The Brewster-Seaview Landscaping Company

Case

Thursday March 17 2016

MHR 405-051
Frank Miller
Manson Tra 500706372

(a)

Brewster-Seaview Landscaping is a small business company that is

owned and operated by Joe Brewster. Every summer, Joe would hire the
summer students to help him with his operations, providing them with a job
that pays well. This small business environment also provides the workers
with an excellent relationship with the boss, which in return increased their
motivation to increase performance results. He allowed the students to make
their decisions such as assigning tasks to the group and making their own
decisions. Joe would constantly motivate and compliment the workers
providing a great working environment that every summer the workers would
looks for in a summer job. The way Joe operates his business allows flexibility
and a stress free environment, allowing the crew to enjoy the job, ultimately
leading to increased productivity within the company.
According to The Four Drives Theory, the crews drive to acquire motivated
the crew to achieve a higher position than others and enhancing their self
concept through relative status and recognition in society. The progress and
results were successful and evident because the crews output was 15
percent above other landscaping companies.
The drive to bond motivated the employees with the support and feedback
from their boss as well as their customers. Workers felt a sense of belonging
due to the relationship with their boss Joe as well as their customers through
constant communication with each other, this motivated the workers to

constantly work at a high level on a daily basis while enjoying the presence
of working with one another.
The drive to comprehend enables the crew to become very well acquainted,
and provided a stress-free environment. As stated in the case they were able
to freely joke around with each other as long as they completed their tasks.
Workers felt comfortable with one another and it made the crew feel satisfied
with the environment with whom they were working with.
The Drive to defend was apparent in this small organization because Joe
granted his employees the freedom to flexibly plan their assignments at
each particular work environment as well as their lunch breaks. This allowed
the crew to not feel pressured or stressed in terms of managing their time
and work efficiency.
As an employee to many organizations, I feel that if my manager constantly
motivated and complimented my performance, I would feel more compelled
to perform at a higher standard than if they did not communicate with me at
all. For example, in my previous work experience at South Street Burger Co.
The manager would always stay at her desk while I was working the grill and
she would never help or compliment my performance, causing me to feel
less motivated and less valued as an employee. Thus I felt very little
motivation for me to provide the best performance that I am capable of. If
the manager gave me feed back or motivation rather than focusing on the
results, I would have enjoyed working there, which would have resulted in
me displaying a better work ethic.

(b)

The following summer, Joe had hired two supervisors in which they had

the authority to be able to run their crew in any manner they wished as long
as they kept to the schedule prepared by Joe. The supervisors did not allow
the crew to follow the routines of the previous summer, also they did not
help with the work at all. The supervisors stripped the workers of their
freedom to assign tasks amongst each other as well as communicating with
customers and one another. The crews attitude fell significantly, everybody
hated the supervisors and not much effort was put into the work from the
workers. Complaining to Joe did not make the situation any better, rather it
made the supervisors clamp down and push the crew even harder. The
overall productivity was 5 percent under the previous years production.
Motivating the crew the second summer was crucial because nobody had the
motivation to work because of the two new supervisors. According to
McClellands learned needs theory, The supervisors needed to be people with
a strong need for achievement, wanting to accomplish reasonably
challenging goals through their own effort, which in this case, the supervisors
needed to help the crew, especially the new people. The supervisors should
have trained the new employees well and used their efforts to make sure
that everybody was well trained to do the tasks assigned. The supervisors
did not help the crew at all. The workers were high nAch people because
they desired unambiguous feedback and recognition for their success in
which Joe portrayed in the previous summer which motivated the employees

to work even harder. The supervisors did not compliment the crew, and if the
supervisors made an effort to show that the crews work was appreciated, the
crew would have had more motivation to work.
The supervisors couldve shown the need for affiliation by seeking approval
of many of the strict rules and wishes of the employees to avoid conflict
rather than just enforcing the rules. The supervisors set rules that decreased
the morale of the workers such as a set lunch time rather than the workers
deciding, no more assigning tasks amongst your own and deciding how to
accomplish them as well as no more communication amongst the employees
and the customers. These rules made the employees feel very unsatisfied
and unenjoyable with the way the work had been going and these factors
lead to the lack of motivation from the crew.
The supervisors exercised the need for power because they overruled the
routines of the previous years that the employees were accustomed to. All
the supervisors cared about was just making sure they were doing their job
in controlling the crew in doing things the supervisors way and no other way.
The supervisors showcased Personalized Power because they only wanted to
get the job done while using power for their own sake, making rules so that
they can wear their power as a status symbol.
The supervisors were the main reason why the workers were not motivated
the second summer, if the supervisors took the time to properly train the
new employees as well as helping out the crews whenever possible, the
workers would have had more motivation to work. The supervisors also

enforcing rules that were the opposite of the previous summer was also a big
reason why the crews had no motivation. Activities such as communicating
with one another as well as the customers, deciding on tasks to be
accomplished and how to arrange it amongst themselves as well as others
were the reasons why the crew felt so much flexibility and it lead to greater
production as shown in the first summer. The supervisors should have
worked things out with the employees about enforcing rules to avoid conflict
rather than just enforcing it without anybodys input.

2)

The loss of motivation and performance were the two main factors that

need to be taken into consideration. An action plan for Joe to help improve
the effectiveness of Brewster-Seaview Landscaping in the short term is to
listen to the complaints of the workers and restore the norms from the
previous summer that most employees were happy to have. By doing this,
workers will feel more satisfied coming into work knowing that the crew will
now have the flexibility to once again coordinate their work days how they
used to from the previous summer. This would improve the performance
because with the flexibility and freedom resulted in 15% better performance
than other landscaping companies in the previous summer. An action plan
for the supervisors is to make sure that they are properly training the new
employees and helping out whenever they are able to help the crew. Many of
the new workers had a hard time working the second summer due to the lack
of training received. Although the experienced crew tried to help out, they

also had their own work to accomplish so they had no time for the new
workers.
In the long run, Increasing E-to-P expectancies by assuring employees that they have
the necessary competencies, clear role perceptions, and necessary resources to reach the desired
levels of performance. This involves clearly communicating through everybody and making sure
the right people have the right tools and knowledge for the right task. Behavior modelling and
supportive feedback is also important because a lot of workers strive on that making the workers
believe that he or she is able to perform the task (as evident in the first summer). Through
executing these actions, one will not usually witness the problems faced in the second summer as
Brewster Seaview Landscaping had gone through. Employee morale is very important and it is
and indication whether the motivation and the performance will present.