Motivating Employees You Pick 2 Companies Write Essay

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Motivating Employees

you pick 2 companies write their motivation techniques. I pick intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. And compare companies. Do papers have database, searches people pulled web. You find UOPHX Website writes companies listed, pick.

Motivating employees at two companies:

Ben & Jerry's versus Southwest

Motivational theories by their very nature address companies in a fairly generic, prescriptive format. However, two corporations exist that continue to be very successful, after many years of impressive financial growth, seem to break all molds, yet confirm one of the most noteworthy theories regarding what motivates employees -- intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. Ben & Jerry's began as a small company based in Vermont that, despite or because of its ethical ideals, has become an integral part of American culture. Ben & Jerry's changed the way Americans consume ice cream, shifting the focus from quantity to quality. Southwest Airlines is a largely regional airline that has remained profitable, despite the many setbacks faced by the airline industry as a whole. Its idiosyncratic style is even manifested in its NYSE name of 'LUV.' But there is a method to both Ben & Jerry's and Southwest's madness. Both value employees as critical to the success of the firm. Both companies use internal as well as external strategies to encourage their workers on every level of the company to perform to a high standard.

Theory X and Theory Y motivation: Theories of internal and external motivation

According to managerial theorist Douglas McGregor, there are two primary managerial styles, that of Theory X and Theory Y Theory X assumes that the average employee is task-avoidant, and works only for external motivating factors, such as promotions and increased pay. In contrast, Theory Y views employees as seeking self-fulfillment. Theory Y grants that workers need certain external comforts addressed, such as the need to be fair pay, benefits, and humane working conditions. However, Theory Y-style managers believe employees are motivated to truly serve the company at an optimal level only if workers' higher-order needs are satisfied by their tasks. It stresses the need to delegate tasks and to ensure that all workers have autonomy within the company to put their own unique 'spin' on tasks when serving customers yet feel part of a larger corporate unit. It is these internal motivational concerns for self-fulfillment and association with a community that Theory Y strives to address.

Theory Y stresses that managers must make work an enjoyable and fun place to be. Human beings are social animals and can be motivated by teamwork as well as a paycheck. If treated fairly, they will work hard. And "people will be committed to their objectives if rewards are in place that address higher needs such as self-fulfillment; Under these conditions, people will seek responsibility" (Theory X / Theory Y, 2012, Net MBA). Both the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's and Southwest Airlines make use of Theory Y, internally motivating strategies. Although Ben & Jerry's may be a 'hippie' company, while Southwest was famously founded by a hard-drinking, chain-smoking Texan, they are united in a common belief that people are part of the company's product, and finding and honoring the spirit of good, committed employees is just as essential as using good ice cream or carefully maintaining a fleet of planes.

Theory X and Theory X strategies of internal and external motivation can be traced in their origin back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow 'ranked' human needs, spanning from lower-order external needs such as food and shelter to the highest-order need of self-actualization. According to Maslow, human beings only can take interest in satisfying higher-order needs if their lower-order needs are met (Cherry 2012). Translated into the workplace, this means that if workers are not receiving adequate pay and benefits, they will have little interest in inspiring company vision statements and taking on additional responsibilities. While McGregor believed that sometimes workers could be motivated to pursue higher-order needs in the absence of their lower needs being satisfied (such as when workers accept lower paychecks during the time when the company is 'starting up') both Ben & Jerry's and Southwest offer competitive salaries and benefits. Workers are satisfied with external motivational factors in terms of their lower-order needs, but their internal needs are also satisfied and their commitment to serving workers' internal needs is what makes the two organizations so unique.

Ben & Jerry's

Even consumers who try not to patronize well-known, large corporate organizations may make an exception for Ben & Jerry's, given the ethical image this company has crafted for itself.

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Ben & Jerry's is a Vermont-based company with an irreverent, slightly 'crunchy' image that it has honed throughout the years by creating ice cream flavors named in tribute to Grateful Dead icon Jerry Garcia (Cherry Garcia); beginning a line of Greek yogurt ice cream, and by stressing the ice cream's all-natural qualities. The company did not begin with a grand sense of mission, but as the brainchild of two college friends. "After splitting the cost of a $5 correspondence course on ice cream-making from Penn State University, they combined their $8,000 life savings with a $4,000 bank loan, leased an old gas station building in Burlington, Vermont, and opened for business on May 5, 1978" (Our history, 2012, Ben & Jerry's).

In keeping with its ethical image, the company strives to bestow competitive benefits to its employees and strives to treat them with respect. Part of its stated economic mission is "to operate the Company on a sustainable financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our stakeholders and expanding opportunities for development and career growth for our employees" (Mission statement, 2012, Ben & Jerry's). Employee growth is placed on an equal level as the financial growth of the company. And much along the lines of Theory X/Theory Y motivational concepts, once employee's basic needs are met, Ben & Jerry's tries to motivate its workers with higher-level concerns that transcend the mundane. The ice cream company takes a classic 'Theory Y' attitude towards its workers, believing that workers need something beyond a paycheck to ensure that they have a sense of organizational loyalty. Given Theory Y is a theory based in intrinsic motivation, or the sense that workers perform best when they are at least partially motivated from within, Ben & Jerry's stresses the quality of its brand and engages in community service activities, in which all of its employees are a critical component. These include the Get the Dough Out of Politics Foundation, which works to combat corporate influence in the public sphere and its philosophy that 'polar ice caps, like ice cream' are best kept frozen (Activism, 2012, Ben & Jerry's).

To inspire its employees, Ben & Jerry's combines a strong sense of company mission to making quality ice cream, corporate ethics, and encourages employees to feel as if they are truly part of a community. This communicates to employees that profit alone is not the primary motivation of the organization and it honors their efforts. Ben & Jerry's created its 'Joy Gang' in 1987 "in response to the increasing demands upon our employees" (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben & Jerry's). The company arranged pizza parties and massages for employees, to demonstrate the founders' appreciation for their fortitude, which included working 12-hour marathon shifts when the company began to face the demands of functioning as a national organization. The Joy Gang remains an ongoing part of Ben & Jerry's ethos. Like the company itself, it has a mission statement, which is "to infuse joy into everything we do" (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben & Jerry's).

Joy Gang members are given "cash grants of up to $500.00 to accommodate an idea that will bring more joy to a particular department. (A hot cocoa machine for our freezer crew, a stereo for our production crew, etc.)" (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben & Jerry's). Joy Gang activities revolve around games, food, and prizes. For example, one activity was "Name That Face Contest: Employees brought in photos of themselves from their past which were displayed in a collage on the company bulletin board for other employees to guess who was who" (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben & Jerry's). Some activities are announced while others are "secretive activities that are not previously announced, which are intended to surprise employees" and bring a sense of playfulness to the workplace (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben & Jerry's). This encourages employees feel as if work in a creative atmosphere, an essential component of a company that prides itself on creating innovative flavors, names and ways to consume ice cream.

The activities of the Joy Gang stress the cohesiveness of the organization and the fact that, regardless of what their technical function may be, all employees are 'in this together' in terms of making the company work. Another example of this is "Manufacturing Appreciation Day: To recognize the ongoing efforts of Ben & Jerry's Manufacturing Cluster, non-manufacturing employees dressed up as their favorite production, freezer, or maintenance worker" (Employee motivation, 1999, Ben &….....

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