Chapter 12 Practice Questions

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Troy University, Troy MGT 3300 Which of the following actions should the customer support manager take to best motivate these employees? Each year, hold an award ceremony and give a bonus to the employee who has served the highest volume of customers and the one who has the highest average customer ratings. Share trends in average customer ...[Show More]

Troy University, Troy
MGT 3300
Which of the following actions should the customer support manager take to best motivate these

employees?

Each year, hold an award ceremony and give a bonus to the employee who has served the highest

volume of customers and the one who has the highest average customer ratings.

Share trends in average customer ratings at quarterly staff meetings, emphasizing the importance

of customer satisfaction.

Place a widget on employees’ computer screens that flashes a happy face every time the average

customer wait is less than 2 minutes.

Track a great deal of data on customer interactions and send it to a consultant for detailed

analysis, which can help improve procedures.

Points:

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Explanation:

The making progress principle states that the most important factor in inspiring positive emotions in

employees is to give them feedback that they are making progress toward meaningful goals. A feeling

of ongoing achievement is highly energizing. Giving feedback about goal achievement after the fact,

such as on a quarterly basis, may be motivating, but not as much as ongoing feedback about the work

being achieved now. Thus, informing employees in real time that an important customer experience

goal is being met is the management action that will be most motivating.

This diagram of expectancy theory is based on the idea that motivation comes from people’s

perceptions of the relationships among three things: effort, performance, and outcomes. In particular,

the diagram shows that people will be motivated only if they believe that (1) hard work will lead to

doing well on a task (E→P expectancy); (2) doing well on a task will lead to a reward (P→O

expectancy); and (3) outcomes (rewards), when given, will be something they want (valence).

Managers can increase E→P expectancies by giving employees the tools and training they need to do

the job right and by telling employees that they are capable of doing the job well. P→O expectancies

go up when managers set goals either for or with employees and when goal achievement is explicitly

tied to a valued reward. Valence increases when managers provide rewards that employees really

want. Since different people want different things, managers need to talk with employees to find out

what is most valuable to them.