OE-1.4 Directing, Motivation & Leadership

Work through these

• Principles and elements of direction; requirements of effective direction

  The third function: getting work actually done through other people. The requirements listed here are the difference between an instruction and something someone acts on.

• Functions of direction

  What directing breaks down into, taken as a group. It sets up the three items below, each of which is one part of it done well.

• The supervisor: qualities, role and functions; effective supervision

  The first level of management, and the one most engineering graduates hold first. Worth reading as a description of a job you will have rather than a rung on a chart.

• Individual and group behaviour

  How people behave alone and how they behave in a group, which are not the same. Group dynamics explain decisions that look irrational when you only look at individuals.

• Motivation theories

  The theories that try to explain why people work, from needs to expectancy. None is complete, and knowing several stops you assuming everyone is motivated by whatever motivates you.

• Types and theories of leadership

  What leadership is taken to be, across several competing accounts. The trait, behavioural and contingency views disagree about whether leaders are born, trained or situational, and the disagreement is the content.

• Effective communication

  The skill underneath all of the above, and the one that fails most often. Barriers to communication are more useful to study than communication models, because the barriers are what you will actually meet.