Now looking at how it is like to work at Linn. Linn has a commitment to progress through learning, simplification and improvement and is looking for ways to develop their products further. (Website) The people who work at Linn have to be passionate about music. Linn workers/people pay a lot of attention to details therefore the person who is building the product will also have to test it and pack it before writing his name on the back of the product for despatch. This is called empowerment which means that more power is delegating to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life. (Website)
The working conditions are safe as it is a clean and organised environment with people who love their jobs and are committed to it. In order to motivate their employees, Linn offers a range of benefits to its employees such as life insurance including, medical, prescription, long-term disability, vision and dental insurance and also paid vacations and profit sharing in addition to tuition reimbursement program and short-term disability program.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs consist of five different levels of needs such as physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation. This theory is used in businesses to meet employees’ needs. Firstly the job provides employees with finance/money; this entail can be used to maintain the employees physiological and safety needs; so they can buy food, water, utilities, housing, insurance and transportation. Also the job itself should provide the employees with social interaction opportunities with colleagues and customers, the company itself may also create a sense of belonging to something, sort of organisational citizenship, allowing employees to feel like they are part of something larger, belonging to a group.
In the case of Linn, employees work in teams in all of the different aspect of the management and production lines. For example, as I said earlier on, it is the same person that builds, test and pack the product, creating a sense of freedom, independence and pride for their employees. Also, the company provide their employees with healthcare services (safety needs).
Also the finance from the job will help employees maintain social lives outside of work. The esteem needs may be met through appreciation of the work done, and rewards and gratitude from the company to the employees. In the case of Linn, these needs are met by providing employees with profit sharing and paid vacations.
In the case of McDonalds, looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, employees feel like they can go up in the hierarchy of needs and also in life because of the different benefits that the company offers. McDonalds provide more apparent rewards such as the star system, where employees receive more stars to wear on their uniforms related to their performance at work. In other companies, commission is also offered as a reward incentive to encourage employees to maximise productivity and directly benefit from their harder work. This brings up self-esteem, recognition and status to the employees which are for them a chance of making their lives better. Through this, esteem needs are met. In terms of safety needs, employees benefit from healthcare which brings a sense of security in the workplace.
Furthermore, companies using Maslow’s and Herzberg theories will automatically help employees enjoy their work more and also make them feel appreciated because of the way they are benefitting from the company.
In 19.., Edward Chace created the expectancy theory by which people get motivated depending on the valued outcome. This leading to good performance at producing valued outcomes. In the case of Linn, employees benefit from profit-sharing which according to this theory mean that since the employees have a share in the business, they will perform better and put more efforts as they don’t want to lose out on their profits or valued outcomes.
In the case of McDonalds, the valued outcome is the rewards they get from their hard work such as the star system which lead to job satisfaction and making their employees more effective by rewarding them.
To conclude, motivation is one of the most important tools in any organisation that wants to succeed and do better. The inconvenience is that not all employees are the same regarding motivation as people behave and get motivated in different ways. Therefore, managers have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from worker to worker in order for their needs to be met and those of the organisation.
