Q.

2)

The most important thing that comes in handy when trying to motivate workers is basically the
job/assigned task. If the job fails to keep the person motivated then the worker’s efficiency would
decrease and that would mean that problems will start to swim to the surface. Same is the case for
Hackman and Oldham according to the Job Characteristics Model.

Traits of the Grocery workers:

Task The tasks assigned to the Grocery team are clear and easily understood by all the
identity members, something that makes them efficient.
Task The department manager encourages suggestions given by employees, which makes
significance them feel like a part of the organization thus motivates the workers.
Skills Due to a variety of tasks that are to be done, the team can practice job rotation, making
variety the tasks more motivating and less boring.
Task The manager, again encourages suggestions and does not order the employees every
autonomy time they work, the workers come up with ideas for efficiency and to improve the
performance of the business.
Job Even though the manager or the grocery department is still trying to make the
feedback remaining appraisals, most of them have been made already. Apart from that there are
different and tasks and every worker’s career preferences are in those appraisals.

Traits of the Nightshift workers:

Task Due to there being no guidance on how to start, and finish the job, no goals are
identity reached during the shift. The trolleys are left in the customer isles where the food goes
bad and goes to waste and the permanent employees are overburdened as they have
to complete the left over tasks too, which the part-time workers are supposed to do
Task The job seems to have no meaning for the Nightshift workers because they have zero
significance motivation. The manager does not know how to get the work done efficiently and tries
to be productive in the sense or work but not in the sense of an in-charge.
Skills There is no skills variety, the only job these workers have is to put items on shelves
variety after late night deliveries and due to no proper instructions given they do not do those
tasks properly either.
Task The manager does not dedicate work or give proper instructions, apart from that the
autonomy manager does not bother carrying out any discussions either.
Job The manager hasn’t been giving any sort of feedback on the performance of the
feedback workers under him and the targets mentioned in the appraisal are not being met at all.
Workers are not able to perform well due to lack of proper instructions and any sort of
problem-solving participation.

Job satisfaction of Grocery and Nightshift workers:

The staff attitude survey gave very promising results for the workers of the grocery department, they
mentioned that they would recommend working for this company to their family and friends. Secondly
the job rotation keeps the workers engaged in different tasks and even makes them more learned as
they have information regarding all the 5 departments their team hands. The manager allows the team
members to engage in matters and the decision making. Apart from that, the manager dedicates tasks
to the staff and works on the management rather than doing what he/she does not have to.

According to the job traits, it is visible that the employees of the Nightshift team are severely
demotivated, the permanent staff is overburdened and the part-time staff is wasting time because they
have no clue about what to do and how to do. The manager lacks management skills and because of
that, the manager does not like to dedicate any work, he seems to be a very laid-back type of person
who cannot get anything done at time.

Suggestions for the Nightshift team manager

First of all, the manager needs to step up and take responsibility of the workers and train them to work
efficiently. Some sort of incentives like a gift card, or a small bonus should also be given to the workers
to motivate them in order to work more efficiently. Secondly, there needs to be a roaster system
introduced where a week’s tasks are assigned to different workers. This is keep the workers organized
and the work hassle free.

Apart from that, the manager needs to keep constant check on the performance of workers and dictate
wherever they go wrong.

Q.3) Checkout Team

Even after having the most number of employees, the checkout team is quite inefficient, demotivated
and is not meeting any goals.

The checkout department employees do not find the work enjoyable and have complained about it in
the survey.
The department has the highest number of employees, and also the highest percentage of absence.
Even more than the store’s altogether average. The employees do not feel wanted so they decide not
to come at all.
The management of this team is quite weak, the manager cannot get the workers to take shifts to
cover busy times thus resulting in inefficiency.
The checkout staff cannot participate in any of the decision making, the manager gives directions to
the assistant managers after and before the start of a shift, meaning that the workers do not get to
have a say in the decision making. The management style of the manager clashes with the employees’
needs.
The manager tries to be strict and not at all helpful or engaging towards the employees, the goals he
sets for the employees are so rigid that the workers do not get motivated to work at all.
In the checkout department, there are quite a few opportunities for workers where they can show
their personal skills, not their team-working skills, but the issue is that they are not appreciated for
such work resulting in the workers getting demotivated and not being able to perform well.
There is no job satisfaction, the employees feel left out and so they don’t feel motivated at all. The
manager is not ready to engage them in any decision making or problem solving discussion, resulting
in demotivated and frustrated workers who are not willing to bend a bit with the schedule of the
store.
On the other hand, the Grocery department is totally opposite of the Checkout department. The
Grocery department is pretty efficient and trained to work more effectively.

The grocery department workers cooperate with other employees and change their shifts to cover
busy timings.
The job rotation strategy implemented by the manager of the department is quite efficient, so the
workers do not grow bored of their jobs stay motivated.
This department also has a low absence rate, indicating that the people enjoy their jobs and are
willing to perform well.
The manager encourages suggestions and participation of employees on matters, this helps the
department tackle problems and make work more efficient.
The manager has taken account of the appraisals of workers which have clear information about their
career goals and where they would want to be in future.

Suggestions to the Checkout manager

The manager needs to involve other employees into the decision making meetings so that the workers
feel wanted and don’t feel the work a burden for them, the ideas and suggestions of the employees
should be considered and encouraged. Once the manager improves her image, she should request the
workers to make roasters according to their availability and in a way that all the rush timings are
covered with the maximum number of employees. The contributions of all employees should be taken
into consideration and should be awarded and appreciated. This will not only boost the confidence and
motivation level of the employees, but will also make them engage more and contribute to more
problem solving. The manager should also improve information about future career preferences of the
employees in their job appraisals. The targets set by the manager should be a bit flexible and lenient,
and realistic. When the manager will have a realistic approach towards the targets and goals, the
employees would automatically start taking interest and make effort to reach those goals and targets.

Q-4)

There could be a number of reason behind the conflicts between the permanent and part-time
employees working in the store in the nightshift, the part-time and full-time workers do not get along at
all, they do not even prefer sitting at the same tables during breaks. This indicates that the problem
needs to be solved in order to improve efficiency, the biggest reason could be the lack of instructions
given to the part-time employees. The part-time employees do not get the tasks done because they lack
instructions and knowledge regarding the tasks. They are not trained to fulfill tasks so after a certain
amount of tasks is done, they leave unfinished work as it is, which then the full time employees have to
do. This explains the two types of employees not getting together. Another reason could be that the
part-time employees are mostly students and youth, meaning they are not too motivated to work and
need constant supervision, but the manager gets involved in the work and does not supervise any of the
part-time workers. Then when they leave incomplete work by 7, the full-time employees finish the
unfinished work and have to explain to the morning time manager why there was a delay or why all the
deliveries are not organized. The manager gets complaints from customers, who come to the store and
find trollies in the consumer isles and the products they’re looking for still in boxes and not on display.
Apart from that, no matter how good the full-time employees perform, their efforts will still go in vain
because of the bad performance of the part-time workers. The managers aren’t going to check who’s
working well and who isn’t, they will blame the whole team collectively.

Suggestions to the nightshift manager:

The only person who can resolve these clashes is the manager or else there will be no way to improve
the performance of the night-shift team.

The manager needs to change his style of management, he needs to leave behind his laid back, and
funny personality and take steps to manage all of the employees in a way that they all get together and
do not feel as if some are overburdened and some do not work at all.

The manager also needs to get a hold of the part-time workers, they need to be trained and given tasks
and goals to achieve. This way, the full-time employees won’t feel like they are the only ones working
and the part-time workers are only slacking from work.

The manager should also introduce some incentives, such as bonuses, gift cards or discounts on
shopping from the store. This way, the workers will have competition and will be motivated to work, and
give better performances. The manager should also make sure that the workers are given proper
instructions about the tasks. And another thing that the manager can do to improve productivity and
make everyone work is introduce a job rotation system. For example, people should be given turns on
unloading, unpacking and displaying products. This way, no one is going to feel that they are doing all
the work and the others are slacking at work. The manager should also ensure that there is positive
conversation between full-time employees and the part-time employees, so they start getting along
well. The manager should also monitor the time employees take to complete a task, the productivity of
an employee is at its maximum in the first 2-3 hours of their shifts, so the manager should make sure
that they cover the hefty work in these first few hours.