Workers Motivation

Case: Motivation Jerry Johnson was the first internal audit manager to be employed by Westbury Incorporated. In the past the internal audit section had operated without a manager (the audit section being one of the many responsibilities of the assistant director of finance). The six audit assistants had simply divided the work between themselves, but usually working in groups of 2 or 3. There was always a backlog of work, but it was usually finished on time. Jerry had previously worked for a larger company. Westbury had just decided on a new policy for internal audit. The policy would mean an increase in workload for the section. Jerry was hired to ensure the success of the new policy. When Jerry came, he decided to divide the work into different types. He consulted the staff about their particular skills and allocated them each a separate work area in which they were to carry out their own specialty. Jerry decided which work was to be allocated to each person and checked all the work before it was submitted. He wanted all problems discussed with him before action was taken. He started having weekly meetings with the staff to discuss the problems the section was having.

During these meetings an increasing number of problems were discussed, but none of the staff offered any solutions or suggestions. In the meantime the work was getting heavier and some of it was not being finished on time. Jerry seemed to be spending more and more time on approving the methods of work and checking the finished work, Jerry felt that some of problems which arose could have been solved by the staff themselves. In an effort to relieve the situation, Jerry arranged to have the staff room refurbished. The staff had complained about the condition of this. He also offered a bonus system to the staff to try and increase the output of work, but this seemed to have no effect either. Jerry was at his wits end. He had tried to make the section more efficient and enable the staff to make more money. It seemed that everything he did made the situation worse.

Q1) Explain the rationale and philosophy behind Jerry’s re-organisation of the audit section.

Q2) Explain some of the reasons for his failure.

Q3) Discuss the case in terms of worker motivation.

Q4) In light of the foregoing explanations, what solutions can you offer to Jerry’s dilemna.