Exercises: 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.

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.

Explain what work motivation is and why it is in a company's interest for its workforce to be motivated (productivity, quality, fewer sick leaves and less turnover). Distinguish between intrinsic motivation (the work is interesting in itself) and extrinsic motivation (one works for the reward), with an example of each in an office.

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.

Describe the three classic management styles (authoritarian, democratic or participative, and laissez-faire): who decides in each one, how they communicate and what role the employees have. Give an example of a boss, real or fictitious, for each style.

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.

Explain what a charismatic or transformational leader is (inspires with a vision and gets the team to commit to a project) and how they differ from a boss who only hands out tasks. Give an example of a well-known leader — business, sports or social — and analyse what risk a company that depends too much on a single charismatic leader runs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An authoritarian boss loses daily control of his team when the company adopts remote working, and responds by installing keyboard monitoring software. a) Analyse why the authoritarian style clashes with remote working. b) Explain what changes managing at a distance demands (clear objectives, trust, measuring by results and not by presence) and which style fits best. c) Assess the effects of monitoring on motivation according to Herzberg and McGregor.

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 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).

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.

Design a motivation plan for a sports shop with six sales assistants earning little more than the minimum wage and who have been doing exactly the same job for years. Include: a) two specific financial incentives (for example, sales performance pay or a performance bonus) explaining how they would work; b) three non-financial incentives (training, autonomy, recognition, flexible hours, internal promotion), indicating which need or motivating factor each addresses; c) a way to measure after one year whether the plan has worked.

A private care home has complaints from families and extremely high turnover of carers. The conditions: low salary but similar to the sector's, changing shifts, non-existent training, bosses who only correct in public and no possibility of promotion. a) Diagnose the situation combining Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor: which theory best explains each symptom. b) Design a shock plan with four measures ordered by priority, justifying the order. c) Explain how you would measure the improvement (turnover, sick leave, family satisfaction, working environment surveys).

A company in difficulty cannot raise salaries or give bonuses for two years, but needs the commitment of its workforce more than ever to pull through. a) Analyse with Herzberg why not being able to raise salaries is serious but does not necessarily prevent motivating. b) Design a motivation package without money (transparency about the situation, participation in decisions, recognition, autonomy, internal training), explaining which factor each measure addresses. c) Point out the limits of motivating without money and what promises management must not make.

The founder of a design company, very authoritarian and brilliant, retires and is replaced by a participative manager. The team, used to receiving orders, interprets the consultations as weakness and projects come to a halt. a) Analyse what has happened from the point of view of management styles and the team's expectations. b) Reason whether the solution is for the new manager to imitate the founder, and what situational leadership says about adapting the style to the team one has. c) Propose a three-month transition plan to install the new style without losing the pace of work.

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?

A factory with a very stable, long-serving workforce hires six young people who leave within the year despite earning the same as the veterans earned in their day. The older workers say: "People just don't want to work any more." a) Analyse the clash with motivation theories: which needs or factors weigh more for each group (security and stability versus development, purpose and flexibility). b) Propose how to adapt the company's offer to the young people without breaking what works with the veterans. c) Conclude whether motivation is universal or depends on the person and their stage of life.

Unit challenge. Redesign human resources for a service company transitioning to digitalisation. Prepare an executive report to modernise its talent management following these phases:

1. Diagnosis and hiring: Look up the average salary for the service sector in your autonomous community at the INE (Salary Structure Survey). Compare it with the minimum wage (SMI) set at €$1.134,00$ and justify the most suitable type of employment contract (standard permanent or permanent seasonal / fijo-discontinuo) to build employee loyalty while respecting their rights.

2. Organisational structure and agility: Design the company's organisational chart combining a basic departmental structure with an agile team (Scrum). Define the main roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and development team) and explain how you will coordinate their tasks in short work cycles.

3. Leadership and motivation: Select a leadership style (democratic or transformational) and propose two non-wage motivation measures based on Herzberg's two-factor theory or Maslow's hierarchy of needs to reduce absenteeism.

Present your reasoned proposal in a two-page document that includes the organisational chart, data analysis, and measures.

Evaluation criteria:

• Rigorous use of INE data and contractual justification in line with labour legislation.

• Clarity and coherence of the organisational chart with the integration of the agile team.

• Correct theoretical basis of the proposed motivation model and leadership style.