As a new manager, Eric has been reviewing the performance of his employees. He has been concerned with the poor performance of some employees. He has also found a number of employees who have been rated as outstanding by their supervisors but who don’_ seem to be producing as much as he feels they should. In an effort to increase production, Eric has held meetings with the supervisors and the staff. However, productivity has not improved.

Eric decided that part of the issue was the lack of motivation. He decided to develop a plan to motivate the employees. He started by assessing who the employees were and how the individuals might be motivated. He studied Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and felt that this theory made sense for some employees. Many employees were frontline clerical employees who needed to work to meet their basic needs. They looked at the job as a way to provide for their physiological and safety needs. Eric felt he could motivate these employees though the use of money. Other employees in the office needed to belong or a place to meet their esteem needs. These could be addressed through the development of teams and recognition systems.

Eric realized that the workplace had changed since he had started working there. There was a greater use of teams and teamwork. In a team setting, there were different challenges in motivating employees that needed to be addressed.

Although Eric found Maslow’s theory useful, there were some individuals who he was unable to motivate. He sought other theories to determine alternative strategies and approaches. Other theories included McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y; the Pygmalion Effect; Ouchi’s Theory Y; and McClelland’s Achievement Motivation. He also reviewed experiments done on productivity and motivation, such as the Hawthorne Studies. He determined that not one theory would apply to all of his employees, and if he wanted to improve productivity, he had to address individual issues.

Case study questions

As a manager reviewing this program, what would you look at to determine if the program is successful? Is there a relationship between team bonuses and productivity? What kind of support can be found for this type of program?

If you had a diverse operational unit that lacked motivation, what would you do to motivate the workers? What theory or theories would you utilize? Why are some individuals not motivated to get the job done right?