Basically, the process of elaborating human resources strategies is the result of a continuous analysis or diagnosis process of all the activities performed within the organization and of the directions that the organization follows.

In the case of Greater Manchester's transport investments process, this is a very important condition. The project must be closely and continuously monitored. All the activities comprised by the project must be controlled, so that they are performed in accordance with the established standards.

The main purpose of the analysis is to identify the human resources of the organization that are able to be introduced in the project and to establish a correlation with strategic decisions that affect the personnel strategy.

Tactical policies and practices

As mentioned above, the most important challenge that managers involved in the Greater Manchester's transport investments project must deal with regarding human resources consists in personnel's motivation.

The most important theoretical approaches in the field include: McGregor's X and Y theory, Maslow's theory, Herzberg's theory, Vroom's theory, and the contingency approach. According to these theories regarding motivation, there are three sets of essential variables:

Individual: skills, knowledge, effort, behavior, performance

Organizational: organizational strategy, organizational culture and climate, economic situation, management's quality, prestige, and leadership, communications, motivational methods, organizational performance

Contextual: national culture, country's development level, national legislation, taxes, level of incomes

The motivational strategy must be elaborated by addressing all of the components of the motivational cycle:

Employees' needs (material, cognitive, relational) - aspirations and expectations - attitudes, efforts, decisions, actions, behaviors - performances (individual and organizational) - stimulation (rewards and sanctions) - motivation for labor, performance, and professional development.

The motivational strategy comprises a vary detailed range of techniques, that vary from formal to informal techniques, or from economic to moral and spiritual techniques. In the case of Greater Manchester's transport improvements program it is recommended to apply the following motivational techniques:

Formal - economic: wage, bonuses, wage penalization

Formal - moral - spiritual: written warning

Formal - complex: promotion, temporary suspension, dismissal

Informal - economic: gifts, festive meals

Informal - moral - spiritual: appraisal, granting trust, celebration ceremonies, critique

When designing the personnel policy, one must start by analyzing personnel objectives that define, synthesize, or express the goals that must be attained. They represent the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the pursued goals. Also, personnel objectives represent evaluation criteria for future activities in the human resources field.

It is very important to determine the types of motivation that are the most suitable in this case. Numerous and various possible motivations can be used within the organization, in accordance with certain criteria. Basically, a motivational type represents the ensemble of motivations, delimited in accordance with a set of criteria, used repeatedly by managers in a specific manner, based on certain hypotheses regarding motivational conditioning of the employees' performances.

The basic sets of motivation are:

Positive and negative

Economic and moral - spiritual

Internal and external

Cognitive and affective

It is recommended to apply each of these motivational types, since each of them is suitable in certain conditions. For example, positive motivation aims at increasing personnel's efforts and contribution to achieving the project's objectives, based on amplifying employees' satisfaction.

This type of motivation should be applied in less important cases. For example,...

It is not recommended to use positive motivations when dealing with important negative behaviors from employees, since positive motivation would not be enough in such cases.
Negative motivation aims at increasing personnel's contribution by diminishing satisfaction. This type of motivation should be applied in case an employee does not accomplish the tasks and objectives established by his superiors. However, if the situation repeats for several times, such motivation may not be sufficient.

Economic motivation uses classic economic means that are meant to satisfy employees' economic aspirations and expectations. This technique has a very important influence on long-term. It is the main type of motivation that must be used within the Greater Manchester traffic investments project. If the personnel is not financially motivated, it does not matter what other types of motivation are used, since they will not be sufficient.

The moral - spiritual motivation deals with satisfying moral and spiritual expectations of employees, involving their system of values, attitudes, and behavior. This kind of motivation is useful for short-term periods of time, it can be easily applied by superiors.

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