Module IV Assignment

Chapters 9, 10

Pg. 276
1) How does Whole Foods use teams to improve its operations?
Whole Foods use teams by discussing issues and developing solutions to improve the
companys operations.
2) What are some ways that Whole Foods empowers its employees?
Whole Food empowers employees to make choices that will achieve the companys
success. One way that Whole Foods empowers its employees by allowing them access to
all the companys books, including the compensation reports.
3) What are some of the benefits of the Whole Foods Healthy Living Challenge?
Under the Whole Foods Healthy Living Challenge, employees reap the benefits of
receiving an additional 10 percent discount. Dont forget employees automatically
receive a 20 percent discount on Whole Food products.

Do you ever shop at Whole Foods? No

Pg. 278- 284

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
A psychologist that goes by Abraham Maslow created a theory that display the basic needs
people have.

Physiological Needs: A home, food to eat during breakfast, lunch, and supper, water, and clothes
to wear in the warm and cold months

Security Needs: Purchasing insurance just in case cant work, retirement income, car insurance,
money saved in the bank

Social Needs: talking to friends on the phone, or emailing them, asking for help from the teacher
to understand the topic

Esteem: Competing with myself and attempting to make straight As, keep motivating myself
saying that my hard work will pay off when I get accepted to graduate school for physical
therapy, keeping a high self esteem

Self-actualization: Live my life without regrets and learning from my mistakes

I think that this most of where motivation theories are based on. To me, in a way he details the
important needs people must have to live life in a normal way.

Herzbergs Two Factor Theory

During the 1950s, a psychologist named Fredrick Herzburg proposed a theory on motivations
that correlates on the job and the work environment. As a result, he proposed a two-factor model
that can be divided into hygiene factors and motivational factors.
Hygiene factors are linked to work setting and include salary, security, relationships with other
workers, working environment in some places like fast-food restaurant, or in industrial factories,
or in hospitals, manager supervision, and company regulations. Working in a company that
makes a decent salary, a safe working environment, and having fair companies that provide job
security can help the worker decide if one wants to work there or somewhere else. Hygiene
factors can help people decide what kind of job they want out of life.
On the other hand, motivational factors can include workers receiving achievement, recognition,
involvement in a program, giving responsibility that allows the worker to gain respect, and
advancement can motivate people.
I want to work as an orthopedic physical therapist because they make about $80,000 with nice
benefits such as receiving health care insurance. My working environment is safe and does not
present many hazards and I do not have the stress as much as an orthopedic surgeon, but I would
have to work with them. The hospital policies may be strict, but it would become second nature
to me once I work in an internship.
Motivation factors to me include receiving recognition from my parent if I make straight As. I
want to go to UNC-Asheville to motivate myself to receiving my ACMS (certification for
personal trainer). I want to try to get a scholarship at UNC-Asheville's Department of Health and
Wellness. And I want to the internship in different physical therapy settings to make my resume
stronger. I would like to also get Chancellor's List to help me get into Physical Therapy School.
This will help me reap the nicest hygiene factors that will also affect the rest of my life.
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor adopted Maslow's ideas about personal needs to management. He compares
and contrasts his two views of management---the traditional view known as Theory X and
humanistic view of Theory Y.
Theory X automatically perceives the workers generally dislike work and must be forced to do
their jobs. They believe these following statements are true of workers.
1. An average person automatically dislikes work and will avoid them when possible.
2. Most workers must be continuously controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to
get them to work toward the achievement of organizational objectives.
3. The average worker wants to be directed and to avoid responsibility, has relatively little
ambition, and wants security.
This could be viewed in the ways of doing homework during your high school years. You will
see some people who will never turn in their homework and they receive punishment like 10
points off their homework. Continuously, repeating the same attitude toward homework, the
teacher gets angry and calls the parents to have a school conference because their daughter/son
refuses to do their homework unless they get grounded by their parents. Even further, the
parents force them to quit sports unless they can improve their grades.
Theory Y is the opposite of Theory X. Managers perceptive view of the workers is that workers
like to work and under regular conditions employees will individually seek out the responsibility
to try to satisfy their social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. McGregor writes these
assumptions that stand before Theory Y:
1. The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is a natural as play or rest
2. People will exercise self-direction and self-control to achieve objectives to which they are
committed.
3. People will commit to objectives when they realize that the achievement of those goals will
bring them personal reward.
4. The average person will accept and seek responsibility.
5. Imagination, ingenuity, and creativeness can help solve organizational problems, but most
organizations do not make adequate use of these characteristics in their employees.
6. Organizations today do not make full use of workers' intellectual potential.
A good example of this theory is when a teacher sees potential within a student and recommends
that one person to becoming the President of the Beta Club to all of their faculty members. This
student plays sports for all three seasons and has already accepted their responsibility of being a
Junior Marshall for motivating themselves to do their homework and make time for studying
their tests. This personal also received a full 4- year scholarship to Lenoir -Rhyne. Their hard
work and determination will bring them personal recognition from their family. Now as a

personal reward, that person can now relax because they have received a nice scholarship and
can stop working at his/her part-time job.
Theory Z
William Ouchi created Theory Z after studying the comparative management practices of the
Japanese company and the American companies. This creates the notion of a hybrid
management style. This theory speaks of an organizational culture which reflects in the Japanese
culture in which workers are more participative, and capable of performing and varied tasks.
Theory Z emphasizes things such as job rotation, broadening of skills, generalization versus
specialization, and the need for continuous management of workers. Some assumptions about
include the notion that workers tend to want to build co-operative and intimate working
relationships with those that they work for and with, as well as the people that work for them.
Theory Z workers have a high expected need to be supported by the company and highly value a
working environment in such things of family, cultures, and traditions, and social institutions are
regarded as equally important. Theory Z workers, it is assumed that they can be trusted to do
their job to their best ability, as long as management can be trusted to support them and look out
for their well-being. While this theory assumes that workers will be participating in the
decisions of the company to a great degree, William Ouchi specified that employees must be
very knowledgeable about the various issues of the company as well as possessing the
competence to make those decisions. However, this theory does not work successfully in the
United States because there are different cultural traditions. Japan has been successfully in
adopting this method, some workers will be afraid this would result into compensating more
overtime hours.
One can view in this in America in a few places. For example, teachers may use this method. If
they worked really hard to giving the students their grades and plugging them in the computer,
they may skip an optional teacher workday and possibly take a day off. Although some teachers
take a day off, they might decide to bring their work to their home working overtime to
compensate for it.
Equity Theory
The Equity Theory was developed by John Stacey Adams, a work place and behavioral
psychologist who developed this job motivation theory in the early 1960s. These calls for how
much people are willing to devote time to an organization depending on their fair assessment, or
equity, of the rewards they will receive in exchange. In a fair environment, a person receives
recognition in proportion to the devotion he or she makes to the organization. Then each worker
develops a personal input-output ratio by taking stock of his/her devotion (inputs) to the
organization in the time, efforts, skills, and experience and assessing the rewards (outputs)
offered by the organization in pay, benefits, recognition, and promotions. Finally, the worker
compare his/her ratio into the input-output ratio of some other people.

The Equity theory comes into play when a person argues how come Sandra gets paid more than
me, and she works less than me.
Expectancy Theory
A psychologist named Victor Vroom developed the expectancy theory that states the motivation
depends not only on how much a person wants something, but also on the persons belief of how
likely he/she is to get. This means that if a person wants something and believes in the reasoning
of being optimistic will be motivated in the long run. This theory can help others to achieve
goals by changing their attitude towards something like organizing the priorities needed to finish
the homework and studying for test.
This semester, I am trying to motivate myself into making straight A's because, in the long run, I
want to pursue my dream of becoming a physical therapist in orthopedics. To do this, I plan on
receiving my Associates in Science and I believe in my utmost ability to making straight A's in
my prerequisite sciences courses for physical therapy school. But first, I will try to get accepted
to UNC-Asheville and major in Health and Wellness Promotion and graduate in the Fall 2017.
In order to succeed, I must demonstrate homework and prepare study time by creating a planner
that will organize my priorities, so far it is a hard change in my behavior, but I am willing to
work harder than I did before because making A's in community college can be better to me than
making A, B, C is regular college classes. But, I will know the reward is to get into Physical
Therapy School at Western Carolina University. Hard work will pay off. I am making changes
to my behavior and attitude toward classes and asking for help and participating fully in my
classes. I have the most optimistic view of school and I am learning new things every day.
Pg. 288
1) What might an uncertain economic climate contribute to the decreased productivity?
With business cutting back, employees are expected to take on greater roles with fewer
benefits. As a result, employees experience more growing dissatisfaction with their jobs
and less positive relationships with their employers.
2) Why do employee bad moods have such a negative effect on an organization?
A study made by a business professor Steffanie Wilk found that employees who start the
day in a bad mood can see their productivity levels reduced more than 10 percent. In
addition, bad moods tend to be contagious, affecting other employees and customers and
reducing the bottom line.
3) What can employers do to improve the moods of its employees?
Managers can take steps to improve employees moods in simple ways by offering small
incentives. CHG Healthcare Services provides basket of fruits for it employees every
morning. Managers can also encourage short periods of socialization among employees,
which can improve moods and build cohesiveness.
Pg. 292

9) Identify and describe four job-design strategies.

Managers have several strategies that they can use to design jobs to help improve
employee motivation including job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, and
flexible scheduling strategies.
Job Rotation
This allows employees to move from one job to another in an effort to relive the boredom
that is of the associated with job specialization. With job rotation, an employee spends a
specified amount of time performing one job and then moves on to another, different job.
And at last, the worker eventually returns to the initial job and begins the cycle again. Job
rotation might be a good idea, but job rotation does not totally eliminate the problem of
boredom.
Job Enlargement
This adds more tasks to a job instead of treating each task as separate. Job enlargement
was developed to overcome boredom associated with specialization. The main reason
behind this strategy is that jobs are more satisfying as the number of tasks performed by
an individual increases. Employees sometimes enlarge, or craft, their jobs by noticing
what must be done and then changing tasks and relationship boundaries to adjust.
Individual orientation can shape opportunities to craft new jobs and job relationships.
Job Enrichment
This incorporates motivational factors such an opportunity for achievement, recognition,
responsibility, and advancement into a job. Job enrichment gives workers not only more
tasks with the job, but more control and authority over the job. These programs enhance
a workers responsibility and open opportunities for growth and advancement when the
worker has the ability to carry on more challenging tasks. However, this requires careful
planning and execution
Flexible Scheduling Strategies
Most United States workers work a traditional 40-hour workweek consisting of five 8hour delays with fixed starting and ending lines. Due to facing problems of poor morale
and high absentees occurrences as well as a diverse workforce with changing needs,
many managers have used flexible scheduling strategies such as flextime, tight
workweeks, job sharing, part-time work and telecommuting.
9) Name and describe some flexible scheduling strategies. How can flexible schedules
help motivate workers?
There are several flexible scheduling strategies such as flextime, compressed workweeks,
job sharing, part-time work and telecommuting.

Compressed Workweeks
The compressed workweek is a four-day (or shorter) period in which an employee works
forty hours. Under this compressed plan, employees typically work 10 hours per day for
four days and have a three-day weekend. This compressed workweek plan help reduces
the companys operating expenses because its actual hours of operation are reduced.
Sometimes, parents use this plan to have more days off to spend time with their families.

Job Sharing
This takes place when two people do one job into two shifts. One person may work from
8: 00 am to 12:30 pm, while the second shift takes over at 12:30 pm until 5:00pm. Job
sharing allows both people to open opportunities to come to work as well as fulfill
obligations like parenting, or school. The company can reap the benefits at lowering the
total cost for salaries and benefits than someone who is working eight hours.
Pg. 294
1) Name some of the hygiene factors at The Container Store.
Employees receive 50 percent more pay that at other retail establishments.
Employees also receive many perks for working at The Container Store, and
even part-time employees are eligible for healthcare.
During the recession, for instance, The Container Store refused to lay off
employees.
2) Name some of the ways that Contained Store motivates its employees.
The Container Store motivates its employees, creating open communication
culture.
The Container Store also holds several events to show their appreciation of
employee efforts.
3) Do you believe Tindells statement that highly satisfied employees will lead to highly
satisfied customers and shareholders?
Yes, I think so because if their employees are for the most part are optimistic, it would
increase their health conditions and thus, highly satisfied employees will lead to
highly satisfied customer and shareholders.
Pg. 323
1) Why are employers worried about the healthcare costs of employees who smoke?
Employers are worried about the healthcare cost of employees who smoke
because healthcare cost will rise. There are many ways to tackle the smoking
programs. Many employers are implementing additional insurance changes on
employees who smoke.

2) What are some initiatives employers are adopting to persuade workers to kick the
habit.
Employees can participate in smoking cessations clinics so that can have their
insurance cost deferred. Those who successfully achieve to kick that habit will
never have to pay additional insurance costs.
3) Do you think it is ethical for employees to create disincentives for smoking?
Yes, I think it is ethical because it does not completely enforce people to quit
smoking. It is their choice whether or not you want to pay additional insurance
costs.

Pg. 329
#3.
What are the two types of training programs? Relate training to kind of jobs.
On-the-job training allows workers to learn by actually performing the tasks of
the job, while classroom training teaches employees with lectures, conferences,
videotapes, case study and web-based training.
I remember working at McDonalds and using classroom training videos to help
me understand the working environment better. I also remember doing the on-thejob training at McDonalds for the first week of my first part-time job. It took
some time getting used to it.
4) What is the significance of performance appraisal? How do managers appraise
employees?
The significance of the performance is a method when evaluating the job
performance of an employee. Performance appraisal is an analysis of an
employees recent successes, failures, personal strengths, weaknesses, and
suitability for promotion or further training. It is important to leave a strong
impression on managers that way one can receive a promotion easier. Manager
can appraise employees objectively and must relate the employees performance
to some other standard. To do a subjective assessment is to use the ranking
system which ranks employees against each other such as their communication
skills, teamwork, and cooperation amongst one another.

10) What are the benefits associated with diverse workforce?

1. More productivity usage of the companys human resources.
2. More productive work relationship among diverse employees as they learn more
about each others racial backgrounds and being more accepting of each other.

3. Having an advantage to increase ability to serve the needs of an increasingly

diverse customer base.

Pg. 331
1) What did Medallions HRM department do right in dealing with the employees
who were laid-off?
Medallion found itself in an uncomfortable position of having to lay off hundreds
of employees in the home office (the manufacturing facilities) as well as many
salespeople. Medallion offered laid-off employees one additional month of work
and a month of severance pay, along with the opportunity to sign up for classes to
help with the transition, including job search tactics and resume writing in attempt
to lower the unemployment rate.
2) What are some of the potential problems that must be dealt with after an
organization experiences major trauma such as massive layoffs?
After a major layoff, employee morale is likely to be low. It is not uncommon for
the remaining employees to:
1. Feel a sense of loss (they miss the people who were laid-off)
2. Feel guilty for being kept
3. Feel uncertain about their own professional future
4. Experience the role ambiguity related to the new and leaner structure.
3) What can Medallion do to make the team approach work more smoothly? What
role do you think diversity training should play?
Medallion can smoothly transition to the team approach by ensuring employees
are clear as their roles and responsibilities. Toward that end, Medallion must
provide its employees with new job descriptions that include explanation of how
the teams are to function, and construct a diversity training programs. At last,
Medallion must ensure that its task force (that handles employee concerns)
maintains employee confidentiality so employees do not fear retribution for
forcing concerns. I think diversity training must play a key role in the transition
because it will contribute to reduce conflict (and improve productivity) among
employees from diverse ethnic backgrounds.