large metropolis city. Cribbin has outlined the options he has and

portrays what a difficult situation this could really be:

1. Accept the position and move

2. Accept the position, leave the family in the small town and visit them

on the weekends.

3. Bribe the family to make the move.

4. Ask the family to try to the new city for a year and then assess the

situation.

5. He can refuse the promotion.

6. He can try to stall in making the decision and hope that something

different will turn up.

7. He can try to convince his superiors that he can take the promotion

and contribute more from where he already is.

8. He can get another job.[18]

While this is a personal conflict for this manager, the skills a manager

uses to deal with personal conflict must be transferable to the workplace

environment involving other employees as well as superiors. If a manager

knows that there are always several options in dealing with a situation, he

will be more open to choosing one that will work for that unique conflict.

As mentioned earlier, consistency is an important part of an effective

manager and can be applied to conflict as well. A good manager is

consistent in executing rules and regulations with his employees. He will

not let close relationships with employees cloud his judgment and rationale

for making a decision. When conflict arises, the employees will know that

each person will receive the same treatment regardless of who they are.

According to Robbins, “Consistency can relate to an individual’s

reliability, predictability, and good judgment in handling situations.

Inconsistencies between words and actions decrease trust. Nothing is

noticed more quickly… than a discrepancy between what executives preach and

what they expect their associates to practice.” People want to be able to

“predict what you are going to do.”[19]

In order for a manager to improve their effectiveness in a conflict

situation they can also use “The Five A’s of Improving Your Personal

Effectiveness” Model from Kerns. The A’s are assess, analyze, action plan,

act, and adjust – then repeat.[20] A good manager will always assess the

situation in order to gather all of the details. Once he has all of the

information, he will analyze it and develop an action plan. After

implementation of the plan, he will be able to be flexible with that plan

if something needs to be adjusted. Effective managers use the Five A’s

constantly without even realizing it. This helps a manager approach

conflict with confidence knowing there is a steady process he can rely

upon.

3. Flexibility and Creativity

“Managers exist in a state of steady

uncertainly and their success rests upon

constant exploration of uncharted waters.”

Barry Munitz,

President of Federated Development Company

Houston, Texas

Today changes in the business environment become more rapid and more

complex and of course each manager must solve more problems in a limited

period of time. As Dr. Abraham Zaleznik of Harvard University mentioned:

"No matter how much you plan, when you get to the work place there are

unanticipated problems: And the added constant challenge is that most of

these problems cannot be solved effectively in old, familiar, or

straightforward manners. Hence the quality most necessary for business and

career success these days, and increasingly so in the future, is

flexibility.”[21] But our group consider also creativity to be important

today. These two aspects help manager not to be lost and not to lose in the

modern business world and of course to be effective.

According to the dictionary flexibility is “the ability to change or to be

changed easily to suit a different situation”[22]. What factors made this

aspect so important? Thirst of all the growing volumes of information a

manager should deal with. Second, environment and technologies which

changed quicker and quicker every year and the third point will be

internationalization. According to these three situations we can determine

the following characteristics of the flexible manager:

1. A flexible manager is able “to stay loose and to choose and explore a

wide variety of approaches to problems, without losing sight of the

overall goal or purpose”[23]

2. Shows a resourcefulness in their ability to adapt himself quickly and

easily to developing situation and changing environment

3. He "does not see the environment as something to which they should

passively respond, but as something they should actively shape."[24]

Some authors also associated flexibility with personal openness of the

manager[25]. They pointed out that if managers are open then they can be

influenced by what is happening around them and as a result they react more

flexible to all the changes around them. The one thing is obvious that

flexibility is a key feature of personal growth and an indispensable

condition for being an effective manager.

Let’s now go back to the second aspect – creativity, and let’s see what it

means: “Creativity – producing or using new and effective ideas, results,

etc”[26]. When we think about creativity, we imagine people who are gifted,

talented, and different from others, whose ideas, decisions, and actions

are situated out of the every day’s life borders. In culture, creativity

is associated with such a people like Bach, Van Gogh, and Einstein; in

business with Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple Computers), Jack Welch

(General Electric), and Anita Rodick (The Body Shop).[27] Today creativity

is a way of thinking, the way to integrate you visions and ideas into

relationships and business. This process can be presented as following:

Figure 3: Critical thinking

Brainstorming processes

Free association, etc.

Source: Becoming a Master Manager, By:Robert E.Qiunn,Sue R.Faerman,Michel

P. Thomson, Michael R. McGrath; USA,2003

The use of creativity in the decision making process or in problem solving

allows manager to increase the effectiveness and encourage creative

thinking among employees. An effective manager will use creativity as a

tool of motivation. When employees are encouraged to use creativity in

their problem solving and in everyday work, they are more likely to feel

unique, valued and important for their organization[28]. In this way a

manager can not only develop effectiveness but also create a group of like-

minded employees.

For an effective manager of the future creativity or creative thinking

should become the natural way to think. But to reach this ideal situation

each manager should avoid the following barriers:

1. “A negative value of fantasy and reflection as a waste of time, a sign

of laziness, or even a bit crazy”[29]

2. the ideas that only children may play and fantasise but adults must be

serious

3. the idea that problem solving is a very serious an responsible process

and you must forget about creativity and humour

4. a negative image of feeling and intuition, which are regarded as

illogical an impractical

Although it is very difficult sometimes to change the society’s cultural

barriers and to change the image of creativity, each manager should try

to overcome pragmatic influences and think individually.

4. Developing of managerial knowledge and manager’s teaching role

Every manager must be sure that he or she will develop the competence and

knowledge of those they supervise. Every employee has a potential for

personal and professional development, and a good manager should discover

and develop this potential. We will start with the idea that each person

wants to know more. When a young employee comes to the company he has a

lot of theoretical knowledge, personal ideas and visions. He has read a

lot of books and articles, but he is still asking himself a lot of

different questions. In that moment he needs someone to teach him how to

become successful.

When you are a small child your parents teach you how to walk, and when you

make your first steps in your career you also need a “parent” to teach, to

give support, to empower and whatever else necessary. The effective manager

is always ready to become such a “parent”. He is always open to his

employees and colleagues, he shares his knowledge, and he inspires others

with his own experience and example. During the process of teaching he

always remains patient and supports everyone in every step of the way. And

of course leaders take the time to thank employees for a job well done.

But teaching doesn’t mean only sharing manager’s knowledge with someone; it

also means that the manager takes a role of mentor. The term "mentor" has

been used quite often in recent years. Jacqueline D. Heads, academic

advisor for the Rutgers University College of Pharmacy in New Jersey

defines this term as the following “A true mentor motivates you and impels

you to move to the next level, mobilizes you by advising you on how to get

there, and finally, like a guide, a mentor informally monitors your

progress to make sure you are moving in the right direction,"[30]

But why should we pay so much attention to teaching role of manager or his

mentoring role? The answer is obvious: teaching is a core competency the

effective manger should have. The idea of effectiveness changed the vision

of teaching and today more authors speak not only about teaching or

mentoring but about a developmental manager.[31] That means that instead

of taskmasters and evaluators, managers are most effective as coaches,

motivators, symphony conductors and employee developers”[32] We will pay

more attention to this idea.

Developing happened not at home but mostly at the work place during the

work itself or during the special classes. That is why it will be useful

for each manager to create and to follow a development plan to avoid

pointless talks and wasting of time. The idea of “A+ employees takes A+

managers”[33] seems to our group to be a very interesting and future

oriented idea of cooperation between manager and employees. According to

this idea you should follow these rules while developing people:

. Appreciate uniqueness of the people

. Assess capability of their team members

. Anticipate the future (leads others in the future)

. Align aspirations (create win/win partnerships built on trust and

loyalty)

. Accelerate learning

But in practice the theory is always confronted with reality. One of the

main problems of teaching or developing people is that a lot of managers

are afraid of teaching other people. The main reason for such an attitude

is idea, that if you as a manager will teach someone everything you know

and after that he may become better and smarter then you, and take your

place. Of course it can happen. But then manager should turn back to his

main values and decide what is most important to him: his own career or his

company’s success.

At the same time, if you are going to share your knowledge with someone, to

teach, to develop and to become a mentor you must broaden your own

knowledge. The individual becomes a manager because he was chosen to get

results and to use his knowledge, not because he won a popularity contest.

Employees are not going to listen to a person who has no knowledge in what

he is talking about or gives out false information. People need to believe

that a manager has the proper skills and abilities to carry out what he

claims to be experienced in. Only then a manager will earn a respect and

employees will become his like-minded team. How will you be able to do

this?

Some authors[34] say that as a manager and especially as an executive

manager you are responsible for all fields of business in your company: for

marketing and sales, for finance, for information technology etc. You

should understand how things works (the IKEA-case and Kamprad’s attention

to all details can illustrate this statement) and also how employees work

whose knowledge in one particular field are deeper then yours. These are

two main corner stones of success. How to reach them? The best solution can

be continuous replacing inside organization. As a result manager receives

variety of experiences and knowledge in different functions, business

units, companies, and even countries. The positive effect of such a

“moving” results in understanding, how the whole business operates; of the

impact of managerial decisions on the rest of the organization. Managers

can also transfer best practices to new areas while moving; he learns how

to lead in a variety of situations and he develops strong networks inside

and outside the organization[35].

Some other authors[36], especially from the business world, used to think

that an effective manager must not be satisfied with his education degree

and training, but must always be ready to catch advanced education

opportunities. The advanced degree is MBA-program; if this level was

reached then never avoid additional seminars, courses and workshops. In

contrast to the thirst group of authors who are speaking about continuous

replacement, these theories accept the idea of receiving deep knowledge in

one particular area.

These two approaches and also all theories about teaching show us how

important is for every manager to develop himself and his employees.

Continuous self-development, learning and teaching are the best ways to

success and effectiveness.

1 Motivation of employees

Like the previous characteristics, the ability to motivate your employees

to work is also an indispensable one if you want to be effective as a

manager. The psychology of motivation is tremendously complex, and what has

been unravelled so far with any degree of assurance is very small. What I

will do here is (1) give a definition of what motivation is, (2) very

briefly going across the major theories, classical and contemporary ones,

and (3) address some possibilities how an affective manager can implement

the ideas the theories offered in reality, which is of most importance. But

first some theory.

Stephen P. Robbins gives us the following definition of motivation in his

book Organizational Behavior (2001, p. 155)[37]: “[…] the processes that

account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort

toward attaining a goal”. Thus intensity (1) is concerned with “how hard a

person tries”, with direction (2) we mean “toward attaining the

organizational goals“and persistence refers to “how long a person can

maintain his or her effort”.

In the past, especially in the 50’s, a lot has been written about how

managers can motivate their employees. We can classify these theories in 5

categories.[38] These are:

1. Need theories:

- Hierarchy of Needs Theory (A. Maslow) / ERG Theory (C.

Alderfer)

- Two Factor Theory (F. Herzberg)

- Theory X and Theory Y (D. McGregor)

These theories all depart from the thought that to motivate your employees,

you have to satisfy certain needs. Maslow’s hierarchical model, a classical

one, says that you first have to satisfy physiological needs (i.e. hunger,

thirst, …), then you have to offer them safety (from physical and emotional

harm), consequently you must satisfy them socially (affection, acceptance,

…), after that you can motivate them by satisfying their esteem (internal

as well as external), and only then, when all the previous needs are

satisfied, you can motivate them by letting your employees actualize

themselves through their work (i.e. self-fulfilment). So if you want to

motivate someone, according to Maslow, you need to understand what level of

hierarchy that person is currently on and focus on satisfying those needs

at or above that level.

Maslow’s theory has received wide recognition, but unfortunately research

does not validate the theory. A theory that contests Maslow’s theory is

Alderfer’s ERG Theory, where E stands for existence (cfr. the physiological

and safety needs), R for relatedness (cfr. the social needs and the

external component of the esteem need) and G for growth needs (cfr. the

internal esteem component and the self-actualization need). This theory

differs from Maslow’s in that (1) more than one need may be operative at

the same time and (2), if the gratification of a higher level need is

stifled, the desire to satisfy a lower-level need increases. In opposite to

Maslow’s theory, several studies do have supported this theory. It takes

into account that in different cultures the categories can be ranked in

another way, for example Japan, where the social needs are placed under the

physiological ones.

Another classical need theory is the Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas

McGregor. These two theories represent two distinct views of human beings:

Theory X makes the assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy,

dislike responsibility, and must be coerced to perform, where Theory Y

stipulates that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility and

can exercise self-direction. Research suggests that these theories may be

applicable but only in particular situations.

Maybe the most important contribution to the motivation question comes from

the psychologist Frederick Herzberg with his Two-Factor Theory. The insight

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