6.5 Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we reviewed specific methods with which companies attempt to motivate their workforce. Designing jobs to increase their motivating potential, empowering employees, setting goals, evaluating performance using performance appraisals, and tying employee pay to individual, group, or organizational performance using incentive systems are methods through which motivation theories are put into action. Even though these methods seem to have advantages, every method could have unintended consequences, and therefore, the application of each method should be planned and executed with an eye to organizational fairness.
Ethical Dilemma
James is about to conduct a performance appraisal for Maria. Maria has exhibited some performance problems in the past 6 months. She has been coming in late and leaving early, and she missed two important deadlines. At the same time, she is a very likable and nice person who gets along well with others in the office. James also knows that Maria has a significant amount of debt, and getting a bonus after this appraisal would really help her. James does not want to jeopardize his relationship with her, and he does not want to prevent her from getting the bonus. Therefore, he is considering giving her a “good” rating in the appraisal. What would be your advice to James regarding this situation?
Individual Exercise
- A call center is using the metric of average time per call when rewarding employees. In order to keep their average time low, employees hang up on customers when they think that the call will take too long to answer.
- In a department store, salespeople are rewarded based on their sales volume. The problem is that they are giving substantial discounts and pressuring customers to make unnecessary purchases.
- All employees at a factory are receiving a large bonus if there are no reported injuries for 6 months. As a result, some employees are hiding their injuries so that they do not cause others to lose their bonuses.
What are the reasons for the negative consequences of these bonus schemes? Modify these schemes to solve the problems.
Group Exercise
Performance Appraisal Role Play
This role play will involve three students. One student will be the supervisor and the second will be the subordinate. The supervisor and the subordinate will conduct a formal performance appraisal interview. The third role is that of an observer who should provide feedback to both parties regarding how they could have improved their effectiveness.
Be sure to read only the role sheet assigned to you by your professor.
“6.8: Conclusion” & “6.9: Exercises” from Organizational Behavior by LibreTexts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
