Fab Sweets Case Analysis
The main problems that are affecting the company were the high level of labour turnover, below target production rates, high levels of scrap, the employees had little input in the decision making, therefore resulting in low motivation and job satisfaction, and didn't have enough feedback on there performance. Added to this was the conflict between the supervisors and employees in the production and packing areas, and the grading and payment levels wasn't satisfactory to the employees.
In order to rectify the problems in the departments we are going to apply different theories as to how the department may change for the better, we shall look mainly at the goal theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and also Hertzberg and Mayo.
Fab sweets uses assembly lines in both the production and packing departments this could possibly be why the employees have low satisfaction and low motivation. The procedure used is similar to the theory of Frederick Winslow Taylor, called Taylorism.
If we look at the assembly line way of working we see that tasks are set to individuals specifically and the individuals aren't able to work in other areas to develop different skills, therefore making the job they do repetitive, which could lead to carelessness in doing there job, there was also low level of skills required to do the job, therefore no motivation to learn new skills. "
Taylorism reduces the worker to an automaton and denies the worker any chance for relief or modulation of the pace of work and is enormously stressful and oppressive." www.marxists.org
It assumes that the worker is motivated by the money, in contradiction to Maslows hierarchy of needs which states that, there are eight innate needs , Transcendence, Self actualisation, Aesthetics, Know and, understand, Esteem, Affiliation, Safety, Biological.
If Fab sweets actively implemented some of Maslows motivational theories such as recognition, and good feedback as well as opportunities for training, to perhaps be skilled in both the production and packing areas for each worker this would be a form of motivation to the worker, although some of the jobs require strong men to do this perhaps there could be a way for instead of one person 2 people to do it. Also job Rotation could be another way of increasing motivation among the workers.
"A simple thing such as giving a employee a little reward for outstanding performance for a month or a year could help motivate other employees to want to do better so that they could have the chance to be recognized for their outstanding work.
Employee motivation and rewards are effective means to retain employees. When an employee is motivated, his or her needs are being met. When an employee is unmotivated, his or her needs are not being met which results in a high employee attrition rate. Riordan Manufacturing is experiencing a high attrition rate. Riordan Manufacturing has 3 plants and employs 550 people. Recently, Riordan hired Human Capital Consulting to perform an analysis on the underlying issues that are causing the decreasing employee satisfaction and to recommend courses of action that will address the underlying issues. Research has been done to identify the issues and opportunities, the stakeholders and ethical dilemmas, and the end state vision. A gap analysis has also been performed to determine the gap between the current situation and the end state goals. Riordan Manufacturing will use this information to determine the best way to proceed towards improving its working environment for the employees.
The next problem is poor morale. Morale is the job satisfaction, outlook, and feelings of an employee. Right now, employees do not feel secure within the business and are rebelling against it. They do not have a positive outlook for the future of the business and feel betrayed because of all of the people getting let go. The employees right now have a poor morale due to all these factors.
There are many different causal reasons for the existence of this problem with employee satisfaction and morale. In this paper, I will address what I believe to be the most important factors that contribute to this problem. This employee satisfaction problem, and its causal and symptomatic problems, impacts the department in many ways. For example, we have lost valuable employees resulting in unnecessary attrition. There is a loss in productivity that results from the time and energy that many employees spend dealing with components and symptoms of the individual problems. This wasted t...
Alderfer, C. (1969). An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Needs. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, vol. 4, pp. 142 - 175.
Motivation is defined as individual internal process that energizes, directs and sustains behavior. Motivation depends on how much the person wants something and how likely they think they will get it. Managers struggle to improve motivation in the workplace, but with the right tools they can become successful. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a pyramid of personal satisfaction that need to be met so a person can reach their full potential and be happy. Each level of the pyramid is stratified from the bottom up. A person cannot move up the pyramid until the bottom needs are met. Maslow’s hierarchy is usually a personal tool used to assess how an individual is doing, but businesses adapted this tool to use in the workplace and improve morale.
Since people who get their needs met tend to feel and do better, it's in the best interest for employers to meet the needs of their employees. Even if you employ yourself, you still need to consider what it would take to fulfill Maslow's chart of needs.
It is very clear that the problems experienced in the companies are not lone standing but in most of the cases they are dependent on each other and there are strong bonds or relationships with regards to the cause and effects between them. It is therefore important to form or establish a strong cause and affect between them.
With the growing decline of economy, more employers are using non-monetary incentives to motivate employees, yielding positive results. While everyone needs money for the expenses of everyday life, most current and long-standing employees rarely view cash as good motivation. If an employer pays fairly, employees desire appreciation and other non monetary rewards in exchange for a job well done. This trend is becoming more popular as businesses explore ways to motivate employees without breaking the budget. The benefits are far greater for business to offer what employees desire: opportunity to grow, flexible hours, recognition, opportunity to contribute, and autonomy, than to compensate employees with cash. This paper will discuss the advantages of using non-monetary incentives in the workplace.
Adequate communication at all levels is lacking, and the proper lines of communication are not followed. Safety is a major issue, there does not appear to be sufficient safety measures in place, and accidents seem to happen frequently. Staff morale is low, staff are dissatisfied, the reward system appears to be inadequate, there is no training and development, and quality of work life seems to be poor.
The company has a clear lack of vision. This is because since the loss of Mr. McFettridge, the vision and plans he had are not known to anyone. This exposes the lack of structured top management. Also, the top management is having a lot of young employees which are accustomed to doing a clerical job. Their decision making skills are not developed due to improper mentoring. The work processes are more individual driven then system driven.
Reward Management (RM) has been defined as the distribution of monetary and non-monetary rewards to employees in an effort to align the interests of the employees, the organisation, and its shareholders (O’Neil, 1998). In addition O’Neil (1998) also suggests that a RM system can serve the purpose of attracting prospective job applicants, retaining valuable employees, motivating employees, ensuring legal requirements relating to direct and indirect rewards are not violated, assisting the company in achieving human resource and business objectives, and ultimately assisting the organisation in obtaining a competitive advantage.
So, how does candy crush relate to motivation in the workplace? First of all, by having variety in the degree of challenge each level has, it keeps people interested. Nobody likes to lose all the time, so the game developers make sure that there is a balance between levels of ease and difficulty. Bedard (2015) explains that “an individual gains satisfaction that stems from engaging in increasingly complex challenges and from the increasing confidence that comes along with mastering those challenges” (p. 44). Taking that into account, managers can provide challenging tasks to employees, which will keep them interested and motivated to complete those
Reward and recognition has to be promoted for small and large achievements. An effective reward’s program keeps employees engaged, dedicated, and committed to the organization.
Incentive reward engagement offers a win-win situation for the employees and the company. Kelleher believes that incentive is a form of recognition and builds engagement through company’s and employee’s obligations towards a common goal (2014). The company has a “Growth Incentive Scheme” for the production workers. Special monetary incentives are provided should the workers achieve the monthly output target. Through the rewards, employees feel motivated towards their work and thus, contribute towards the company’s
It is not always easy to put one kind of classic theory into the real condition and we can say the theory can only offer the basic spirit of the implementation. Mrs. Johnson indeed simplifies the management of motivation and it may neglect what the staffs really want and need. The theories of the Maslow and Herzberg’s might be simple but actually it should be taken as the basic roots of the whole concepts. Besides there are plenty of other theories which have been developed by theoretical professionals, so Mrs. Johnson should make good use of them and have a discussion with the representatives from different positions and in this way, it could have better result to boost the motivation.