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Power Is the Great Motivator (HBR Classic) (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition) Review

The late David C. McClelland was a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University when this article first appeared in 1976. David H. Burnham was at that time the President and CEO of McBer & Company, a behavioral consulting firm. He is currently a principal of the Burnham Rosen Group, a strategic consulting and leadership-training firm in Boston. This article was originally published in the March-April 1976 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

"What makes or motivates a good manager?" A good manager is successful; motivation comes from the need for achievement. "But what has achievement got to do with good management?" Based on their research and workshops the authors conclude that the top manager of a company must possess a high need for power - that is, a concern for influencing people. In fact, their need for power has to be greater than their need to be liked. The authors discuss their workshop techniques for measuring managerial effectiveness and insights into their research, including the power factor. This research led them to three kinds of managers: (1) The institutional manager = high in power motivation, low in affiliation motivation, and high in inhibition; (2) the affiliative managers = the need for affiliation is higher than the need for power; and (3) personal-power managers = the need for power is higher than the need for affiliation but with a low inhibition score. They provide us with scores for each kind of manager on sense of responsibility, organizational clarity and team spirit, whereby the institutional manager comes out on top. But do not be concerned, the authors also believe that managers can change their styles. The authors believe that the most important point from their research is that managers of companies "can select those who are likely to be good managers and train those already in managerial positions to be more effective with more confidence."

Great article on the relation between motivation and effectiveness of managers. It makes a good relation between the need for power and achievement and management styles. And although this article was originally published in 1976, it is still very actual. This OnPoint-version includes a retrospective commentary by David McClelland. Recommended to executives, managers, human resources professionals, and MBA-students. The authors use simple business US-English.

Power Is the Great Motivator (HBR Classic) (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition) Overview

This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0301J, originally published in 1976 and republished in January 2003. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. What makes or motivates a good manager? This article attempts to answer that question by using the degree of a person's need for power as a measure of success. McClelland and Burnham studied managers in large U.S. corporations. They also surveyed the managers' subordinates to determine how effective the managers were and to isolate the characteristics of those who created high morale. Their conclusions? The better managers tended to score high in their need for power--that is, their desire to influence people--and that need outweighed their need to be liked. The authors also found that the most effective managers controlled their desire for power so that it was directed toward the benefit of the institution as a whole. In his retrospective commentary, David McClelland considers his earlier findings in light of his research into two important changes that have occurred in the workplace since HBR first published this article 27 years ago: large hierarchical organizations have flattened out, and female managers have entered the workplace in full force. McKinsey Award Winner.

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Friday, September 10, 2010