Captain Edith Strong

A police department that has lost motivation over time is the subject of the case study. The department, led by Captain Edith, must work quickly to restore the police force’s reputation in the United States. She faces the difficulty of motivating a bunch of disgruntled employees and making them feel relevant to the firm.

The dual method is the best way to approach the difficulty. In this way, Captain must ensure that company goals are met while also meeting employees’ personal and professional requirements. Typically, she is an example of employees who have good through the ranks to become successful, therefore; she must help others as well. The dual approach will be a corporative method as the senior, and junior employees will always help each other out. They will both feel the urge to work together in empowering themselves and in meeting the organizational goals.

Specific motivational strategies to use

Motivation is one of the aspects that should be considered the most in any organization. Without it, the morale of the employees goes down and they will all appear to be working for nothing. In this regards, various specific motivational strategies should be used in the department

First, recognition and praise to all the employees should be highly encouraged. When officers do a great job, they should be applauded openly to ensure that other officers are also encouraged to perform well. Apparently, the morning roll calls should be the right time to praise and recognize the best officers in the last day’s activities. In the end, the employees will feel wanted and even the filing reports that have become monotonous and seem to consume time will be a task to enjoy

Secondly, the basic needs of the officers should be reached as Maslow suggested. In the hierarchy of needs, all humans strive to live a satisfying life. A report conducted at the department showed that the officers were not satisfied with their duties thus; the level of motivation goes down which later causes productivity to go low. It is evident from the number of complaints from the citizens. One of the basic needs according to Maslow is the ability to interact. Humans are social beings and it becomes difficult for them to work under a common department if there is no interaction. In one of the policies of the organization, more than two officers are not allowed to share a cup of coffee or even take lunch together. If by any means, there is interaction, officers are likely to get satisfied and share challenges in their line of work

If ERG would be applicable

The ERG theory relies on three basic principles that include need escalation, the frustration-regression principle and finally the satisfaction progression principle (Lazaroiu, 2015). Apparently, the theory has no hierarchical order of satisfying the needs of the employees, which would make it challenging to apply to the department. Employees in any firm have their needs that must be happy, but it may become difficult to satisfy them all at once.

In most cases, the lower level needs are satisfied then employees would gradually proceed to the higher level needs (Lazaroiu, 2015). In the case study, officers feel unmotivated. They have issued such as monotony of work and lack of interaction that affects them. In ERG theory, the principles are applied together. Hence, it becomes difficult to pinpoint what mainly made the employees feel motivated. The captain will have to be providing everything to satisfy the officers because she is not aware what would work and what would not. Notably, the department requires specific measures to boost their motivation and not on a random basis.

Job enlargement or job enrichment

In job enrichment, the management will change the entire job responsibilities by designing them, make the tasks less challenging, and avoid the issue of repetitiveness (Chung & Ross, 1977). In the organization, the redesigning of the tasks would not be useful in the organization as they are much interested in boosting their morale. Reports need to be written on a daily basis thus difficult to eliminate that repetitive nature. In this regards, it would be a necessity to incorporate job enlargement within the organization.

Apparently, job enlargement will increase the job tasks and individual responsibilities horizontally (Chung & Ross, 1977). The duties tend to be the same, but they are made to be more challenging thus making the officers feel to work. Interestingly, as new officers join the task force, they have a notion of making the world a better place. They love their job thus, be willing to take the necessary challenges that arise. The primary reason that the department would require job enlargement is to avoid monotony. Every day is a new challenge making it look like a new task. Also, job enlargement increases work flexibility, and there are no particular skills required.

In conclusion, it is essential to understand the need for motivation in an organization. Without it, the productivity of employees tends to be lowered. Firms should design a proper mechanism that will be responsible for motivation the employees to ensure that all activities are carried out efficiently. Furthermore, managers should know the lower level needs and fulfill them before the higher-level ones.

References

Chung, K. H., & Ross, M. F. (1977). Differences in motivational properties between job enlargement and job enrichment. Academy of Management Review, 2(1), 113-122.

Lazaroiu, G. (2015). Employee Motivation and Job Performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, 14, 97.