To be effective, a company must learn to motivate its employees to efficiently and effectively meet the goals of the organization. Prior to starting this case study, read Chapter 6 in your text, the article Person-organization Fit, Family Supportive Organization Perceptions, and Self-efficacy Affect Work-life Balance, watch the required videos, Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation (Links to an external site.)and Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? (Links to an external site.), review the Writing a Case Study Analysis (Links to an external site.) resource from the Writing Center, and review the weekly Instructor Guidance and any supporting information in the announcements.

The Motivation Case Study:

Identify a company that struggles with employee motivation. Make your choice based on evidence from resources you find. Be sure to document these resources so you can include as citations and references in your paper. The company may be currently active or no longer operating.
Not sure how to start? Try googling “Worst companies to work for” or “companies with poor motivation.” Numerous sites list companies that are struggling in differing areas. Once you identify the company you want to research, google news articles or other sites that include information about the company and the situations affecting motivation/challenges.
Research the company and the associated motivational challenges.
As you research, consider this week’s activity about bias to try and rule out commentary that may not be credible. Seek professional sites, rather than just opinions. Check out the What is CRAAP? A Guide To Evaluating Web Sources (Links to an external site.) and this Four Moves & a Habit: A Guide for Web Literacy and Fact Checking (Links to an external site.) resources for support.
Include a short summary about the company.
Note that enough information should be included to inform the reader (your instructor) about the company and the noted challenges/issues.
Identify three to five motivational challenges within the company that you discovered through your research. Support this information with citations for the sources that provided you the information about the organization.
Discuss potential rationales for why the company is experiencing these issues. Support your assertions with credible sources.
Identify at least three content theories and/or process theories of motivation, discussed in this week’s text chapters that could be applicable to determining strategies/solutions. (You are to identify the theories that you think could be applied to improve the organization’s situation.) Consider using headings in your paper to organize this information.
Note that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are types of motivation and should not be presented as theories, but as variables within a theory.
Discuss Possible Solutions/Changes Needed
Identify at least two strategies that could be applied to improve motivation, based on your reading and research.

ANSWER

The Motivation Case Study

Summary about the company  

Gannett is an American-based company that owns popular publications, including the “USA Today.” According to a report by Glassdoor, it is ranked as one of the worst places one could be in right now (Louis, 2020). From the research conducted, many of the employees are not keen on working for the giant company, which has been on a huge decline. According to Louis (2020), the firm has been deteriorating more over the years, since the newspaper circulation has mainly shifted online.

Motivational challenges within the company

The major motivational issue in the firm is the lack of job satisfaction of its employees, which is one of its lowest, based on user-submitted rankings and reviews. The company’s overall rating is at 2.6 out of 5, whereas its CEO, Craig Dubow rating is at 19% (Inquisitr, 2013). Many have complained about its increase in the number of layoffs and its profit challenges, which have made the company struggle to make it to the modern media world, which has been impacted by a shifting paradigm in the use of technology (Inquisitr, 2013). The company ranks low among others in the ranking , including companies such as Blockbuster and eBay, among many others

Process theories of motivation 

To determine the most suitable strategies/solutions for the company to help it improve, there will be a need to focus on the process theories of motivation. First,  is the Operant Conditioning Theory, which is the simplest motivational theory. The theory states that people will do things for which they are rewarded and will avoid those things for which they get punished (Oban, 2018). The second applicable theory, in this case, is the equity theory, which shows that when there is fairness and justice at the workplace, then the employees are likely to be more satisfied at their jobs (Oban, 2018). Finally, the goal theory states that people tend to perform better when they have difficult, specific, and accepted performance goals and objectives.

Possible Solutions

The company will need to invest in the theories in managing change and ensuring a more positive outcome and job satisfaction among the workers. The three theories could be used to improve workers’ motivation in the company, since first, for the Operant Conditioning Theory, the employees will work hard to ensure that they get rewarded when they perform better. They will also avoid issues that would make them get punishments when at the workplace. For the equity theory, the workers at the company will feel that they are all appreciated where everyone is treated equally without discrimination or prejudice. This will improve the working environment and ensure that each employee feels wanted and is in the right environment when working in the institution. For the goal theory, the firm’s management will need to set manageable goals that will ensure that each worker is conversant with what is expected of him/ her at the firm, which will ultimately boost productivity.

Strategies that could be applied to improve employee motivation  

One of the key strategies that the company needs to incorporate in its process is encouraging more communication. This would be mostly by providing feedback since very workers respond positively to active feedback methods. By having continuous feedback on performance, the workers will have a stronger feeling of investment in the organizational goals, which will ultimately help build a stronger relationship (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). The second most vital strategy that will help boost employee motivation is the provision of career educational development opportunities. Due to the multiple changes in the industry, there will be a need for the firm to promote human capital through constant training and development programs (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). Firms that make it their policy to employ such programs create a direct correlation to employee loyalty and retention.

References

Inquisitr. (2013). Gannett Ranked As One of America’s Worst Places to Work. Retrieved from https://www.inquisitr.com/13692/gannett-ranked-as-one-of-americas-worst-places-to-work/

Louis, S. (2020). These are the 17 worst companies to work for in America. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/17-worst-companies-america-170000191.html

Oban, C. (2018). Part 3: Process Theories of Motivation.

Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective employee engagement in the workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), 4.