CASE 8-A: High Turnover at the Cafeteria

8-14. Using what you have learned from studying the various motivation theories, describe the

situation at the cafeteria.

=> Sean is a supervisor at Lyles Catering Services and he has been on the job for eight months.

In these eight months he has noticed a lot of employees quitting. Sean has tried to develop a

relationship with his employees by talking to them personally but the employees are not

enthusiastic about their jobs at all. They are not motivated and this is why the employees are

quitting their job. Factors such as achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and

advancement seemes to be playing a major role here for these unsatisfied employees.

8-15. Describe what you think might be Seans biggest challenge in motivating the employee at

the cafeteria.

=> I think motivating his full-time employees who have been working there for more than 6

years might be a bigger challenge. At the same time he cannot focus just on the full-time

employees. He should come up with something that might motivate both the part-time and full-

time employees. The part-time employees are already doing a good job but this does not mean

that Sean should only focus on motivating the full-time employees. This is because the part-time

employees may feel they are not being notice inspire of their hard work.

8-16. Recommend a motivation approach for Sen to use and explain why it would be an effective

way to deal with the situation at the cafeteria.

=>An effective motivational approach for Sean in this situation would be introducing

individualized rewards which would recognize the accomplishments of employees on their jobs.

The reason this approach could be beneficial towards motivating his employees is because it

recognizes each employees specific aptitudes and rewards their achievements. Sean can also do

the evaluation process between the full-time and part-time employees. This might give a sense of

competition to perform better and might motivate them.

CASE 8-B: Doldrum in the Dental Office

8-17. What can Caroline do to become more motivated about her work and overcome the

reputation of being passionless about her job?

=> She should try to focus on her self-management and her emotional impulses. Although this

was not her career choice she can reevaluate her emotional intelligence to improve her skills. She

should start being more friendly to the patients and push herself to achieve her goals.

8-18. What motivational opportunities could Caroline expect from her bosses at the dentist

office?

=> There are many ways a boss can motivate their employees. Here in Carolines case, money

seems to be an important factor for her performance at work. So, if the bosses decided to reward

her with an increase in her pay if she performed to a certain standard, she would be motivated to

work better.
8-19. Explain Carolines behavior using the equity theory.

=> Equity theory is based on the idea that individuals are motivated by fairness, and if they

identify inequities in the input or output ratios of themselves and their group, they will seek to

adjust their input to reach their perceived equity. In this case Caroline started to observe how she

and other dental assistants were doing majority of the work while the dentists only did a certain

portion after most of the work had been completed. This made her question the amount she was

being paid because she felt although that she was doing more work and was being paid less.

8-20. How would Herzberg explain Carolines lack of passion for her job?

=>Herzbergs motivation-hygiene theory says that the opposite of satisfaction is no satisfaction

and the opposite of dissatisfaction is no dissatisfaction. Keeping this in mind, Herzberg would

probably say that Caroline was being paid less and that could have been a reason of

dissatisfaction, but it could also be the lack of satisfaction that could have caused Caroline to

lose passion for her job. Factors like achievement, recognition, advancement, and the work itself

could be holding her back from having passion for her work.