Chap. 9 motivating the workforce
3M
Gives employees 15-20 percent of their time to pursue on projects
Southwest Airlines
Gives employees permission to interact with passengers as they see fit, provides free or discounted flights, and hosts the "Adopt-a-Pilot" program to connect pilots with students across the nation
Motivational factors
which relate to the content of the work itself, include achievement, recognition, involvement, responsibility, and advancement.
Positive reinforcement
A car salesperson gets a bonus for exceeding her quota of cars sold
Punishment
A city worker is demoted after receiving a drunk-driving conviction.
Avoidance
A graphic designer works late to avoid getting reprimanded for missing a project deadline.
Extinction
An ethics officer eliminates bonuses for employees who exceed work objectives in an unethical manner.
How to Retain Good Employees
Challenge your employees Provide adequate incentives Don't micromanage. Create a work-friendly environment. Provide opportunities for employee growth.
Whole Foods
Employees receive 20 percent discounts on company products, the opportunity to gain stock options, and the ability to make major decisions in small teams
Herzberg's two theory
Hygiene and Motivational
How to Motivate Employees
Interact with employees in a friendly and open manner. Equitably dispense rewards and other incentives. Create a culture of collaboration. Provide both positive and negative feedback and constructive criticism. Make employees feel as if they are partners rather than workers. Handle conflicts in an open and professional manner. Provide continuous opportunities for improvement and employee growth. Encourage creativity in problem solving. Recognize employees for jobs well done . Allow employees to make mistakes, as these become learning opportunities
Theory Y
McGregor's humanistic view of management whereby it is assumed that workers like to work and that under proper conditions employees will seek out responsibility in an attempt to satisfy their social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.
Theory X
McGregor's traditional view of management whereby it is assumed that workers generally dislike work and must be forced to do their jobs.
Nike
Offers tuition assistance, product discounts, onsite fitness centers, and the ability for employees to give insights on how to improve the firm
Perks include a massage every other week, free gourmet lunches, tuition reimbursement, a volleyball court, and time to work on own projects
Patagonia
Provides areas for yoga and aerobics, in-house child care services, organic food in its café, and opportunities to go surfing during the day
The Container Store
Provides more than 260 hours of employee training and hosts "We Love Our Employees" Day
Job Enlargement
adds more tasks to a job instead of treating each task as separate. Like job rotation, job enlargement was developed to overcome the boredom associated with specialization. The rationale behind this strategy is that jobs are more satisfying as the number of tasks performed by an individual increases. Employees sometimes enlarge, or craft, their jobs by noticing what needs to be done and then changing tasks and relationship boundaries to adjust. Individual orientation and motivation shape opportunities to craft new jobs and job relationships. Job enlargement strategies have been more successful in increasing job satisfaction than have job rotation strategies. IBM, AT&T, and Maytag are among the many companies that have used job enlargement to motivate employees.
Job Rotation
allows employees to move from one job to another in an effort to relieve the boredom that is often associated with job specialization.
morale
an employee's attitude toward his or her job, employer, and colleagues. High morale contributes to high levels of productivity, high returns to stakeholders, and employee loyalty. Conversely, low morale may cause high rates of absenteeism and turnover (when employees quit or are fired and must be replaced by new employees). Wegmans Food Markets recognizes the value of happy, committed employees and strives to engage in practices that will create a satisfying workplace. Wegmans offers flexible scheduling, employee scholarship programs (nearly half of employees are 25 years or younger), and strong internal promoting. The CEO of Wegmans stresses that employee growth and satisfaction are key goals of the organization.
Extrinsic rewards
are benefits and/or recognition that you receive from someone else. In this class, your grade is extrinsic recognition of your efforts and success in the class.
Social needs
are the need for love, companionship, and friendship—the desire for acceptance by others. To fulfill social needs, a person may try many things: making friends with a co-worker, joining a group, volunteering at a hospital, throwing a party, and so on. Once their social needs have been satisfied, people attempt to satisfy their need for esteem.
Maslow's hierarchy
arranges these needs into the order in which people strive to satisfy them
Self-actualization needs
at the top of Maslow's hierarchy, mean being the best you can be. Self-actualization involves maximizing your potential. A self-actualized person feels that she or he is living life to its fullest in every way. For Stephen King, self-actualization might mean being praised as the best fiction writer in the world; for actress Halle Berry, it might mean winning an Oscar.
Equity Theory
how much people are willing to contribute to an organization depends on their assessment of the fairness, or equity, of the rewards they will receive in exchange.
Job Enrichment
incorporates motivational factors such as opportunity for achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement into a job. It gives workers not only more tasks within the job, but more control and authority over the job. Job enrichment programs enhance a worker's feeling of responsibility and provide opportunities for growth and advancement when the worker is able to take on the more challenging tasks. Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Clif Bar use job enrichment to improve the quality of work life for their employees. The potential benefits of job enrichment are great, but it requires careful planning and execution.
Behavior Modification
involves changing behavior and encouraging appropriate actions by relating the consequences of behavior to the behavior itself.
compressed workweek
is a four-day (or shorter) period in which an employee works 40 hours.
Theory Z
is a management philosophy that stresses employee participation in all aspects of company decision making. It was first described by William Ouchi in his book Theory Z—How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge. Theory Z incorporates many elements associated with the Japanese approach to management, such as trust and intimacy, but Japanese ideas have been adapted for use in the United States. In a Theory Z organization, managers and workers share responsibilities; the management style is participative; and employment is long term and often lifelong. Japan has faced a significant period of slowing economic progress and competition from China and other Asian nations. This has led to experts questioning Theory Z, particularly at firms such as Sony and Toyota. Theory Z results in employees feeling organizational ownership.
Flexible
is a program that allows employees to choose their starting and ending times, as long as they are at work during a specified core period. It does not reduce the total number of hours that employees work; instead, it gives employees more flexibility in choosing which hours they work.
Motivation
is an inner drive that directs a person's behavior toward goals. A goal is the satisfaction of some need, and a need is the difference between a desired state and an actual state. Both needs and goals can be motivating. Motivation explains why people behave as they do; similarly, a lack of motivation explains, at times, why people avoid doing what they should do
intrinsic reward
is the personal satisfaction and enjoyment that you feel from attaining a goal. For example, in this class you may feel personal enjoyment in learning how business works and aspire to have a career in business or to operate your own business one day.
classical theory of motivation
money is the sole motivator for workers. Taylor suggested that workers who were paid more would produce more, an idea that would benefit both companies and workers. To improve productivity, Taylor thought that managers should break down each job into its component tasks (specialization), determine the best way to perform each task, and specify the output to be achieved by a worker performing the task. Taylor also believed that incentives would motivate employees to be more productive. Thus, he suggested that managers link workers' pay directly to their output. He developed the piece-rate system, under which employees were paid a certain amount for each unit they produced; those who exceeded their quota were paid a higher rate per unit for all the units they produced.
Job sharing
performance of one full-time job by two people on part-time hours.
Goal-setting theory
refers to the impact that setting goals has on performance. According to this philosophy, goals act as motivators to focus employee efforts on achieving certain performance outcomes.
Security needs
relate to protecting yourself from physical and economic harm. Actions that may be taken to achieve security include reporting a dangerous workplace condition to management, maintaining safety equipment, and purchasing insurance with income protection in the event you become unable to work. Once security needs have been satisfied, people may strive for social goals.
Esteem needs
relate to respect—both self-respect and respect from others. One aspect of esteem needs is competition—the need to feel that you can do something better than anyone else. Competition often motivates people to increase their productivity. Esteem needs are not as easily satisfied as the needs at lower levels in Maslow's hierarchy because they do not always provide tangible evidence of success. However, these needs can be realized through rewards and increased involvement in organizational activities. Until esteem needs are met, people focus their attention on achieving respect. When they feel they have achieved some measure of respect, self-actualization becomes the major goal of life.
Physiological needs
the most basic and first needs to be satisfied, are the essentials for living—water, food, shelter, and clothing. According to Maslow, humans devote all their efforts to satisfying physiological needs until they are met. Only when these needs are met can people focus their attention on satisfying the next level of needs—security.
human relations
the study of the behavior of individuals and groups in organizational settings. In business, human relations involves motivating employees to achieve organizational objectives efficiently and effectively. The field of human relations has become increasingly important over the years as businesses strive to understand how to boost workplace morale, maximize employees' productivity and creativity, and motivate their ever more diverse employees to be more effective.
Hygiene factors
which relate to the work setting and not to the content of the work, include adequate wages, comfortable and safe working conditions, fair company policies, and job security. These factors do not necessarily motivate employees to excel, but their absence may be a potential source of dissatisfaction and high turnover. Employee safety and comfort are clearly hygiene factors.
expectancy theory
which states that motivation depends not only on how much a person wants something but also on the person's perception of how likely he or she is to get it. A person who wants something and has reason to be optimistic will be strongly motivated.
