The business environment nowadays is so competitive that companies should do their best to find appropriate employees and to create a good working team and environment, so that they can stay in business and make high profits. Managers spend a lot of time and money in finding and attracting responsible, innovative, knowledgeable, and motivated to work employees. Moreover, when the company succeeds in finding such a person, the issue of how to increase his satisfaction and performance occurs. Reduction of the employee turnover is a main goal for the companies’ senior management. In order to achieve this goal, managers use various tools. The most common of all is giving the employees praise and recognition after they do a job well.

Curt Coffman states “71 percent of U.S workers are “disengaged””, meaning that employees don’t care about the organizations they work for. The case described in the S. Robbins and T. Judge “Organizational Behavior” book (Chapter 7 - Motivation) explores that feeling lack of appreciation results in a decrease in the of employees’ performance.

The case explores the complicated issue of how to show recognition and how to award employees for their good performance. Companies fail when they have to say “Thanks” to their employees in moments when they deserve it. Research among various organizations has shown that, actually, payment bonuses are not enough to increase workers’ satisfaction. Presents given insincerely and in an inappropriate way would not please employees, and such recognition has no value to them. Eric Lange, working for a trucking company, gives an example of the presents given to his company’s vice-presidents. He says that even though they received expensive gifts – luxurious Cadillac Seville automobile, and a new Rolex wristwatch, they were not distributed in a proper way. These presents not only didn’t please them, but also made them feel even more undervalued, which lead to a decrease in their performance.

Performance is believed to be a function of three factors: ability, motivation and opportunity to perform. Managers should not only make sure that rewards are based on performance, but also that employees receive feedback and are given interesting and challenging tasks. The last step for managers is to provide an opportunity to perform –a suitable working environment, free of obstacles that constrain the employees. In case managers go through all three steps, it is very likely that employees’ performance will significantly increase, according to the formula. Recognition is essential for preventing employees feel disengaged and unappreciated and would prevent reduction their performance.

The case suggests that sometimes a sincere pat on the back is much more meaningful for a person than giving insincere gifts. People want their work to be valued and are very pleased when senior management closely observes their behavior on the working place, and knows whether the employee is contributing to the company. Gifts, given simply of obligation, won’t accomplish any results. Another issue which must be taken into consideration by managers is that a pat on the back is not enough as well. There are downsides to giving too much verbal praise, as the case explored “after all, money talks”. This leads to the conclusion that both a sincere “thank you” and an appropriate payment are important and needed after the job is done well.

Even though various researches are made on how to motivate workers, still managers find it difficult to discover the right formula. Moreover, as Curt Coffman states:
“We’re operating at one-quarter of the capacity in terms of managing human capital. It’s alarming”.
Some companies are aware of what is important for their employees and managers try to provide it. What complicates their task is the problem of how to distribute recognition and bonuses properly and fairly. If the company has a large number of employees, it is indeed very hard to observe closely all of them, and to determine who has more contribution to the company, especially when team work is involved. In case the worker feels that he or she is being undervalued, it immediately leads to a decrease in his performance.

In order to increase performance and satisfaction managers can use the so called modular plans. As expectancy theory explores, giving the same benefits to everybody in the assumption that they are all the same is wrong. Managers should meet the needs of the different specific groups of people. Moreover, managers find it even more difficult to motivate temporary employees. To do so, they should not let them know what the benefits for the permanent workers are. Even if they are aware of them, managers should provide those workers with the opportunity to become permanent company’s employees.

In the modern world of business, managers have much more responsibilities and face difficult decisions. One of them is how to treat their employees, to motivate them and to make them feel engaged. In order to increase their satisfaction, they have to develop numerous formulas and approaches, as pointed out in the case. All their actions should be subordinated to the recognition of good performance.