Question

Based on what you know about motivation and personality, what types of people are likely to be satisfied working in each area/location of the company?  Using concepts from the job characteristics model/theory, what might need to change to increase employee satisfaction in all areas of the firm?

In terms of hiring, which Big Five traits and abilities might supervisors want to use for selection? How can the company orient employees for creativity and independence in those locations where it is needed? Finally, what kind of performance measures might be appropriate for each office location?

Answer 1

While selecting a candidate for a particular job it is important to keep in mind that the job description matches the skills, abilities and interest of the candidate.

People who have the right skill set, abilities and interest are the ones who are more likely to be satisfied working. The personality should also be in synchrony with the type of job. E.g. A personal working in the Marketing or Human Resources should have a people oriented personality. If an introverted person is assigned a job that requires him to interact a lot with people, he may face a problem which may eventually also impact his motivation to work.

If we take the Job Characteristic model into consideration, in order to increase employee satisfaction every job should have several different skills and abilities so that there is greater engagement in the work. Giving the employees responsibility and trusting them with important work once they are completely trained in their job also contribute to the job satisfaction. Recognising their work and giving them appreciation and reward at the right time is also important in order to sustain the motivation of employees. Also, making the employees feel, from time to time, that their work is contributing to the vision of the organisation and providing them with clear feedback also helps in enhancing their performance, satisfaction and motivation.

While hiring it is important to ensure that the candidates have the right skill set and technical competency, understand the work ethics, are interested/willing to work, possess the ability to work in harmony with peers and are flexible wherein they are open to feedback and ready to improve on them.

For promoting creativity it is very important to be accepting of mistakes that the employees make. Fear might inhibit their creativity skills and they may not want to engage in anything new or different that might be risky. Promoting a collaborative culture, giving the employees the autonomy to work and providing them with the tools that they might require. Accepting the solutions given by the employees and having brainstorming sessions with them more often would promote creativity.

There are usually two basic types of performance measures, one is based on the profit/financial performance and the other focuses more on the determinants of the results like creativity. In order to promote a creative culture the later performance measure should be used more often and In order to promote a competitive culture the former one should be used more often. However, it is best to use a combination of both these measures to get a balanced result.