Motivation is said to be some sort of a psychological feature that allow an individual to act toward a desired goal and that evokes certain goal directed behaviours. As an example, hunger is a motivation that evokes the desire to eat. Motivation is also known to have links with behavioural, cognitive, and social areas.

Motivation is important to an individual as it helps him to achieve his personal goals, to have job satisfaction and to have self-development. In a similar way, motivation is also important to a business as it helps to have more empowered teams with more motivated employees, and that creates a challenging and optimistic attitude at work place. The more team work and individual employee contribution is, the more profitable and successful the business is.

Successful supermarkets are the result of smooth operation of day to day business of the store due to employees’ effective handling of tasks and duties necessary. To have repeat, satisfied customers, good sales volume, managers’ work with the staff to maintain high standards in products, service and atmosphere and be sensitive to customers’ needs .Below is an explanation on how a supermarket manager could motivate his staff, using two major theories of motivation.

Equity theory of motivation

John Stacey Adams, a workplace and behavioural psychologist, introduced his Equity Theory on job motivation in 1963.

Inputs are generally what we give or put into our work. Outputs are everything we take out in return.

According to the equity theory, a person will be motivated to work towards a goal if he feels that the amount of effort he is putting (input) is equal to the amount of benefit he receives after completion (outcomes.)

These generally contributed inputs include skills, labour, dedication, time, sacrifice or personal investment. And Examples of commonly received outcomes include: payment, recognition, appreciation, security or other tangible and intangible benefits. Equity theory suggests that de-motivation occurs when employees realise that their workplace inputs are greater than the outputs they receive for their work efforts.

In a supermarket atmosphere one of the outputs is the hourly wage. Super market staff usually works at a minimum wage or at a wage a little higher than the minimum. When employees are allowed to work only part-time and for part timers benefits are very low. Supermarket workers are already aware at the fact that they are low paid before taking employment in this industry, as these positions are often viewed as starter jobs and related work experience is mostly not required.

Recognizing Different Money Needs is one of the ways to motivate the staff. Employees have different needs and usage of the money that they obtained from employment in the super market industry. A High School student or a college student that lives at home does not need an income at the same level as a man or woman who needs to support a family or someone that is completely on their own financially. So those employees that can’t survive on the low hourly rate would want to quit if they are not able to get more work hours and/or a higher hourly rate. Some might would want to stay but only with a second job and that might lead to less work productivity. The Employer needs to be sensitive to these needs and they can offer career growth with more pay, if there are potential workers with eligibility, or if an employee needs to take a second job, the management should to support this employee with the work schedule and For very high quality employees, extra hours with overtime pay would help retain these employees .management should also ensure that workers are comfortable talking about their financial situations and all these eventually creates loyalty, good will and equity out comes.

Staff Rotation

A tough aspect of recruiting is to decide where to place workers after they are hired. Those working in the cashier require looking pleasant, and friendly. Shelf workers that deal with stocking up food items and inventory have a tough task role and sometimes would like to have job rotation, in the same time, however, some workers would prefer less direct customer contact and they prefer not to work at cash registers. Ideally, workers are matched to positions of their choice from an equity perspective, but staff rotating may increase the perception of fairness and allows to understand the challenges of each position and it also allows flexibility in situations.

Offering Work Games and Prizes is another way to increase work enjoyment and to add to the social aspects of working in a supermarket establishment. Prizes need not have to have a high value but should be of high value to employees. It can be in the form of free vouchers, discounts and even holidays. Other ideas might include hanging the winning employee’s picture in a prize winner frame on a prominent wall and adding a caption of what did to win. Prize ideas are endless and those ideas that employees consider valuable the most need to be repeated. These Prizes help to increase employee satisfaction and can be linked to customer satisfaction such as prizes for outstanding customer service.

Expectancy theory of motivation

The expectancy theory suggests motivation through rewards, and indicated three concepts in this model of motivation namely: expectancy, instrument ability and valence.  In short, the expectancy theory suggests that individuals feel motivated when these three concepts are fulfilled. The first concept is expectancy, which means that his personal effort will result in an acceptable level of performance and the second is instrument ability means that the performance level will result in a specific outcome for the person. And finally, the third is valence which means that the outcome obtained is personally valued.

The choices people make regarding their actions depend upon their beliefs of their own capabilities, about how it will lead to fruitful rewards, and how worthy the rewards will be. So when employees are capable of completing their job, aware of the positive consequences of occurring after giving outstanding performance, and at the same time, they understand the importance of the recognition and the reward.so when there is a need for reward, employees are likely to develop and enhance their work performance.

In a super market environment the expectancy theory in short provides a platform for employees to recognize their leadership goals as it contains tools to influence them to create expectations based on their individual perceptions. The manager can use the influence strategy to enhance levels of motivation of employees who wish to increase their self-interests.

Furthermore, the expectancy theory also allows greater opportunities to perform an employee’s job.  That means that there is a greater possibility that even the best employees could perform at low levels if they have limited opportunities. Even the most highly motivated supermarket employee could have poor performance if opportunities are limited such as unavailability of stock, unavailability of inventory, customers not being able to afford certain products etc.

As this theory of expectancy suggests that people are motivated by some sort of behaviour, this is usually applied based on the theory that people are usually motivated by greed and money. The more reward schemes, prizes, promotions are available; the more outstanding performance can be expected from the staff. It is very important to understand that expectancy theory views motivation only as one of the several factors of job performance in a very realistic manner. 

Task 2

When a team is performing at its best, it is quite common to see that each team member has clear responsibilities of his own and that every role is required to achieve the team’s goal and that they have performed fully and well. But often, even after having clear roles and responsibilities, a team can always fall short of its full potential. It could be due to the reasons that some team members do not always do their expected job and/or some are not quite flexible enough. Sometimes the person who is valued for his expert input doesn’t see to see out of the box, and that could miss out a few tasks or steps that others could expect.

When there are situations like this, most team leaders and team development practitioners often tend to take use of the Belbin model in order to create more balanced teams.

Teams can always become unbalanced when all team members have the same behaviour or team roles. If any of those team members have the same weakness, the whole team may tend to have the same. In the same way if members have similar work strengths, they may tend to compete rather than co-operate and that also affect the team as a whole.

Understanding Belbin’s Team Roles Model

Belbin discovered nine team roles and he categorized those roles into three groups, Action Oriented, People Oriented, and Thought Oriented. Each team role is given its own typical behavioural and interpersonal strengths.

Belbin also defined characteristic weaknesses that tend to accompany each team role. He called the characteristic weaknesses of team roles the "allowable" weaknesses; as for any behavioural weakness, these are areas to be aware of and potentially improve.

The nine team roles are indicated below. It is important to have members representing each of these roles in a team within a supermarket environment.

Action Oriented Roles:

Shaper (SH)

Shapers are the ones that challenge the team to improve. They are dynamic and usually good at finding the best approaches to solve a problem. The Shaper is the one who gathers everything to make sure that each and every possibility is considered and that the team does not at all become complacent.

Shapers always see obstacles as challenges and they always have the ability have the courage to push them to work when others feel like quitting. Their potential weaknesses include being argumentative, and being offensive towards people’s feelings.

Implementer (IMP)

Implementers are the people with the ability to get things done. They have the ability to turn the team’s ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. They are usually conservative, disciplined people and they often work in a systematic way and efficiently and are very well organized. Even though they are the people that can always count on they can also be inflexible and are resistant to change on the downside.

Completer-Finisher (CF)

Completer-Finishers are the members who would see that projects are completed properly. They make sure not to have any errors or omissions and are very meticulous. They are very much concerned about deadlines and it is their duty to ensure the job is completed on time by the team as a whole. They are often described as perfectionists but still, a Completer-Finisher is always somebody that worries unnecessarily, and delegating with them is somewhat hard.

People Oriented Roles:

Coordinator (CO)

Coordinators are similar to traditional team-leaders and there are the one that have also been often referred to as the chairmen. Their duty is to guide the team to achieve their goal and objectives. They are always great listeners and always aware of every team members’ individual contribution and what they bring to the table. Their plus point is that they are quite calm and good-natured in person and delegate tasks very effectively. But their weaknesses include being manipulative and delegating away too much of personal responsibility.

Team Worker (TW)

Team Workers are generally the people that provide support and ensure that all the team members are working together effectively at all times. These people often play the role of a negotiator in the team and they have the ability to be flexible, diplomatic, and perceptive. Team workers are majorly very popular people and are very capable in their own right; they also prioritize team cohesion and help people to get along. But they also tend to be indecisive, and have unsecured positions while decision-making and discussion.

Resource Investigator (RI)

Resource Investigators are the ones who are innovative and curious. They always try to find out the best available options, develop contacts, and negotiate for resources requires for the team. They increase enthusiasm within the team; they work with external stakeholders to achieve the team’s objective. They are always outgoing and are often receptive of other members’ ideas and thoughts. But they tend to lose their enthusiasm quickly and can be recognized as overly optimistic people.

Plant (PL)

The Plant is the creative innovator and he often comes up with new ideas and approaches. They thrive on praise but criticism is always hard for them to deal with. Plants often have introverted behaviour and always prefer to work away from the team. Due to the reasons of having novel ideas, they often become impractical, plus they are poor communicators and always negligence of important constraints.

Monitor-Evaluator (ME)

Monitor-Evaluators are the best to analyse and evaluate ideas that other members (often Plants) come up with. These members tend to be always shrewd and objective and they are always very careful when making decisions, they weigh the pros and cons of all the options before coming to it.

Monitor-Evaluators are critical thinkers and their approach is very strategic. They are always detached and unemotional in nature and are also poor motivators; they react to events rather than instigating them.

Specialist (SP)

Specialists are people who possess specialized knowledge that is required to get the job done. They often take pride on themselves for their skills and abilities, and they work hard to maintain their professional status. What they are required to do within the team is to be an expert in the area, and they commit themselves fully to do that with regards to their field of expertise.

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http://www.ehow.com/info_8174057_duties-may-need-work-supermarket.html

https://www.selfdevelopment.net/hypnosis/Motivation-basics/What-is-equity-theory-of-motivation

http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_23_Special_Issue_December_2011/11.pdf

http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2008/03/expectancy-theo.html

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