Question

The Upper Midwest of the United States has lagged behind the economic recovery enjoyed by much of the rest of the nation. With an economy built largely on the steel, lumber, agriculture, and manufacturing industries, local businesses were hit by the triple challenges of declining commodity prices, globalization, and automation. Countries such as China and Canada offer cheaper steel or lumber, crop prices have been falling, and many manufacturing jobs either were replaced by robots or moved to China, Southeast Asia, or Mexico. Finding thriving businesses in this region can be difficult, and one of the few standouts has been in the gaming industry.

A small group of Native American tribal leaders opened the Brown Bear casino about 30 years ago. The facility was built on tribal land. Initially started as a relatively small stand-alone casino, the complex has grown to include 2,000 slot machines, 25 blackjack tables, a bingo ball for 600 players, a convention center, a 400+ room hotel, three restaurants, and a golf course. Over the years it has become a destination location for those wanting to play golf, see shows, enjoy good meals, and gamble without having to travel all the way to Las Vegas to make it happen.

The Brown Bear casino complex is now a $50 million business headed up by a general manager, who in turn oversees 11 different department heads, such as the chief financial officer, head of security, director of gaming operations, and so on. These 11 leaders manage the 1,200 employees working at the casino, hotel, convention center, and golf course. Although the casino enjoyed strong growth during its first 20 years of existence, it has not recovered fully from the economic recession of 2007-2009. Many of the good-paying jobs in the area disappeared, and as a result the local population has become considerably smaller and older. Compounding this problem is the fact that the gaming industry is facing increasing competition for customers' entertainment dollars. The chief marketing officer has implemented a number of campaigns to bring more and younger customers into the casino and increase their average spend per visit, but so far these efforts have yielded negligible results.

Although the casino is the largest employer in the area, staffing and employee engagement have been chronic problems. Many long-term employees appear to be completely checked out at work, biding their time until retirement, and they go out of their way to disparage those who put in an honest day's work. Despite paying a competitive wage and the relative scarcity of good-paying jobs in the region, the casino averages 30 percent annual turnover, with some positions reporting turnover rates over 100 percent. Turnover is not only taking a toll on the employees who remain (as they often have to pick up the slack for those who leave), but it also has an impact on the casino s customer satisfaction and financial results. Newer and less experienced staff do not know how to handle more complex customer issues, and it costs the casino $1,000-$5,000 in recruiting fees for each new person hired. With 400 new staff being hired each year, these staffing fees are having a material impact on the company's bottom line.

The general manager has asked you to help reduce staff turnover, create a more engaged staff, in the hope that this will improve the casino's customer satisfaction ratings, and have a positive impact on revenues and profitability.

QUESTIONS

1. How could you use the following motivation approaches to reduce turnover and improve employee motivation? Be as detailed and specific as possible and demonstrate that you understand how to apply the theory to the situation.

1. Goal setting theory
2. Organizational Justice
3. Herzberg’s two factor theory
4. Expectancy Theory

Answer 1

Goal Setting Theory

Goal setting is one of the main process of the theory of motivation. In an organizational setting it is viewed as a motivational technique rather than a formal theory. In response to the above situation, the casino can consider the following propositions for the better motivation of their employees :

1. Challenging Goals - Making goals more challenging can lead to higher performance of its employees. Challenging goals can make the employees try harder to achieve them. Difficult goals are also known as stretch goals which encourage the employees to strive to get the same.

2. Specific Goals - It is also a factor which led to higher level of performance of the employees. The goals which are easier to adjust to and the employees is aware as to what is required of them and the ones which avoids mbiguity and confusion. Goals should be SMART i.e Specific, Measurble, attainable, realistic and time- related.

3. Participation in goal-setting - It particularly when this is expected, can improve performance
by increasing commitment to those goals, but managerially assigned goals that are
adequately explained and justified can also lead to high performance.

4. Knowledge of the past performance - Feedback is the mot important element of motivation. It contains necessary information about past mishaps and also contains elements for goal achievement which is motivational.

Organizational Justice

Employees' positive organizational behavior (POB) is not only to promote organizational function but also improve individual and organizational performance. As an important concept in organizational research, organizational justice is thought to be a universal predictor of employee and organizational outcomes.

• Distributive: Were the rewards distributed or the decisions made fairly?
• Procedural: Was the procedure that led to those rewards (or those decisions) fair?
• Interactional: Were the people treated with respect/dignity when those rewards were distributed or those decision were made?

Herzberg’s two factor theory

Herzberg two factor theory consists of two factors i.e

i)Hygiene factors

ii)Motivational factors

Hygiene factors which helps in motivtion are :

• Pay - The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and competitive to those in the same industry in the same domain.
• Company Policies and administrative policies - The company policies should not be too rigid. They should be fair and clear. It should include flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation, etc.
• Fringe benefits - The employees should be offered health care plans (mediclaim), benefits for the family members, employee help programmes, etc.
• Physical Working conditions - The working conditions should be safe, clean and hygienic. The work equipments should be updated and well-maintained.
• Status - The employees’ status within the organization should be familiar and retained.
• Interpersonal relations - The relationship of the employees with his peers, superiors and subordinates should be appropriate and acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation element present.
• Job Security - The organization must provide job security to the employees.

The motivtional factors consists of the following elements :

• Recognition - The employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by the managers.
• Sense of achievement - The employees must have a sense of achievement. This depends on the job. There must be a fruit of some sort in the job.
• Growth and promotional opportunities - There must be growth and advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the employees to perform well.
• Responsibility - The employees must hold themselves responsible for the work. The managers should give them ownership of the work. They should minimize control but retain accountability.
• Meaningfulness of the work - The work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get motivated.

Expectancy theory

It suggests that motivation is based on how much we want something and how likely we think we are to get it. I often discuss this facet of motivation when coaching managers, as it answers many questions about desire, want and need for extrinsic motivation.

The formal framework of expectancy theory was developed by Victor Vroom. This framework states basically that motivation plus effort leads to performance, which then leads to outcomes.

According to this theory, three conditions must be met for individuals to exhibit motivated behavior:

i) effort-to-performance expectancy must be greater than zero;

ii) performance-to-outcome expectancy must also be greater than zero; and

iii)    the sum of the effects for all relevant outcomes must be greater than zero.