Pizza Express's Motivation for Foreigner Staff - Research Paper Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents Proposal for Dissertation on Motivating Pizza Express Employees Introduction Thesis ment 2 Literature Review 2 Brief Analysis of Literature Review 7 The Problems with this Literature Review 7 Aims of the Research 7 Methodology 8 Analysis of Data 8 Final Presentation 8 Timetable 9 References 10 Proposal for Dissertation on Motivating Pizza Express Employees Introduction Pizza Express has over 300 restaurants in the UK and Scotland. They hire a lot of new immigrants in entry level positions. The restaurant prides itself on offering good food and excellent service in uniquely ambient and different restaurants. The company also is very much involved in the community. However, there are problems with motivating staff, especially the new immigrants, to provide the excellent customer service the company insists upon. It is difficult to motivate the entry level employees, because many of them are there only for the money while they go to school or seek better jobs. Many industries pay immigrant labor lower rates and offer fewer benefits or opportunities for advancement. (Morgenstern 2005) Most entry level employees will not move up in the organization for lack of interest or lack of ability. However, these employees can still be motivated to give the best service possible to customers if the organization speaks directly to their wants and needs. In order to do this, the organization must learn about these employees and communicate openly with them on a continuous basis. By doing this, the wants and needs of these employees can be identified and considered. Thesis Statement Using open communication with employees, the organization can learn to understand their wants and needs and be able to motivate them to produce better work and give better customer service by providing for some or all of those employee needs, thereby establishing a reciprocal relationship with employees that will make them want the company to do well. Literature Review Pizza Express employs a large percentage of immigrant workers in entry level positions. These workers are becoming, according to Jacob Monty, founding partner of Houston-based immigration and employment law firm Monty Partners LLP and legal counsel for the Texas Restaurant Association, essential for most chain restaurants, and motivation and retention are really big problems. (Leahy 2006) This literature review will look at the problem and proposed solutions. The first literature that I considered was that of Pizza Express itself. In looking at the Pizza Express website, one cannot help but notice the distinct absence of minority ethnic groups. Italian is prominent, as might be expected, considering that Pizza is considered to be an Italian import to the UK. However, no other ethnic groups are mentioned or pictured anywhere. There is also a very vague mission statement which talks about providing the best food and service to their customers. The company supports some charities and has an educational program, but these also are either very generic or Italian. Since there is no evidence of other ethnic groups, one might assume that employees are not asked for input into either the website or the menu. Many of the countries from which our immigrant population originates are in crisis. There may even be more urgent needs for those populations. It would make sense that employees from those countries would like to see some of their work benefit their countrymen. Chen suggests that an employee survey system is a major way to get information on potential internal problems, employees satisfaction, and their suggestions or ideas. While money is certainly a motivator, it is not the strongest one according to many sources. ( Romano 1997) Misplaced, financial incentives can become counter-productive. (Hemsley 2006) “An employee survey system is a major way to get information on potential internal problems, employees satisfaction, and their suggestions or ideas.…. Similarly, by using a customer survey system, an organization can get information on customers potential problems, satisfaction, and suggestions.” (Chen 2005) This creates two bridges: employee to management and customer to management. By using the two surveys to spark discussions, a third bridge is created between the employee and the customer. In addition, employee and customer needs are identified and documented. Discussions with employees should be informal, relaxed and open. No employee should be afraid or embarrassed to voice and opinion. The meeting should include beverages and not be longer than twenty minutes, and it should be on company time. You must let your employees know that you respect their time. (Dowling, 2008) "Job satisfaction is viewed as an outgrowth of achievement, recognition (verbal), the work itself (challenging), responsibility, and advancement (promotion). These five factors are considered to be closely related, both conceptually and empirically. When they are present in a job, the individuals basic needs will be satisfied, and positive feelings and improved performance will result. The basic needs specified are those related to personal growth and self-actualization, and these are said to be satisfied by the five intrinsic aspects of the work itself. " (Miner 2002, 165) (Maynard 1994) In addition to individual stimuli employees need to be made into a working team. Burns and Stalker clearly separated mechanistic from organic environments. “In a mechanistic environment it is best to create standard processes, rules and hierarchy to improve the efficiency of the organization. But organic environments require a different approach, one which recognizes the importance of unique skills and knowledge, as well as the means to stimulate these toward solving new problems.” (Smith, Roger 2008) and organic working environment not only raises the efficiency as members of a team. Ideally the team is organic by nature, and not just leader driven. Symbiotic relationships do not use “permanent roles of givers and takers, inferiors and superiors, controllers and controlled, subordinates and bosses, and what we traditionally know as employers and employees.” (Amar 2002, 80) More than creating a culture which nurtures a team, the team needs a mission. To move forward, a team has to understand and buy into where its going. It needs a collective sense of purpose. (Welch and Welch 2007) Chapman (2007) suggests that recognition and complements be a part of these meetings. “Employee training and advancement opportunities must be a major consideration and management priority.” (Stanley 2008) This could easily include scholarships for local schools. (Boyens 2007) This has the dual effect of motivating employees and positively impacting public relations. Arby’s, a North American fast food chain has created a very successful program. The 3,200-unit chain produced and deployed “a series of multilingual training tapes in an effort to build employee loyalty by treating workers of varying ethnicities as indispensable team members.” (Nation’s Restaurant News 2000) There are audiotapes which include common courtesies and greetings to help managers communicate better with foreign-born workers. The tapes also give job instructions in the workers’ native languages, and managers are taught how to issue instructions for each cultural group in the most useful and inoffensive manner. Addressing the cultural, linguistic and religious differences in a positive manner promotes understanding and makes these workers feel valuable. Adjusting requirements where possible also helps. (Boyens 2007) Eisman (1994) says Nelson has a huge list of tips in his book, but that the main focus is that employers cannot say they support their employees and then stop with a medical plan. Addressing cultural differences in a positive way and making these differences part of company culture where possible goes a long way towards making employees feel included. (d’Iribarne 2002) Japanese companies adopt their employees for life, and they reap total loyalty. Company involvement in employee welfare is a strong motivating force to get employees involved in the company’s business. Positive action has positive results. Bryce (2007) suggests that employee evaluations should be about positive factors and focus on what the employee does right, these should resemble small celebrations instead of court sessions. (Yerkes and Steinaur 2001) Incentive programs of many different types can be built into these evaluations. (Childers 2002)(White 2005) (Moore 2007) Garvey (1997) reports that unmotivated employees may cost companies money, and suggests a multi-level approach. It includes a lot of what has already been discussed. Hartley (2007) did a survey of workers to find out what they thought motivated them. This is the list: “Table 1: Seven ways to motivate mature workers 1. minimal commuting time 2. remuneration 3. a friendly working environment 4. new challenges 5. recognition 6. flexible work hours 7. the ability to work from home” While some of these are impossible for Pizza Express, several are quite relevant. XIAOYUN (2005) would add social support and job adjustment to this list. Another larger survey of 11563 respondents by IIE Solutions resulted in this list: 1. “Letting workers take responsibility for the business results of their work (52 percent); 2. Recognizing contributions (42 percent); 3. Making the best use of employee skills (39 percent); and 4. Providing opportunities for workers to develop skills and abilities (30 percent).” (Motivating Workers 1996) None of these mention money. Kathy Tyler (1999) interviewed many restaurant personnel who were offering ESL lessons to their immigrant employees. “‘In more and more U.S. firms, the immigrant population is the engine that drives the business,’ says Patricia P. Rajala, executive director of the Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) of Westchester County, N.Y., a non-profit literacy organization that provides ESL instruction through affiliates nationwide. ‘Accepting that, embracing it and providing your workers with the opportunity to improve their skills can mean loyalty for the firm and upward mobility for the worker.’" This article listed a number of firms offering ESL. It would seem like a really easy thing to do that could have a strong impact of both efficiency and morale. (Nichols 1997) LaBar (1997) concentrates on using safety programs in much the same way: dual purpose of accomplishing the training and motivating workers. Brief Analysis of Literature Review From this brief review of the current literature, using only a couple of databases, it is apparent that Pizza Express is not alone with this problem of motivating foreign born workers. There is a lot of literature about motivating workers, and mush of it focuses upon immigrant employees. There is a lot of information to be gathered. We can offer Pizza Express a large body of information and use it to help us create a set of primary research methods and tools plus a final comprehensive plan that we can include in a report for Pizza Express. However, this project has value for every organization which hires immigrant workers. The Problems with this Literature Review We included only articles about motivation. The full literature review will also include information about customer service, which is of primary interest to Pizza Express. We are certain there is a large body of literature from which we can formulate a good set of best practices for customer service. We will also interview Pizza Express management on this subject. Aims of the Research It is the aim of this research to identify the most useful motivation tools for Pizza Express and create a plan for implementation. A comprehensive description of suggested actions and their probably outcomes will be created. Methodology An in-depth review of the research will be conducted. Then a chart will be created listing all of the possible motivational methods and their implementation costs, time involved and expected results. From this we will identify which methods have the highest value versus cost ratio. Then some primary data will be collected from Pizza Express management, employees and customers in the form of interviews or surveys, whichever seems the least invasive and most useful and is approved by the company. It is expected that the company will see the value in this project and be very cooperative. Analysis of Data The data from the literature review will be analyzed and compared with the primary data collected at Pizza Express. From this we can identify the most valuable methods and tools for Pizza Express to use and create the report for them, including methods, plans, charts and expected results. And even materials to use, where possible. Final Presentation This will be a comprehensive report on the findings, suggestions for their use, instructions for implementation and materials, where applicable and possible. Timetable 1. Literature Review- 7-10 days 2. Analysis of literature review 1-2 days 3. Creation of interview or surveys- 1 week 4. Distribution of primary research tools (interviews or surveys) 3 weeks 5. Analysis of results from primary research-1 week 6. Overall analysis and comparisons-3or 5 days 7. Creation of final resport-15-21 days References 25 Easy Ways to Reward and Motivate Employees. 2007. HR Focus, 84(10), pp. 5-6. Not Very Swift. 2006. Amar, A. D. 2002. Managing Knowledge Workers: Unleashing Innovation and Productivity. 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