Scenario (fictional):
The Maple Building Company currently builds large portable offices (i.e., pods) and large retail spaces based on customized plans. The company has been in business 20 years and has prided itself on providing a very competitive salary and excellent benefits and retaining most of their original employees. While they started the company doing creative designs for one-of-a-kind office and retail spaces and even vendor truck interiors, much of the factory’s routine work is now done robotically. Although the employees might modify the designs slightly now, they are already in the company computer and ready to produce small modifications when needed. They still need a supervisor and technicians to keep the operations running, and the construction crew who deliver and construct the products on site. There are two leading engineers. One engineer works on high-end corporate headquarters, and the other on large retail chain projects from Maple’s main offices.
The CEO and president (the co-founders), who were best friends in college, are the ones who meet with prospective corporate clients and negotiate the prices and building parameters. While the company used to construct small business and retail offices and even vendor truck build-outs for lower- to middle-income clients, the clients are now almost exclusively wealthy private clients or corporate titans. The CEO and the company president are beginning to think about retirement. They want to keep the company running, but they cannot understand why the two engineers seem unmotivated when they are receiving such competitive salaries and excellent benefits with 3 weeks’ vacation a year. Also, the production line has had more problems lately, and the supervisor seems to be coming in late several times a week, as have the technicians. They are worried about the future of the company they built.
• Summarize the problems at the company that are possibly affecting employee motivation and performance.
• Analyze motivation theories as provided in your text and learning activities (providing proper attribution) to explain the engineers’ lack of motivation.
o Name the theory or theories.
o Define the theory or theories.
o Explain how the theory or theories applies/apply to the scenario.
• Analyze motivation theories as provided in your text and learning activities (providing proper attribution) to explain the supervisor’s, technicians’, and construction crew’s lack of motivation.
o Name the theory or theories.
o Define the theory or theories.
o Explain how the theory or theories applies/apply to the scenario.
• Explain how the CEO and president might better motivate employees to improve performance.
