Executive Summary 3
Motivation.. 3
Conclusions.10
Recommendations.. 10
Reference List 12
Executive Summary
In this case, Suzanne Chalmers has resigned her work at Advanced Photonics Limited (APL). Consequently, Thomas is getting worried with the recent increase in the number of workers who are leaving the company. The paper seeks to give solutions to Thomas so that the company would retain as many employees as possible. Thus, the study shall seek evidence on how the employees at APL would be motivated so as to encourage their stay in this company. Occasionally most managers have pegged the concept of employee motivation with money rewards. However, in some cases like that of Suzanne, employee motivation is facilitated by other factors more than the common money rewards. Hence, the rationale of the study will be to reveal more knowledge on the concept of money and rewards. Consequently, the paper shall also investigate how the job design can influence employee motivation in a company. To achieve this, the study shall rely on the contemporary theories of motivation as well as other evidences present to unearth the problem.
Motivation
1. It is evident that Suzanne is determined to quit job at APL as she fixes a meeting with Thomas regarding this issue. In their meeting, Thomas offers Suzanne some rewards to motivate her to remain in the company. The first offer was to give Suzanne three months unpaid leave with some benefits accrued to her. Secondly, he offered to provide a better working place for Suzanne since he felt that the current office was packed with a lot of workers. However, Suzanne declined all these offers and stuck to her decision of resigning from work. Later, when Thomas offered her an increased pay and raising her share options she promised to reconsider her issue of resigning from work. After two days, Suzanne presented her resignation letter to Thomas. This indicates that Suzanne was not motivated by the money reward offered to her. However, it is revealed that after five months of leaving the work, Suzanne had taken a job in a start-up company around the area. In the case, Thomas had earlier specified that the start-up companies put their workers in long hours of working. However, he also acknowledged that they offer higher share options to their employees. According to the equity theory of motivation, employees usually try to find a reasonable balance between the efforts they put on the job and the outcomes that they accomplish for their performance (Robbins, 2010, pg 125).
Consequently, the employees strive to achieve a fair balance of the two by comparing their outcomes with what their friends and colleagues in the market receive from their employers. As a result, it would be possible that Suzanne knew about the fact that the start-up companies in the area were offering higher share options for their employees. Since, Suzanne was a rich employee she would not be interested in more money even after the offer by Thomas. The issue of share options was the most likely factor that she was seeking to motivate her in her work for the company. Thus, after leaving her work at APL she went ahead and found a job with one of the start-up company in the area which would offer her higher share options. Managers should therefore know that employees like Suzanne would not be motivated by money since they are rich and are also paid well in their job category. This type of employees seeks to be offered with other benefits which make it certain that they are recognized by the company as well as being highly reputable in the organization. For instance, obtaining higher share options from the company gives the employees a sense of belonging in the organization (Baker, 2011, pg 87).
The share options make them feel as shareholders of the organization and hence they are motivated to put more effort in the job. However, Suzanne would not continue working for APL knowing well that other colleagues in her level are earning more share options than her. She therefore, felt as if she was receiving less rewards than the efforts she was putting on her job. Hence due to this perception of inequity, she resigned from APL and found a job in an organization where she felt that the rewards being accorded to her were fair with regards to her input on that job. In this case, money rewards would not be of any value to the employee especially due to the status of the employee. According to the expectancy theory of motivation, employees usually put efforts in their work so as to improve their performance and also to accomplish their desired rewards (Robbins, 2010, pg 128). However, employees have to make a choice from the many options that are presented to them. The employees will always make a choice that will tend to realize their expectations in their career. Thus, Suzanne felt that her expectation of earning higher share options like her colleagues in the start-up companies would not be realized if she continued to stay at APL. Hence, she went ahead and resigned at APL and found a new job.
2. The financial rewards offered to her at this moment had no value to her as they did not match to her expectations. In the new start-up company she was sure that her expectations would be realized as she desires. The situation happened because Thomas was not able to find solutions early enough for this problem. According, to the goal setting theory of motivation, managers should help employees to identify their goals and urge them to put efforts so as to achieve their respective goals (Latham, 2003, pg 315). In our case, Suzanne had already determined her objective in the company but what lacked is the knowledge of that by the management. The manager would set targets for Suzanne and when they are realized she would accrue some predetermined level of share options. In a way this would have helped to make her feel the growth of her share options in the company. However, goal setting requires that employees have some self efficacy so as to assist them in identifying the best goals which suit their individual capabilities (DuBrin, 2012, pg 148). Suzanne had an excellent level of self efficacy but the problem persisted due to lack of proper setting of goals.
3. In the present situation, Suzanne seems to portray some innate drives which have led her to resign from working at APL. She is very passionate about achieving higher share options from the company and this exhibits her extreme drive on investments. Thus, she is more interested in making more share options so that she could get a chance of being a shareholder of the firm and also enjoy the return on investment realized from exercise on the share options. This is further influenced by the fact that she has worked for quite some while and she has earned some reasonable amount of wealth which she would seek to invest. Suzanne also seems to be driven by the factor of seeking more recognition from the company. She is aware that she is experienced and competent in her work and for this reason she needs an organization that would recognize her based on her performance. However, the organization must also recognize her performance through the provision of higher share options to her. As a result Suzanne took a job with a start-up company around the area regardless of the fact that most of those start-up companies held their employees working for longer hours.
She had no problem with the working conditions as long as the company would accord her with her desired level of share options. According to the expectancy theory of motivation, employees possess a cognitive belief that the efforts they put in their job would improve their performance and also increase their rewards from the company. However, it is assumed that the employees can make a conscious choice of the alternatives that are available to them. Thus, in the case of Suzanne, she had an expectation of earning higher share options at APL which did not happen in her entire stay in the company. Therefore, she made a conscious decision to get a job in a start-up company which yielded higher share options and hence she could achieve her expectation. Another innate trait that is exhibited in Suzanne’s case is the fact that she has self efficacy. Her decision of working at a start-up company which would subject her to longer working hours shows how optimistic she is no matter the circumstances. Hence, with regards to the self efficacy theory of motivation, Suzanne is endowed with the correct efficacy to facilitate her in accomplishing her goals and objectives. She is determined that even in the start-up company she would be able to achieve her goals and also maintain her top notch career.
4. Job design involves the process of changing or modifying the job contents so as to increase the level of performance of the employee as well as improve their job satisfactions (Fried, 2012, pg 74). In the case of Suzanne, job design would also have been of important by ensuring she was constantly satisfied in her workplace. The job characteristic model is a proper approach of job design for the case of Suzanne. For employees like Suzanne, job design would be very effective at motivating them to work for the company based on the satisfaction that they accrue from their work. The approach of job characteristics model would have been significant in helping the company to realize job enrichment for Suzanne’s work. Job enrichment is attributed to Hertzberg’s motivation model which seeks to add value to the job thus indicating a certain reputable status of the employee (Herzberg, 2009, pg 107). Consequently, job enrichment would have helped to create achievements for Suzanne and for this reason she would be more willing to work for APL. The achievements pegged on clinching that particular job would act as an instrument of self actualization for employees with very bright ambitions like Suzanne. Accordingly, job design created through the job characteristics model would also be vital in assuring the employee that he or she receives the best recognition from the employers. The design of a job would easily make an employee believe that she gets proper recognition due to the contents that are incorporated in the job description.
A better job design for Suzanne would have been important since it could have made it possible to transfer responsibility to her. She would have been accorded with a responsibility by the company and this would have triggered a sense of belonging to the company. To get a sense of belonging through the acquisition of more share options is what she is interested in and hence if a particular job designed was done so as to accommodate this need then she would have been retained in the company. Job design would also have been important in helping Suzanne to recognize the level of job advancement that she has accomplished in her entire tenure in the company. This would be a good factor of motivating her to continue working for the company based on the progress made by her work in the company. However, the present job design could not manage to capture these essential elements of job design which would have helped to retain Suzanne at APL. Using the expectancy theory of motivation it would have been easier for APL to perform a proper job design for Suzanne. The management must be able to understand the overall expectations or goals of the employee so as to formulate a job design that would be significant in facilitating the achievement of those expectations. Thus, in a nutshell job design helps to meet the diverse needs of employees in their different job descriptions and thus enabling them to acquire more job satisfaction. Thus, the company achieves a higher level of employee’s retention as a result of the accrued satisfaction.
5. Thomas Chan could adopt some of the following strategies to help in retaining Suzanne at APL. To begin with, he must offer to improve the level of share options being allocated to Suzanne. Since, Suzanne is more interested in increasing her share stock, increasing her current level would make her be satisfied to work for APL. However, in choosing the level of share options, Thomas must ensure that he is informed of the amount that employees who are in the same level as Suzanne are awarded. This is crucial due to the fact that employees would usually make comparisons with their colleagues in other organizations as depicted in the equity theory of motivation (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, pg 92). Secondly, Thomas would be urged to adopt the job characteristics model in performing the necessary job design for Suzanne’s job so as to accomplish job enrichment for her job at APL. The process of redesigning her job would have helped to endow her with her desired achievements, recognition and advancement on job. These outcomes are very essential in determining the job satisfaction levels of employees.
Thus, proper job design would be effective in helping to retain Suzanne in the company. Thirdly, Thomas would also be urged to improve on employee involvement at APL. Employee involvement programs would be helpful for Thomas to spot the capabilities of different employees as well as their goals. This would be important in making job designs for them and also in improving their satisfaction levels in the company. However, these employee programs must be helpful to the employees in terms of offering development or even training to them so as to make them more efficient. Such programs would be effective in making the employees of APL content by their work. Lastly, Thomas would also retain Suzanne by embracing intrinsic rewards such as employee recognition program (Thomas, 2009, pg 46). Recognizing employees through particular rewards helps to make them feel important in the company as well as acknowledging their hard worked efforts for the company. Since, Thomas is aware that Suzanne is an important employee of APL; he should urge the company to reward her as a way of acknowledging her competence and performance in the company. This would be helpful in retaining Suzanne at APL.
Conclusions
Motivation is a significant component in any organization and the management must ensure that they constantly motivate their employees so as to improve their job satisfaction as well as retaining them in the company (Luthans, 2011, pg 247). In this case, Suzanne resigns from APL and is found to be working for a start-up company in the neighborhood. However, Thomas had offered her money rewards and other reward before she resigned but she turned down his offer and went ahead to resign. She was not after the money since she had already made a lot of money as specialized engineer. Consequently, according to the expectancy theory of motivation, once employees find out that their desired goals would not be viable in the current organization, they may chose to quit and search for green pastures where their desires would be met. Suzanne was driven by the innate trait of being enterprising and hence she was more interested in having more stock options than been given more money reward. However, it is evident that job design would have been important in helping Suzanne be retained at APL.
Recommendations
In order to ensure that APL does not suffer from the loss of employees such as Suzanne in their workforce, the following strategies should be adopted by the company. To begin with, the company must ensure they offer rewards to the employees occasionally. However, in offering the rewards the management must also identify the relevant sources of motivation apart from money rewards which could be of no value to employees like Suzanne. Secondly, the company must adopt proper job designs for their employees so as to enhance job satisfaction. Redesigning the jobs of their employees would assist the organization to meet the job needs of their employees. Thus, in return the employees would be satisfied with their job and hence increased employee retention. Lastly, the company should formulate employee involvement programs where employees would be interacting with the management. This would offer a good platform for employees to air out their views and suggestions regarding their jobs. This would be effective in redesigning job for the employees and hence leading to job satisfaction.
Reference List
Baker, A. 2011. The stock options book. Oakland, CA: NCEO.
DuBrin, A. 2012. Essentials of management. Ohio: Cengage South-Western
Fried, Y. 2012. Job design. London: Henry Stewart Talks.
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. 2011. Organizational behavior (13th Ed.). Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Herzberg, F. 2009. One more time: How do you motivate employees? Massachusetts:
Harvard Business School Press.
Latham, G. 2003. Goal setting: A five-step approach to behavior change. Organizational Dynamics, 32(3), 309-318.
Luthans, F. 2011. Organizational behavior (12th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Robbins, S., Campbell, T., & Judge, T. 2010. Organizational behavior. Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Thomas, K. 2009. Intrinsic motivation at work: What really drives employee engagement. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
