The Psychology behind Management

Management for anything holds a quite important place in anyone’s life. Without proper management, the whole functioning can be ruined. The psychology of management talks about how human behavior and mental processes can be affected by proper management techniques. Moreover, it includes how a person thinks, interacts within the organization and how these factors can help to achieve an overall growth in person. Many theories and principles are there to explain about how managers can understand their employees attitudes, beliefs etc.

By understanding them, one can have more effective communication and decision making within the workplace. Furthermore, the psychology of management focuses on how positivity and a supportive atmosphere at the workplace can influence the employees overall performance in their tasks.

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Key Psychological Concept of Managers

1. Motivation

Motivation is a crucial concept in the field of management. It acts as a driving force and makes individuals take action towards their goals. It becomes even more important for managers to understand the role of motivation as it makes the environment more productive.
Various theories were also put forth to understand it.

To begin with, maslows hierarchy of needs is a popular theory when it comes to psychology and management. This theory was developed by Abram Maslow in 1943. It talks about the five levels of fulfillment that needs to be fulfilled for an individual in a hierarchical way i.e physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self actualization. People are motivated to fulfill their basic needs like physiological and safety needs before moving on to other levels.

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Managerial Insights into Addressing Needs:

In the context of managers, it is important to know about the needs of their employees in order to feel them motivated. Let’s take an example to understand it, if an individual feels not safe about their security in the job, then they may face difficulty to work properly. Therefore, it is the manager’s duty to understand their concern and this can be achieved by providing job security.

Furthermore, the second theory of motivation is Herzberg’s two factor theory. In this theory, motivation is influenced by two factors i.e hygiene factors and motivators. The basic needs required in the workplace like salary, job security and other important things known as the hygiene factors. These factors play an important role in order to support and make their employees satisfied. But it is not necessary that these factors create the sense of motivation among them. The motivational factors lead to job satisfaction and motivation like recognition, growth opportunities. As these factors becomes important for managers in the workplace.

2. Leadership

Another important factor that contributes to the success of any organisation. Leadership is not something that is same for everyone and different for different people depending on the situation. Firstly, the transformational leadership, where the people inspire and motivate followers to achieve their potential. This includes making a vision, and communicating with their team, working upon the differences and appreciating and encouraging the creativity. These factors add value to the growth of the company. Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in transformational leadership. As because of this factor, the leader would be able to understand others feelings and manage it. In relation to management, emotional intelligence is important for any leader as it allows them to understand their team members motivations and make the leader work accordingly to create a positive environment.

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Furthermore, servant leadership is where the person looks for others good before their own and serve for the greater good. This can be achieved by building a strong relationship with team members so that their employees have a personal and professional growth.

3. Managing Change

As we know change is the only constant in this world and when it comes to managing the change is an important aspect in any organisation. It should be the duty of managers to make their employees a clear understanding of the process of change and what are the ways to navigate them effectively. That’s how the management methods come into the picture.

To begin with, lewin’s change model, also known as three step model is popular methods used in managing change. The three steps include unfreezing, changing and refreezing. In this stage, mangers make aware of the changes that could happen in future and hence create an environment like that. In the changing state, the actual situation happens and employees then encourage to adopt these situations. The changes are integrated in a way that makes the organisation situation stable to ensure sustainability.

Another famous theory on management is the kotters 8 step change model

The eight steps involve creating a sense of urgency, building a strong coalition, developing a vision for change, and communicating that vision, Empowering others to take action on the vision, generating short-term successes, consolidating gains, and speeding up change, and integrating new approaches into the organization’s culture. These models focus on how to involve employees in the changing process and encourage them to adopt positive attitude and beliefs. But it is also important to remember that resistance to change is something that all of us face. There could be various reasons behind it like the fear of losing jobs, security and failing.

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In order to remove this resistance, mangers should introduce this concept of change to their employees from the beginning.
This can be achieved by having a clear communication about change, and also been vocal about the concern or the fear related to change. It is crucial to encourage the employees throughout the process.

Moreover, Effective communication is characterized by active listening, nonverbal communication, and feedback. In order to effectively manage and lead others, it is imperative for managers possess a thorough understanding of psychology. Acknowledging their employee’s behaviour, emotions and feelings can help to give some invaluable sights and techniques to make them motivated and managing change in the organisation. The psychology of management also sheds light on the presence of diversity within an organization. Every individual is different and valuing these differences, and respecting them would create a space of acceptance for them.