Motivation of Employees Working - Assignment Example

Motivation 1. How can equity theory explain the motivation of employees working at Patagonia? Equity theory in employee motivation describes the relationship between how an employee perceives he is treated fairly and how he is motivates to work hard. Employees are likely to be motivated when they feel they are treated fairly. They then get highly prone to feeling demotivated or disaffection when they feel they are treated unfairly. The heart of theory is the way employees measure the sense of fairness. Inputs are what employees put into their work while outputs are what they take out of it in return. This means employees put many things into their work besides hours they work and in the same way they receive many things from their work in return besides money. Equity theory thus shows that money or pay alone doesn’t determine motivation. Employees always balance what they put into their jobs and what they get out of it and thus that is how they decide what a fair balance is. Employees at Patagonia try to balance what they get from their jobs and what they put into those jobs and this attempt to balance will assign those values to their various contributions unconsciously. Employees at Patagonia despite giving their time to the company, also give their qualifications, experience, capability and personal strengths like individual ambitions. Employees are motivated through money in terms of increased salaries though it is not the only case that keeps employees motivated. Other prime motivators are off days up to two months in order for them to work in environmental groups and also being given a chance to continue studying while the company caters for almost fifty percent of the school expenses. Equity theory explains that the employee who perceives his rewards are equal to his contribution is the most highly motivated employee. He will judge as being treated fairly if he or she gets a notion that he is working and rewarded at the same rate as his fellow employees. All employees at Patagonia are treated at the same rate. In case of increase in salaries it happens across the board. There are equal rewards in term of off days, catering for school expenses and full medical benefits are available to all. In general according to equity theory, an employee who is over-rewarded will produce more and higher quality work that less motivated employees. According to Pratagonia case study, employees are not in just for the money but for other benefits and the values of the company. They are motivated by all motivation programs executed by the management. This is the reason why Lisa an employee is loves her job and enjoys working at Pratagonia. The fact that the company supports her education to study the course she loves most drives her to put in more efforts towards her work. Other candidates beg to work at Pratagonia despite holding unspeakable qualifications that don’t suit their job positions. They strive to work with the company that has high reputation in treating its employees fairly by motivating them. To them, it is not all about how much they are going to be paid in terms of money but the benefits they want to receive besides that money. 2. To what extent is Patagonia’s approach to employee motivation consistent with? Expectancy theory? Discuss. Expectancy theory is all about choices and explains the processes people undergo when making choices. This process is normally mental. This theory forecasts that any organizations’ employees will be motivated whey they believe that when they put in more effort in their work they will harvest greater job performance, their great job performance will lead to their rewards in terms of money (salary), benefits or promotion. Whoever predicts these rewards and values them is the employee himself. This implies that an organization should relate the rewards to the performance of employees and make sure that these rewards are the ones valued by those employees. So, in order for an individual to be motivated, their must be a link between the effort, performance and motivation. The need to work harder in order to perform better and get rewarded for it is affected by the availability of right resources like time and raw materials, having the right skills to work on the particular job, and having the support needed to get the job done like correct information or support of the supervisor. At Patagonia employees are aware of the benefits and rewards available. They however work hard in order to perform better. Pratagonia being a company that focuses on producing high quality products every year than the previous year provides its employees with resources needed in terms of enough time and other resources. The employees have the right qualifications and sometimes even exceeds and they are supervised well just to make sure they work as expected and perform to the company expectations. This enables the employees focus on working better. Another belief of individuals in expectancy theory is that when he performs better, he will receive a valuable outcome. This is affected by understanding the relationship between performance and outcomes like the rules guiding it, trusting in the concerned parties who decided on what rewards someone receives, and clear indication of who gets what reward. Employees at Pratagonia know for them to receive those benefits they must work hard and perform to produce high quality goods. They also trust the management to decide on who gets what rewards according to the company policy which is also transparency. Another belief of expectancy theory is what individual’s values of the outcome. An employee could value money but not added time off. Another employee could value addition off days compared to money. Every employee enjoys working at Pratagonia and loves his job because the management understands the rewards employees value. While some value salary increase, others days off, some medical benefits while some education support, Pratagonia has executed all these motivation programs. However all these can be achieved if there is positive motivation. If an employee perceives his increased effort will not increase his performance, his increased performance will not increase his rewards and he doesn’t value rewards offered then this person will not be motivated even if the company achieves giving three quarters of rewards to that employee. Pratagonia has achieved in providing motivation rewards that people value and that is why the management receives hundreds of resumes daily. 3. What elements of Locke’s theory are in evidence at Pratagonia? This theory explains that there is a relationship between people’s performance of task and how difficult and specific the goal was. Specific and difficult goals lead to greater job performance than easy goals that weren’t clearly defined. If management specifies to employees the percentage productivity needed from them, it will become more effective that employees being told to just try to work hard or do their best. On the other hand a goal that is easy doesn’t bring about a motivating force. It is much more accomplishing for people to achieve something that they worked hard for and that is why hard goals are more motivating those goals that are easy. Elements of Locke’s theory of goal setting are clarity, challenge, commitment, and feedback and task complexity. Clarity is where clear and measurable goals are set. When they are clear with a time set for completion defined to it will determine easily the reward of behaviours due to less misunderstanding. Pratagonia’s goal is to produce highly quality products while doing the least possible harm to the environment. A goal becomes less motivational if it is not clear. For example a company management can set a goal of increasing customers by 15% to marketing department. Individuals are motivated by challenges of achieving goals and they will judge those goals according to the challenges anticipated. Pratagonia management have a yearly goal of increasing revenue by 5% per year. When employees know they will be rewarded for achieving a challenging work goals they will be motivated and be driven to make it work. Employees at Pratagonia understand the hard work needed at the company but since they also understand the rewards they expect they don’t hesitate in facing the challenges. In commitment, employees are likely to be willing to work towards achieving a certain goal if they are part of creating the goal. Management should involve employee in setting goals and making decisions. As much as the goal of Pratagonia is simple, it is very challenging. Producing highly quality goods is not easy putting in mind that the environment should not be harmed. High quality products needs a lot of resources of good quality like money, time, machine and materials and this may contribute in harming the environment easily. Goals should be Agreed and Realistic for them to lead to commitment. Employees commit to a goal when they believe the consistency of the goal with the company goals and belief the management assigning the goal to be reliable. Feedback is another element that provides opportunity in clarifying expectations. Measurable goals ensure clear feedback is given. Goals setting efforts should also include time for feedback in order to give encouragement and recognition regularly. Task complexity has requirements in order to make it successful. Special care should be taken to ensure that complex tasks are not too overwhelming for employees. People who handle complex situations or jobs are likely to be highly motivated. However they should be given sufficient time to meet the goals set for the task and improve on the performance and enough time should be provided for the employees to learn what is expected of them. Reference List Business Week. OB in Action Case Study: A Passion for the Planet Read More