Motivation at Work
Gregorio Vargas
PSY /
10/08/2014
Allan Loucks
Motivation at Work
I have read the reports and concerns that have been brought up by employees and customers. I see the issues that have been arriving at your Casino. I see that most of the dealers have been leaving the casino to work at other casinos in the area, even though JC’s Casino pays better than their local competition. The turnover rate is a problem at the staffing level. The full time employees are being over worked to cover shifts and customer service is not being satisfied. Among the housekeeping staff, there has been an above normal rate of absenteeism and high turnover of rooms. Many of the managers who work in accounting, payroll, and other departments have had to ask their full-time employees to help cover for housekeeping by cleaning rooms periodically. Because of this problem, the hotel has had to adjust their check in times from 3 p.m. (the industry standard) to 6 p.m. Customers have arrived earlier and the hotel has had to accommodate them by creating a room to hold luggage. Hotel rooms are not ready to accommodate customers and the staff working there do not have good morale. They have also had to hire staff to man the luggage room. All of these issues are very alarming.
As your independent consultant, I will help and try to give you as much input to fix and rectify these issues. There are many approaches you can take to correct or assist in this problem. One motivational theory I can use is the reinforcement theory. Reinforcement theory is a theory that focuses on rewards. As a casino, morale needs to be built and addressed. Managers and supervisors can use this approach to employ rewards. By deploying this type of theory, a supervisor can expect the behavior or outcome desired. This will help and bring morale up by making incentives and having goals in place in order to achieve performance from employees. In order for this approach to work, the environment of the casino must focus on moral of the casino. Supervisors and Managers must be all onboard to make a friendly working, morale booster, place to work.
Reinforcement theory of motivation was introduced by BF Skinner. Skinner explains how law and effect equals to the individuals behavior. With positive reinforcement it allows the individual to be appraised for doing well at work. For instance, when the casino employee comes in on time, the supervisor or manager should appraise or applaud the employee for coming in early. This approach must be applied as much as possible as Skinner stated in his theory. Negative reinforcement can also be applied to imply rewards for employees by removing negative and undesirable consequences. Both of these reinforcement can assist in increasing desirable behavior.
Another motivational theory is by Stacey Adams is equity. Equity theory explains on how giving one employee a promotion can affect the outcome of others by not being fair. It can be demoting for those around to see someone get a raise. When that happens the employee may lose focus and motivation or even be dissatisfied. When employees work they hope to work at a place this is fair. Employees look to have a fair treatment across the board with other employees. Stacy Adams theory keeps the fairness equal amongst co-workers and the Casino.
If both of these theories are applied properly the Casino will be a place of employment where all applicants and employees want to work. The director of housekeeping, Andrew Keehn can implement these two theories to his house keepers and have them know and recognized their performance through promotions and create a feedback from employees in how to make the Casino an attractive place to work at. The house keepers can focus in making the rooms more desirable for customers and have the rooms cleaned before noon by applying new procedures that would recognize the employee’s performance. In addition it will show the rest of the house keepers that an