Motivating Employees
The following hypothetical situation illustrates some issues pertaining to employee motivation and evaluation.
After getting an associate’s degree at a local community college, Jim Taylor was hired for a sales position at a department store in a San Jose’s Eastridge Mall. The position offered firsthand knowledge of the firm’s customers, managers, and policies. Taylor was told that if he did well in this assignment, he could become a management trainee.
His performance as a sales associate was average. After observing Taylor on the sales floor, his manager, Jennifer Chen, felt that he was effective only when working with customers like himself: young career- oriented men and women. To encourage Taylor to sell to other types of customers, Chen reduced his fixed salary and increased his commission rate. She also reviewed Taylor’s performance goals with him.
Taylor now feels a lot of pressure to increase his sales level. He’s beginning to dread coming to work in the morning and is thinking about getting out of retailing and working for a bank.
Question:
Is it fair or unfair to Jim Taylor what Jennifer Chen’s did?
Answer:
Motivation has a big role for building productive and well satisfied employees. It is a key ingredient for successful company. The company should know what is the right motivating strategy suitable for their employees so by that both company and employees was benefited. Rewards are good motivator but Jim Taylor’s case was different.
In my own perspective, Ms. Jennifer Chen’s motivation strategy was not fair because if she really wants to motivate Jim Taylor she didn’t reduce Jim’s fixed salary because it makes Jim Taylor feel demoted. Increasing the commission of Jim Taylor is also not appropriate because if Ms. Chen do this other sales associate feels unfair.
According to the case, Jim Taylor feels a lot of pressure for increasing his sale because he is not ready for this kind of challenges. He is new