Chapter 5.

1 Discussion

Chapter 5.2

5 Q’s asked

Chapter 5.3

Pride-Building at Aramark
Aramark, a leader in professional services headquartered in Philadelphia, has approximately 270,000
employees serving clients in twenty-two countries.  Aramark wanted to better motivate its employees
who clean airplanes for Delta and Southwest Airlines. Turnover of the low-paid staff of largely immigrant
employees once exceeded 100 percent a year. Morale was low, and wallets and other valuable items that
passengers left on planes had a tendency to disappear.

To turn things around, Aramark manager Roy Pelaez believed that he had to break some rules to get
employees to feel motivated. “Managers are not supposed to get involved with the personal problems of
their employees, but I take the opposite view,” he says. “Any problem that affects the employee will
eventually affect your account. If you take care of the employees, they will take care of you and your
customer.” Besides the typical “Employee of the Month” recognition programs, he brought in an English-
language teacher to tutor employees twice a week on their own time, added Friday citizenship classes to
help employees become U.S. citizens, and arranged for certified babysitters subsidized by government
programs to keep single mothers showing up for work. He even created a small computer lab with three
used computers so that employees could train each other in word processing and spreadsheets. “All of
these things are important, because we want employees who really feel connected to the company,” says
Pelaez.

Employees who had perfect attendance over a six-month period or who turned in a wallet or pocketbook
filled with cash and credit cards were rewarded with a day off with pay. Workers in the “Top Crew of the
Month” were rewarded with movie passes, telephone calling cards, or “burger bucks.” Turnover fell to 12
percent per year—amazing for jobs that pay only minimum wage to start. And crews started to recover
large amounts of money from the airplanes, returning to passengers some 250 lost wallets with more than
$50,000 in cash.

In five years, Pelaez's efforts helped to increase Aramark's revenue in this area from $5 million to $14
million.  Since 1998, programs such as these have helped Aramark consistently rank as one of the top
three most admired companies in its industry in Fortune magazine's list of “America's Most Admired
Companies.”
Questions (not less than 100-words per item):

1. What motivation theories apply to the workers at Aramark? Why do you say so?

2. If you were the manager of these employees, what would you do to motivate them? Be honest
regarding your personal management style and beliefs rather than trying to be like Roy Pelaez. Why do
you believe that it is the most appropriate method?

3. What are some possible barriers to the effectiveness of your motivation ideas? What could you do to
overcome them?
Chapter 5.4

Motivating Your Sales Staff

The goal of this exercise is to give you practice aligning individual and organizational goals, and thinking like a
manager in managing employee motivation. Read the scenario below:

Imagine that you are the management team of a new high-end retail clothing store named Threads. Your company's
business strategy is to provide high-quality customer service and to provide high-quality products. You are not the
cheapest store in town, but you expect your employees to create a service-oriented atmosphere that customers will
be willing to pay a little extra for.

You recognize that your sales staff will be essential to your store's success, and you want to create a system that
motivates them to help create a competitive advantage for your business. Because this is the first store you have
opened, you have some latitude to decide how to best motivate your staff. Market competitive starting salaries have
already established, but you have decided to allocate 10 percent of the store's profits to use to motivate your sales
staff in any way you see fit.

Discuss your answers to the following questions. 

Questions (not less than 100-words per item):

1. What behaviors would you want from your sales staff?

2. What goals would you set for your sales staff, given your answer to question 1?

3. What type of system would you set up to reward these behaviors?

4. What challenges would you be on the lookout for? How would you proactively address these
potential challenges to prevent them from happening?

Chapter 5.5 Video

1. Can you relate Mike Boyle's views on employee motivation to the need theories discussed in this class? If so,
how?

2. How does expectancy theory explain Ana's view of her work at Mike Boyle's Strength & Conditioning?

3. Marco speaks about the pride he takes in both his work and the gym. Describe how his pride can be explained by
any of the need perspectives on motivation.

4. How do Bob's ideas about training and learning relate to employee motivation?