Read the passage and answer the question.

Sarah is the manager of a customer service team at a growing e-commerce company. The company has recently faced an influx of customer queries due to an increase in online orders. As the manager, Sarah's role is crucial in ensuring her team is aligned with the company's goals and capable of meeting the growing demand.

To begin, Sarah holds a team meeting where she clearly communicates the new expectations for handling customer inquiries, including targets for response times and quality standards. She provides clear guidelines on how to manage the increased workload and sets specific deadlines for individual tasks. Sarah integrates employees' efforts and ensures that the team understands the importance of customer satisfaction and how it contributes to the company's reputation and success.

Additionally, Sarah motivates her team by recognizing their achievements, offering constructive feedback, and providing training sessions to improve their skills. She fosters open communication, encouraging her team to express any challenges they encounter. Her leadership style includes delegation of responsibilities, which helps employees feel trusted and empowered.

Under Sarah's direction, the team becomes more efficient, delivering timely and high-quality customer service, which ultimately boosts customer satisfaction and supports the company's growth.

Which element of directing, does Sarah follow in encouraging employees to meet performance standards?

Motivation

The correct answer is option 4- Motivation.

In the context of the Directing function of management, the passage highlights specific actions Sarah takes to influence her team's behavior:

• Sarah's Actions: She recognizes achievements, offers constructive feedback, and provides training.

• Purpose: These actions are designed to inspire and encourage employees to perform at their best and meet the set standards.

• The Element: Motivation is the process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals. By recognizing their work and fostering a supportive environment, Sarah is utilizing motivational techniques to ensure the team meets performance standards.

Why not other Options:

• Option 1 (Delegation): While Sarah does delegate, delegation is a part of the Organizing function (or a leadership style), not the specific element used to "encourage" performance.

• Option 2 (Decentralisation): This refers to the structural distribution of authority across all levels of management, which is not the primary focus of Sarah's encouragement.

• Option 3 (Control): Controlling is a separate management function that involves measuring actual performance against standards. Sarah’s act of encouraging happens during the execution phase (Directing).

Motivation means incitement or inducement to act or move. In the context of an organisation, it means the process of making subordinates to act in a desired manner to achieve certain organisational goals. Thus, Motivation is the process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals. Motivation depends upon satisfying needs of people. Since Sarah is encouraging employees to meet performance standards, she is applying motivation.