Fundemental of Managment

CHAPTER

learning outcomes

Motivating

and Rewarding

Employees

10.1

Define

and

explain

motivation.

p.266

10.4

10.3

10.2

Discuss

current issues

in

motivating

employees.

p.278

Compare

and

contrast

contemporary

theories of

motivation.

p.270

Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Seventh Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, and Mary Coulter.

Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.

ISBN 1-256-14379-0

Compare

and

contrast

early theories

of

motivation.

p.266

ISBN 1-256-14379-0

Best Practices at Best Buy

Do traditional workplaces reward long hours instead of efficient hours? Wouldn’t it make

more sense to have a workplace in which “people can do whatever they want, whenever they

want, as long as the work gets done?” Well, that’s the approach that Best Buy is taking.1 And

this radical workplace experiment, which obviously has many implications for employee

motivation, has been an interesting and enlightening journey for the company.

In 2002, then-CEO Brad Anderson (now the company’s vice chairman) introduced a carefully

crafted program called ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment). ROWE was the inspiration of

two HRM managers at Best Buy, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson (in photo below), who had been

given the task of taking a flexible work program that was in effect at corporate headquarters in

Minnesota and developing it for everyone in the company. Ressler and Thompson said,

“We realized that the flexible work program was successful as employee engagement was up,

productivity was higher, but the problem was the participants were being viewed as ‘not working.’

” And that’s a common reaction from managers who don’t really view flexible work employees

as “really working because they aren’t in the office working traditional hours.” The two women

set about to change that by creating a program in which “everyone would be evaluated...