South-African waste-management sector
Master thesis, MScBA, specialization Change Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and BusinessJanuary 29, 2010 NIELS HENDIRKUS ENDER
Student number: 1733451 Melisse 13 8101 CZ Raalte +31 (0)6-23422795 s1733451@student.rug.nl Supervisor / university Prof. dr. A. Boonstra Supervisor / company B. Lourens WastePlan
Acknowledgment: I thank Mr. B. Lourens from WastePlan for his support during the research, Mr. Prof. dr. A Boonstra for his supervision and the respondents of the interviews
THIS IS PAPA!
Understanding post acquisition employee motivation: A case study in the
South-African waste-management sector
NIELS ENDER University of Groningen
ABSTRACT
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ... 2
1 INTRODUCTION ... 4
1.1 Case description ... 4
1.2 Research goal and models ... 6
1.3 Construction of research ... 8 2 THEORY SECTION ... 9 2.1 Preface ... 9 2.2 South-Africa ... 10 2.3 Acquisition ... 11 2.4 Job insecurity ... 13 2.5 Expectancy-valence theory ... 16 2.6 Employee Motivation ... 17
2.7 Philosophical underpinnings and reflexivity ... 18
2.8 Sub questions and research question ... 19
3. METHODOLOGY ... 20 3.1 Preface ... 20 3.2 Research sources ... 20 3.3 Qualitative research ... 20 3.4 Research instruments ... 22 3.5 Research procedure ... 22 4. RESULTS ... 24 4.1 Preface ... 24 4.2 Acquisition ... 24 4.3 Job insecurity ... 24 4.4 Expectancy ... 25 4.5 Instrumentality ... 25 4.6 Valence ... 26 4.7 Employee motivation ... 27 4.8 Additional findings ... 27 5. DISCUSSION ... 29 5.1 Preface ... 29
5.2 Answers sub questions ... 29
5.3 Conclusion ... 35
5.4 Implications and limitations ... 35
REFERENCES ... 37
APPENDIX 1 ... 47
1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Case description
Preface
This research project will occur within WastePlan; a Cape Town based on-site waste management company that specializes in recycling and landfill reduction in the Western Cape. The situation that WastePlan faces today is a competitive South-African waste management market due to increased attention for ecological concerns. This has lead to a recent series of mergers & acquisitions. In response to these environmental changes WastePlan has recently taken over a competitor named Save-al. Though increasing profit margins and a better market position are the goals of the takeover, the human factor in this process should not being left unnoticed when reaching these goals.
WastePlan
WastePlan is one of the organizations that grabbed on to the opportunities in the waste management industry. Currently WastePlan is the largest on-site waste management company in the Western Cape and employs 230 employees and services over 50 clients. Recently WastePlan took over a competitor firm and grew from 150 up to 230 employees. At this moment WastePlan exists of a Managing Director (MD) and fourteen staff members separated into both higher management level and middle management level as showed in figure 1.
FIGURE 1
Together with circa 230 employees WastePlan operates at this moment in the waste management area of the Western Cape, South Africa. WastePlan‟s goal is to minimize waste shipped to landfill and maximize the percentage recycled materials. By doing this WastePlan delivers a positive contribution towards the South-African environment. For this contribution WastePlan gets financial resources from both the municipality and from recycling companies who are interested in the recyclable materials sorted by WastePlan. The other income consists of the contract fee from the municipality or city council by means of the reduced waste shipped to landfill (Bos, 2009). WastePlan‟s operations consist of three interconnected parts, namely; collecting, unloading and sorting. Shortly described, recyclable materials from households are collected by WastePlan. These collected bags will be driven to the Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) located in Maitland and Helderberg, South-Africa. Bags with recyclable waste are unloaded and thereafter sorted into different categories of recyclable materials. These sorted materials are then stacked in bales ready to be picked up by recycling companies. The amount of waste processed by both MRFs in May 2009 is respectively Maitland 260,964 kilograms and Helderberg 214,000 kilograms (Bos, 2009). At this moment, WastePlan‟s operation is very labor intensive. For an example see Dubanowitz and Themelis (2000). Additional, WastePlan is used to work with clear policies and rules throughout the organization meaning that consequences existed for employees. The culture existed of fair and clear cut rules. Furthermore, these rules implied that employees know what to do in specific situations i.e. could deal with issues without having to request additional information throughout the organization.
Save-all
Like WastePlan, Save-all also grabbed on to the opportunities in the South-African waste management sector. Save-all was organized by a managing director followed by four staff members holding positions like; account manager / financial manager, operations manager, recycling manager and human resource manager / administration. Save-all employed about 50 employees in various sites like hospitals and shopping malls. Typical for Save-all operations was the direct communication used between employees and staff without clear policies and operation procedures. There were no divided departments in the organizations resulting in an ad-hoc operating strategy and an organization able to cope with crisis situations. Furthermore, and due to the lack of a proactive strategy, a care taking operational culture evolved. This meant that issues were solved along the way and that the organization would take care of their employees. For this reason, it seemed that keeping employees employed was more important than keeping the organization alive. Finally, this resulted in a poor financial condition of Save-all which resulted in Save-all being acquired by WastePlan.
Employee motivation – acquisition – South-Africa
affect individuals by creating uncertainty and insecurity. Furthermore, WastePlan‟s management expects that the amount of job insecurity has an effect on the level of employee motivation. In line with these expectations, Noer (1993) showed that even five years after the acquisition process, employee motivation was still low due to the effect of job insecurity. In the process of waste minimization, management of WastePlan questions the employee motivation from Save-all employees since clients are not satisfied with the services delivered. Additionally, there is low control and no measurement system on the sites so loafing on the job may be a present fact (Roy, 1952). The importance of employee motivation for the successfulness of the post-acquisition process of WastePlan, raises the need to get insight in the variables that affect employee motivation. These variables will be presented in the conceptual model (figure 3).
In order to understand the post acquisition era I will first describe the acquisition process and the way how both organizations operated in the next chapter. To have a better insight in the South-African business environment, which may affect employee motivation, I will also describe the historical path faced by South-Africans.
1.2 Research goal and models Goal of research
The variety of sites WastePlan has in its control are all staffed with workers. Sites with contracts of the former competitor were not profitable because workers at these sites did not perform well. Partly this has to do with the lack of control before the acquisition took place, as Managing Director explained. WastePlan took over all the contracts and used more control over the workers. Doing nothing on the job became much more difficult for them. In this way, no contracts where lost because of absenteeism, poor performance and therefore unsatisfied clients. Additionally, these workers sorted more waste because they worked the hours they should work. A high level of control however, led also to compliance of these workers. More control meant for them a decrease of income because they could not write some extra worked hours. Furthermore, this acquisition had led to a change in their natural way of working and therefore to uncertainty. It is expected that uncertainty has effects on worker motivation. Worker motivation can therefore affect performance negatively and thereby have a negative effect on the successfulness of the transition from implementing contracts of the former competitor into the business of WastePlan.
integrated motivational way of doing business. For these reasons the goal of this research is to investigate what the degree of employee motivation is at Save-all sites and how this can be increased.
Research model
A schematic representation of reaching this goal is presented in figure 2. FIGURE 2
Research procedure
Conceptual model
The conceptual model as presented in figure 3 and the research model as presented in figure 2 reflects the way how this research is conducted. This research is conducted in South-Africa a country with its own culture and social construction. The acquisition of Save-all by WastePlan has consequences for employees. In this model the consequences reflect job insecurity which affects employee motivation through Vroom‟s (1964) expectancy model. An exploration and explanation of this model will be presented in the following chapter.
SQ:1 SQ: 2 SQ:3 SQ:4
RQ & Goal
Pre-research Main research
FIGURE 3 Conceptual model
1.3 Construction of research
After the introducing chapter with an exploration of the case description and a short overview of sub questions and the research questions, I will present the theoretical background and literature in chapter two. I will do this according to the conceptual model as showed in figure 3. Besides the general statement of the importance of motivation and variables affecting motivated employees, I will deep into detail regarding these variables. At the end of chapter two I will give a brief overview of the sub questions and research question. In chapter three I will describe the methodology and thereby justify the research methods for this research. After the methodology, chapter four will show the results found during the data collection and data analysis process. Chapter five will discuss this data and answers the sub questions and research question. This leads to a conclusion and recommendations. Finally, implications and some limitations are clarified in this closing chapter.
2 THEORY SECTION 2.1 Preface
The acquisition of Save-all took place on the first of July 2009. Reasons for the acquisition to take place are that it is expected that the acquisition will lead to economies of scale, a better market position and increased profits. The importance to investigate employee motivation after acquisition is supported by several studies. According to Cartwright and Cooper (2000) the failure of an acquisition can often be attributed to Human Resource (HR) factors such as culture and management differences, poor motivation, leaving of personnel and uncertain long-term goals. Additionally, Schuler and Jackson (2001) claim that mergers and acquisitions fail frequently as a result of the neglect of HR issues and activities. Therefore, as Lin, Hung and Lee (2005) and Habeck, Kroger and Tram (2000) state, acquisitions can be seen as a process of managing people to create synergy for the merged firm, especially during the post acquisition integration phase. Furthermore, Lin et al. (2005) state that firms with HR advantages are likely to succeed in industries using Mergers and Acquisitions (MA‟s) to pursue scale economies. For these reasons I found support to justify the investigation in employee motivation after the acquisition.
The present research will investigate which effect job insecurity by an acquisition has on the motivational aspects of employees. The motivational aspect to perform well on the job is a key aspect for securing performance (Steers, Mowday and Shapiro, 2004). Additional, Smith (1994) states that motivated employees are key for organizational survival. Furthermore, motivated employees are more productive. To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees (Lindner, 1998). Although this task may seem obvious, it is easier said than done because, what motivates employee‟s changes constantly (Bowen & Radhakrishna, 1991). For example, research suggests that as employees' income increases, money becomes less of a motivator (Kovach, 1987). Also, as employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator (Lindner, 1998). Since employee motivation is a critical factor for a successful acquisition process (Lin et al., 2006), is key for survival (Smith, 1994) and the motivation of employees changes constantly, insight in how to increase employee motivation is required.
will discuss the philosophical underpinnings and reflexivity (2.7) and present a summarizing paragraph (2.8) of the sub questions and research question. Together, these paragraphs formed the basis for additional research performed during this research. I will describe the data collection and data analysis in chapter three.
2.2 South-Africa
Performing research in South-Africa means dealing with its country own cultural values and norms. Looking to South-Africans in detail, and thereby try to grasp their social construction and way things are handled, one has to look at the country‟s history. This means, as one may expect, explore and elaborate on a period in South-Africa‟s history known as the apartheids period.
More than half a century ago official apartheid began with the National Party‟s election in 1948. The core of the apartheids period existed of the legal segregation of South Africa by race with a separate development. This means the maintenance of white supremacy at that time. Politically, this meant that non-whites, the large majority, lacked those democratic freedoms enjoyed by whites (Donnelly& Dunn, 2006). Geographically, it meant that for non-whites, residency was restricted to the Bantustans (homelands) or to townships within urban or industrial zones (Kraak, 1993; Lipton, 1985). After the apartheid period, post-apartheid South-Africa has embarked on an ambitious program of labor market reform in pursuit of dynamic efficiency and redistributive justice (Donnelly & Dunn, 2006). Nowadays both legislation and an institutional framework inspired by the European Social Model focuses on new social partnership and tackling the mass unemployment at the root of continued inequality (Donnelly & Dunn, 2006). However, Donnelly and Dunn (2006) describe that various institutions and processes have not always developed or functioned as hoped. This means that from the total amount of people unemployed in the second quarter of 2008, 87 percent where black African people (Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2008). Furthermore a disregard and distrust of each other that has persisted from the apartheid days may still occur these days (Donnelly & Dunn, 2006).
increase of governmental expenses for environmental protection reflects the importance of this issue. (R million 3129 in 2004-2005 and R million 3323 in 2005-2006; South African Statistics, 2008). In order to deal with this issue the South-African government has adapted the Polokwane Declaration of September 2001, wherein certain goals are set to reduce waste production. Additional, the government has signed a set of policies like the Integrated Waste Management Policy (IWM) wherein subsidies are offered to businesses that help recycle waste. All these recent developments have led to an enormous potential for the waste management business. These potentials led towards a market which attracts entrepreneurs to start up businesses which hence leads towards competitions in the marketplace. This situation is being confirmed by WastePlan Managing director who saw – as many others – opportunities in the Waste management sector. One of major changes that happened in WastePlan‟s environment was the acquisition of a competitor firm Save-all. This process will be discussed in the next paragraph.
2.3 Acquisition
As discussed in previous paragraph opportunities in the South-African Waste management sector led to increased competition, which accordingly, has it consequences.
In their quest for competiveness, organizational leaders have increasingly turned to transitions – like acquisitions – to seek outcomes such as increased productivity, lower overhead, more effective decision-making, greater innovativeness, and more rapid technological enhancements (Hoskisson and Hitt, 1994). The acquisition is an event that results in a change in assumptions about oneself and the world and thus requires a corresponding change in one‟s expectations, behaviors, and relationships (Schlossberg, 1981; Marks, 2003). The strategic reasons for acquisitions are becoming increasingly popular (Fowler and Schmidt, 1988; Stahl and Mendenhall, 2005). Stahl and Medenhall (2005) measured that the worldwide value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) increased from US$ 462 billion in 1990 to over US$ 3.5 trillion in 2000. Despite the popularity of acquisitions as strategic maneuvers (Houghton et al., 2003), more than three-quarters of corporate combinations fail to achieve anticipated business results (Marks and Mirvis, 1998). Other researchers found different percentages on failure rates. In 1992 Cartwright and Cooper quoted nearly 40 per cent failure rates for change efforts. A few years later, in 1996, nearly 50 percent of M&A‟s failure rate to achieve initial objectives. Continuing, Weber (1996) found that 35 per cent of those M&A‟s that fail in their first three years of life are a result of poor employee relations.
Houghton et al., 2003; Lesowitz and Knauff, 2003; Seibert, 1995; Stahl et al., 2003). This research will therefore focus on the effects that acquisitions have on the human factor. Specifically it will zoom into the effect acquisitions have on job insecurity and employee motivation.
The employees‟ motivational force is expected to be influenced by the amount of perceived uncertainty in employees‟ job which is affected by the acquisition process as described in various research papers (Bellou, 2006; Bijlsma-Frankema, 2001; De Cock and Rickards, 1996; Houghton, Anand and Neck, 2003; Lesowitz and Knauff, 2003; Seibert, 1995; Stahl, Chua and Pablo, 2003; Saunders and Thronhill, 2003; Schweiger and Ivancevich, 1985). The acquisition or acquisition process is seen as an extreme form of organizational change and is a difficult event to manage (Bellou, 2006 and Kotter, 1995). The conditions hinder the use of organizational change management practices such as articulating a clear and compelling vision, communicating in a full and timely manner, and building political coalitions (Kotter, 1995). Furthermore, the acquisition process is often perceived by employees as threatening, due to their feeling of vulnerability and fear of losing security (Saunders and Thronhill, 2003). Because of these difficulties, it is important to get more insight in the reactions of employees on acquisitions. Moreover, it is important to find out how acquisitions affect employees because employees affect business performance. As Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984) phrased it, “workers react to job insecurity, and their reactions have consequences for organizational effectiveness” (p. 438). Job insecurity and effects of insecurity will be clarified in the following paragraph.
In addition, the effects of the acquisition process on employees are described by Marks and Mirvis (1985) who discusses the “merger syndrome”. This syndrome may result in several negative attitudes and behaviors like decreased satisfaction, organizational commitment, loyalty, job security, and productivity (Latack, 1986; Mchugh, 1997; Rafferty, 2007; Schweiger and Denisi, 1991; Cartwright and Cooper, 1993; Covin, Sightler, Kolenko and Tudor, 1996). According to Rafferty (2007) and Schweiger and Ivancevich (1985), acquisitions negatively affect individuals by creating uncertainty and insecurity. Furthermore, Ashford (1989) states that rumors abound in change situations. To the extent that employees use this source of information to anticipate to personal consequences of organizational changes, they may experience unwarranted insecurity (Schweiger & Ivancevich, 1985). Additionally, Guerrero (2008) found increased insecurity scores for employees after the acquisition process, even for employees who originally belonged to the acquiring firm. Mirvis (1985) and Blake and Mouton (1983) reported increase of insecurity, uncertainty and threat during organizational transformations. Moreover, the feeling of insecurity depends on the organizational context and on the employee self.
fact that threats for employees of acquiring firms are less serious than those of the firms that have been acquired, because they will be facing a “sense of continuity” (Hogan and Overmyer-Day, 1994; Covin et al., 1996). In contrast, employees of firms that are taken over should exhibit higher feeling of insecurity that are maintained over time (Guerrero, 2008). Here for, the present research will focus on the effects of the acquisition on the employees of the acquired firm Save-all. So far, it can be stated that the acquisition process for the acquired firm may lead towards job uncertainty.
2.4 Job insecurity
Described in previous paragraphs, an acquisition can have various effects on employees. In this paragraph I will elaborate on the variable job insecurity, which may subsequently affect employees‟ motivation, as presented in figure 3.
Job insecurity has become very popular the past decades because of changing environmental conditions. Employers in virtually every industrialized nation are, in varying degrees, moving toward increased flexibility in how they staff their organizations (Klein Hesselink & van Vuuren, 1999). These effects have led to an increase of researchers that have contributed toward the field of job insecurity (Sverke, Hellgren & Näswall, 2002). Additional, insecurity and uncertainty about ones job has increased over years (Bendix, 2001; Hellgren, 2003; Rousseau, 1995; Schalk & Rousseau, 2001; Shore et al., 2004). This fact remains even though labor relations are more formalized and controlled through labor legislation than ever before (Salamon, 1998; Venter, 2003). As Linden and Schalk (2008) mention in their study about employment relations that reasons for changes in the cotemporary employment relations include breakthroughs in information technology, a rise in global competition and escalating interdependence between organizations and people (Schalk & Rousseau, 2001), causing once secure employment conditions to become more uncertain and insecure (Burke & Cooper, 2000; Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002). In general, this causes employees to experience more frequent changes in employment relationships, either within the same workplace and job description, or by changing a work environment. (Linde & Schalk, 2008). The effect of WastePlan‟s acquisition process does match with this line of reasoning. The changes in WastePlan‟s organization may therefore lead to changes of employee former state of security and certainty which may affects employees‟ motivation. In order to reduce misunderstanding I will combine both terms “uncertainty” and “insecurity” from now on and I will use the term “job insecurity”, as other researchers have done in the past (Schweiger and Ivancevich, 1985; Schweiger et al, 1987; Ashford, Lee and Bobko, 1989; Schweiger and Denisi, 1991).
to the present research environment, this implies that threats from the blue collar workers of the South-African waste management industry are derived from objective threats by means of the individual‟s perceptual and cognitive processes (James, Hater, Gent, & Bruni, 1978; James & Sells, 1981). In other words, they way in which employees from former Save-all feel threatened by the acquisition. With this outset of job insecurity an amount of similar definitions have been presented in the literature. For example job insecurity has been described as: “one‟s expectations about continuity in a job situation” (Davy, Kinicki, & Scheck, 1997, p. 323);”an overall concern about the future existence of the job” (Rosenblatt & Ruvio, 1996, p. 587); “an employee‟s perception of a potential threat to continuity in his or her current job” (Heaney, Israel, & House, 1994, p. 1431); “a discrepancy between the level of security a person experiences and the level she or he might prefer” (Hartley et al., 1991, p. 7); “the subjectively experienced anticipation of a fundamental and involuntary event” (Sverke et al., 2002, p. 243). Other researchers use combinations of various definitions and operationalisations in their research. For example, Mohr (2000, p. 339) discussed four different types of job insecurity: (1) ”job insecurity as a state of public awareness” which involves a high degree of unemployment in society; (2) ”job insecurity at the company level” which refers to unstable and insecure conditions in the organization; (3) ”acute job insecurity” involving the concrete subjective experiencing of a threat to employment, and; (4) ”anticipation of job loss” which applies to a situation where layoffs have already begun to be carried out in the organization in which the individual is employed.
Furthermore, Hellgren et al. (1999) and Sverke et al. (2006) argued that it would be meaningful to make a distinction between two different aspects of job insecurity, namely: quantitative- and qualitative insecurity. According to Hellgren et al. (1999), quantitative job insecurity refers to concerns about the future existence of the present job. Qualitative job insecurity pertains to perceived threats of impaired quality in the employment relationship, such as deterioration of working conditions, lack of career opportunities, and decreasing salary development.
Linking socioeconomic status & acquisition to job insecurity
Having elaborated on the definition of job insecurity, I will now start to link job insecurity to the previous described variable acquisition as showed in the conceptual model. Furthermore, I will link one‟s socioeconomic status with job insecurity.
In their literature review of job insecurity Sverke et al. (2006) mention the influence of employees‟ socioeconomic status. The South-African employees‟ socioeconomic status may influence an individual‟s experiencing of a situation and result in the interpretation that the job is being threatened. This status may also affect how important a job is considered to be, in that it affects an individual‟s dependence on the present employment (Sverke et al., 2006). Sverke et al. (2006) further relate socioeconomic status to type of work (manual vs. non-manual) and the level of education the individual has. Persons who have low-status (often manual) jobs and low income are often more dependent on their income and are therefore generally thought to be more vulnerable to the threat of job loss (Frese, 1985; Kinnunen et al., 1999). Individuals with low income – blue collar workers in South-African waste management industry – usually are not able to save money which would make a loss of income due to changes in their employment relation more severe. Additional, Sverke et al. (2006) also state that low-status jobs are often associated with lower levels of education, resulting in fewer coping resources and strategies. Studies have also shown that blue-collar workers report higher levels of job insecurity than other worker categories (Näswall & DeWitte, 2003). Lower education and skill level also contribute to employees having fewer options of alternative employment in the labor market, or the individual‟s sense of employability (cf. Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004), which may increase their degree of dependence on the present job, and make the threat of unemployment more severe (Gallie et al., 1998; Schaufeli, 1992; Sverke et al, 2004). Finally, holding a certain type of employment contract can also influence perceptions of job insecurity. Employees who are hired on full-time or permanent contracts may experience less job insecurity. These employees may have a greater sense of being an integral part of the organization than part-time or temporary employees would (Barling & Gallagher, 1996; Sverke et al., 2000). All the influences described above are of influence on former Save-all employees. To make contracts profitable and have influence on workers, WastePlan‟s management changed employees‟ contract into temporary ones. Changes in the employees‟ working environment could expect to have an impact not only on the well-being of individuals, but also on their work attitudes and behavior, and, in the long run on the vitality of the organization (Sverke and Hellgren, 2002). Hence, the socioeconomic status of blue-collar workers in the South-African waste management sector in concert with the process of the post acquisition process, may result in employees feeling insecure about ones job.
2.5 Expectancy-valence theory
Organizational psychology developed a framework for explaining worker productivity known as expectancy motivation theory or expectancy-valence theory. This theory is originally developed by Victor Vroom in 1964 and further developed by Porter and Lawler (1986). Although a number of approaches to work motivation have been used in both applied and theoretical contexts (Vroom, 1964; Galbraith & Cummings, 1967; Porter & Lawler, 1968; Campbell, Dunnette, Lawler, & Weick, 1970; Graen, 1969; Lawler, 1971), expectancy theory is the most widely accepted and most commonly used theory of work motivation in the workplace (Campbell and Pritchard, 1976; Heneman and Schwab, 1972; Mitchell and Biglan, 1971, Mitchell, 1979). Furthermore expectancy theory generally is supported by empirical evidence (Tien, 2000; Vansteenkiste et al., 2005).
According to different researchers the expectancy theory of motivation is useful for a variety of reasons (Ilgen et al., 1981; Chen and Lou, 2002). Its primary value is in the area of diagnosing motivational problems in specific organizations or subparts of an organization. The theory leads one to look at such things as (1) the value people place on certain organizational and social rewards, (2) the amount and types of intrinsic rewards present, (3) the extent to which high performance is seen as leading to each specific reward, and (4) the extent to which individuals believe they can reach these performance levels (Ilgen et al., 1981). A second benefit of an expectancy theory is that it provides a general framework for assessing, interpreting, and evaluating employee behavior in learning, decision making, attitude formation, and motivation (Chen and Lou, 2002). According to Ilgen et al. (1981) one of the central aims of organizations is to obtain and maintain high levels of performance from its personnel. One of the most effective methods of influencing performance is through influence motivation. Hence, the expectancy theory helps to understand motivation and thereby influence performance.
For these reasons I use Vroom‟s (1964) expectancy theory of motivation in this research. This theory explains the process individuals use to make decisions on various behavioral alternatives. The expectancy theory is presented as follows: motivation force = expectancy × instrumentality × valence, as can be seen in the conceptual model (figure 3). The motivational force for a behavior, action, or task is a function of the three distinct perceptions: expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. The variables have the following meaning: 1) effort performance expectancy: the employees‟ perceived connection between effort and job performance, 2) performance-outcome instrumentality: the perceived relationship between one‟s performance and his or her outcomes and 3) the valence of job outcomes: the perceived value or utility of the various organizationally and socially controlled or self-mediated events on the job (Ilgen, Nebeker and Pritchard, 1981).
expectancy as presented in figure 3 are: self-efficacy, goal difficulty and perceived control. Instrumentality refers to perceptions of employees whether they will actually receive what they desire and what has been promised, i.e. if I do a good job, there is something in it for me. This has to do with employees‟ understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes, e.g. the rules of the reward game, trust in the people who will take the decisions on who gets what outcome and transparency of the process that decides who gets what outcome. In the conceptual model this is referred to as trust, control and policies.
Valence, explains the emotional orientations of employees towards outcomes or rewards. This refers to the desire of employees for extrinsic or intrinsic rewards. For example, if I am mainly motivated by money, I might not value offers of additional time off. The variables affecting valence that are presented in the conceptual model are: values, needs, goals and preferences. Together the force of motivation is a function of expectancy × instrumentality × valence.
The role of management in this process is that management should discover what resources, training or supervision the employee needs in order to increase employee motivation. Management must make sure that promises are fulfilled and communicate this briefly to employees. In fact, management should discover what employees appreciate.
Linking job insecurity with expectancy-valance theory
The estimated job insecurity caused by the acquisition of Save-all has linkages with the variables in the expectancy-valance theory in the following manner. Job insecurity leads to a change in employees‟ expectancy because the acquisition and insecurity may change the way how people are supported in their job. Additional, perceived control at the job may change which in return affects employees‟ expectancy. Secondly, job insecurity affects employees‟ instrumentality in the way that insecurity may change employees‟ perceptions about whether they will receive what they desire. Thirdly, job insecurity caused by an acquisition may affect employees‟ valence because job insecurity may change which outcomes employees‟ value, e.g. job insecurity may cause that I value an extrinsic valence i.e. more pay than an intrinsic valence i.e. a feeling of accomplishment. If an employee senses that job continuity is at risk it may not be valued by the employee if the employer focuses on employees‟ motivation by „free choice‟ or because the job is inherently interesting or enjoyable (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The subsequent paragraph will describe the variable employee motivation.
2.6 Employee Motivation
to do with a set of independent/dependent variable relationships that explain the direction, amplitude, and persistence of an individual‟s behavior, holding constant the effects of aptitude, skill and understanding of the task, and the constraints operating in the environment. In other words, variables that are present in organizational environment that affect employees‟ behavior and for that reason employees‟ motivation, as can be seen in the conceptual model (figure 3). More recently, authors defined motivation as the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedejan, & Lindner, 1998); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedejan, 1993). For an overview of motivational theories see Steers, Mowday and Shapiro (2004).
For this paper, employee motivation is defined as the force that drives individuals through expectancy, instrumentality and valence to accomplish personal and organizational goals. The drives can exist of extrinsic and intrinsic components (Campbell et al., 1970; Lawler, 1970; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Extrinsic outcomes are rewards that are distributed by an external agent (e.g. the organization or managing director) while intrinsic outcomes are mediated by the individual and are internal, personal rewards like self-fulfillment and self-esteem (Chiang & Jang, 2007).
After defining employee motivation it is important why we need to understand employee motivation. Following Smith (1994) and Lindner (1998) the answer is survival. According to Lindner (1998) motivated employees help organizations survive because motivated employees are more productive.
The next paragraph will discuss the researcher‟s perspective regarding objectivity and neutrality.
2.7 Philosophical underpinnings and reflexivity
live and gather information in groups and these groups, or socially constructions influence the way how a reality is created and how individuals make meaning of knowledge within a social context (Vygotsky, 1978; Searle, 1995).
2.8 Sub questions and research question
After the elaboration on the previous described variables as presented in the conceptual model, I will now link these variables to the sub questions and research question.
The variables; acquisition, job insecurity, expectancy, instrumentality and valence all affect employee motivation at WastePlan. In order to reach the goal of this research: investigate what the degree of employee motivation is at Save-all sites and how this can be increased, the following sub questions need to be answered.
1. How are WastePlan and Save-all organized and how did the acquisition process take place?
2. What is meant by employee motivation and which variables affect employee motivation?
3. What is the current level of employee motivation at former Save-all sites? 4. Which factors or decisions can influence employee motivation positively? 5. Which recommendations are offered to WastePlan‟s management?
effects of the variables used in the conceptual model. It will also show how WastePlan‟s management can influence employee motivation by making decisions that affect the different variables in the conceptual model (figure 3). The fifth sub questions elaborates on the recommendations given to WastePlan‟s management based on theory and results. This questions focuses on how management can influence employee motivation positively by following up the presented recommendations.
The way research is conducted and how the sub questions are related to other parts of this research is presented in the conceptual model. Once answered the sub questions an answer can be given to the research question: What is the degree of employee motivation at Save-all and how can this be increased? Chapter three discusses the way research is conducted, how data is collected and analyzed.
3. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Preface
In the previous chapters the subject and the theoretical basis of this research are explained. In this chapter the methodology used in this research will be discussed.
The way data is collected in the present research is twofold and has to do with the stages of research. In order to come to the research design, a research question and sub questions were presented in the second chapter. In this chapter I will justify the research method.
3.2 Research sources
This research contains two phases of research: a pre-research stage and the main research stage. The goal of the first stage was to come to a justified and legitimated research design. Furthermore, this stage helped to find topics and articles that contributed towards the main research. The goal of the second stage is to recommend WastePlan‟s management how to make decisions regarding employee motivation.
During the pre-research stage two sources where gathered. Firstly, by a literature study valuable information was gathered on the topic and context, as is described in the introduction and theory section. The information gathered during this study resulted in the legitimated interview questions as presented in appendix two. Furthermore, two interviews held with the Managing Director helped specifying and legitimizing the research design. One interview was held with former managing director of Save-all in order to understand the contextual condition. For the second stage of this research employees from save-all sites where interviewed on an individual basis.
3.3 Qualitative research
answer “how” and “why” questions i.e., “How can employees be motivated?” and “Why are people motivated this way?”.
The orientation of this research is not to test but to create a methodology for approaching, understanding, analyzing and explaining employee motivation at WastePlan. In order to do this in a proper way, a holistic approach is needed. This approach assumes that the whole is different from the sum of its parts and hence any serious discussion of a phenomenon can happen only if its context (of occurrence) are carefully described and studied (Hari Das, 1983). Thus it is felt that employee motivation cannot be adequately understood by focusing only on a few variables such as acquisition, job insecurity, expectancy, instrumentality and valence, but rather has to be understood as a complex, situational phenomenon influenced by these and other variables.
In line with this way of reasoning, Mintzberg (1979, p. 586) noted in similar vein: Measuring in real organizational terms means first of all getting out into the field, into real organizations. Questionnaires often won't do. Nor will laboratory simulations . . . what is the use of describing a reality that has been invented?
In order to answer the research question, interview questions were made based on the literature study. The context herein is important as described in the introduction and theory section. South-African blue collar workers may respond differently towards changing environmental conditions. For this reason it is important to ask employees open questions which help to get insight in their perspectives regarding employee motivation. Hence, this way of performing research, where the context influences the outcome, makes it harder to generate results that can be generalized.
Keeping in mind the research objective, generate results that can be applied to other situations is therefore not a necessity for this research (Baarda en de Goede, 2005; Milena, Dianora and Alin, 2008).The ability given to each participant to explain each answer gives participants the possibility to respond. This leads to more flexibility, interaction and involvement. Additional a qualitative research is preferable when a research is oriented to obtain motivational perceptions (Milena et al. 2008), which is the perspective of this study.
feeling confident to speak out in the group. To avoid this situation, I chose to collect data by using dept-interviews.
Furthermore, in order to be able to analyze data in such a way that various individual interviews can be compared I used a semi-structured interview method with six constructs based on theory. To get a better understanding from these structured questions, I asked each participant to explain the answer. The constructs used for the interview are based on theory and will be legitimized in the next paragraph “research instruments”.
3.4 Research instruments
The constructs used in this research were drawn from the literature. The interview questions are based on the following constructs: acquisition, job insecurity, expectancy, instrumentality, valence and employee motivation. All questions are based on validated constructs measures used in literature. The first construct – acquisition – is based on theory from Schweiger and Denisi, (1991) and Saunders & Thornhill, (2003) and contains three questions. The construct job insecurity contains one question and is derived from Schweiger and Denisi,(1991) and Hellgren et al., (1999). The following three constructs where based on Vroom‟s (1964) expectancy theory. For expectancy three questions where used based on theory from Grean, (1969) and Porter and Lawler, (1968). Instrumentality is measured with two questions and based on theory from Gavin, (1970), Matsui and Ohtsuka,( 1978) and Reinharth and Wahba, (1975). For valence six instruments where used based on Gallbraith and Cummings, (1976). The graphic rating technique used for measuring valence has been shown to be effective (Eckenrode, 1965). Employee motivation is defined as the force that drives individuals through expectancy, instrumentality and valence to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Two open questions were asked to measure employee motivation based on constructs developed by Landy and Guion (1970). One question with a five point likert-scale (strongly disagree – strongly agree) was asked to measure overall motivation at work.
3.5 Research procedure
During the pre-research stage of the research a literature study is conducted in order to optimize the research goal. In this period, two interviews held with managing director, helped to sharpen the goal and finally led to approval of this research. One interview was held with former managing director of Save-all in order to get insight in the contextual conditions of the former Save-all workers. A graphical representation of the research procedure is presented in figure two.
given could be compared with each other. Hence, in this way a general conclusion can be given based on findings.
TABLE 1
Visited sites and profession of interviewee
Waste management site Profession of interviewee Southern Sun Waterfront Sorter
Southern Sun Waterfront Sorter The Twelve Apostles Sorter Kingsbury Hospital Lead sorter Kingsbury Hospital Sorter Kingsbury Hospital Sorter
Clover Sorter
Duens Bakery Sorter
Makro Lead sorter
Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital Lead sorter
IB Mcintire Sorter
Blouberg Mall Sorter
Blouberg Mall Sorter
Bayside Mall Sorter
MRF Helderberg Lead sorter
Data collection for this research is based on cluster sampling (Morris and Nguyen, 2008). The research questions and sub questions were used to make a sample frame from the population. Based on this frame, I divided the population into several clusters which are randomly chosen. Throughout the whole organization of WastePlan I selected the population based on the research question. From all former Save-all employees I selected randomly a set of clusters. These clusters exist of groups of employees at each operating site in the Western Cape region. In total fifteen site workers where interviewed. All employees were interviewed in a time period of two weeks and each interview took approximately thirty minutes. Every interview is recorded and processed afterwards by using both the recordings and notes.
Based on the interview questions the data is coded and categorized which leads to improved analyzability of the data (Basit, 2003; Dey, 1993). The aim is to interpret understandings of the actors . The way in which representations of human acts and utterances are coded can differ. In this research, I used the method of theme-coding. Theme-coding helps to solve the problem of single-dimensionality in which the ambiguity, subtleness and context-dependence of natural language is broken down to single-dimensional codes (Sivesind, 1999). Theme-codes refer to the topic of the text and they can refer to emotions, attitudes or values expressed through the text (Sivesind, 1999). This means that through theme coding a holistic understanding of this situation is gathered.
4. RESULTS 4.1 Preface
In this chapter the results are showed based on the interviews that were held with employees during the last two weeks of November 2009. The order is synchronized with the results section and will thus first describe results found for the six constructs: acquisition, job insecurity, expectancy, instrumentality, valence and employee motivation. Secondly, information gathered during the interviews that are coded to other themes are described. All the information is summarized and presented in table 1. Finally, all the information is linked to the sub questions and research question. For an overview of all the results see table 2.
4.2 Acquisition
In line with the conceptual model several questions were asked relating to the acquisition of Save-all by WastePlan. Questions were asked about WastePlan and Save-all as an employer; how and if anything changed for the employees after the acquisition; what their reactions where when they noticed about the acquisition; how they feel at the moment and why they feel like this.
Every interviewee mentions that WastePlan is a fine employer. The main reason for their expression is that the salary increased after the probation period up to 2700 SAR. Furthermore, 13 out of 15 employees mentioned that Save-all was a good employer because direct communication with management contributed towards their relation with the organization and resulted in faster arrangements. All employees answered that their job content did not changed after the acquisition. 3 out of 15 employees commented that their work load increased after the acquisition due to the effect of efficiency matters. All employees mentioned that their salary increased positively and that they were fortunate about this. Additional, all interviewees did not hear any rumors about a forthcoming acquisition. When the acquisition took place interviewees all commented that they were fortunate about the situation and mentioned that WastePlan is good for the employees. Two employees explicitly mentioned that they had no complains when them was asked how they feel about the acquisition of Save-all.
4.3 Job insecurity
In order to get an understanding of employees perceived job insecurity due to the acquisition process, I asked one open question about how employees think of their own job situation. I asked the participants to look at their job situation at this moment and for their job situation in the future.
develop themselves and are willing to grow and grab onto career opportunities given by WastePlan. None of the employees were afraid for a reduced income due to the acquisition. 4.4 Expectancy
Expectancy was measured by asking three open questions based on validated constructs drawn from the literature. The questions differentiated from how capable are you in performing your job; how would you get more material recycled and what is the management‟s role in this process?
All fifteen participants comment that they‟re capable of doing the job right. They all have the right skills and tasks are not difficult. If employees work harder they get more materials recycled is the core belief from all interviewees. Ten participants mention that it would help them to do their work better and faster if rapid backup support would be in place. This means that participants need the right resources at the sites. Employees commented that they need faster delivering of protectable clothing (6 employees), faster pickup of sorted materials and delivering of new waste bags (4 employees). Two workers mention that more raw materials (recyclable waste) are needed in order to have enough work. The managers role in the process of effort – performance is that six participants commented that backup support like training and clear rules given by management about what to recycle would help them to improve the sorting of waste. Additional, five participants cited that extra training is not necessary to make clear what to recycle and what not. They mentioned that they knew everything about how to sort the waste at their site.
4.5 Instrumentality
The relation between performing well on the job and the outcomes you receive is measured by instrumentality. In other words, if I do a good job, there is something in it for me. This has to do with the understanding of the rules of the “reward game”, with trust in the management and with transparency of the process that decides who gets what outcome.
4.6 Valence
The relation between the outcome and values is described as valence. In other words valence is the importance that the individual places upon the expected outcome. For example, if somebody is mainly motivated by money, the person might not value offers of additional time off.
Focusing on the results given by each participant; the majority (67 percent) of the participants answered that money is the reward that is ranked first in the order and is valued most, as can be seen in figure four. Figure five shows how the various rewards are valued by the fifteen participants. As showed in figure five, pay increase, promotion and supervisory support are outcomes that are desired most by participants. Employee benefits are on one hand important for WastePlan‟s employees showing percentages of 13 percent extremely desirable, 27 percent very desirable, 27 percent desirable whereas the figure also shows percentages of 13 percent undesirable and 13 percent very undesirable. The least important reward valued by participants is free time. 44 percent mentions that free time is undesirable, 19 percent mentions that it is very undesirable and 13 percent states that free time is extremely undesirable as a reward. Additional, all fifteen participants mentioned that after the acquisition the salary increased after the probation period. Furthermore, all participants mentioned that they were very fortunate about this development. 3 interviewees mention that money is the main motivator and that an increase in pay would lead to an increase of motivation.
FIGURE 4 Desirability of Rewards
FIGURE 5 First choice of reward
Ranking of rewards using the Eckenrode‟s (1965) graphic rating technique. 67 percent of employees ranked pay increase first on the list of preferred rewards.
4.7 Employee motivation
The final item described in the conceptual model is employee motivation. This item is measured by two open questions about what needs to change in order to become motivated and what the participant would think that would be important for colleagues to become more motivated. Additional, one statement was made to measure how motivated employees at the sites are.
The first reaction on the question about what would need to change in order to become more motivated was that eight out of fifteen employees mentioned that they feel fine and did not know how to become more motivated at their site. Additional, after a short period of silence and then asking the same question again, 12 employees mentioned that it would help them and their colleagues if management would improve the back-office process (10 interviewees mentioned faster backup support like delivering of protectable clothing, chemicals and lockers and 2 interviewees would like to know more about where the organization stands for; what is the vision, mission, goal of the organization and with who(m) do I have to communicate). Besides, five employees commented that an increase of pay is important for them, would make them happier and also more willing to work. Finally, employees answered that they feel motivated (47 percent) and very motivated (53 percent) at work.
4.8 Additional findings
Through the conceptual model used in this research some results were gathered that could not completely be classified under one of the variables mentioned above. Here, the expressions will be presented under the communication theme.
situation are the following: long process time of promises regarding contracts, unclear communication about how to sort waste, vagueness about what are employee rights in the business and communication with back-office. Three employees mention that questions regarding the Waste-minimization often end up somewhere in the business and clear feedback is not being given resulting in ambiguity regarding promises. Additional, one employee stated that this results in more pressure and stress for the employee because the employee is the direct link between the client and the business. The data presented above is presented in table two.
TABEL 2 Summary of results
Sorter (11) Lead sorter (4)
Acquisition Acquisition
1:Changed - acquisition
Job characteristics and tasks did not change. (11/11)
Pay increased and employees are fortunate about working for WP(11/11).
Communication is not straightforward(3/11).
Increase of work pressure(1/11).
Characteristics did not changed a lot. Amount of work increased. (2/4) Communication is not fast and leads to concerns for production(4/4).
Happy to work for WP(4/4).
2: Reaction-acquisition
Did not hear any rumors up front. Feel fine with situation (11/11).
Did not hear any rumors up front. Feel fine with situation(4/4).
3:Feelings Feel positive, fortunate to work for WP (11/11)
Positive feeling, fortunate to work for WP (4/4). Communication became less direct takes more time to arrange things
Job insecurity Job insecurity
4: Position No feeling of insecurity at this moment and for the future
No feeling of insecurity at this moment and for the future
Expectancy Expectancy
5: Capable of job
Capable of doing job.(11/11) Capable of doing job (4/4) 6: Increase
production
Training and clear communication would improve production (9/11).
Training in communication and planning would help(4/4). Make clear rules and give feedback about follow up (3/4).
7: Mm. prod. increase
Training and education would help to grow and get a promotion (9/11). Clear rules, follow up and faster comm. would increase production
Make clear appointments and stick to it(3/4). Give feedback about progress leads to feeling of being taken serious (4/4).
Instrumentality Instrumentality
8: Promises of rewards
Rewards differ (6/11).Rewards are always on time no problems (4/11). It is not clear if I get money when I go on leave (3/11).
Rewards are not clear(2/4).Rewards are good and always on time
9:How influence promises
No idea, signed contract but no transparency (4/11).
We talk to driver and hr assistant but that does not work (2/4).
Communication is the issue, no transparency and promises(2/4).
Valence Valence
10:Opinion about rewards
Money is very important (11/11). Money is very important (4/4).
Employee motivation Employee motivation
11: How increase motivation
Increase of pay (5/11). Back office support (8/11).
Organization and where it stands for (2/11).
Additional attributes like radio, locker (4/11).
Fixed contract (6/11)
Free time in weekend (1/11).
Back office support and delivering of goods for production (4/4).
Fixed contract certainty (3/4).
12:Colleagues motivate
Faster communication and support (9/11).
Transparency in organization (4/4).
5. DISCUSSION 5.1 Preface
In this final chapter I will draw a conclusion based on findings from the literature presented in chapter 3 and from the results presented in chapter 4. I will first answer the sub questions and research question. Furthermore, I will shed light on interesting findings gathered during this research. This chapter will also present recommendations for WastePlan based on the results presented in chapter 4. Finally, a conclusion will be offered with general implications, contributions and limitations of the research.
5.2 Answers sub questions
In order to come to a conclusion I will first answer the sub questions as presented in paragraph 2.8.
sticks to its rules, Save-all is known as a more free-rider company with no standard operating procedures. Save-all‟s former managing director has a – in my opinion extreme form of – people caring attitude. An interesting definition that Save-all employees use for their Managing Director is: “mamma”1
. This term reflects how she used to take care for the Save-all employees.
The second sub question manages to give insight in employee motivation theory used for this research specifically. Additional, the answer for this question shows which variables affect employee motivation. In chapter 2.4 employee motivation and an overview of various employee motivation theories is presented. Employee motivation for this research is defined as “a process governing choice made by persons… among alternative forms of voluntary activity” (Vroom, 1964). Furthermore, authors defined motivation as the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedejan, & Lindner, 1998); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedejan, 1993). At the end motivation represents a measurable increase in both job satisfaction and productivity (Grote, 2006). According to the interviewees, sorters in the South-African waste management sector are motivated by the following variables; the most important reward in order to become motivated is money, followed by promotion and supervisory support as showed in the results section. These results are in line with findings from Sanzotta (1977) who did a study among 1500 workers. For blue collar workers the most important job satisfaction factor is “good pay”, followed by “enough help and resources” and “job security”. This is also in line with studies performed in South-Africa among white and blue collar workers (Orpen & Nkohande, 2007).
If we look at the variables used in the conceptual model (see figure 3), the following variables did affect employee motivation in the present research: expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Expectancy relates to work motivation in a way that all employees mention that their job is not difficult and that their effort relates directly to performance if the right resources and necessary support is available. The performance – outcome instrumentality influences employee motivation in such a way that although almost every employee has trust in the management, not all employees understand the relationship between performance and outcome and commented that there was no transparency in the reward game. For valence, or the interaction between outcome and values which shows the importance that the individual places upon the expected outcome, illustrates that increase in pay, promotion and supervisory support are the most important outcomes valued by employees as described before and presented in paragraph 4.6.
The third sub question presented in the theory section deals with the motivation level of Save-all employees at the moment of study. Based on the results gathered during the
1
interviews the level of employee motivation at the sites can be perceived as high. Although all participants mention that they are very motivated, satisfied and willing to work for WastePlan, impressions during this process resulted in a foundation to improve employee motivation. These impressions are based on discussions held with contract managers during travel time, observations of site visits and, observations during discussions in weekly and monthly meetings and impressions gathered during interviews with the managing director. For this reason, the answer on the question what the current level of employee motivation is: people are happy and fortunate to work for WastePlan, however this does not mean that all interviewees are not able to put fort more effort to increase productivity and increase the quality of output resulting in more material recycled, clean and tidy sites and satisfied customers.
Sub question four will give insight in decisions or aspects that will influence employee motivation positively. This question will be answered with help from variables presented in the conceptual model. Surprisingly, the acquisition of Save-all did not lead to job insecurity. Therefore job insecurity did not negatively affect employee motivation by affecting the variables expectancy, instrumentality and valence. In addition, relating to Save-all employees, if not an acquisition will affect employees feeling insecure about one‟s job, it seems that hardly any environmental condition will affect employees‟ job insecurity. In other words, Save-all employees do feel very safe and secure about one‟s job because past experiences made them sure that there will be taken care of them. This supposes that hardly any condition – without new direction and communication – can make Save-all employees aware of the fact that they are responsible for their effort, performance and outcomes; i.e. their job. If we look at Greenhalg and Rosenblatt‟s (1984) definition of job insecurity, “the perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation”, is it not the powerlessness in this situation, but the lack of necessity to create power or effort to maintain the desired continuity of the job. Communication is key regarding this issue. Employees must be aware of the fact that there are consequences for their effort – performance expectancy. In other words, if I perform poor I may lose my job because the client is not happy, if I perform well I may continue working at the site because the client is satisfied. Linking consequences to performance means not waiting until client reacts but taking action upfront. Practically, this means that a site report or appraisal form is the measurement system that links employee performance to outcomes i.e. instrumentality. This should again be communicated clearly to employees so that employees are aware of the consequences and can take the required action. A key role is placed upon middle managers or direct supervisors i.e. drivers, contract managers and site supervisors to communicate messages and goals throughout the organization .
the relation between effort – performance. To improve the backup support faster arrangements should be made in order to help workers. A key factor herein is again faster, clear and efficient communication. In order to create involvement and understanding between direct supervision and workers, feedback and communication is essential because feedback and keeping personnel informed is positively related to high performance (Elving & Hansema, 2008).
As the direct supervisor is the logical person to provide this feedback and communication in comparison to higher level of management, this supports the idea that the direct supervisor influences the contribution that the workforce is willing to make (Michael, Leschinsky & Gagnon, 2006). The direct supervisor should be trained to be a key communicator because workers expect to hear important officially sanctioned information from their immediate supervisor or boss (Klein, 1994). In addition, Klein (1994) states that supervisors are expected to be well-informed and to be accurate transmitters of information. For this reason and in this case, supervisors and drivers should be trained in effective communication and should be informed regarding all important operational matters.
