Siemens Case History the Introduction Introduces Us

Siemens Case History

The introduction introduces us to the Siemens Corporation and, without being explicit, dwells on how Siemens epitomizes three key theories of motivation. The three theories are those of Taylor, Herzberg, and Maslow.

Going through three different theories -- those of Maslow's hierarchical theory, scientific management, and Hertzberg satisfier / dissatisfier approach - the case study provides a brief description of motivation and compares Siemens performance to each of the three theories. It concludes that Maslow and Hertzberg seem to work (at least as measured against Siemens's performance) whilst that of Taylor seems to be non-effective.

The introduction starts off by cursorily describing Siemens:

Siemens is the engineering group that is behind many of the products and services people take for granted in their daily lives. The list of products designed and manufactured by Siemens is almost endless.

The introduction proceeds to describe Siemen's innovative products and details the number of employees. Siemens, it tells us, is about innovation and creativity and, given the international reputation that Siemens has, it provides budding engineers with opportunity for promotion and success.

The last paragraph of the introduction informs us about the purpose of the essay, namely that "This case study focuses upon three different theories of motivation and uses these to illustrate how employees are motivated within an engineering environment at Siemens."

There is a brief description of the theme -- 'motivation' itself -- before each of the three theories are cursorily described and contrasted with the organization. We are then given examples and instances of how the characteristic is manifested by the Company.

Motivation, as a whole, is accomplished by Siemens providing a challenging atmosphere and by providing stimulating training for Siemen's employees. Dissatisfaction in their job in Siemens leads to poor motivation on worker's part and drop-out.

Description of Taylor's theory is first. A short, one paragraph summary of Taylor's scientific management theory assesses his approach. Taylor emphasizes payment as being the most effective incentive for encouraging increase of labor.

The author states that Taylor's theory is non-compatible with modern organizations and proceeds to give Siemens as example. It is innovation in Siemens and the challenge of stimulating and challenging work that rewards and motivates workers.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is next. The author shows that Siemens - with its emphasis on recognition and self-actualization - is fully compatible with Maslow's approach.

Finally, there is Hertzberg's theory of satisfiers and disatisfiers, namely where certain organizational factors work to satisfy whilst others have the reverse effect. An assessment of Siemen's corporation shows that such is actually the case as regards the way their organization manages to motivate their employees.