Empowerment

Fab Sweets

The main problems that are affecting the company were the high level of labour turnover, below target production rates, high levels of scrap, the employees had little input in the decision making, therefore resulting in low motivation and job satisfaction, and didn't have enough feedback on there performance. Added to this was the conflict between the supervisors and employees in the production and packing areas, and the grading and payment levels wasn't satisfactory to the employees.

In order to rectify the problems in the departments we are going to apply different theories as to how the department may change for the better, we shall look mainly at the goal theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and also Hertzberg and Mayo.

Fab sweets uses assembly lines in both the production and packing departments this could possibly be why the employees have low satisfaction and low motivation. The procedure used is similar to the theory of Frederick Winslow Taylor, called Taylorism.

If we look at the assembly line way of working we see that tasks are set to individuals specifically and the individuals aren't able to work in other areas to develop different skills, therefore making the job they do repetitive, which could lead to carelessness in doing there job, there was also low level of skills required to do the job, therefore no motivation to learn new skills. " ...Taylorism reduces the worker to an automaton and denies the worker any chance for relief or modulation of the pace of work and is enormously stressful and oppressive." www.marxists.org

It assumes that the worker is motivated by the money, in contradiction to Maslows hierarchy of needs which states that, there are eight innate needs , Transcendence, Self actualisation, Aesthetics, Know and, understand, Esteem, Affiliation, Safety, Biological.

If Fab sweets actively implemented some of Maslows motivational theories such as recognition, and good feedback as well as opportunities for training, to perhaps be skilled in both the production and packing areas for each worker this would be a form of motivation to the worker, although some of the jobs require strong men to do this perhaps there could be a way for instead of one person 2 people to do it. Also job Rotation could be another way of increasing motivation among the workers.

"A simple thing such as giving a employee a little reward for outstanding performance for a month or a year could help motivate other employees to want to do better so that they could have the chance to be recognized for their outstanding work." (www.business.com)

We can also apply Frederick Herzberg's job enrichment strategy which will give the worker belief that they will have more control over there work, "...overall, job enrichment is concerned with increasing the amount of worker autonomy in an attempt to improve motivation and performance through an increased sense of achievement, recognition and accomplishment" (David A Hume 1995)

Perhaps allowing the

In terms of the interpersonal problems among the 2 departments one again Maslow's theory should be applied particularly in reference to affiliation needs, office parties, encouraging open communication, teamwork. Bringing better communication amongst the workers could lead to friendships in the workplace and therefore a motivation to get up and go to work, and a friendlier atmosphere among employees.

Maslow's theory is discussed further in more detail below.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow postulated that all human needs can be arranged in an ascending hierarchy, and that the lowest level unsatisfied needs are the main motivators of any individual.

The lowest level needs are physiological such as needs for food, water and bodily survival. If these are satisfied, the next higher level needs become the motivating factor of the individual.

From the case study it is clear that the problems have occurred due to lack of communication between the two departments, lack of motivation, a bad atmosphere and not much responsibility being given to employees in order to make decisions and bad attitudes. The problems that FAB Sweets Ltd have are affecting not only their workforce but their profit levels too.

According to Maslow hierarchy of needs he says that the lowest level which is psychologist needs, which are things like food, water and bodily survival. These factors are all present in the FAB's employees lives but however, in order to go onto the nest level the individuals must have security which will be in a persons

Safety needs include factors such as security in one's work and various forms of insurance against the risk of life. Here the individual wants to know that they have a job that will benefit them and provide them with security. FAB has a high labour turnover and has had six new managers in eight years this indicates that the employees at FAB did not feel secure in their work causing them to leave. There could have been possible reasons