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CH 14] Business 101 14-9

These managers and
employees of Westrock
Corporation participate in
regularly scheduled
employee involvement
meetings. They discuss
what could be done to
make products better,
easier to use, or more
cost-effective. They also
discuss ways to better
service the customer,
innovative methods to
improve that service, and
improvements for internal
operations.
14

Photo source: Courtesy WestRock Corp.

not a strong motivator. The General Motors corporate decision to encourage
employee purchases of GM cars by banning Fords, Hondas, Toyotas, and other
competitive models from salaried employees' parking lots proved to be a major
dissatisfier. The move set GM employees to sniping at each other, and a number
of complaints were registered before the restrictions could be removed by a
chagrined GM management.

2. Other job-centered characteristics are motivational factors, such as the joy and
satisfaction from work, recognition, responsibility for the employee’s motivational factors
contribution, advancement, and growth potential, all are key sources of Job-centered factors
employee motivation. (recognition, responsibility)
that are strong sources of
Thus, although maintenance factors such as money are extremely important and will employee motivation.
lead to job dissatisfaction when they are lacking, they are of low motivational value as
long as they are present in adequate amounts. The key motivational factors are related
to the job itself. The supervisor motivates the worker not with an additional coffee
break but with greater job involvement. Satisfaction and self-esteem derive from
accomplishment.

The Three Rs of Employee Motivation
Robert Levering, author of A Great Place to Work, examined 20 top American
firms and concluded any boss can turn a bad workplace into a good one through what
he calls the three Rs:
Responsibility,
Rewards, and
Rights.

The first, responsibility, centers on granting workers increasingly more
responsibility for their jobs. Preston Trucking, on Maryland's eastern shore, has been
transformed from an organization characterized by frequent labor disputes over work
rules to one where the unofficial slogan is "the person doing the job knows more about
it than anyone else." Management's new approach involved establishing a partnership
with employees rather than acting as adversaries. Supervisors were told to find and

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