The motivation of employees is normally the responsibility of the Tesco’s Duty Manager. He or she makes assumptions about an employee’s basic needs when deciding upon a suitable motivation method. Douglas McGregor’s 1960 study, The Human Side of Management, suggests that two types of employee exist, each possessing different needs. McGregor argues that the type of employee a person becomes is influenced by management style. Theory X conveys a negative view of human nature, portraying employees as lazy and un-ambitious people who dislike work and need to be controlled through punishment.
McGregor argues that if a manager treats employees as if they are naturally inclined to be idle and disinterested and believes that they do not want responsibility, then they will fulfil this role. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Theory Y argues that employees are not money motivated but gain reward from the job itself. Theory Y presents employees as self-disciplined and work appreciative people who crave responsibility and creative fulfilment. McGregor’s Theory Y is significant because it suggests that given the right conditions and management style employees can be motivated to work efficiently and productively.
Clearly Theory X and Theory Y workers will react in contrasting ways to different management attempts to increase motivation. The manager’s role in Tesco’s is to determine which approach and style should be adopted in order to satisfy the needs of individual employees. For example, the Theory X employee is more likely to respond to financial inducements, whilst the Theory Y employee would be stimulated by job enrichment, job enlargement, job rotation and quality control circles.
Therefore it is extremely important for Tesco to know and understand each employee in order to adopt a motivation strategy that suits the employee, resulting in higher levels of profitability and stock turnover for Tesco. A failure in understanding each and every employee could prove to be extremely costly for Tesco, therefore they need to ensure that each departmental manager thoroughly knows all their employee in order to report back to the Duty Manager. This then allows Tesco to make any decisions upon employees pay packets based upon up-to-date and accurate information upon the employee.
For example if an employee is money motivated Tesco need to ensure that the employee benefits the company, and is assisting in high levels of output, otherwise other employees may become disheartened and de-motivated at the fact that an idle employee is gaining as much bonuses as they are. Therefore it is essential that Tesco only recruit employees who will benefit the company and gain the potential to further their career, a failure to detect weaker employees will result in a loss for Tesco’s through training and development and will have an immediate affect upon the efficiency and profitability of the workforce.
Therefore it is essential that Tesco’s manage to obtain and maintain a successful, yet flexible workforce via a successful Recruitment and Selection procedure in order to improve profitability and remain the UK’s leading retailer. 3. 6bv Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy Model Porter and Lawler’s model (located below) includes variables and highlights certain potential managerial implications. In particular it sheds light upon the nature of the relationship between employee satisfaction and performance.
At the beginning of the motivational cycle this model suggests, as in basic expectancy theory, that effort is a function of the perceived value of potential rewards (valence) and the likelihood of achieving that reward (expectancy). Porter and Lawler’s model then adds to existing theory by suggesting that performance is a product not only of effort but also of the individual’s abilities and characteristics together with his or her role perceptions. Performance leads to two types of reward.
Intrinsic rewards are intangible and include a sense of achievement, or advancement, of recognition and enhanced responsibility, whereas extrinsic rewards are more tangible and include pay and working conditions. Tesco’s use a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic methods of motivation in order to enhance and improve their workforce. Tesco use intrinsic method of motivation for hierarchy employees such as departmental managers or assistant managers. When a departmental or assistant manager receives recognition they receive it in the form of a promotion, which gives them a sense of achievement, responsibility and increased pay.
Tesco use extrinsic rewards for a vast majority of employees in order to motivate them and gain as a high level of output possible. Extrinsic rewards include extra bonuses based upon quantity and quality depending the employee’s job. For example an employee who replenishes shelves will receive bonuses based upon the amount of stock displayed, along with consideration of the quality in which the stock is displayed. Another example of extrinsic rewards at Tesco’s is that an employee within the electronicall department will receive a commission-based bonus upon any products sold.
This provides the employees with an incentive to success and provides Tesco with a motivated workforce. It can be argued that the relationship between intrinsic rewards and performance is both more direct and immediate than that between performance and extrinsic rewards. As a consequence, Lawler argues that intrinsic rewards have more important influences on motivation than pay or promotion, whereupon, similarly, Herzberg suggests that intrinsic rewards have a more direct and powerful influence on workplace satisfaction than do extrinsic rewards.
Herzberg’s two-factor theory, outlined above, sheds light on the motivational effects of these two sets of rewards and makes a useful contribution to our understanding of workplace motivation. Expectancy theory makes a number of important assumptions, which include: An individual makes a series of decisions or choices about his or her behaviour and acts rationally in that process, taking note of such information as is available. The realisation that individual behaviour is influenced by various personal and environmental factors.
Individuals differ and have a variety of needs, drives and sources of motivation. 3. 6bvi McClelland Perhaps of more significance and potential value to managers at Tesco’s and academics attempting to understand motivation in the workplace is the work of McClelland. McClelland’s (1961) “Needs Achievement Theory” identifies three basic needs that people develop and acquire from their life experiences. These are the needs for: Achievement Affiliation Power Individuals develop a dominant bias or emphasis towards one of the three needs.
For example at Tesco’s, those with a high achievement need such as Duty managers or departmental managers tend to seek situations where they have personal responsibility for solving problems, managing projects or for overall performance, where feedback is often clear and rapid, and where tasks are moderately challenging and where innovation is required. For example during the night shift at the Slough Tesco branch is an incident was to occur the night shift Duty manager would be in charge and would occupy and feel the need of being responsible and the chance to solve a problem.
This is the type of reward certain employees are motivated by, and aim to receive recognition for what they achieve via their status within Tesco’s hierarchy. However certain Tesco employees become more concerned with their own achievement than they are with broader organisational needs. Therefore Tesco continuously reinforce the fact that all aims and objectives achieved are via a hardworking and dedicated workforce. Thus meaning that Tesco reward employees where reward is due, but the overall appraisal is shared between all the employees giving them further motivation and a sense of security and unity within the workforce.
Power appears to be the main determinant of success, particularly when success is measured in terms of status and promotion to senior posts. McClelland distinguished between socialised power and personalised power, the former being useful in assisting managers and leaders in their attempts to achieve organisational and group goals whereas the latter often merely serves the individual in seeking his or her need for domination. The need to achieve is linked to entrepreneurial activity and is viewed as an essential ingredient of organisational and national economic success.
Managers at Tesco’s seem to have higher achievement needs and lower affiliation needs than non-managers. The reason for this being that managers desire control, responsibility, power and achievement. We are all, perhaps, aware of people who appear, at least, to demonstrate a high need for one of the three drivers identified by McClelland. However, for the achievement of organisational success, those with high achievement needs are generally considered most essential.
For example an ideal manager at Tesco would someone who is motivated by success, responsibility, achievement and enhancement for these people, money is often considered a measure or indication of success or a method of feedback, but is not a particularly a strong motivator in its own right, hence the reason why Tesco believe that success-led employees are those who help develop and improve the level of output and profitability of Tesco’s.
McClelland’s motives correspond, to an extent, with Maslow’s self-actualisation (achievement), esteem needs (affiliation) and love/social needs (power). However, this theory recognises that the relative extent or influence of these needs varies considerably between individuals. Thus meaning that not all Tesco managers desire the same bonuses as another manager may be pay related whilst another may desire responsibility and power.
