Week 11 Application Assignment- Cathryn Lottier

This week, I interviewed Jennifer Herskowitz, a Human Resources manager for Macy’s Inc.  Jennifer was eager to reveal the Macy’s Making Magic Awards campaign that officially began in 2009 (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5).  According to Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008), a strong reward system is a lever for an organization to fulfill an employee’s basic need: the drive to acquire.  Macy’s has created a system to reward those in the company who have accomplished goals and created “magic”, or made a difference within the company.  The rewards system is based on several factors: hard number results, nominations from others in the company, and a review from the team in the Human Resources department (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5). 

 Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008) mention the importance of a strong culture within a company to fulfill another basic need: the drive to bond.  Herskowitz said that Macy’s Human Resources takes various steps to help create that culture.  Some of the opportunities to bond within the company are budgets for group outings.  For example, company trips to the Giants game or an afternoon at the bowling alley (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5).  Another way the company encourages bonding is through volunteering.  Macy’s provides group volunteer opportunities during the workday for groups to go and spend a half-day (morning or afternoon) volunteering.  For example, just last month, Macy’s sent five groups of 35 people to the San Francisco Food Bank to spend a Friday afternoon volunteering their time and services (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5).

According to Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008), employees are also driven by the need to comprehend.  Herskowitz said at Macy’s there is no set career path for any individual.  There are several Learning and Development classes each week, which give insight to other job functions across the company, and it is not uncommon for people within Macy’s to grow by transferring to another division or team.  For example, a person at Macys.com just last month transferred from a managerial role on Site Merchandising team to a managerial on the User Experience team.  This is a new and interesting role that is not entirely foreign to the manager, but will provide new challenges and continue to mentally stimulate her (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5).

The fourth drive, according to Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008) is the drive to defend.  Macy’s has been around for 153 years and still manages to be a financially secure company.  From 2010 to 2011, the Macys.com division almost doubled in size (Herskowitz, personal communication, April 5).  Herskowitz felt confident that the employees at Macy’s knew that they were valued employees, and that there is no need for the flight-or-fight response.  According to Herskowitz, the organization has deep roots and a strong understanding of the importance of making sure that each person within the organization feels secure within their position, valued, and able to have their voice heard.  As I discussed the four motivational drives with Herskowitz, she displayed a high amount of confidence that her division of Macy’s, the Human Resources department, has done its best to acknowledge and address the drives with all of the employees.

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008) Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model, Harvard Business Review, pp. 1-7.

Week 11 Application Assignment - Crystal Williams

This week’s readings on employee reward systems and incentives to maintain top performers in the workplace were all very interesting.  What was said within these articles rings true for many people who are star performers, yet are often overshadowed by company goals and the power of upper management. When reading Martin and Schmidt’s article How to Keep Your Top Talent, it was interesting how they pointed out things companies do wrong by not keeping their top performers. Specificially, the six mistakes companies make in not engaging and maintaining key employees, the importance of nurturing talent within a company and what can be done by senior management to make sure employees feel valuable through various activities and rewards (2010).

I was curious to see if what they related to in the article could also be found in a newspaper. Indeed it did! I found an online article in the Wall Street Journal by Sarah E. Needleman entitled Businesses Mount Efforts to Retain Valued Employees. Based on a survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Needleman (2009) said experts are noticing that as a result of the recession, employees are taking advantage of the improving job market to find other opportunities that meet their financial and career goals. She also went on to say that the study showed that employees are less and less committed to their jobs. Reasons being the lack of promotions, raises and overall company support and/or alignment with personal interests. The article also goes on to say that during the recession many companies use it as a time to “weed” out the low performing employees, but failed to reward the top performers for their contributions to the company. As a result these employees are the ones mostly likely to leave when another job becomes available that has everything they want. Suggestions made to retain employees were: engaging small groups of employees in monthly meetings with top executives in order to have employees share their goals and discuss what can be done within the company to keep employees motivated. Another suggestion was to reward employees on a quarterly basis with small bonuses (e.g. $250 to $1,000) or have employees sit in on strategy meetings where their ideas are shared, which makes employees feel like they are being heard and contributing the bigger picture.

In my opinion, some companies do lack systems that nurture and help their employees grow not only within a company but personally as well. This could be based on what a company considers important and what is not. I would think that creating programs that reward employees is worth the time, money and short/long term efforts, yet we don’t all share the same beliefs. Right?

Reference

Needleman, S. (2009). Businesses Mount Efforts to Retain Valued Employees. Retrieved from: 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703811604574534142561139588.html

Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9

Week 11 Application Assignment - Megan Samuels

Maybe it is because I am a “boomer” but I have found myself disagreeing with nearly all of the readings this week that have to do with generational differences.  While I completely agree that what I experienced growing up like the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, Watergate and Woodstock (Knight, 2010; Smola, 2001), I am not as certain that this has as much influences on how I work as the fact that I’m older than my Gen-X and Millennial colleagues. Though I’m a late Boomer, I remember quite clearly that the generation before “the silent generation” had similar complaints about the “new breed of workers” with their colorful clothes and long hair.  When I was new in the workforce, the generation ahead thought pretty much the same thing about us (lazy, self-centered) that I’ve been reading in this week’s assignments.

Even though Erickson is a “Boomer” herself (2010, p.2), I wish I had the time to dispel what I perceive as her biases.  I assume there is significant research to back up her perception of what Gen-Xers feel about the Boomers, but there are no references to look at in this article.  She has been very selective in her quotes which are all antagonistic towards the Boomers; “The Boomers will never retire”, “The upper-level managers refuse to retire, and then hire their children” and all sorts of really selective quotes that don’t seem a fair representation of an entire generation.  Erickson also fails to note that the first Boomers are just reaching retirement age now.  Those born in 1946 are only 66 years old.  Some of the Gen-Exers mention Boomers having security (Erickson, 2002, p.3), but with social security on the chopping block, the fall of the stock markets vis-à­-vis 401k retirement plans most American workers are in the same, leaking, security boat. 

Smola & Sutton do acknowledge that maturity does change one’s views on work and life, and that each preceding generation probably considers the new generation lazy and self-centered (2002, p. 379).  I would like to see someone follow up to this study to see how both Gen-X and Millennials feel in 20 years from now.

Erickson, T. (2010). The leaders we need now. Harvard Business Review, pp. 11-15 

Knight, W.E. (n.d.). Generational differences in workplace values among institutional researchers: implications for improving the profession. Bowling Green State University.   www.bgsu.edu

Smola, K.W., & Sutton, C.D. (2002).  Generational differences: revisiting generational work values for the new millennium.  Journal of Organizational Behavior (23) 363-382.  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/job.147

Week 11 Application Assignment- Shanah McKnight

This week’s readings on employee motivation were particularly intriguing to me as it is a big issue in my own organization. Despite the fact that our organization as a whole have some great initiates to keep employees engaged, my division is notorious for lacking in that area. Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008) discuss the four drivers for motivation: acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend.  In each of these areas my division has much room for development. 

By utilizing the model that Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee (2008) suggest, our division as a whole could create an environment that leads to higher employee motivation which in turn would provide higher quality and production from the employees. Currently, I think there is an overemphasis on lack of monetary resources. However, a reward system could be implemented to acknowledge employees such as a “spotlight” section in the newsletter or an employee of the month. The work itself is independent; however, that does not mean there shouldn’t be a culture of teamwork. Even something such as a short weekly unit meeting would foster commonality amongst unit members and provide an opportunity to share best practices. This would tremendously increase the bonding within the units. The job design cannot be altered within most of the division; however, the way the job is communicated to the employees can be changed. Indeed our work is important and each member’s contribution is valuable. Therefore, this should be communicated to the employee. In contrast, currently there is just a production emphasis and it is stressed how far behind we are in processing applications. A change in this focus would allow the employees to comprehend how they contribute to the bigger picture. 

The role of the direct manager is invaluable.  I wish not to diminish the efforts by some of the managers within the division. I have personally witnessed two in particular that have created environments within their units that promote motivated staff members in a toxic environment. These managers “take actions that encourage teamwork and make jobs more meaningful and interesting” (Nohria, Groysberg, & Lee, 2008, 6). Unfortunately for me, I moved from one of these fantastic units to one that fails to instill motivation within its employees. I completely identified with Martin and Schmidt’s (2010) discussion of the top mistakes that organizations make that result in losing the highly potential employees. Although I had not previously considered it, as the reading suggested, my negativity is probably due to my “outsized expectations and lots of alternatives”. As a matter of fact, my promotional opportunity has not met my expectations and I have recently decided to apply to other positions despite the fact that I will not have fulfilled probation in my current position. This is mostly due the fact that in my new position I feel completely disengaged from the organization and do not feel my current contributions are appreciated. If I felt the environment was open I would give suggestions to my manager at how to better fulfill the staff member’s needs. Unfortunately I don’t think that the connection has been made yet that the satisfaction of the employee leads to higher motivation which in turns leads to higher production and quality.
 

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008) Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model, Harvard Business Review, pp. 1-7

Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9

Week 11 Application Assignment: Peggy O'Connor

Millennials. Corporate rewards systems. Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. This week’s readings hit home with me in various ways. I work with and supervise Millennials and in fact, my two children (at ages 20 and 18) are Millennials. My organization has a less-than-effective system of rewards (the money is great, but the communication is not so hot). For me, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards have been a hot topic of discussion recently, both at home and at the office.

After reading Ryan and Deci’s article on Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions (2000), I decided to interview the working Millennial who happens to live in my house, my 18-year-old daughter, Erin, to explore what motivates her. A high school senior who also takes college classes and has been accepted into a combined BS/MBA program in business management at a university in Michigan, Erin also works 30 hours per week as a crew trainer and cashier at McDonald’s. I was curious about what motivates Erin to work and attend school for more than 60 hours each week.

“It’s the money, Mom,” Erin told me. After a bit more prodding, Erin added, “Sure, it’s a good feeling knowing that I do a good job. But the bottom line is that if I do a good job and my managers see that I work harder than everyone else, I will be scheduled to work more hours and therefore, make more money. So, I guess my motivation is more extrinsic.”

Like many Millennials, Erin often feels disconnected from the corporate structure and tends to see higher education as less than a “life experience” and more of a means to an end. She also tends to view work as “life.” “No one is going to protect my job except me, Mom, and I do that by showing up and working hard every day. I don’t trust that my managers are going to schedule me for my hours because it’s the fair thing to do. They’ll schedule me because they know I won’t stand around or need to be told what to do. I do my job,” Erin says, echoing comments in Meister and Willyerd’s article, Mentoring Millennials. “And then I get paid. That’s what it’s all about.”

As for school, Erin also attaches her motivation to study hard and get good grades – and to move on to an accelerated program in college – to the extrinsic values education possesses for her. “If I get my degree, I will get a good job with a great salary, or be able to open my own business and make money. That’s why I am going to college,” Erin says.

As a Baby Boomer (and as a good Mom), I feel it’s my job to gently guide Erin toward understanding that work is only part of life, not all of it. And that even if she doesn’t believe it, she is motivated by the many intrinsic values that are inherent in both education and employment. As presented in Deci and Ryan’s Cognitive Evaluation Theory (1985), “interpersonal events and structures (e.g., rewards, communications, feedback) that conduce toward feelings of competency during action, can enhance intrinsic motivation for that action because they allow satisfaction of the basic psychological need for competence.”

So even while Erin asserts that the bottom line for her is accomplished worker = more hours = more money, I remind her that she derives a certain amount of personal, non-monetary satisfaction (and continued motivation, I think) from a manager who praises her hard work (intrinsic reward) and follows with increasing Erin’s hours (extrinsic). I read back this interview to her in which she started the discussion by stating, “it’s a good feeling knowing that I do a good job.” She smiles, “I guess you are right. But the better reward is the check at the end of two weeks!”

I suppose that for Erin, old habits are hard to break. As a third-grader, she won a pencil from the teacher each time she mastered a new level of the multiplication tables. Erin is good at math, so she finished the tables well ahead of her classmates. At that semester’s parent-teacher conferences, the teacher pointed out that Erin’s progress in class had slowed a bit when the pencil rewards stopped. “She needs to learn to work for the intrinsic value of learning,” the teacher said, with Erin sitting right there. “Erin, do you know what ‘intrinsic’ means?” the teacher asked, somewhat condescendingly.

“Yeah,” Erin said with a frown. “It means I’m not going to win any more pencils.”

References

Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. No. 25, pp. 54-67 (full article)

Meister, J., and Willyerd, K. (2010). Mentoring Millenials. Harvard Business Review, pp. 17-20 (full article)

Week 11 Application Assignment – Damu Bobb

This week I had the opportunity to sit down with CNN HR coordinator, Geoffrey Martin-Cyr to go over the reward systems that are in place at CNN. My team and I created a list of questions to briefly get a sense of the reward system at Turner. After conducting the interview, which you can watch on the course blog and the link is below. I decided to reach out to another HR executive at a different company to compare and contrast the reward systems. I reached out to James Wright at NBC/Comcast who heads up the executive search for VP level and C level executives to compare and contrast the two companies.

Below, both James and Geoffrey explaine the reward systems that are in place and what the corporate culture is like at their respective companies (NBC/Comcast & CNN). The Q/A is below.


1- What types of incentives are used to keep employees engaged with the company?

James Wright, NBC – “Free employee screenings of major movies prior to release, quarterly meetings w/ President & CEO, affinity groups extremely encouraged & supported”

Geoffrey Martin-Cyr, CNN – “Turner is very proud of our TOTAL REWARDS package, which not only encompasses primary benefit coverage and leave of absence, but also opportunities for advice on financial, personal and family issues, career enrichment, discounts, perks and community involvement. Our compensation package is comprised of both the employee’s base salary as well as the opportunity for annual merit increases and bonus distribution.”


2- Are rewards based on performance offered?

James Wright, NBC – “Yes”

Geoffrey Martin-Cyr, CNN – “Well, the annual merit increases and bonus distributions certainly are, but everything else is offered to all our regular full-time employees.”


3- What informal rules (punishments) do you have in place?

James Wright, NBC - “There are none in place.”

Geoffrey Martin-Cyr, CNN – “We have partnered with our Legal Department to make sure that we have a fair and comprehensive employee issue-resolution path in place, to counsel and meet with employees when the need arises … everything from informal coaching to more formalized verbal and written warnings, which may or may not lead up to termination.”

4- Do you offer management training for your managers and above? if so, are rewards and employee incentives covered in this training? if so, what is covered. If no, why not?

James Wright, NBC - N/A

Geoffrey Martin-Cyr, CNN – “We do offer Management Essentials and other components of an employee’s MY CAREER path. (You might want to check with Dina about a more detailed response.”


5- How well does this reward system work in helping your organization achieve its strategic goals? In what ways could it be improved?

James Wright, NBC – “A little too early to tell as our rewards system has just been revamped post-merger.”

6-On average, how long (think years) do employees remain with NBCUniversal (LA or NY office)? Why do you think employees stay? What about the culture and rewards are enticing?

James Wright, NBC - “I cannot give concrete data; however, my receptionist has been here for 42 years & my VP has been here for 21 years. Our company culture, the assets we have and leverage, the excitement around the merger and our company brand are the reasons why I stay and many people stay…”

Geoffrey Martin-Cyr, CNN – “quite a few employees on the regular stay here for along time.”

I would summarize that both companies have a similar reward systems in place and that employees are relatively happy to work at their respective companies. Although, having been an employee at both companies I can say that Turner as a company overall has a greater financial, health, and career benefits reward system in place.

Lastly, in this weeks reading, “A classic form on introjection is ego involvement (Nicholls, 1984; Ryan, 1982), in which a person performs an act in order to enhance or maintain self-esteem and the feeling of worth.” (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 56). After talking with James, I got the sense that NBC/Comcast really the same mentality that Google had before Facebook came into the picture. James said that he has top level talent looking for jobs who were making high six figures salaries and are taking a 25% pay cuts to work at “The peacock”. That comment spoke volumes to me that NBC/Comcast still doesn’t quite value the employee as much as they should. Which is ironic, because, NBC has constantly been in fourth place in the rating for the past 5 years. They might want to take the Facebook approach and start to look at other companies that have top talent like CNN and see if they can get better talent and paying them better.

Web link to Damu Bobb’s Reward System Interview with CNN

http://vimeo.com/39914074?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cliptranscoded&utm_campaign=adminclip

Reference:

Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. No. 25, pp. 54-67.

Week 11 - Shane Collins

This week, I interviewed Marla Kamerath, regional marketing manager for Allstate Insurance. I wanted to discuss whether she finds intrinsic or extrinsic motivation most important.

According to Ryan and Deci (2000), “A person who feels no impetus or inspiration to act is thus characterized as unmotivated, whereas someone who is energized or activated toward an end is considered motivated” (p. 54). With such large field to manage – Nevada, Arizona and California – Kamerath explained that trying to motivate so employees is often times difficult.

“I find that sometimes what employees want is a simple pat on the back. It makes them feel like they are doing a good job and being recognized for that is important” (Kamerath, personal communication, April 5).

This is in line with the theory of intrinsic motivation. “Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence” (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 56). Rewards such as letter of recognition or simple acknowledgment of a job well done are types of intrinsic motivation. Kamerath explained that she finds more employees staying motivated by these forms of reward than by other means (personal communication, April 5).

Kamerath continued that extrinsic motivation is important on a more long-term level (personal communication, April 5). “By giving promotions or monetary bonuses, I am able to keep employees motivated for an extended time” (personal communication, April 5).

According to Ryan and Deci (2000), “Extrinsic motivation is a construct that pertains whenever an activity is done in order to attain some separable outcome” (p. 60). Kamerath explained that that to satisfy extrinsic motivation, employees must go above and beyond their typical job duties (personal communication, April 5). Generally, intrinsic motivation is a much better outcome from rewards as employees work to be intrinsically motivated for their own satisfaction.

Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. No. 25, pp. 54-67.