Exam 12: Motivating Employees: Achieving Superior Performance in the Workplace

You are the CEO of a company that manufactures low-priced clothing for bargain retailers like Walmart and Target. Using one of the content perspectives/theories, explain how you would manage each of the relevant needs for the employees in your factory, where the cloth is cut, and the clothes are assembled.

The theory under which people make the choice that promises them the greatest reward if they think they can get it is ________ theory.

To be most motivating, goals should be specific and challenging but achievable.

As a maintenance person for the air force, Clint services aircraft engines, which protects the lives and safety of military personnel and increases their ability to conduct missions. Clint's job has a high level of

Zoe runs a flower shop. She recently made some changes so that one employee answers phones and completes the order and payment process, while another creates arrangements, and a third packages and delivers floral arrangements. Previously, each employee was responsible for the order from the phone call through the delivery. Zoe has made changes to

________ is the expectation that successful performance of the task will lead to the desired outcome.

Imagine that you are the manager of a beauty salon that styles men's and women's hair, and also provides many other personal services, such as manicures, pedicures, and makeovers. What types of incentives might you give to your hair stylists to reward them for bringing in new customers? Give at least two specific examples of incentives at the beauty salon that are tied to realistic goals.

Which type of goal is better for jobs that require creativity and taking a problem-solving approach?

Content perspectives, also known as need-based perspectives, include all EXCEPT which one of the following theories?

Most workers rate monetary benefits higher than a caring boss.

For managers, the importance of Maslow's contribution is that he showed that workers

When would you use a motivating potential score?

Research shows that simplified jobs lead to all the following EXCEPT

________ perspectives are theories that try to understand the thought processes by which people decide how to act.

This question contains two parts; be sure to answer both. Discuss how managers can use equity theory to help motivate workers. Second, imagine that you are the CEO of Online Designs, an online marketing agency that specializes in Web and social media marketing. Your company has 10 employees. You, the CEO, earn $200,000 per year in salary, plus another $200,000 in bonuses. Your account executive earns $150,000 per year and has a company car, along with other perks. The other eight staffers are junior-level programmers and sales reps, each earning $50,000 per year. How might the eight junior employees perceive the equity of the workplace, and what might they do to reduce their cognitive dissonance? How might you go about correcting the perceptions of inequity?

Those with a high need for achievement may be the least efficient managers because they may resist making decisions that make others resent them.

When using punishment, a manager should

Due to changes in production, Hanson Steel gave each employee 75 percent of the cost savings. Hanson Steel uses a ________ compensation plan.

A supervisor told a salesperson who had not made any calls to clients and therefore did not make quota, "Well, if this continues in the next 30 days, you'll probably be let go." The supervisor provides an example of

Noreen likes it when her boss recognizes that she met the deadline and tried her best, even if what she gave him was not exactly what he was expecting. Noreen is motivated by