Managing Motivation in a Difficult Economy – Case Analysis

Managing Motivation in a Difficult Economy – Case Analysis

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Subject: Organizational Behaviour

Class: AABA 2.1

Name: Dyllon James

Date: November 29th , 2018

Background Information

In this case “Managing Motivation in a Difficult Economy”, Morgan Moe’s drugstores was the most dominant provider of high-margin commodities owning hundreds of stores in the upper Mid West. However, a massive decline in the region’s manufacturing economy has had a serious effect on the company’s profitability in recent times. Now that customers spend less, these stores have had to switch to selling low margin commodities such as milk and generic drugs. The company was once leading the retail industry, but is now struggling to keep employees, has had to shut down a number of their stores and completely stop their plans for expansion.

As the company’s revenues got worse, employees became more and more frustrated. Because of the insecurity of their jobs, they had negative attitudes towards their work. The media played a big role in the spread of this negative information about what was happening to the company, telling the public about the lack of payment to workers who were leaving. Also, since employees had no notice in advance and no official information, they were furious and rumours and gossip spread through the workplace at a rapid pace. Workers who were laid off went as far as creating blog sites, such as IHateMorganMoe.blogspot.com, to display their rage against the company and has lead to a damaged public image.

         In order for these problems to be dealt with, the vice president of human relations, Jim Claussen,  and the rest of HR team came up with five (5) different options for the company to use in an attempt to restore the company to its past success. The managers of each store would be able to choose the one that suited them the best and analyze the results that come about.

Problem Statement

Morgan-Moe’s drugstores is suffering from an economic dilemma that it has never seen before. The company’s stores are being shut down, downsized and employees are being laid off because of the lack of necessary funds to keep the business stable. Also, the remaining employees are not being motivated at all due to the company’s poor management practices. As things get worse employees are more likely to leave, especially the older and more experienced workers, due to the uncertainty of their jobs and other factors. This will only lead to the company closer and closer to bankruptcy.

Analysis and Discussion

A total of 299 stores have participated in the process of experimenting with different programs in an attempt to improve the company’s present state. From carefully studying and reviewing the information of this case it is clear that stores who have implemented Programs IV and V are the most effective in terms of generating profit. Stores who have used these programs have more profit on average because they allow employees to be engaged in the decision making process and allow them to bring their own innovative ideas to help the business’ performance improve overall. It was also stated that stores who chose these programs were usually located in rural areas and had an older average workforce. The older workers may have had high positions in other businesses ,and so, their input is very much needed in problem solving.