Montego Bay: Performance Improvement

The underlying theory of the computerized scheduling system is drive theory. Drive theory reasons that people are in essence motivated to undertake specific actions in an effort to reduce any form of tension caused by needs not being met (Nohria et al., 2008). For Daley, she was under significant pressure to improve the employees' performance motivation of the store - thus, she put a new plan into action with the hopes that it would produce a fruitful workforce that would track data on the employees.

Drive theory is based on the premise that people will comply with changes because they are doing what they do purely on physiological needs. As motivating employees to do their job to the best of the ability is one of the more significant challenges of managers (Nohria et al., 2008), Mahoney, believed that by implementing the system it would make the employees work harder than they had in the past.

The employees are having to work harder because the drive theory is at work at the company. The new system was systematically designed to enthrall and engage employees who were being productive, and in turn, leaving employees who had lower performance metrics by the proverbial wayside. Moreover, the system was programmed to track "sales per hour, units sold and dollars per transaction" ("Montego Bay," n.d.). Thus, it was an initiative designated for productivity with the intent of boosting the profitability and revenue of the stores in a short amount of time. Montego Bay was being hit with the economic downturn and the store was in desperate need of something fresh and new and this was, Daley felt was it.

The employers were not happy with the new system because they were not informed of it before it was rolled out, so they were caught off guard. This was an example of poor management and bad usage of managerial leadership. Daley only revealed to Mahoney that she "wanted to try the system" ("Montego Bay," n.d.) rather than informing her specifically that it was immediately being implemented. Other employees were oblivious to the new system and were not amenable to the underlying motivating theory that the system operated on. This then presented Mahoney with a problem as she would have to address the concerns and issues the employees had with the new change.

2. If I were Mahoney, the first observation that I would make at the six-month mark would be to examine the original needs assessment and the current data regarding productivity. While the system showed great promise, as many ideas often do, there is no definitive way to know until a particular plan has been in operation for a certain amount of time. There would probably need to be an additional three-month scope of data before a decision would be made. Additionally, I would obtain additional input from the employees who already had high productivity as the employee, Sylvia, who raised concerns about it was a low performing employee based on the analysis by the system. While sales "were up 2.8 percent, labor costs were down 5 percent" ("Montego Bay," n.d.) that could have been solely on the fact that the drive theory was just beginning to kick in among the staff and they essentially just needed to adjust to the new changes. I would propose to Daley that she could have more hours after the six month period and turn to upper management (Daley specifically) for a resolution to the issue of employee complaints. There is reason to believe that something could be worked out that would benefit not only the company but Sylvia also.

3. The new system would impact customers in that the staff would be less motivated (at least those who were already performing poorly) and those staff members that had been doing well as far as productivity would be content with the new operating system. The employees may treat the customers differently than they had prior because of the new changes - thus changing the dynamics of the customer's shopping experiences. The friendly and rosy atmosphere would undoubtedly change for the worse, but Montego Bay as a whole needs the change, so reason suggests that after a certain amount of time per drive theory that the staff would adapt considering any type of change is always hard at the beginning.

References

Montego Bay [Handout]. (n.d.).

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., & Lee, L. (2008, July). Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model. Harvard Business Review, 1-8..