People and organisation: human resources, motivation, leadership and organisational structure
Domain 6 - People and organisation
Cases ask you to diagnose a people problem (turnover, low motivation, coordination failure) and prescribe an HR or structural fix that matches the theory you name. Marks hinge on the link between diagnosis and prescription.
Core rules and concepts
- HRM cycle: workforce planning, recruitment (internal promotion versus external), selection, induction, training, performance appraisal, compensation and dismissal.
- Maslow: physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualisation; only unmet needs motivate at a given time.
- Herzberg two-factor: hygiene factors (salary, conditions, policy, supervision) prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate; motivators (achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth) drive effort.
- McGregor: Theory X assumes workers avoid responsibility; Theory Y assumes commitment and self-direction - the assumption shapes management style.
- Vroom expectancy: motivation = expectancy × instrumentality × valence; any factor at zero kills motivation.
- Adams equity: employees compare their input/outcome ratio with referents; perceived inequity produces reduced effort, complaint or exit.
- Leadership: trait, behavioural, contingency (situational leadership adjusts style to follower maturity); transactional (exchange and rewards) versus transformational (vision, individual consideration).
- Structure: functional (specialisation, silos), divisional (product or market focus, duplicated functions), matrix (dual authority, conflict), flat (wide span of control).
Worked example
A regional bakery sells three product lines through shops in four countries and suffers slow decisions and duplicated marketing. Diagnosis: a functional structure cannot cope with simultaneous product and country complexity. Prescription: divisional structure by product, with country managers reporting into the divisions. State the trade-off: finance and marketing are duplicated, raising costs, and dual reporting lines must be clarified so accountability stays single.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling salary a motivator - under Herzberg it is a hygiene factor.
- Presenting Maslow's order as empirically proven for every worker.
- Confusing leadership (direction, vision) with management (planning, control).
- Praising a matrix for coordination while omitting its cost and authority conflicts.
- Describing a structure without linking it to strategy, size or environment.