Fulfilling Needs at SAS It is essential that managers understand how motivation
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Fulfilling Needs at SAS
It is essential that managers understand how motivation works. Need theories suggest that to motivate a person to perform at a high level, a manager first must determine what needs the person is trying to satisfy at work. Then the manager creates a system that connects need-satisfying outcomes with the person’s performance, the purpose being to get the person to perform at a high level and help the organization achieve its goals.
In this exercise, you will read a report on the SAS Institute, one of the leading places to work according to Fortune magazine. You will then analyze how SAS motivates its workers by satisfying their needs.
Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.
The SAS Institute is in the enviable position of being listed on Fortune magazine's annual ranking of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" for 18 years in a row, ranking #4 in 2015’s list. Ninety-four percent of their employees say that it’s a great place to work. The SAS Institute is the world's largest privately owned software company, with over 13,000 employees worldwide and over $3 billion in revenues. In fact, revenues have increased at SAS every year since the company was founded in 1976. SAS software is used at over 75,000 locations in 139 countries; over 93 of the top 100 companies on the Fortune Global 500 use SAS software. Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, SAS also has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada.
Every indicator suggests that SAS employees are highly motivated and perform well. Since its founding, the SAS Institute has strived to ensure that employees enjoy and are motivated by the work they perform. On their web site, they talk about “Passion with a purpose: SAS believes in the whole employee experience. Meaningful work. Empowerment to make a difference that changes people’s lives. And an award-winning culture that makes it all possible.”
Managers approach motivation from the perspective that all employees should be interested and involved in the work they are performing and have the sense that they are making meaningful contributions to SAS and its customers. While some software companies expand their product lines by buying companies that have already created new programs, SAS develops its new products internally, allowing employees the opportunity to engage in interesting work at the forefront of technology. Creativity is encouraged at SAS, and employees experience the excitement of developing a new product and seeing it succeed. Overall, employees exert high levels of effort and persist in the face of setbacks to develop and provide the world-class business software.
Managers at SAS fairly and equitably reward employees for a job well done. The company recognizes that SAS's employees are its biggest asset and go to great lengths to satisfy their needs and create a work environment that is conducive to creativity, high motivation, and personal well-being. At its headquarters in North Carolina, SAS subsidizes two employee child care centers, a summer camp, three cafeterias, a 66,000-square-foot fitness and recreation center including an Olympic-size pool, and all kinds of services ranging from dry cleaning and car detailing to massages and a book exchange. Google (a SAS customer) used SAS as a prototype to develop its own suite of employee benefits and perks. SAS has strong mentoring and emerging leadership programs, providing employees with 96,950 hours of professional training and development in 2014. Although the annual turnover rate in the software industry averages 15%, SAS's 2014 turnover rate was 4%.
Wellness and work–life centers offer a variety of programs to help employees achieve a sense of balance in their lives. Programs range from Pilates, Zumba, and partner yoga to weight management, salsa aerobics, cooking classes, harmonic sound healing, and movies that employees can watch while floating in the pool. Employees with children are encouraged to have lunch with their kids in the subsidized cafeterias, which are complete with high chairs.
SAS trusts its employees to do what is right for the company, and in exchange do what’s right for its employees. Many employees determine their own work schedules, and there are unlimited sick days. With so many benefits and facilities, employees do not have to interrupt their work days or leave the campus for a doctor's appointment or to run an errand. A Stanford business professor once estimated that SAS’s employee focus saves the company at least $100 million per year, on top of savings that come from providing on-site health care.
1. Massages, a fitness and recreation center, and a pool all contribute to _______ at SAS.
positive expectancy
feelings of equity
negative expectancy
intrinsically motivated behavior
extrinsically motivated behavior
2. The ability to work on interesting and challenging products _______ motivates workers at SAS.
innovatively
expectantly
extrinsically
equitably
intrinsically
3. SAS strives to create an environment in which employees will be interested and involved with challenging work, able to develop as many skills and as much knowledge as they want, and believe that what they are doing is meaningful. In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy, these would help employees fulfill the need for
self-actualization.
belongingness.
esteem.
the physiological basics.
safety.
4. The challenge and creativity provided by the jobs themselves at SAS would act as _______ according to Herzberg.
motivators
esteem factors
hygiene factors
power providers
achievement factors
5. Looked at from McClelland’s point of view, the challenging work available to employees at SAS enables them to fulfill their need for
power.
equity.
achievement.
affiliation.
safety.
6. According to Maslow’s theory, having a medical center available on the grounds of SAS satisfies workers’ _______ needs.
physiological
esteem
self-actualization
safety
equity
Explanation / Answer
1. Intrinsically motivated behaviour: These are the motivators to keep an employee engaged which kindles the employee to perform better.
2. Innovatively: Challenging world leads to innovation
3.Esteem : People would need recognition at the self esteem stage.
4.Achievement factor : in herzberg theory achievement comes under Job satisfaction factor.
5.Power: the need for power tends them to work on challenging projects.
6.Safety : Employees can perform only when they feel secure in the organization.
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