Question 8.9 – Case Study

Read the case study Motivating Others. From the accounts of people’s backgrounds, decide which motivation theories best apply and what you would do to motivate Joanne Harper, John Weston, Carol Sinclair, Neville Santo and Tony Hamilton.


case study:


Motivating Others


Looking for something more


Joanne Harper is an office manager for Zepco, a medium-sized printing business. She is 41, unmarried and lives by herself. She has been office manager for the last five years and earns about $39,000. She started in the personnel administration section and has been with the company for 20 years. Lately, she has been feeling bored and that she really hasn’t done much with her life. She has been thinking of asking you for a year’s leave-of-absence to go on an around the world cruise.


Doing it my way


John Weston is a welder with a mining company in the Pilbara in Western Australia. He is 27, unmarried and has worked with the company for two years. He has been disciplined twice for not following instructions—he always sees a better way. His base wage is $25,400, but he usually averages $60 a week overtime. John sometimes thinks that if he had enough money he would start his own business making trailers for cars and boats. On the other hand, he knows that he is good welder and can just cruise along with this company making enough money to be content without working too hard.


Which way to go?


Carol Sinclair is a research chemist with a multinational chemical company in Christchurch, New Zealand. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from university four years ago, she joined her present company. She is 26, married and has no children. Her present salary is $34,500. She is thinking of returning to university to do a master’s degree in management because she feels she would b a good manager of the research section. She has been having some trouble in her relationship with her husband lately and so has some hesitancy in becoming involved in working for another degree. She has asked your advice about doing a master’s program because you are her manager. She would need Tuesday afternoons off to do one course in the university program so she wouldn’t be out too many nights.


Lacking initiative


Neville Santo is a 22-year old who graduated last year from a special program in administrative skills at the university. Neville was a bright student and came to the company with several good recommendations from faculty members. Since he joined your business in the clerical section last June, his work has been satisfactory. He isn’t an outstanding employee, but he isn’t performing poorly either. At times he lacks initiative and three times he came to work over two hours late without calling to let people know he was going to be late. He likes sports and is said to be a good athlete but doesn’t participate in any of the company teams. You know he is interested in becoming a supervisor.


The high-flier


Tony Hamilton is technical director in an important division of a major Australian financial investment organisation. He is 33 and has four children aged eleven, eight, five and four. He is currently earning $55,000 a year. He lives in a plush suburb of a large Australian city and has been with the company eight years. Tony began as an engineer at a salary of $24,000. Within four years he was chief engineer in his division and was promoted last year to his present job. Tony feels he is a lot more capable, intelligent and willing to take risks than most of the people around him and he wants to be very successful and be a managing director of an organisation within the next seven years.


(Robbins, Millett, Cacioppe, & Waters-Marsh, 1998)


References


Bartol, K., Martin, D., Tein, M., & Matthews, G. (1998). Management: A pacific rim focus (2nd ed.). Sydney, NSW: McGraw-Hill.


Burke, R., & Barron, S. (2014). Project management leadership (2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.


Champan, A. (2002). X-Y theory questionnaire. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.businessballs.com/mcgregor.htm


Clark, D. (2010). Teamwork survey. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/teamsuv.html


Davidson, P., Simon, A., Gottschalk, L., Hunt, J., Wood, G., & Griffin, R. (2006). Management - Core concepts and skills. Milton, Qld: Wiley.


Meredith, J., & Mantel, S. (2009). Project management: A managerial approach (7th ed.). Danvers, MA: Wiley.


Robbins, S. P., Millett, B., Cacioppe, R., & Waters-Marsh, T. (1998). Organisational behaviour - Leading and managing in Australia and New Zealand (2nd ed.). Sydney: Prentice Hall.


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