Political institutions are the organizations in a government that create, enforce, and apply laws. They often mediate conflict, make (governmental) policy on the economy and social systems, and otherwise provide representation for the population. The question of where institutions come from is certainly not new. We know that formal institutions are shaped by political choices. We also know that there are informed institutions, cultural and social norms that evolve through social interactions and changes in attitudes. Every society must have a type of political system so that it may allocate resources and ongoing procedures appropriately. A political institution sets the rules in which an orderly society obeys and ultimately decides and administers the laws for those that do not obey.
quicker. For short and simple tasks this is an extremely effective way of organising groups, due to the increased short term productivity. However there are significant issues with grouping individuals in this manner, particularly when tasks become more complex, and ultimately the model should mainly be used for monitoring the progress of groups (Pettinger, 2007). Figure 3: Belbin’s Team Roles (PrePearl Training Development, 2019) A more functional approach of grouping individuals is to utilise Belbin’s Team Theory (Belbin, 2017). Belbin identifies 9 key roles that must be fulfilled within a group to ensure success, the roles are summarised in Figure 3. The roles cover a wide spectrum of skills that need to be present within a group to ensure success, and becomes essential when tasks are lengthy and complex. Organisations can find the Belbin roles each individual fits through a questionnaire, and thus balanced groups can be formed covering all the roles. However, like with Fiedler’s contingency model, the theory when translated to practice can often become very impractical for organisations to implement regularly. This is largely because the organisation is constrained by the personalities of their employees, their may be an abundance of one personality type and an absence of another, the only solution is to hire externally to fill the missing roles within teams. This can result in an extensive payroll for an organisation and huge financial implications as they cannot legally dismiss employee’s if they have too many of one personality type. The importance of Belbin roles in a team became apparent for Group 1 on the first day of the outdoor management course, the group had 5 people who filled the completer finisher and implementor roles, however had no-one filling the resource investigator or monitor evaluator role, the group ran out of time and did not complete the task successfully. Obviously running out of time was not the sole cause of the groups failure, however if someone had been monitoring time and performance then the group may have realised their option was unfeasible and could have found an alternative solution. One solution for lack of Belbin roles is to assign specific roles to individuals, this was implemented heavily on the outdoor management course for roles perceived to be essential for success such as time keeping. This method works for simple tasks, however for complex tasks the individual with the assigned responsibility can often become engrossed in the task and forget their role, or the opposite becoming too engrossed with the responsibility they have been assigned. Ultimately, like with leadership ensuring teams are functioning properly is highly dependent on the situation, and becomes the leaders responsibility to analyse the situation and correctly organise groups to ensure success.
Motivation Motivation is again a product of good leadership. Motivation is highly personal, and it is the leaders responsibility to understand what motivates each individual and implement policies to obtain maximum performance from a group. The importance of the leaders role in motivating individuals is highlighted in Herzberg’s Two Factor theory. The theory highlights factors that must be in place to avoid dissatisfaction, hygiene factors, and factors that promote satisfaction, motivation factors, shown in Figure 4 (Pettinger, 2007). Herzberg’s theory helps to decipher what motivates individuals, but does not advise on how to implement this to produce maximum productivity from an individual, this is achieved by using the theory in conjunction with other motivational theories such as goal setting theory. Figure 4: Hygiene and Motivating Factors (Pettinger,, 2006) Goal setting is not just an important part of motivation, they are essential for both teamwork and successful leadership, they provide indication on what must be achieved, how much effort they must devoted to achieve it and they act as the primary source of job motivation for individuals, therefore setting them accurately is essential (Pettinger 2007). Specific and clear goals are the most effective m
