Directing Meaning and Definition of Directing

Nature and Characteristics of Directing

Principles of Directing
Motivational Concepts
Motivational Theories

Meaning and Definition of Directing

Directing is said to be a process in which the managers instruct, guide and oversee
the performance of the workers to achieve predetermined goals. Directing is said to
be the heart of management process. Planning, organizing, staffing have got no
importance if direction function does not take place. Directing initiates action and it
is from here actual work starts. Direction is said to be consisting of human factors.
In simple words, it can be described as providing guidance to workers is doing work.
In field of management, direction is said to be all those activities which are
designed to encourage the subordinates to work effectively and efficiently.
According to Human, Directing consists of process or technique by which
instruction can be issued and operations can be carried out as originally planned
Therefore, Directing is the function of guiding, inspiring, overseeing and instructing
people towards accomplishment of organizational goals.
Directing means giving instructions, guiding, counselling, motivating and leading
the staff in an organisation in doing work to achieve Organisational goals. Directing
is a key managerial function to be performed by the manager along with planning,
organising, staffing and controlling. From top executive to supervisor performs the
function of directing and it takes place accordingly wherever superior subordinate
relations exist. Directing is a continuous process initiated at top level and flows to
the bottom through organisational hierarchy.
It is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods to
work efficiently for achievement of organizational purposes. It is considered lifespark of the enterprise which sets it in motion the action of people because
planning, organizing and staffing are the mere preparations for doing the work.
Direction is that inert-personnel aspect of management which deals directly with
influencing, guiding, supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement of
organizational goals.

Direction has following elements:

Supervision
Motivation
Leadership
Communication

(i) Supervision- implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors. It is

the act of watching & directing work & workers.
(ii) Motivation- means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the subordinates with zeal to work. Positive, negative, monetary, non-monetary
incentives may be used for this purpose.
(iii) Leadership- may be defined as a process by which manager guides and
influences the work of subordinates in desired direction.
(iv) Communications- is the process of passing information, experience, opinion etc
from one person to another. It is a bridge of understanding.

Direction has got following characteristics:

1. Pervasive Function - Directing is required at all levels of organization. Every
manager provides guidance and inspiration to his subordinates.
2. Continuous Activity - Direction is a continuous activity as it continuous throughout
the life of organization.
3. Human Factor - Directing function is related to subordinates and therefore it is
related to human factor. Since human factor is complex and behaviour is
unpredictable, direction function becomes important.
4. Creative Activity - Direction function helps in converting plans into performance.
Without this function, people become inactive and physical resources are
meaningless.

5. Executive Function - Direction function is carried out by all managers and

executives at all levels throughout the working of an enterprise, a subordinate
receives instructions from his superior only.
6. Delegate Function - Direction is supposed to be a function dealing with human
beings. Human behaviour is unpredictable by nature and conditioning the peoples
behaviour towards the goals of the enterprise is what the executive does in this
function. Therefore, it is termed as having delicacy in it to tackle human behaviour.

Nature and Characteristics of Directing

Directing is characterized by the following distinguishing features:
1. Element of management. Directing is one of the important functions of
management. It is through direction that management initiates action in the
organization.
2. Continuing function. Direction is continuous process and it continues throughout
the life of an organization. A manager never ceases to guide, inspire and supervise
his subordinates. A manager can not get things done simply by issuing orders and
instruction. He must continually provide motivation and leadership to get the orders
and instructions executed.
3. Pervasive function. Direction initiates at the top and follows right up to the
bottom of an organization. Every manager in the organization gives direction to his
subordinates as superior and receives direction as subordinates from his superior.
Direction function is performed at every level of management and in every
department of the organization.
4. Creative function. Direction makes things happen and converts plans into
performance it is the process around which all performance revolves. Without
direction, human forces in an organization become inactive and consequently
physical factors become useless. It breathes life into organization.
5. Linking function. Planning, organizing and staffing are merely preparation for
doing the work and work actually starts when managers perform the directing
function. Direction puts plans into an action and provides performance for
measurement and control. In this way, directing serves as a connecting link
between planning and control.
6. Management of human factor. Direction is the interpersonal aspects of
management. It deals with the human aspect of organization. Human behavior is

very dynamic and is conditioned by a complex of forces about which not much is
known. Therefore, direction is a very difficult and challenging function.

Principles of Directing
Directing is a complex function as it deals with people whose behaviour is
unpredictable. Effective direction is an art which a manager can learn and perfect
through practice. However, managers can follow the following principles while
directing their subordinates.
1. Harmony of objectives. Individuals join the organization to satisfy their
physiological and psychological needs. They are expected to work for the
achievement of organizational objectives. They will perform their tasks better if they
feel that it will satisfy their personal goals. Therefore, mar agreement should
reconcile the personal goals of employees with the organizational goals.
2. Maximum individual contribution. Organizational objectives are achieved at the
optimum level when every individual in the organization makes maximum
contribution towards them. Managers should, therefore, try to elicit maximum
possible contribution from each subordinate.
3. Unity of command. A subordinate should get orders and instruction from one
superior only. If he is made accountable to two bosses simultaneously, there will be
confusion, conflict, disorder and indiscipline in the organization. Therefore, every
subordinate should be asked to report to only one manager.
4. Appropriate techniques. The manager should use correct direction techniques to
ensure efficiently of direction. The technique used should be suitable to the
superior, the subordinates and the situation.
5. Direct supervision. Direction becomes more effective when there is a direct
personal contact between the superior and his subordinates. Such contact improves
the morale and commitment of the employees. Therefore, whenever possible direct
supervision should be used.
6. Managerial communication. A good system of communication between the
superior and his subordinates helps to improve mutual understanding. Upwards
communication helps a manager to understand the subordinates to express their
feeling.

Motivational Concepts
Concept of Motivation:Technically, the term motivation can be traced to Latin word Movere,
which means 'to move'. In order to understand the concept of motivation,
we have to examine three terms: motive, motivating and motivation and
their relationship.

Motive:Based on the Latin word Movere, motive (need) has been defined as follows:
according to Bernard Berelson and Garry A. Steiner, " A motive is an inner state that
energizes, activates, or moves (hence motivation), and that directs behavior
towards goals."
Motive has also been defined by Fillmore H. Sanford and Larence S. Wrights man as,
"A motive is restlessness, a lack, a yen, a force. Once in the grip of a motive an
organism does something to reduce restlessness, to remedy the lack, to alleviate
the yen, to mitigate the force."
Here, we can differentiate between needs and wants. While needs are more
comprehensive and include desires- both physiological and psychological, wants are
expressed in narrow sense and include only those desires for which a person has
money and also the desire to spend the money to satisfy the wants. There are many
psychological needs, like social needs, recognition needs etc. which does not fall
under the category of wants.

Motivating:Motivating is a term which implies that one person (in the organizational context, a
manager) includes another, (say, employee) to engage in action (work behaviour)
by ensuring that a channel to satisfy the motive becomes available and accessible
to the individual. In addition to channelizing the strong motives in a direction that is
satisfying to both organization and employees, the manager can also activate the
latent motives in individuals and harness them in a manager that would be funtional
for the organization.

Motivation:While motive is energizer of action, motivating is the channelization and activation

of motives, motivation is the work behavior itself. Motivation depends on motives
and motivating, therefore, it becomes a complex process. For example, Dublin has
defined motivation as follows: "Motivation is the complex force starting and keeping
a person at work in an organization. Motivation is something that moves a person to
action, and continues him in the course of action already initiated."
According to McFarland, "Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives,
desires, aspirations, striving, or needs direct, control, or explains the behavior of
human beings."

The Incentive Theory of Motivation

A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of an action (i.e.
behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to occur again. This is done by
associating positive meaning to the behavior. Studies show that if the person
receives the reward immediately, the effect would be greater, and decreases as
duration lengthens. Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action to
become habit. Motivation comes from two things: you, and other people. There is
extrinsic motivation, which comes from others, and intrinsic motivation, which
comes from within you.
Rewards can also be organized as extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic rewards are
external to the person; for example, praise or money. Intrinsic rewards are internal
to the person; for example, satisfaction or a feeling of accomplihment.
Some authors distinguish between two forms of intrinsic motivation: one based on
enjoyment, the other on obligation. In this context, obligation refers to motivation
based on what an individual thinks ought to be done. For instance, a feeling of
responsibility for a mission may lead to helping others beyond what is easily
observable, rewarded, or fun.
A reinforcer is different from reward, in that reinforcement is intended to create a
measured increase in the rate of a desirable behavior following the addition os
something to the environment.

Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation occurs when people engage in an activity, such as a hobby,
without obvious external incentives. This form of motivation has been studied by
social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that
it is usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by
students. Intrinsic motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider's attribution
theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy, and Ryan and Deci's cognitive evaluation
theory. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:
attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the
amount of effort they put in),
believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are
not determined by luck),
are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good
grades.
In knowledge-sharing communites and organizations, people often cite altruistic
reasons for their participation, including contributing to a common good, a moral
obligation to the group, mentorship or 'giving back'. In work environments, money
may provide a more powerful extrinsic factor than the intrinsic motivation provided
by an enjoyable workplace.

In terms of sports, intrinsic motivation is the motivation that comes from inside the
performer. That is, the athelete competes for the love of the sport.

Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the performer. Money is the most
obvious example, but coercion and threat of punishment are also common extrinsic
motivations.
In sports, the crowd may cheer the performer on, and this motivates him or her to
do well. Trophies are also extrinsic incentives. Competition is often extrinsic because
it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic
rewards of the activity.
Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to over
justification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation.

Motivational Theories
Drive Reduction Theories
There are number of drive theories. The Drive Reduction Theory grows out of the
concept that we have certain biological needs, such as hunger. As time passes the
strength of the drive increases as it is not satisfied. Then as we satisfy that drive by
fulfilling its desire, such as eating, the drive's strength is reduced. It is based on the
theories of Freud and the idea of feedback control systems, such as a thermostat.
There are several problems, however, that leave the validity of the Drive Reduction
Theory open for debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how Secondary
Reinforcers reduce drive. For example, money does not satisfy any biological or
psychological need but reduces drive on a regular basis through a pay check
second-order conditioning. Secondly, if the drive reduction theory held true we
would not be able to explain how a hungry human being can prepare a meal without
eating the food before they finished cooking it.
However, when comparing this to real life situation such as preparing food, one
does not get hungrier as the food is being made (drive increases), and after the
food has been consumed the drive decreases. The only reason the food does not
get eaten before is the human element of restraint and has nothing to do with drive
theory. Also, the food will either be nicer after it is cooked, or it won't be edible at all
before it is cooked.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Suggested by Leon Festinger, this occurs when an individual experiences some
degree of discomfort resulting from an incompatibility between two cognitions. For
example, a consumer may seek to reassure himself regarding a purchase, feeling, in
retrospect, that another decision may have been preferable.
Another example of cognitive dissonance is when a belief and a behaviour are in
conflict. A person may wish to be healthy, believes smoking is bad for one's health,
and yet continues to smoke.

Affective-Arousal Theories
Need Achievement Theory

David McClelland's achievement motivation theory envisions that a person has a

need for three things, but differs in degrees to which the various needs influence
their behavior: Need for achievement, Need for power, and Need for affiliation.

Interest Theory
Holland Codes are used in the assessment of interests as in Vocational Preference
Inventory (VPI; Holland, 1985). One way to look at interests is that if a person has
strong interest in one of the six Holland areas, then obtaining outcomes in that area
will be strongly reinforcing relative to obtaining outcomes in areas of weak interest.

Need Theories
Need Hierarchy Theory
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs theory is the one of the most widely
discussed theories of motivation.
The theory can be summarized as follows:
Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviour: Only
unsatisfied needs influence behavior, satisfied needs do not.
Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to
the complex.

The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is
at least minimally satisfied.
The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and
psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest, earliest) to most complex (highest, latest) are
as follows:
Physiological
Safety
belongingness
Esteem
Self actualization

Herzberg's two-factor theory

Fredrick Herzberg's two-factor theory, aka intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, concludes
that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, but if absent, lead to
dissatisfaction.
He distinguished between:
Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive
satisfaction, and
Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe benefits) that do not
motivate if present, but, if absent, result in demotivation.
The name Hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence will not make
you healthier, but absence can cause health deterioration.
The theory is sometimes called the "Motivator-Hygiene Theory."

Alderfer's ERG theory

Clayton Alderfer, expanding on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, created the ERG theory
(existence, relatedness and growth). Physiological and safety, the lower order
needs, are placed in the existence category, while love and self esteem needs are
placed in the relatedness category. The growth category contains our selfactualization and self-esteem needs.

Self-determination theory
Self-determinaation theory, developed by Edward Deci and Rihcard Ryan, focuses
on the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving human behavior. Like Maslow's
hierarchial theory and others that built on it, SDT posits a natural tendency toward
growth and development. Unlike these other theories, however, SDT does not
include any sort of "autopilot" for achievement, but instead requires active
encouragement from the environment. The primary factors that encourage
motivation and development are autonomy, competence feedback, and relatedness.

Broad Theories

The latest approach in Achievement Motivation is an integrative perspective as lined

out in the "Onion-Ring-Model of Achievment Motivation" by Heinz Schuler, George C.
Thornton III, Andreas Frintrup and Rose Mueller-Hanson. It is based on the premise
that performance motivation results from way broad components of personality are
directed towards performance. As a result, it includes a range of dimensions that
are relevant to success at work but which are not conventionally regarded as being
part of performance motivation. Especially it integrates formerly separated
approaches as Need for Achievement with e.g. social motives like Dominance. The
Achievement Motivation Inventory AMI (Schuler, Thornton, Frintrup & MuellerHanson, 2003) is based on this theory and assesses three factors (17 separated
scales) relevant to vocational and professional success.

Cognitive theories
Goal-setting theory
Goal-setting theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes have a drive
to reach a clearly defined end state. Often, this end state is a reward in itself. A
goal's efficiency is affected by three features: proximity, difficulty and specificity. An
ideal goal should present a situation where the time between the initiation of
behaviour and the end state is close. This explains why some children are more
motivated to learn how to ride a bike than mastering algebra. A goal should be
moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most people are not
optimally motivated, as many want a challenge (which assumes some kind of
insecurity of success). At the same time people want to feel that there is a
substantial probability that they will succeed. Specificity concerns the description of
the goal in their class. The goal should be objectively defined and intelligible for the
individual. A classic example of a poorly specified goal is to get the highest possible
grade. Most children have no idea how much effort they need to reach that goal.

Unconscious motivation
Some psychologists believe that a significant portion of human behaviour is
energized and directed by unconscious motives. According to Maslow,
"Psychoanalysis has often demonstrated that the relationship between a conscious
desire and the ultimate unconscious aim that underlies it need not be at all direct."
In other words, stated motives do not always match those inferred by skilled
observers. For example, it is possible that a person can be accident-prone because
he has an unconscious desire to hurt himself and not because he is careless or
ignorant of the safety rules. Similarly, some overweight peoples are not hungry at

all for food but for attention and love. Eating is merely a defensive reaction to lack
of attention. Some workers damage more equipment than others do because they
harbour unconscious feelins of aggression toward authority figures.
Psychotherapists point out that some behavior is so automatic that the reasons for
it are not available in the individual's conscious mind. Compulsive cigarette smoking
is an example. Sometimes maintaining self-esteem is so important and the motive
for an activity is so threatening that it is simply not recognized and, in fact, may be
disguised or repressed. Rationalization, or "explaining away", is one such disguise,
or defense mechanism, as it is called. Another is projecting or attributing one's own
faults to others. "I feel I am to blame", becomes "It is her fault; she is selfish".
Repression of powerful but socially unacceptable motives may result in outward
behaviour that is the opposite of the repressed tendencies. An example of this
would be the employee who hates his boss but overworks himself on the job to
show that he holds him in high regard.
unconscious motives add to the hazards of interpreting human behavior and, to the
extent that they are present, complicate the life of the administrator. On the other
hand, knowledge that unconscious motives exist can lead to a more careful
assessment of behavioral problems. Although few contemporary psychologists deny
the existence of unconscious factors, many do believe that these are activated only
in times of anxiety and stress, and that in the ordinary course of events, human
behavior - from the subject's point of view - is rationally purposeful.