ORG716 Organizational Theory And Design Is An Essay.

The millennial or the Generation Y individuals are those who had their major surge in birth rates during the years between 1980 and 1990 (Bolton et al., 2013). This population is being marked by increased use of the media, communications and the various digital technologies. The selected organization for this study is Amazon.com Inc., which employs a wide number of millennial in their workplaces (Amazon.com, 2017). They should employ a variety of organizational motivational tools to enhance the millennial productivity in the organization. Amazon.com is one of the biggest American cloud computing companies, with its headquarters in Seattle. The firm is said to be the one of the largest Internet retailers in terms of market capitalization and revenues (Amazon.com, 2017).

This essay would discuss about the major application of the leadership traits that are required to motivate as well as influence the millennial working in the company. Their behavioral styles would be analyzed along with the company specified information related to motivating employees.  

The millennial are the first generation in the history, which has grown up in a highly digitalized world (Bolton et al., 2013). This has shaped their identities to a large extent and their social, political and cultural identities have also been impacted. They are considered as the most education generation in the history of mankind. They perceive that education is imperative for getting good career growth and also for climbing the career ladder. The millennial are also considered to be the most technologically savvy generation who have a habit to flaunt their digital assets (Bolton et al., 2013). They also like to keep themselves technologically updated and hence they have mostly embraced the new technology. They are conscious and they are global citizens who strive to make world a better place (Bolton et al., 2013). However, despite the fact that they are technological savvy, they are not good team players. This generation relies on workplace flexibility and they are more likely to quit jobs in which there is lack of job flexibility (Curley, 2016).

A good leader has the intrinsic capability of continuous investment in their people so that they are motivated to give the best performance. The leaders understand the fact that motivation level is associated with exceptional levels of employee involvement (Aruna & Anitha, 2015). There can be various high involvement activities such as decision-making, information sharing, chances of enhancing job responsibilities and others. The leader should have good people management skills as he needs to work with a variety of people. When the employees would be subjected to the various high-involvement options, then there would be a sharp increase on their voluntary participation rates (Aruna & Anitha, 2015). The degree of employee motivation is directly proportional to the rate of their contribution in the organization. One of the most important leadership attribute is projecting positive attitude as far as the different organizational activities are concerned. When the employees of the organization witness a positive attitude in their supervisors regarding the various project completion as well as day to day tasks, they feel motivated to work in the organization (Aruna & Anitha, 2015).

The trait theory of leadership defines the fact that the leadership attributes are in-born and there are certain characteristics that make an effective leader (Gilbert, Horsman & Kelloway, 2016). The born leaders have unique qualities that make them effective leaders. Amazon has some of the world’s finest leaders working in their organizations. Some of the most common characteristics of the leaders working in the company are good cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, charisma, honesty/integrity, drive for motivation and others (Northouse, 2015). They not only possess these skills themselves but they also like to pass on the knowledge to others (especially the millennial) (Gilbert, Horsman & Kelloway, 2016). They also possess the ability to present clear goals, which are important for directing the millennial in a better way. There are times when this section of the population needs to be given clear objectives, work pattern and team expectations so that they can give their optimum performance.

The leaders in Amazon displays democratic leadership styles in which the leader consults his team and asks for their viewpoints (if any) before arriving at a business decision (Chemers, 2014). This is one of the most common ways of motivating the millennial since they feel that their viewpoints are being valued in the workplace. They also feel good as their opinions are being heard and they feel that they are an important part of the organization. This also makes the employees to feel more content in the decision choices and there are less chances of conflict in the organization.

Amazon emphasizes on the fact that the leaders should know how to reward and praise their subordinates (Gilbert, Horsman & Kelloway, 2016). They know how to encourage the team to work harder and this is done in front of all the employees so that they are motivated. The leaders should reward them and appreciate them in front of all members (Giltinane, 2013). This would give the younger workforce better recognition in the organization, which would lead to greater motivation.

There are certain motivational tools that are being used by Amazon. The organizational culture ensures that the employees are being able to give their optimum performance (Vann, Coleman & Simpson, 2014). They make the organizational culture meaningful and energizing so that the millennial feel motivated. It is also important to empower the millennial generation so that they feel inspired. The leaders need to underline the importance of the job descriptions of the employees so that they assume that they are adding value to the workplaces. When the employees feel that they are responsible for the organizational success, then they are automatically inclined to perform better (Gilbert, Horsman & Kelloway, 2016). These are helpful in removing the stagnation as well as risk aversion, which would lead to higher business success.

Amazon believes in the fact that if they are able to make the employees feel special and like owners, then they would be highly motivated (Taxman et al., 2015). This thought has been carried forward by the fact that there would be mass hiring options over the past few months. The company has used the “stock options” in recruitment which has resulted the company to retain the most talented employees. The company has compared the compensation to the various stock options (Gilbert, Horsman & Kelloway, 2016). The workers have felt a sense of belonging as they are associated with the company’s bonus, stock and profit-sharing.

One of the important tasks of the leaders is to ensure employee satisfaction so that they are motivated to give better output in the future (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). Amazon makes sure that the employees are happy in the workplace and tries to resolve any issues which prevent them to be satisfied in the workplace. The organizational leaders try to influence the employees by defining values, shared vision and well-defined culture. If the employees are not able to understand their goal, then they would not be able to push their limits (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). It is important to have a better understanding of the best fit within the organization. The leaders agree that the organizational recruitment policies should be proper in order to ensure best fit of the prospective employees (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). Amazon’s leaders ensure that they get a steady source of information from the front-line staff. This helps the leaders to make wise decisions regarding organizational matters and avoid organizational blind spots (Parker, 2014). This also helps the leaders to take appropriate steps in case there are any problems or issues in the organization.

The transformational form of leadership strives to gain compliance by modifying others so that they can support each other and the overall organization (Tyssen, Wald & Spieth, 2014). The followers of such kind of such leaders instigate the process by incorporating different values such as admiration, trust, respect and loyalty. The transformational leaders should understand the fact that the millennial are not inclined towards teamwork and like to work on their own (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). This attribute of them should be transformed so that they are more interested in doing team work. If there is an increase in the team work of the organization, then there would be better prospective of organizational success.

Odumeru and Ogbonna (2013) opined that the transactional leaders can highly affect the extrinsic motivation of the millennial. In Amazon, the transactional leaders use contingent rewards to modify the employee’s expectancy of the outcome of the job. They use to negotiate with the various short term goals which act as a value addition to the employees (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). This value addition helps in enhancing the motivation level of the employees as they have an achievable goal now. This also makes them to work tirelessly towards the successful work completion.

The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is concerned with motivation expectations of the employees and how it is related to the employee engagement (Lester, 2013). The five layers of the theory focus on various kinds of needs such as survival or physiological, safety, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization. The physiological needs comprise of the basic needs of human beings such as food, water, warmth and rest while the safety needs are concerned with security and safety. The esteem needs comprise of the needs of prestige and accomplishment, which implies that if the employees get these, they would be motivated (Sniukas, Lee & Morasky, 2016). The ultimate level of this pyramid is self-actualization which is concerned with the fulfillment of one’s potential.

Maslow’s pyramid is also applicable to the millennial as their needs can be addressed through this model. This population agrees that they are in need of meaningful work, recognition/respect, autonomy, and chance to constantly grow and learn (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014). If these needs are being fulfilled, then there would be greater millennial satisfaction. These section of population put major focus on the self-esteem, belonging and self-actualization needs and the leaders should try to fulfill these needs. The leaders should try to fulfill the esteem needs of the millennial as the other two needs are beyond their own capability (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014). The employees need to fulfill their self-actualization needs and the belonging needs them so that they are motivated to give their best performance.

The organizational motivation of the employees is an important job role of the leaders. They are responsible for managing all sections of the population and the subsequent employee bases. The millennial are one of the most sensitive employee classes who need to be motivated well in order to drive the organizational performance. This paper has enumerated important characteristics of the leaders which make them motivate the millennial.

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