Management, leadership and motivation

The management function is usually summarised in four tasks: planning, organising, leading, and controlling. Explain what each consists of with an example applied to a clothes shop owner preparing the January sale campaign.

Being a boss, a manager, and a leader are not the same thing. Explain the differences between holding a position with formal authority (boss), managing resources and processes (manager), and being voluntarily followed by others (leader). Reason, with an example for each case, whether a person can be a boss without being a leader and whether they can be a leader without holding any formal position.

Three bosses manage very differently: one decides everything alone and gives rigid orders (authoritarian), another consults and decides with the team (democratic or participative), and a third barely intervenes and leaves them to it (laissez-faire). State which style fits best in each situation and why: a construction crew where a mistake could cause an accident, a team of veteran designers creating a new collection, and a group of expert researchers accustomed to working independently.

The figure shows Maslow's hierarchy of needs applied to the company, with what the company can offer at each level. Identify the missing level, marked with "?", and give an example of what a company can do to satisfy it.

Order the five needs of Maslow's pyramid (physiological, safety, social or belonging, esteem and self-actualisation) and assign to each level a company measure that covers it: a decent wage, a stable contract, team activities, a recognition programme and a career plan to take on one's own projects.

A factory worker on a temporary contract says in a survey: "I'm not worried about promotion; I'm worried about making it to the end of the month and getting my contract renewed." a) Place her concerns in Maslow's pyramid and explain why "high-level" motivation measures (training, exciting projects) will not work with her. b) Propose what the company can do to motivate her by addressing the levels she needs. c) Explain, according to Maslow, why a need that is already satisfied stops motivating.

According to Herzberg, there are hygiene factors (if missing, they cause dissatisfaction, but having them is not enough to motivate) and motivating factors (those that truly drive people to do more). a) Classify these six: salary, cleanliness of the workplace, recognition for a job well done, relationship with colleagues, taking on more responsibility, and the possibility of promotion. b) Using this theory, explain why a pay rise alone rarely turns an unmotivated employee into a committed one.

A software company improves the office (new chairs, free fruit, games room) and raises salaries by 3%, but the programmers keep leaving because the projects are boring and nobody values their work. a) Analyse the case with Herzberg's theory: which factors has the company improved and which is it still not touching. b) Propose three measures on the motivating factors (interesting work, recognition, responsibility, promotion). c) Conclude what role money plays according to Herzberg.

A delivery company loses 40% of its couriers every year. It pays the minimum wage, route managers only appear to shout when something goes wrong, there is no training or possibility of promotion, and shifts change every week without notice. a) Diagnose the problem using Maslow's hierarchy (which needs it satisfies and which it does not) and Herzberg's theory (which factors are missing). b) Propose three measures to reduce staff turnover, one financial and two non-financial, justifying each with the previous theories. c) Reason why reducing turnover can be profitable even if it costs money (recruitment costs, training new recruits, errors, and poor image).

McGregor described two opposing types of manager: Theory X believes that people are naturally lazy and only work if controlled and feared; Theory Y believes that people want to work well and seek responsibility. a) Describe how each would manage the same team: controls, deadlines, communication, rewards, and punishments. b) Explain what the "self-fulfilling prophecy" means in this context: what happens in the long run to a team that is always treated according to Theory X.

Two shop managers give their opinions: the first says "if I don't control them, they don't work"; the second, "my team wants to do well and only needs to be left to it". a) Identify which McGregor theory each one represents and describe how each shop will be managed (controls, trust, participation). b) Reason what can happen in each shop in the long term with employee motivation and initiative. c) Explain whether you think the same boss can behave according to Theory X with some employees and according to Theory Y with others.

The same manager faces three situations in one week: an urgent safety warning that forces an evacuation of the plant, a team of veteran and highly qualified technicians assigned to a new project, and a group of newly arrived interns who do not yet know how to do the job. a) Recommend which management style is suitable in each situation and why. b) Conclude what situational leadership says about the idea that there is "one best style" of management for all cases.

Explain what financial incentives are and classify these five: the monthly basic salary, an attendance bonus, a commission per sale, a bonus if the team meets the quarter's objectives and company shares for managers. Distinguish between those that reward individual effort and those that reward the group's result.

An opticians' chain wants to move from a fixed salary to a system with 20% variable pay linked to each shop's sales. a) Explain what the company aims to achieve with the variable component. b) Analyse two advantages (aligning effort with objectives, rewarding the one who sells the most) and two risks (unhealthy competition between shop assistants, neglecting the customer who does not buy, unfairness if the shop is in a bad area). c) Propose how you would design the variable pay to avoid those risks (mixing individual and shop objectives, including service quality).

A customer service team is evaluated only on the calls handled per hour. The result: they hang up quickly, do not solve the problems and complaints rise. a) Explain the phenomenon ("what gets measured is what gets done": the metric has displaced the real goal) and analyse it as a problem of badly designed incentives. b) Redesign the evaluation with three balanced indicators (first-call resolution, customer satisfaction, average handling time) and justify each one. c) Reason what role metrics should have in motivation according to Herzberg: are they hygiene factors or motivators?