Exam 12: Section 1: Managing Individuals and a Diverse Work Force

___________is the process of changing behavior by changing the consequences that follow behavior.

Which of the following is NOT a basic component of goal-setting theory?

A manufacturer of modular housing gives each employee a monthly $300 bonus if he or she is neither absent nor late to work for the entire month. There are no excused absences. The loss of a bonus by a parent with an emergency hospitalization of a child is an example of the use of ___________.

Rationalizing or distorting outcomes may be used when other ways to restore equity aren't available.

Wegmans Wegmans, a supermarket chained based in the northeast United States, has been in business since 1915. Its founder believes that if the company could survive the Great Depression, it can survive the intense competition of today's grocery industry, fueled, of course, by Wal­Mart. The grocery business has margins between 2 and 4 percent. Plus, because of low pay, long hours, and, frankly, a mundane industry that doesn't attract and keep top­ notch talent, employee turnover averages 100 percent per year. In fact, turnover costs are so high and profit margins are so low (because of intense competition) that over the last 13 years, 13,500 individual grocery stores, 17 percent in all, have closed because they weren't profitable. Wegmans plans to beat those odds by differentiating itself through service. Providing great service requires a highly educated, motivated work force, and accomplishing that won't be easy. The first step in Wegmans' plan to recruit a highly motivated work force is to offer workers excellent medical, dental, and life insurance as well as long-term disability coverage. Everyone who makes less than $55,000 a year receives complete medical insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan in which every employee dollar is matched by 50 cents from Wegmans. In addition to benefits for full-time workers, part-time workers such as cashiers and baggers, most of whom are high-school students, can earn a scholarship bonus (for good grades) of $6,000 over their four years of high school. In fact, Wegmans has given 17,500 full- and part-time employees $54 million for college scholarships over the last 20 years. Wegmans also pays some of the highest salaries in the grocery industry, which, combined with the company's benefits package, keeps Wegmans' turnover rate at an astronomically low 6%! Wegmans also invests in its employees through training. Employees must pass 30- to 55-hour long training classes before they can work in the meat or fish departments. And some are sent to Italy to learn about cheeses or to France to work in patisseries (pasty shops). Produce employees might be sent to California to learn from strawberry growers. At Wegmans, the motto is "Employees first, customers second." But because Wegmans' employees are so satisfied with their work and because the company invests so heavily in them, they are glad to deliver what Wegmans calls "telepathic levels of customer service." In pursuit of "telepathic" customer service, employees are allowed, even encouraged, to do anything they need to do to satisfy customers - and that's without getting approval from their managers. In fact, Wegman chefs have gone to customers' homes to fix incorrect food orders. When a customer purchased a Thanksgiving turkey too large for her oven, a Wegmans' employee cooked it for her in the large ovens at the store. Bill Gamer, a part­time employee in a meat department, said, "They let me do whatever comes into my head, which is kind of scary sometimes." Jack DePeters, head of company operations concurs, saying, "We're a $3 billion company run by 16­year­old cashiers." -Refer to Wegmans. Part-time workers at Wegmans such as cashiers and baggers, most of whom are high-school students, can earn a scholarship bonus (for good grades) of $6,000 over their four years of high school. These bonuses are examples of ________rewards.

The two kinds of inequity are underreward and overreward.

One of the simplest, most effective ways to motivate workers is to give them specific, challenging goals that they accept.

How can managers use reinforcement theory to motivate their employees?

Which of the following is a category of reinforcement schedules?

Briefly identify the ways in which managers can use expectancy theory to motivate employees.

Briefly explain the following equation: Job Performance = Motivation × Ability × Situational Constraints.

According to equity theory, when employees perceive ,___________ they tend to experience anger or frustration.

Currently the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) pays Olympic athletes $25,000 for each gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal, and $10,000 for a bronze medal. Since 1960, the Paralympics for disabled athletes has been a part of the Olympic Games, yet the USOC pays disabled athletes only 10 percent of what the Olympic athletes are paid, and Paralympic athletes are not allowed to participate in opening ceremonies. Paralympic athletes are angry at being treated unfairly. These athletes view Olympic athletes as____________ .

to work harder (or less hard) in a particular course because of your perceptions regarding the probable results (i.e., degree of payoff) of your level of effort in that course at that point in your life.

The two parts of reinforcement are___________ .

Linda Stein is the manager of an ad agency. Recently her employees have shown an unwillingness to work as a team. Linda has decided to use reinforcement to encourage more team cohesiveness. What advice can you give her on how to motivate with reinforcement theory?

Goal specificity is the extent to which a goal is hard or challenging to accomplish.

Currently the U.S. Olympic Committee pays Olympic athletes for each medal earned. gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal, and $10,000 for a bronze medal. Since 1960, the Paralympics for disabled athletes has been a part of the Olympic Games, yet the USOC pays disabled athletes only 10 percent of what the Olympic athletes are paid, and Paralympic athletes are not allowed to participate in opening ceremonies. Paralympic athletes are angry at being treated unfairly. To achieve perceived equity, the Paralympic athletes are suing the USOC for larger rewards. Paralympic athletes have decided to deal with the inequity by ___________.

The goal of the Apollo 11 moon flight was to put a man on the moon. According to Charles Garfield, who worked at NASA on the Apollo mission, Apollo 11 was off-course 90 percent of the time between here and the moon. But the crew of Apollo 11 used__________ that allowed it to make rapid course corrections.

In expectancy theory, ___________is the perceived relationship between effort and performance.