Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction - Assignment Example

Reflection Report on Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction Introduction Wal-Mart Inc. is a well known retail giant that has operations in about 9000 locations around the globe. The organisation is said to be the second largest employer with employee strength of 2.2 million. The company has maintained anti discrimination practices in its offices and in the operations. Some employees of the organisation have claimed over the years that the compensation that the organisation offers does not match the industry standards. Issues relating to the satisfaction levels and motivation of the employees have also come up over time. This essay makes an attempt to analyse the reasons of satisfaction or dissatisfaction among the employees of Wal-Mart and what according to them would be the motivators (Hofstede 72). Research Objective The objective of this paper is to find out the reasons that motive the employees in a typical workplace and how the employees derive a certain level of satisfaction in their jobs. This has been done by the analysis of an interview that has been conducted on two different employees of Wal-Mart. Thus a primary research has been done in this case with the help of a survey questionnaire. All the questioned asked are open ended leaving a lot of opportunity for the employees to speak what they actually feel. Profile of Employee 1 The first Employee who has been considered as the interviewee had been working in the organisation for the last 3 years. He has joined Wal-Mart as a Management Trainee in the supply chain management department. He had done his bachelor’s degree in production engineering and then has obtained a degree in Management. He has now been given the profile of an Assistant Manager after a one year training period. He manages about 30 executives who work under him in the department of procurement of the raw materials form the suppliers. He reports to the Operations Manager. Profile of Employee 2 The second employee who has been considered for the research is the Senior Manager of Financial Reporting and Analysis. He is working in the organisation for the last 8 years. He had joined the organisation as a Manager. Prior to joining Wal-Mart he had been working as an auditor in a local audit firm in Florida and at the time of joining he had an experience of four years. The job role of the second employee involved the functional as well as administrative role because along with the specific function of financial management and reporting he is also entrusted with various other functions. He has a major part to play in the decision making processes of the organisation. The Senior Manager reports to the General Manager. Interview Questionnaire 1. Why do you think you like to work in the organisation? 2. What is the most discouraging part of working in this organisation? 3. What is so significant about the work that you have been assigned? 4. How much of the various components of job satisfaction like skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback is present in the job role? On a scale of 100 how would you score them? 5. What are the factors that motivate you at work? In this context how much important is the remuneration as a motivating factor? 6. How much do you think the organisation culture is affecting the motivation level of the employees? Responses of the Employees Response 1 Employee 1: Wal-Mart is a very big brand and has a wide range of operations. I have started my career in this organisation and I get a lot of opportunity to learn. I can see that there is a lot of scope for growth for any employee here. Employee 2: Wal-Mart has provided me with an extra leverage in my career. I have witness a very good growth in the organisation in term of responsibility allocation and salary as well. The respect and the amount of autonomy that I get here is quite commendable. Response 2 Employee 1: Though there are very little reasons for discouragement, I think the salary that the company offers at the entry level and at the junior levels of the hierarchy is not very close to what the other companies offer at the starting levels. Employee 2: The Company has businesses across the world and thus they may shift the senior management across other continents as well. I do not think this is very good for the employees to maintain the work life balance (Parker 236). Response 3 Employee 1: The work that I do requires a lot of patience and perseverance. This gives me an insight of the various problems that are faced in supply chain management. Employee 2: There is a lot of freedom that I get in the work and the task identity in the job is quite high. Response 4 Employee 1: In my job task significance and feedback are the main aspects that I look forward to. Autonomy comes next. I do not expect Task Identity and Skill variety at the entry level because I am a learner right now. Employee 2: Task Identity is most important accordingly to me because it helps to identify the targets and goals that I have achieved and provides me with a lot of satisfaction. Autonomy and Task Significance are the second most important factors. Then come Feed Back and Skill variety. Response 5 Employee 1: The factor that motivates most is definitely the level of remuneration. However, the satisfaction levels and the job profile is also a very important factor. Employee 2: The amount of autonomy and the satisfaction from the job that I get form the work is the most important thing. Salary is not much important as a motivating factor as long as it remains at the industry levels. Response 6 Employee 1: The peer groups and the incentive structure of the organisation are the motivating factors. Employee 2: The cultural ambience is definitely important in encouraging the employees to work (Shein 9). Analysis of the interview On the basis of experience it can be seen that the employee 2 has a greater experience than the first employee. Thus Employee 2 more accustomed to working in the organisation and can relate more to the organisation culture. He is also aware of the changes that have taken place in the organisation during his 8 year working history in Wal-Mart. Since the employee 1 is at the entry level salary is an important factor for him because the company generally offers lower pay to the junior executives. A hike in the salary is something that Employee 1 would consider as amotivating factor. The senior Manager does not consider salary to be important because the compensation that he gets is enough to fulfill his physiological, security and social needs. Thus salary is something that helps an individual to fulfill the various needs that he has in his life. He looks forward to fulfilling the power and the self actualisation needs from his job (Maslow 92). The importance of salary has been depicted in the table below. Along with the salary as a motivaiting factor work life balance is also important for the employees. Employee 1 has more flexibilty in this regard because he is a starter and wants to dedicate as much time to work as possible. On the other hand the Senior Manager has greater obligations may be at his family so he wants a better work life balance. He is insecure about the prospects of tranfer that may take place. There are five important components of a particular job that an employee looks forward to that include Skill Variety, Task Significance, Autonomy, Task Identity and Feedback (Robbins 215). It can be seen from the graphs that for the two employees lying at different levels of hierarchy these factors vary. As the first employee says, the significance of the work is most important because it provides the individual with a lot of opportunity to learn. On the other hand it is not of the greatest importance for the Senior Manager. Skill variety and task identity are only of 5% importance to the employee 1. On the other hand task identity is most important for the Senior Manager. Task Significance and Autonomy are both 20% important for the Senior Manager. Thus a common thing that can be noticed is that Task Significance is impotant for both the employees though they lie at different levels of hierarchy. Conclusion Thus it can be concluded saying that job satisfaction and the factors for motivation of the employees change across the hierarchy. At the lower levels of management employees consider only those factors to be important that fulfil their basic needs, security needs or the social needs. In a job these factors include the salary, learning opportunities from the job etc. However, at the higher levels the employees tend to meet their higher needs so they look for more task identity and autonomy in their work. Recommendation The companies should formulate their employee motivation policies in such a way that meet the needs of the employees at different levels because a common policy would not be appropriate and hence there would be grievances among the employees. Works Cited Hofstede, Geert. Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. 1980. Print. Maslow, A. Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper. 1954. Print. Parker, Martin. Organizational Culture and Identity. London: Sage Publications. 2000. Print. Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications. London: Prentice Hall. 2004. Print. Shein, Edgar. Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 1992. Print. Read More