CASE APPLICATION 1 Passion for the Outdoors and for People At its headquarters i

Question

CASE APPLICATION 1 Passion for the Outdoors and for People

At its headquarters in Ventura, California, Patagonia’s office space feels more like a national park lodge than the main office of a $400 million retailer.100 It has a Douglas fir staircase and a portrait of Yosemite’s El Capitan. The company’s café serves organic food and drinks. There’s an infant and toddler child-care room for employees’ children. An easy one-block walk from the Pacific Ocean, employees’ surfboards are lined up by the cafeteria, ready at a moment’s notice to catch some waves. (Current wave reports are noted on a whiteboard in the lobby.) After surfing or jogging or biking, employees can freshen up in the showers in the restrooms. And no one has a private office. If an employee doesn’t want to be disturbed, he or she wears headphones. Visitors are evident by the business attire they wear. The company encourages celebrations to boost employee morale. For instance, at the Reno store, the “Fun Patrol” organizes parties throughout the year.

Attracting people who share its strong passion for the outdoors and the environment, Patagonia motivates its loyal employees by giving them responsibility for the outcomes of their work and a high level of task significance that their work is meaningful because it contributes to the purpose of protecting and preserving the environment.

Source: Rich Reid/Glow Images

Patagonia has long been recognized as a great workplace for mothers. And it’s also earned a reputation for loyal employees, something that many retailers struggle with. Its combined voluntary and involuntary turnover in its retail stores was around 25 percent, while it was only 7 percent at headquarters. (The industry average for retail is around 44 percent.) Patagonia’s CEO Casey Sheahan says the company’s culture, camaraderie, and way of doing business is very meaningful to employees and they know that “what they do each day is contributing toward a higher purpose—protecting and preserving the areas that most of them love spending time in.” Managers are coached to define expectations, communicate deadlines, and then let employees figure out the best way to meet those.

Founded by Yvon Chouinard (his profile as a Leader Who Made a Difference can be found on p. 134), Patagonia’s first and strongest passion is for the outdoors and the environment. And that attracts employees who are also passionate about those things. But Patagonia’s executives do realize that they are first and foremost a business and, even though they’re committed to doing the right thing, the company needs to remain profitable to be able to continue to do the things it’s passionate about. But that hasn’t seemed to be an issue since the recession in the early 1990s when the company had to make its only large-scale layoffs in its history.

QUESTIONS:

1. According to Maslow's hierarchy, which basic needs does the Patagonia culture meet? What would it be like to work at Patagonia? (Hint: Go to Patagonia’s website and find the section on jobs.) What’s your assessment of the company’s work environment? (20 points)

2. Use the expectancy theory and/or the equity theory of motivation to explain how feeling underpaid might affect the work of a Patagonia associate and what a manager can do to increase the employee's motivation. (20 points)

3. What do you think might be Patagonia’s biggest challenge in keeping employees motivated? If you were managing a team of Patagonia employees in the retail stores, how would you keep them motivated? (20 points)

Explanation / Answer

1.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a description of the factors that motivate human behavior. In 1943, he proposed the following five human needs that motivates a person:

Physiological needs: Food, shelter, and clothing.

Safety needs: Security of job

Social needs: Family needs

Esteem needs: Recognition by others

Self-actualization: Sense of achieving something.

Basic needs met by the P’s culture:

The company provides nearly everything that a person looks for in a job. It serves the basic physiological needs of the employees. It has been recognized as a best workplace for mothers. Thus, it serves social needs also. The company holds loyal employees which proves that there is a job security. This, means the company takes care of the safety needs also. It also provides esteem needs to the employees as it holds a recognition throughout. Thus, the employees feel motivated to work in this company. Thus, the company provides nearly every basic need of the employees. The company also gives responsibility to the employees for end results related to a job. This proves the self-actualization factor also. The company is working on the privacy factor. It also grants one percent of sales to environmental groups.

All these things indicate that a person will enjoy to work at this organization.

Assessment of company’s work environment:

The company provides has the following things in its work environment:

Flexible timings

Motivation through celebration

Assigning of responsibility

Privacy to work

Freedom to enjoy

Great aurum for mother employees

Environmental concern

High level creativity

Nature related workplace

All the necessities are readily fulfilled

2.

The equity theory of motivation:

The equity theory of motivation states the reason of fair treatment to employees as the motivational reason. It states that if an employee’s perception of equity is high then he will feel more motivated towards his work.

If an employee is feeling underpaid, he will surely get demotivated by this. To remove this the manager can do the following things:

Offer monetary benefits in form of rewards and awards. This will motivate him.

The manager can give a detailed explanation of the salary provided. And he may also give a detailed explanation of the breakup of salary.

3.

Patagonia’s Biggest Challenge in Keeping Employees Motivated:

In today’s more challenging and competitive business era, each type of business firms face a lot of issues as well as challenges in motivating the employees directly or indirectly. In addition to this, it is found that, P is encouraging as well as attracting the people within the organization that can share strong passion for the outdoors and the. On the other hand, it should also be noted down that, the biggest challenges of the company in order to keep motivated is to encourage its loyal employees by assigning task in order to achieve organizational goals in an effective and more comprehensive manner. In addition to this, to protect an effective environment would also be issues.

Moreover, to motivate the employees within the organization, the company should also provide training and development opportunities. Furthermore, the company should also identify the strengths as well as weaknesses of their employees and should focus on the improvement of weaknesses. Additionally, the company should also provide an effective work environment to the employees because an effective organizational culture creates positive thinking for the achievement of organizational goals

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