ASDA’s motivation techniques Essay Example

ASDA’s motivation techniques Essay Example ASDA’s motivation techniques Paper ASDA’s motivation techniques Paper McGregor is the final theorist of motivations and he carried out research into the two different styles of management. He identified that there are two different types, Theory Y and Theory X managers. These two have different views about employees’ attitudes to work. A management style is the typical characteristics and behaviours of a manager over a period of time. The Theory X manager will be inclined to be autocratic- telling employees what needs to be done, punishing and telling off when the step out of line and giving rewards for carrying out tasks to a good standard. Theory Y managers will be more democratic, giving more responsibility to employees and trusting them to work independently. A Theory X manager is most likely to create a workplace based on simply meeting Maslow’s lower needs, and focusing on what Herzberg termed movement and hygiene factors. For example making sure that the workplace is safe and that workers have acceptable toilet and washing facilities. Within ASDA there are both types of managers for the various departments, all of the staff are motivated individually depending on what type of person they are, for example if a Theory X manager is based around checkouts as this requires more set procedures and instructions, however a Theory Y manager would be those who work on fruit and vegetable who only require simply movement and require good hygiene factors. Herzberg Along with Maslow, Herzberg believed in a two-factor theory of motivation. He said that there were certain factors that at business could introduce that would directly motivate employs to work harder. However there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not present but not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder such as hygiene factors. Motivators are more concerned with the actual job it’s self and will look out for certain things such as promotions and extra responsibility. 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. These are: job enlargement where the workers have a variety of tasks to perform, job enrichment which involved workers being given a wider range of more complexes, interesting challenging work and empowerment where they are delegated a higher amount of authority. ASDA clearly take this theorist into account as they ensure that the staff all have the highest amount of work to do and are never free. This ensures that all the staff is motivated at all times. In addition ASDA ensure that their staff has a large workload to keep them occupied at all times. This will therefore act as a great motivator. Methodology To complete this coursework, I will use a selection of resources to be certain that I get the best possible picture of what motivational strategies ASDA use. I have e-mailed ASDA asking whether they could provide me with information on how they motivate staff and they replied giving me a telephone number where I can have any questions answered, this will be one of my major recourses of information along with the internet and books. Finally, I also have a family member who has been involved in human recourses management of ASDA and I will ask her what various steps ASDA take to create a well-motivated environment. She will be a great source of information as everything will be valid and true unlike websites which can often not be truthful. Finally I will use the A-level business book which will enable me to understand a variety of motivational strategies, combining all of these I should hopefully come to a legitimate statement of how staff are motivated within this establishment. ASDA’s motivation techniques ASDA Stores Ltd. is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, (via the Vodafone Network), ASDA Mobile. Its head office is at ASDA House in Leeds, West Yorkshire. ASDA became a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer in 1999, and is the UKs second largest chain by market share after Tesco. In December 2010, ASDA’s share of the UK grocery market stood at 16.5%. With this business being one of the largest supermarkets in the world, they also have stores in America; I feel that this would be an excellent company to observe on the motivation techniques as they are such a well-known company. Certain stores have around 523 employees therefore they have much practise on how to motivate each employee to ensure that they produce work to the highest standards. ASDA is a hierarchical structure because it has a lot of layers and also a lot of people reporting into more than one person before that information get to the boss. A hierarchical structure has many levels. Each level is controlled by one person. A hierarchical company tends to be a very big company just like ASDA is. In a hierarchical instructions are generally passed down from one person to another until it gets to the bottom of the hierarchical structure. If there was a problem in a hierarchical structure it would move up through the structure again from one person to another until it gets to where it is supported to be. Strengths of a Hierarchical structure in a hierarchical structure there is a close control of workers. Workers in ASDA will know exactly what they have to do so they dont wait around until they are told what they have to do. There is a small span of control. A span of control is when an amount of people report to one person. Also there is a better chance for promotion. One weaknesses of hierarchical structure information is slow moving. There may be poor communication between departments. Also workers may not feel involved in the business and they may not feel motivated to work. The types of communication used in a Hierarchical structure. The type of communication used is hierarchical will be more written communication. It will be written communication because the information will have a long way to go before it gets to the person. If it was verbal then when the message gets passed on it will change along the way. Any problems in communication and how I can solve it the problem with communication in hierarchical will be: communication will be slow, might not reach its destination and the information might change. I am going to focus specifically on the employees within ASDA stores and how they are motivated due to all of the reasons above, and also as they are highly known for their strategies employed to stimulate their staff. As there are many employees working within the stores, I will be able to gain a true insight into how they motivate and what scheme’s and approaches they take. It is important for ASDA to motivate their staff as it can have an effect on the output of their entire business and concerns both quantity and quality of products. If they do not motivate their staff then they will not feel inspired to carry out work to their highest potential, this can have major implications as not only will it reduce the amount of production but it will also produce negative customer service, as a result they will produce an un-enthusiastic and off-putting image for the entire business, this could lead to potential customers shopping at competitors such as Tesco or Sainsbury’s, for this reason it is essential that ASDA motivate their staff to the highest possible way. It is the mission statement of ASDA, To be the world’s leading supermarket. It has many aims and objective. ASDA believe that by following its aims and objectives, it can successfully turn their mission statement into a reality. Aims In relation to other supermarkets, ASDA is one of the fastest growing supermarket chains. However in order to maintain its lead position, ASDA states several main aims which it constantly strives to achieve.