Sas Case Solution

SAS Case Solution

1) Use the two course concepts you feel are most appropriate to identify, analyze, and explain the strengths associated with SAS’s approach to reward systems (including compensation, performance appraisal and career progression) for employee motivation and retention.

2) Use the two course concepts you feel are most appropriate to identify, analyze, and explain the weaknesses of SAS’s human resource management policies around innovation. Use these course concepts to suggest recommendations that would allow SAS to further enhance and encourage innovation.

We looked for answers that: (1) identified and described two course concepts; (2) provided clear and specific examples of these course concepts linked to the SAS case; and (3) analyzed and explained how these examples represented the strengths of the rewards system for employee motivation & retention (Q1) and the weaknesses of human resource management policies for the company’s capability for innovation (Q2).

While any of the concepts could hypothetically be used to identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses in SAS’s reward system, some are more or less appropriate given material in the case. We highlight which concepts are most clearly useful with respect to both Question 1 (rewards systems as they apply to motivation and retention) and Question 2 (policies regarding innovation) below. This list is not meant to be exhaustive but some concepts more clearly applied to one question versus the other. If you applied concepts outside of the ones listed below, or used some that we refer to as “weaker” theories but gave a solid explanation, you still received credit. The weakest answers did not apply the concept properly (e.g., covering equity theory without discussing the comparison of both outcomes and inputs, covering ASA without explaining each of the three stages separately, covering needs theory with some misinterpretation of one or more of the three needs) or did not tie a particular concept directly to the issue of motivation and retention or to innovation.

Question 1

1. Rewarding A while hoping for B

One can extrapolate from the case that SAS is hoping for A while rewarding A. For example, Jim Goodnight, the founder of SAS, has a clear vision of a cooperative community of programmers. The reward structures and benefits that SAS offers equally across all employees encourage teamwork and cooperation, rather than competition among individuals. The culture at SAS explicitly discourages “shooting stars,” favoring instead cohesive and productive groups of individuals. Rather, SAS rewards everyone nearly equally and hopes to avoid the negative ramifications of competition within groups.

2. Expectancy theory

It