsibility: Fair and stretching individual tasks and rewards. “I welcome the amount of work I am expected to do here”.
Communication: Full awareness of company plans and involvement in planning. “I understand the company’s strategy”.	Identification: I understand how I fit into the overall plan of the company. “I see how my how work connects in the company’s strategies”.

Open Communication

To understand employees’ attitudes you should open all channels through which employees communicate. Learn to listen and understand what employees mean by what they say and do, and look out for other communication signals and cues such as body language.

Through listening, hearing and understanding what is being communicated, you and your staff can both benefit, both gain greater insight into each others points of view and both exchange useful ideas about how the organisation can be improved. When staff feel that their views are heard, they will respond more positively and openly resulting in increased commitment and ownership of their work.

As a manager you should consider how you listen to your staff. Do you interrupt frequently or cut your staff short to make your point to them? You must work hard to understand employees’ attitudes by careful listening, questioning and giving staff opportunities to express themselves.

Advice for Managers

1 As manager you should ask open questions that encourage total honesty from your staff,

2 You must give ample opportunity for staff to express their feelings and views without fear.

3 You must encourage and reward constructive behaviour and achievements of employees.

4 You should keep asking questions until you understand what employee(s) mean(s) or say(s).

5 You must practise reading employees’ body language. 17.

Body language is the term for the unconscious physical movements that we all make to communicate thoughts and feelings. Interpreting body language correctly is a complex art but you can easily learn how to read broad body language messages.

For example:

1 An open and relaxed posture and good eye contact (in western people) indicate that a person is comfortable with themselves and with what they are saying or hearing. A tense posture, with arms crossed and little eye contact (in western people) can indicate evasiveness, suppressed anger or disagreement.

2 Leaning forwards when seated can indicate interest or agreement, while leaning back can indicate lack of interest or resistance.

3 You should be aware of these signs in yourself as well as in others in order to be able to interpret body language appropriately in different cultures.

4 Learning the “unspoken language” of a culture is often as important as learning to speak a foreign language as many politicians or diplomats have discovered.

Cultural faux-pas can be very amusing, but they can also be very insulting Novak, N., Living Language, Ed. by Suffredin, A, Random House, 1998 p15-16. “… Russians tend to stand very close. If their Western business friend or colleague steps back to establish his or her comfort distance level, the Russian will often step closer again, to close the gap between them. The Russian can thus get the impression that the American (Westerner) is unfriendly.

Building Confidence in Business Activities:

In many organisations most people suffer from insecurity and other kinds of anxiety that affect them. You should remember that some people can conceal their insecurity and anxiety better than others; BUT DO NOT BE DECEIVED because everyone needs to be told that they are performing well, that they are respected for what they are and for what they have done. Praise is a very effective and economic way of improving confidence; but you must make sure that praise is deserved, and you must suit the method of praise to the circumstances.

You must bolster the confidence of all individual staff, especially new staff, by allowing everyone to speak in turn during meetings. Encourage your staff to believe in their own abilities by giving them additional tasks – for example, ask them to serve on new committees or to tackle new issues.

You should not accept a response such as “I am not good at that”, because this response is usually an unconscious excuse for not to do something.

Always remember that employees sometimes suffer from many different types of fears: such as fear of personal failure, fear that the organisation will fail or be taken over, fear that jobs will disappear through reorganization or fear of the consequences of change.

As manager you should sometimes accept that such fears are genuine; but, as an informed, progressive, knowledgeable manager, you should know that such fears can only be dealt with by full, frank, open and honest communication with individuals or groups concerned.

Advice for managers

1 Drive out fear and you will find that trust, optimism and enthusiasm will become the work culture of your organisation 18.

2 Avoid giving false reassurances – be frank and honest even if the news is bad, that way you will gain the trust of your staff even in difficult situations.

3 Immediately go to the rescue if employees show that the tasks are beyond their capability.

4 An employee exhibiting defensive body language and negative attitude could be insecure.

5 Insist on employees working together and communicating freely and openly with each other.

6 Remember that stepping back gives you a break and helps your staff to build confidence.

7 Always avoid uncertainty because uncertainty can cause low morale.

8 It is always better to inform employees about company developments quickly and honestly.

9 NB letting your own insecurity show will infect your staff team. You must always appear confident because there is no business organisation without difficulties or problems.

Communicating Clearly 20.

Highly organised or haphazard (unorganised) communication happens all the time in many organisations. As a progressive effective manager it is not possible for you to communicate too much, because you should know when, what, why and how to communicate openly and honestly all the times at all times.

However, some managers like to hide away behind closed office doors keeping contact with their staff to a minimum.

It is far much better for a manager to keep the office door open and to encourage staff to visit. As a progressive manager you should talk the talk and walk the walk.

Contact is made easier by open-plan work spaces. That is why multi-millionaire managers in the Slicon valley in the USA have abandoned the executive office; they now work on desks in open-plan offices. Open plan offices encourage communication and team spirit, and they also make the manager more accessible to staff most of the time.

If you have not talked to a member of staff for some time, make sure you do so, because the more staff see, know and talk to you, the better working relationships will be in your company.

Advice to managers

1 Keep all appointments with members of staff regardless of their status level in your company.

2 Make sure you talk to or acknowledge members of staff as often as you can.

3 On outside visits talk to everyone and not just the boss.

4 Make an effort to meet and talk to your staff rather than using the telephone.

5 Go out of your way to chat informally, thus eliminating bossism and distance

6 Split large working units into several smaller ones with close links to each other.

7 Unchecked bureaucracies can severely impede communication causing low staff morale.

8 Revamp manuals and forms of instructions that are important for company use.

9 Consider one to one communications instead of memos and written instructions.

10 Ask customers for both suggestions and complaints about your company products/services.

11 Use new technology to communicate immediately and more effectively with customers.

12 Act swiftly to deny any inaccurate damaging grapevine rumours about your company.

13 Ensure meetings have a purpose and are attended by people concerned with the meetings.

Question to ask your self as a Manager

1 Do I send messages that are well received and understood by the intended recipient(s)?

2 Do key customers think that I spend enough time visiting them, are my visits productive?

3 Do I end meetings before staff or other people say what they want to say?

4 Do I hear damaging rumours in good time in order to dispel them?

5 Do I meet everyone that I should meet everyday/week/month or every year etc?