Motivational Effectiveness A

In today's ultra-competitive business environment, service companies that rely on unskilled labor must have the proper skills and attitude when it comes to hiring, retaining, and motivating workers. This fact is extremely important when a shortage of labor exists. " ACME Company, " located in Madison, currently experiences the effects of a tight labor market where the unemployment rate fluctuates around 1.2% and the current wage rate for the most basic job is three to four dollars over the legal minimum wage. To remain competitive, companies must create new innovative solutions and initiatives to retain and motivate workers. This project focuses on management's skills and attitudes towards motivating their employees and addresses the implications of applying reinforcement theory as a way to create those new innovative solutions and initiatives. The study is based on a family owned multi-division service company. The division studied is the household goods relocation division. ACME Company is an agent for a larger national van line and is responsible for the domestic and international relocation of household goods for both residential and corporate clients. The company has been in business for over 110 years and relies on past performance records, methodologies, and management styles to guide the company into the future. The existence of a stringent top down management style makes it difficult for grass roots workers to be heard. Management feels they are aware of the problems plaguing the company, however, little has been done to solve these issues. The success of ACME Company depends on its labor force, quality of work, and the extent to which they can solve the problems detailed below. 3 It should be noted that ACME Company historically has not made the issue of employee motivation a high priority and as a result problems have developed which affect the company's performance. The main problem is the high number of damage claims initiated by customers. Claims result from damage to customer's property during the relocation process. More specifically, the damage depends largely on the quality of the packing performed by the employees. The number of claims filed by customers is quite high while at the same time the motivation level of the workers, as described by management, is low. The methodology employed to research this problem included interviews with management and employees, and the administration of a survey (created by our team) given to the employees (Appendix 1). The results of …