Pizzeria: Motivation and Positive Reinforcement

1. Consider the situation where the manager changed the time period required to receive free food and drink from six to twelve hours of work. Try to apply each of the motivational approaches. Consider content theories (Herzberg and Maslow) and process theories (expectancy, equity and reinforcement) to explain what happened. Which of the approaches offers the most appropriate explanation? Why? When the time period changed from six to twelve hours, it was best descibed as the Reinforcement Theory where proper punishment should be enforced based off behaviour. This allows for positive reinforcement where good behavior shall be repeated, however, not negative behavior. In this case, it was actually the opposite. The employees took management as a harsher punishment. It eventually lead to the Equity Theory where the manager retaliated by increasing the food percentage. This also leads to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs where both managers and employees are not dependent of the pizzeria yet are motivated to perform out of security purposes.

2. Repeat question 1 for the situation in which the manager worked beside the employees for a time and then later returned to his office. Working along side the employees shows the Reinforcement Theory. It was a form of punishment on the manager’s behalf due to weakening the employees behavior based off of higher waste percentage. Authority and superversion were lacking due to the fact that the manager had to work alongside the employees and it was clearly stated that managers were not supposed to work on actual food preparation ( a direct violation).

3. Repeat question 1 for the situation as it exists at the end of the case. manager needs more communication with his employees. Feedback and positive reinforcement would have made the scenario better. Instead he punished all the employees by taking away the free food benefits as punishment. The Equity Theory states that inorder to take away any inequity, the manager could have changed any other input or change the outcomes.