Human Resources Motivation Retention

Organizational Retention Work motivation theories can provide some insight into the issues at JC's Casino. One with explanatory power is Maslow's hierarchy (Huitt, 2007). This hierarchy explains human needs as beginning with the most basic ones, needed to sustain life, and moving up to higher order needs such as self-fulfillment and belonging. The issue with the dealers in particular can be understood here. The dealers are paid better at JCs, but are preferring to work for other casinos anyway.

What this says is that wherever they work, they are making enough money to live. So better pay is at this point not equating to a more attractive work environment at JCs. What it says is that people are having other needs, such as esteem and belonging needs, met better by other employers, so much so that they are willing to sacrifice some money to meet those needs. This of course relates to the pit boss, Joe. Joe is family, and probably feels very secure in his position.

He was probably not qualified for this job in the first place, and clearly does not understand the value in having experienced, qualified dealers. Experienced dealers make fewer mistakes, which is worth money to the casino. If people are leaving consistently because of Joe, at this most important of jobs, then Joe must be removed from this position. There is little doubt that Joe lacks the qualifications and only holds this position because of his familial relationship with the owner.

The owner, after all, wants to make sure the man providing for his daughter and possibly his grandchildren, has a good, well-paying job. Job satisfaction is important to retention, especially when there are several potential employers in the area. The dealers know that they can get a better work environment elsewhere, and because they have specialized skills, they do. The owner has to be made to know that it is not easy to replace good dealers, and that such dealers have value to the organization.

At this point, there appears to be a disconnect at the ownership level with respect to the importance of dealers, and that is why nothing has been done to improve their working conditions. If hiring Joe is what needs to be done, then the case needs to be made to ownership. But also at issue here is Tom Sneed, and his counterproductive behavior. It is his job as HR director to ensure that the right people are in the right positions.

He might not have had any say in the hiring of Joe, but Sneed does have the power to write the job description and provide honest evaluations of the people filling the position. Sneed is senior management, and as such must be open and honest about the issues confronting the company. Also worth noting is that the operations manager will have a pretty good sense at this point what the inexperienced and unhappy dealers are costing the casino in terms of errors and lost revenue opportunities.

The operations manager should clearly be working with Tom Sneed to ensure that the owner knows what a disaster his son-in-law is. If the owner at that point refuses to do anything, so be it, but at least they have let their objections be known. But right now, as bad as this is with respect to the owner and Joe, Sneed and whoever is in charge of operations are also culpable for not having raised the issue. This is an organizational culture issue.

The dealers are quitting, and those in management are afraid to confront the owner. Joe acts with impunity because of this culture. There is a link between poor leadership, negative organizational culture and low levels of job satisfaction (Tsai, 2011). The organization right now needs to start by changing the culture at the top -- the conversation between Sneed and the owner is a critical one, because unless the owner is receptive, the organizational culture will not change and these issues will only continue to worsen.

What happens is that people do not believe that management will look out for them, which removes hope for the future, and is a strong demotivating factor (MSG, 2016). As such, the organization is not creating an environment where people are motivated, but instead is creating an environment that removes motivation. Another theory of motivation is the two-factor theory, where there are hygiene needs, which are de-motivators, and motivating factors, which make people want to work better (Riley, 2016. Joe is, at this point, a demotivator.

His actions, his presence, are killing the desire of people to want to work for this casino. But there is clearly a hygiene issue with the housekeepers as well. There is high turnover and high absenteeism. The case does not clearly outline why this is, but there is definitely a problem that is affecting them as well. It is not just the workload -- the housekeeper shortage is a symptom of a bad work environment, not the cause, although it does create a negative feedback loop.

To address this issue, more needs to be understood about why people are not interested in performing this work -- interviews with the people who are there, and even ones who have left, would provide some insight as to why people are so demotivated.