The private sector is a part of the economy which is run for profit and it’s not controlled by the state. The private sector allows individuals to conduct business without necessarily being part of any organization. A variety of legal structures exist for private sector business organisations depending on the business. Within the private sector most employees are profit driven. Example of this sector is Marks and Spencer.
The Role of Motivation
Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive. To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform. Of all the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably the most complex.
MARKS AND SPENCER
Marks and Spencer is a major British retailer with over 895 stores in more than 40 Areas around the Globe. They have over 600 domestic and 295 international stores. They are the largest clothing retailer in the UK as well as being an upmarket food retailer. In 2008, M&S was rated 43rd largest retailer in the world. They sell food, clothing, furniture, and other home appliances. In 1998, M&S became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit over £1billion but few years later it plunged into crisis which lasted for several years before picking up.
Performance Management
Marks and Spencer adopted performance management system to motivate their employees. It helps them to evaluate the skills of the employees based on the information collected at the appraisal, it helps recognise when training is needed. It helps the relationship between the workers and the company. Senior directors and managers hold a meeting every 12months among workers to discuss the development of the company where they would evaluate what is needed for the growth of the company. Employees use this opportunity to show their feelings and discuss what would contribute or motivate them to continuing with their hard work. In this appraisal, senior managers would evaluate what are the necessary factors to motivate their workers.
Marks and Spencer values its staff as well as its customers and make sure it meets up with the requirement. They realised that the only way to be successful in the business is to make the staff happy that is why they apply motivation in their organisation. Motivation of staffs is the key factor for a company success. Motivation is different in organisations example company A might use different method to motivate their employees while company B might use different method. This method is still based on the motivational theories which were discussed earlier on. We will now look at how Marks and Spencer motivate it staffs. Marks and Spencer use the following motivation theories to motivate their staffs.
A review plan is used at Marks and Spencer to measure productivity. This form shows if the workers have met their target set for them. If the targets not achieved, Marks and Spencer can set out courses of action to fix the problem example is by sending workers on training.
Motivation theories:
Fw Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1917) put forward the idea that workers are motivated mainly by pay. His Theory of Scientific Management argued the following:
- Workers do not naturally enjoy work and so need close supervision and control. Therefore managers should break down production into a series of small tasks
- Workers should then be given appropriate training and tools so they can work as efficiently as possible on one set task.
- Workers are then paid according to the number of items they produce in a set period of time- piece-rate pay. As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximise their productivity.
Taylor’s methods were widely adopted as businesses saw the benefits of increased productivity levels and lower unit costs. The most notably advocate was Henry Ford who used them to design the first ever production line, making Ford cars. This was the start of the era of mass production.
Taylor’s approach has close links with the concept of an autocratic management style (managers take all the decisions and simply give orders to those below them) and Macgregor’s Theory X approach to workers (workers are viewed as lazy and wish to avoid responsibility).
However workers soon came to dislike Taylor’s approach as they were only given boring, repetitive tasks to carry out and were being treated little better than human machines. Firms could also afford to lay off workers as productivity levels increased. This led to an increase in strikes and other forms of industrial action by dis-satisfied workers.
Mayo
Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work (something that Taylor ignored). He introduced the Human Relation School of thought, which focused on managers taking more of an interest in the workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy interacting together.
Mayo conducted a series of experiments at the Hawthorne factory of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. He isolated two groups of women workers and studied the effect on their productivity levels of changing factors such as lighting and working conditions. He expected to see productivity levels decline as lighting or other conditions became progressively worse What he actually discovered surprised him: whatever the change in lighting or working conditions, the productivity levels of the workers improved or remained the same. From this Mayo concluded that workers are best motivated by:
Better communication between managers and workers (Hawthorne workers were consulted over the experiments and also had the opportunity to give feedback)
Greater manager involvement in employees working lives (Hawthorne workers responded to the increased level of attention they were receiving).
Working as groups or teams (Hawthorne workers did not previously regularly work in teams)
In practice therefore businesses should re-organise production to encourage greater use of team working and introduce personnel departments to encourage greater manager involvement in looking after employees’ interests. His theory most closely fits in with a paternalistic style of management.
Maslow (1943) stated that there are five levels of needs, physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualization. These needs are best seen as hierarchy with the most basic of those needs emerging first and the most sophisticated needs last. Maslow believed people move up the hierarchy at one level a time. He believed that once a need has been gratified it loses its strength and the next level of needs comes into operation. Also as the basic or lower – level needs are satisfied, higher level needs are activated. Maslow also believes that if people are satisfied they are not motivated.
However, Maslow’s theory has been widely accepted and remains dominant in management and organisational behaviour research but since his theory was published over 50 years ago, there has been very little evidence to support it through empirical research. There has been a lack of evidence that proves that human needs are classified in five distinct categories or that the categories are in a special hierarchy.
Herzberg
Frederick Herzberg (1923-) had close links with Maslow and believed in a two-factor theory of motivation. He argued that there were certain factors that a business could introduce that would directly motivate employees to work harder (Motivators). However there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder (Hygiene factors)
Motivators are more concerned with the actual job itself. For instance how interesting the work is and how much opportunity it gives for extra responsibility, recognition and promotion. Hygiene factors are factors which ‘surround the job’ rather than the job itself. For example a worker will only turn up to work if a business has provided a reasonable level of pay and safe working conditions but these factors will not make him work harder at his job once he is there. Importantly Herzberg viewed pay as a hygiene factor which is in direct contrast to Taylor who viewed pay, and piece-rate in particular
Herzberg believed that businesses should motivate employees by adopting a democratic approach to management and by improving the nature and content of the actual job through certain methods. Some of the methods managers could use to achieve this are:
Job enlargement – workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.
Job enrichment - involves workers being given a wider range of more complex, interesting and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement.
Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.
How marks and Spencer motivate its employees
Marks and Spencer use different methods to motivate their employees. Some of these include:
- Bonuses
- Gift vouchers for hard work
- Staff discount scheme of 20%
They also use motivational theories to motivate their staffs. Some of these theories were discussed above.
- Marks and Spencer use Maslow’s theory by helping staff set and reach their goals at work, they encourage their staff and praise them when they are doing well and staff also receive rewards for their good work.
- Marks and Spencer use Herzberg’s two factor theory by treating their employees well by given them good salary, good working conditions and by giving them sick pays and pension’s scheme. They also give their staff responsibilities to make them feel valued to the company and motivate them.
- Marks and Spencer use Mc gregor’s theory by having managers who have trust in the workers and help them improve and do their best also by giving managers bonuses to motivate them.
- Marks and Spencer also use F.W Taylor theory scientific management by paying its employees in order to work and by having able managers control the staff.
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Other methods marks and Spencer used to motivate its staffs is by encouraging their older staff to work. Marks and Spencer has realised there is an increase in the number of staff working beyond age 65 since scrapped a set retirement age in 2002. It recently disclosed a pensions deficit of £585m and now has 1,000 employees over the age of 65 working without an arranged retirement age. Sally Humpage, employment policy manager for M&S, said changing the guidelines suited the retailer, where half of its 60,000 in-store workforce is over the age of 40. "We treat our older workers like anyone else," she told delegates at the 'Age at Work' conference, hosted by the Employers Forum on Age in London last week. "Many of them enjoy the social aspect of work."
At present, employees at M&S over the age of 65 can only work and draw their pension at the same time if they joined the company before 1989. Staff will also be able to continue contributing to their pension when they reach 65, which will, undoubtedly, mean a further increase in numbers, she added.
Conclusion
Motivation in a work place is very important, when people are motivated; they tend to work in the same direction which is achieving the same goal. Workers are motivated when they have good relationship and able to interact freely with their managers or supervisors, they get motivated in a friendly atmosphere and they get even more motivated when there is increase in their wages.
Marks and Spencer widely recognised today for its quality and excellent performance. What made it to be classical is based on activities going on in the company. They are efficient and always try to deliver quality and satisfy customers’ requirement. M&S is known as the Britain leading retailer in food and clothing and now added to its pride by selling home wares, electronics and other appliances.
Marks and Spencer has excellent staffs and ensured the treated their staffs well and also follows the motivational theories of management which includes the F.W Taylor, Herzberg’s two factors, Mc gregor’s theory and Maslow’s theory. In every organisation, motivation is a key factor to improve the productivity and development of the company.
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