How multinational companies could be successful in employee motivation
In general, motivational theory deals with the processes and structures that cause us to want to learn. In organizational context, this approach is somewhat complicated, as apart from learning, individuals are seeking for self-realization and reward. Depending on the organizational structure and size different mechanisms could be leveraged to boost employee motivation. Multinational environment could be considered as one of the most advanced in establishing those, suggesting that some exceptional efforts are required to achieve high employee motivation standards. This paper will research how multinational companies could be successful in employee motivation, using the case of Procter & Gamble as an example of appropriate employee motivation strategy.
Introduction
Understanding employee motivation in the context of particular organizations has many facets. One can seek for opinion of its employees being personally acquainted with a few, while others would seek for a more business-related evaluation, like relationship with company leadership positions and its ‘employer-of-choice’ ratings. Procter & Gamble presents a perfect research setting for evaluation of unconventional motivational mechanisms based on several reasons. First, Procter & Gamble is broadly recognized for a number of successful in-house motivational mechanisms like ‘Growth from Within’ and “Diversity and Inclusion’, which are frequently mentioned in publications on the subject (Napolitano, 2014). Second, it has been systematically recognized for its leadership positions in the market, referring to as one of the most successful companies in fast-moving consumer goods segment (Nazemets & Ruch, 2012). Sustainable leadership positions in multinational context would mean that company receives significant contribution from its workforce, which leads to an assumption of strong motivational factors.
Literature review
In its attempt to boost organizational dynamics with strong and motivated workforce, Procter & Gamble capitalizes on its “growth from within” principle, which in brief means that future business leaders should be developed only inside the company. This impacts organization’s talent acquisition strategy, which focuses on maintaining strong relationship with student communities, universities and business schools on recruitment stage and tailor-made development programs in further retention approaches. Comparing to other multinationals, Procter & Gamble offers jobs for candidates with no or little work experience, stressing on importance of leadership potential and skills demonstrated through selection process. In such way, newly hired employees are already motivated intrinsically by acknowledging that their employer is reputable, and their individual skills are valuable, and extrinsically through offering high level of responsibility from the first day (Napolitano, 2014). The next step that the company uses for reaching its competitive advantage on the organizational level is differentiation of its reward strategy.
Procter & Gamble uses the concept of total reward strategy which refers to both monetary and non-monetary rewards (Kwon & Hein, 2013). These types of rewards refer to stock options and training programs respectively, thus both motivating employees and growing firm’s value. It has been identified that there is an incentive program which allows Board of Directors to …
