Tag: motivation

Teaching Tip: The Critical First Day of Class

teachingThere’s only one first day of class.  Faculty Focus (Aug. 19, 2015) provides some ideas for taking advantage of opportunities that are not available in the same way on any other day of the course.

  • A good introduction to OM provides a bit of background; it builds connections by identifying shared experiences and common interests. The details offered in a good introduction motivate continued conversation.
  • The first day gives you the chance to explain why OM matters to you. Of all the potential majors, you chose one in this field—how did that happen?
  • The operations course develops important concrete analytic skills. The first day is a good time to let students know what they will be able to do—or do better—as a consequence of this course.
  • Courses have been known to change lives. Most don’t, but OM is probably the most dynamic subject in all of business.
  • Talk about your commitment to teaching–and your favorite things about teaching.
  • You can talk about your commitment to student learning.
  • It’s a chance to find out about your students in the course. This can build constructive relationships and help establish concrete ways to connect.
  • OM is a new course and the beginning of a new academic year. You and your students want the same things on the first day—a good course, a positive constructive learning environment, the chance to succeed.
  • Students may look passive and not especially interested, but don’t be fooled. On that very first day, get students connected with each other and the course content.
  • It’s the day in the course when it’s easiest for the teacher to genuinely smile. You have only good news to share, so let them hear it.

OM in the News: The Changing Employee Incentive Systems

Most employees at Squaremouth, a software company in St. Petersburg, Fla., receive a small annual raise, but they're also treated to perks like the new Apple Watch Sport.
Most employees at Squaremouth, a software company in St. Petersburg, Fla., receive a small annual raise, but they’re also treated to perks like the new Apple Watch Sport.

“Yacht-size bonuses for Wall Street big shots and employee-of-the-month plaques for supermarket standouts are nothing new, but companies’ continued efforts to keep costs down have pushed employers to increasingly turn to one-off bonuses and nonmonetary rewards at the expense of annual pay raises,” writes The New York Times (May 26, 2015). The share of payroll budgets devoted to straight salary increases sank to a low of 1.8% in the depths of the recession, from a high of 10% in 1981–and has rebounded only to 2.9% in 2014. Short-term rewards and bonuses — known as variable compensation — accounted for an average of 3.9% of payrolls in 1988. Last year, it hit a record 12.7%.

The shift in compensation that favors one-shot-only rewards over incremental increases in salary that compound over time also appears to be playing a significant role in wage stagnation. It took off after the economy went into a nose-dive in 2001, but is expected to continue even as the unemployment rate drops and the labor market tightens. Employers like one-shots precisely because they are temporary. They save money over the long run because they don’t lock in raises, giving managers greater control over budgets.

“I personally love suddenly finding an unexpectedly large sum added to a month’s pay,” said one Michigan doctor.  “It probably wouldn’t seem nearly as thrilling if it were just spread out across salary payments each month.” While a few more dollars in each paycheck may lack that Christmas-morning feeling, a raise is the gift that keeps on giving. The benefits of wage increases are compounded each year, with every future raise building on the back of the one before it. In the days when bosses handed out holiday hams or turkeys, employees would often walk to the top of the building and drop them off to show their displeasure. Their message: cash preferred.

This is a topic (seen in Chapter 10 on page 403, “Motivation and Incentive Systems”) about which your students will all have opinions.

Classroom discussion questions:
1. What are the benefits and downsides to the one-off bonus from the corporate perspective?

2. From the employee perspective?

OM in the News: Do Happier Employees Work Harder?

I may be one of the few OM profs who think that Chapter 10, Human Resources, is the most important  in our text. As a former college administrator, I  agree with the conclusion in the New York Times  article (Sept. 5, 2011) that “happier people do work harder”.  But a recent Gallup poll finds: “People of all ages, and across income levels, are unhappy with their supervisors, apathetic about their organizations and detached from what they do”. This translates, according to the Times, into a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. “When people don’t care about their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less, or their work quality suffers”.

So what does it take to keep employees happy and motivated?   The answer (according to a Harvard study) is that progress in meaningful work is primary. As long as workers experience their labor as meaningful, progress is often followed by joy and excitement about the work. Ensuring that workers are happily engaged is not expensive. Well-being depends on managers’ ability and willingness to facilitate workers’ accomplishments–by removing obstacles, providing help, and acknowledging strong effort. (Which is exactly what Dr. Deming said for decades). “Promoting workers’ well-being”, writes the Times, “ isn’t just being ethical; it makes economic sense”. Those who lead organizations –from CEOs to small team leaders –need to recognize that their mission is to support workers’ everyday progress.

With sports on our minds, here is a video clip of what may not fit the positive motivation the article espouses. We see Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly in a rage against a player in  last weekend’s game against USF.

Discussion questions:

1. Ask students what bosses had the most positive or negative motivation over them–and why.

2. Comment on the  Brian Kelly video.

3. Tom Peters once said: “If you don’t sincerely care about the people who work for you, become a consultant, not a boss”. Comment.