Employee Motivation – A Short Case Study.

Last November, I joined the CVS Caremark project at TCS in Noida,

India after a successful stint at TCS’ Bangalore office, where I had worked as a trainee. I had
always wanted to go back to Delhi - my hometown - and live with my parents and when I got a
transfer to Noida which is just a few miles away. I didn’t waste a single moment in saying yes
to the opportunity. Many of my friends were also moving out from Bangalore at the same time
which only made my decision easier. I felt that the Caremark project offered better career
prospects, as it was a new project and we were offered to work on the current technologies that
were in demand in the market.
I was sure I would excel in my new position at Caremark, just as I had
done in my previous assignment. I joined as Assistant Systems Engineer on the Caremark
project with a handsome pay hike for becoming a confirmed employee of the company. Since
Caremark had international operations, there was a chance that I could be sent to USA or the
UK to work on projects there. Knowing that this would give me a lot of exposure, besides
looking good on my resume, I was quite excited about the new job. I joined my boss, Ashish
Mehta's five-member team in charge of the Caremark project out of TCS’ office in Noida. I had
met Ashish during the interview sessions, and was looking forward to working under him. My
team members seemed warm and friendly, and comfortable with their work. I introduced
myself to the team members and got to know more about each of them. Wanting to know more
about my boss, I casually asked Shobha, one of the team members, about Ashish. Shobha said,
"Ashish does not interfere with our work. In fact, you could even say that he tries to ignore us
as much as he can." I was surprised by the comment but decided that Ashish was probably
leaving them alone to do their work without any guidance, in order to allow them to realize
their full potential.
At TCS’s office in Bangalore, I worked for Sudhir Reddy – someone I
looked up to as a mentor. He was always guiding but never interfering. Sudhir had let me make
my own mistakes and then learn from them. He had always encouraged individual ideas, and
let his team discover the flaws, if any, through discussion and experience. He rarely held an
individual member of his team responsible if the team as a whole failed to deliver - for him the
responsibility for any failure was collective. I remembered telling my colleagues in Bangalore
that the ideal boss would be someone who did not interfere with his/her subordinate's work. I
wanted to believe that my new boss, Ashish, was the non-interfering type. If that was the case
then surely his non-interference would only help me to grow.
In my first week at work, I found the atmosphere at the office a bit dull. However, I was quite
excited nonetheless. The team had been assigned a new project and was facing a few glitches
with the new software. I thought about the problem till late in the night and had come up with
several possible solutions. I could not wait to discuss them with the team and Ashish. I smiled
to myself when I thought of how Ashish would react when I told him that I had come up with
several possible solutions to the problem. I was sure he would be happy with me having put in
so much effort into the project, right from day one. I was daydreaming about all the praise that I
was going to get when Ashish walked into the office. I waited for him to go into his workplace,
and after five minutes, requested a meeting with him. He asked me to come in after ten
minutes. When I went in, he looked at me blankly and asked, "Yes?" Not sure whether he had
recognized me, I introduced myself. He said, "Ok, but why do you want to meet me?" I started
to tell him about the problems we were having with the software. But before I could finish he
told me that he was busy with other things, and that he would send an email with the solution
to all the members of the team by the end of the day, and that we could then implement it
immediately.
I was somewhat taken aback. Ever the optimist, I thought that he
had perhaps already discussed the matter with the team. I left Ashish's office and went straight
to where my team members sat. I thought it would still be nice to bounce ideas off them and
also to see what solutions others might come up with. I told them of all the solutions I had in
mind. I waited for the others to come up with their suggestions but not one of them spoke up. I
was surprised, and asked them point-blank why they were so disinterested.
Sanjay, one of the team members, said, "What is the point in our discussing these things? Ashish
is not going to have time to listen to us or discuss anything. He will just give us the solution he
thinks is the best, and we will just do what he tells us to do; why waste everyone's time?" I felt
my heart sink. Was this the way things worked over here? However, I refused to lose heart and
thought that maybe, I could change things a little. But as the days went by, I realized that
Ashish was the complete opposite of my old boss. While he was efficient at what he did and
extremely intelligent, he had neither the time nor the inclination to groom his subordinates. His
solutions to problems were always correct, but he was not willing to discuss or debate the
merits of any other ideas that his team might have. He did not hold the team down to their
deadlines nor did he ever interfere. In fact, he rarely said anything at all! If work did not get
finished on time, he would just blame the team, and totally disassociate himself from them.
Time and again, I found myself thinking of Sudhir - my old boss - and of how he had been such
a positive influence. Ashish, on the other hand, even without actively doing anything, had
managed to significantly lower my motivation. I gradually began to lose interest in the work - it
had become too mechanical for my taste. I didn't really need to think; my boss had all the
answers. I was learning nothing new, and felt my career was going nowhere. As I became more
and more discouraged, my performance suffered. From being someone with immense promise
and potential, I was now in danger of becoming just another mediocre ‘techie’.

Questions :
1. What, according to you, were the reasons for Rohit's disillusionment? Answer the
question using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Hertzberg’s Motivation Hygiene
Theory.
2. What should Rohit do to resolve his situation?
3. What can a team leader do to ensure high levels of motivation among his/her team
members?
Health-Time

            Rohan was the manager at Health-Time, a small but popular fitness

club in a mid-sized college town. Health-Time had found a niche in the local
market, providing high-quality aerobics classes and lots of them. The instructors
at Health-Time were superior to those at other facilities around town, and
Health-Time offered high-impact, low-impact and step aerobics and body-
sculpting classes. By offering more than 80 classes per week, Health-Time
attracted members who wanted a variety of classes at all times of the day. The
Health-Time facility also included exercise bikes, stair climbers, treadmills and a
small weight room, but its “bread and butter” was clearly the aerobics program.

             Rohan had recently taken over as manager after working at Health-
Time for five years as an aerobics instructor. Matt’s classes were popular, and
he was justifiably proud of the aerobics program and his part in making it a
success. When he took the job as manager, however, Health-Time was not in
good shape financially. Membership was dropping slightly, and personnel costs
were way too high. In his first month as manager, Rohan worked to streamline
the staff by eliminating the positions of assistant manager and weight room
supervisor and cutting the membership coordinator position to half-time.
Though there was unavoidable unhappiness surrounding these changes, Rohan
was pleased that he had reduced the management staff to himself, Sheela (a
half-time bookkeeper), and Geeta (a half-time membership coordinator).

             After a short month as manager, Rohan felt that he had the “office
side” of the club in order, and he turned his attention to the receptionists and
aerobic instructors. He had noticed that many receptionists and aerobic
instructors did not take their jobs as seriously as he would like. The
receptionists spent more time chatting with members than on job tasks (i.e.,
checking people in, writing receipts, answering phones, and cleaning up during
downtime). The aerobics instructors often ran into their classes with little time
to spare and had to rush to get their cassette tapes ready for class. Instructors
and receptionists were also accustomed to informally swapping shifts and
classes when the posted schedule conflicted with other plans. Almost all of the
reception staff and aerobic instructors were students at the local university.
Receptionists were paid the minimum wage and aerobics instructors were paid
about Rs1500 per class taught.

             Rohan decided to hold a general meeting to let the aerobics and
reception staff know what he expected now that he was manager. Though he
had been their “buddy” when he taught aerobics, he knew that his loyalty now
had to be with the financial success of Health-Time. He truly cared about the
 club and wanted to see it thrive for both professional and personal reasons. At
the meeting, Rohan told the instructors and receptionists that they all had to
pull together for the good of Health-Time. To promote a family feeling, he
provide them all with sweatshirts displaying the Health-Time logo. He then
explained why he thought they should shape up and change their behaviors on
the job. As his employees slumped in their chairs, he laid down the law:

             “I know things have been lax around here,” he said, “but the success
of Health-Time depends on everyone pulling together to make this place work. I
know you’re all used to the way things used to be around here, but we have to
change. There’ll be no more idle chatter on the job, and every instructor will be
prepared for class at least 15 minutes ahead of time. All changes in the
schedule will go through me. When we do change and when this club is as
successful as it can be, you’ll feel proud to be a part of this place and what
we’ve accomplished together!”

             Three weeks later, Rohan was perplexed. Three of his receptionists had
quit, telling him that they could earn minimum wage elsewhere. Two aerobics
instructors had decided to start teaching at the University Athletic Club rather
than at Health-Time. Although the remaining staff members were now following
his rules regarding job behavior and scheduling, morale seemed to be at an all-
time low.  

             “You know, I just can’t understand these people,” Rohan complained to
a friend. “We’ve got a great thing going with Health-Time. We’re the best
aerobics program in town, and they should feel proud to be a part of it. I know I
get a real bang out of making that place the best it can be – I always have,
even when I was just an instructor. But these people just don’t seem to care.
And when I talk to them about the problem, it only gets worse. I even gave
them sweatshirts to get them motivated, but they still quit on me! Is it me, or is
it them? And what should I do now?”

Case Questions:
 Describe the motivational problems of the staff at Health-Time using
Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy.

 Describe the motivational problems of the staff at Health-Time using the

expectancy theory of motivation. Discuss the staff’s outcome valences, effort-
to-performance (E-to-P) and performance-to-outcome (P-to-E) expectancies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWIHOaI8Hno Physiological Need 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0US-OLCKfA Esteem Need 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM_tes2vC4c 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCEiu-pUGmc Esteem 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC0QIKqorMQ Self Actualization 5