Levels of Needs in WheelWorks, Inc - Case Study Example

Levels of Needs in WheelWorks, Inc. According to Abraham Maslow, employees have five levels of needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self- actualizing. He argued that lower level needs of the hierarchy have to be satisfied before the other higher needs come into the picture. So, firstly the physiological need of the employee need to be fulfilled, and following this need, other needs can be subsequently fulfilled, providing optimum motivation to the employees. In the case of Boston based cycling store, Wheelworks, the physiological need of the employees is aptly met because their working environment is not risky and also they are offered a Health plan by the management. The safety component is also met because Wheelworks being a financially viable company, the employees are assured of their financial security. The social need is satisfied because Wheelworks’ employees operate in close contact with the customers and satisfying the customers, satisfies their own social needs. The need of esteem is also met because Wheelworks has employees who are motivated to help people in getting the correct product, without any ulterior motives. Finally, as the employees operate with perfect motivation to sell the cycles, without thinking about the incentives, the need of self-actualization formalizes. “Both self actualization and esteem, can only be realized in a participative workplace which fosters intrinsic motivation” (Pojidaeff, 1995). According to Frederick Herzberg’s theory, factors that cause job satisfaction and motivation was quite different from the factors, which lead to job dissatisfaction. “He called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfiers hygiene factors” (netmba.com). According to Herzberg, motivators such as achievement and the resultant recognition lead to job satisfaction, while Hygiene factors such as inadequate salary could cause job dissatisfaction. Inside Wheelworks, there are a lot of satisfiers or motivators. Majority of the employees in Wheelworks in their personal life are bikes lovers and so they enjoy talking about bikes. As their job entitles to talk about the bikes to the prospective customers, they are optimally motivated to do that job. So, their personality works as a main motivator to optimize their performance. The hygiene factor that could cause dissatisfaction is, the employees in Wheelworks will find it difficult to become rich or financially stable quickly. That is, as Wheelworks is a small enterprise, selling cycles with a small margin, there will not be high inflow of profits. So, in the short or in the long run, the employees will become dissatisfied with the financial benefits. On the same perspective, I disagree with the statement that love of the work itself is the strongest motivator mainly because it will not work in the longer run. Normally individuals will apply for a particular job or select a profession, which he/she loves to do. But, after joining that job, the ‘love’ could accentuate or diminish, mainly based on the working environment of the organizations. This concept of “love of the work” will not work in large organizations or organizations which employees a sizeable number of employees. In those cases, even if the employees have a love for his/her work, the working environment mainly decides the level of their motivation. That is, it is the duty of the organization to provide the employees an optimal working environment. But, sometimes the organization will not be able to provide a best working environment due to factors like low productivity, low profit, poor leadership, lack of rewards, external issues, etc, etc. This will surely bring down the level of motivation among the employees to bare minimum. So, the important aspect is, even if the employees has personal love for their work, the resultant motivation will ‘thrive’ only for a shorter period. So, organization’s working environment can only sustain and elevate the motivation of the employees. Inside Wheelworks, there are specific types of financial rewards and incentives, which increase the motivation level of the employees. “Your employees may find their work rewarding…but the bottom line is that people work because they get paid and keep working because they fear losing their source of income” (Arzola, 2000). Apart from paying high monthly salaries or wages, Wheelworks management also rewards high performing employees particularly retailers with incentives like paid vacations, free health plan, etc. Rewards and promotions to deserving and ‘success achieved’ workers will motivate them to give better results and at the same time motivate others also, to reach that status. The Wheelworks management by giving paid vacations to their best performing employees in a way “recharges” them and importantly motivates them. That is, any employee who works continuously for a longer period with pressures and stress would face drop in their motivational levels. To correct that problem and pep up their motivational, it would be advisable to take a break and come back recharged. Likewise, by giving them the benefit of health plan, Wheelworks is making the employees feel secured and thus motivated. So, with health plan, they feel they are equipped to handle any medical emergencies that could happen while riding their bike. Thus, they feel comfortable to ride anytime, and this thought will give them the motivation to work effectively in Wheelworks. On the other hand, Wheelworks do not pay commission to its sales staff mainly because it does sales with only a small margin. That is, it sets its selling price only with a small margin, to entice more customers. The market for cycles or bikes is a small one. So, with such minimal number of prospective customers, all cycle companies including Wheelworks have to downsize or minimize the selling price of its products. Because of that necessity only, Wheelworks sells its products with a small or minimal margin and thus not practical to pay sales commission to the workers. Also, the employees themselves did not want commission for their sales because they think it will ‘cloud’ their intentions to aid the customers in getting the correct bike and importantly compromise their personal accountability. Covey (1996) states that personal accountability is one of the 7 conditions, which clearly brings out and facilitates the job effectiveness of the employees.. So, other compensation systems can be tried out by Wheelworks to increase the motivational levels. The motivation levels of the employees can be kept at optimal levels, only if the employees are rightly and ethically rewarded. Allocations of bonuses to all the employees when Wheelworks reaches a landmark in sales, bonuses during Christmas season, specific incentives on reaching set targets and also promotions to the deserving employees are some of the important strategies that can keep the motivation at higher plane. So, these are the strategies which can be implemented to further optimize the performance of the Wheelworks employees and thereby Wheelworks itself. References Arzola, G. (2000). Making a good team great. Across the Board, 37(9), 44. Covey, S. (1996). 7 keys to performance. Executive Excellence, 13(6), 3. netmba.com. Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Two Factor Theory). Retrieved April 9, 2010 from http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/ Pojidaeff, D. (1995). The core principles of participative management. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 18(7), 44. Read More