Workplace Motivation In recent years, the topic of workplace and employee motivation has emerged as a significant concern for both employers and management personnel. An analysis of such strategies at a Target Retail Store provides an example of how such motivational strategies affect the company's sales, profits, workplace morale, and future. One of the most important issues at a Target Retail Store is the timely method and manner of placing and displaying the merchandise on the sales floor before the store actually opens to the public at 8:00 A.M. This must be effectively done with limited resources and staff. As a result, management must be able to appropriately and effectively motivate all staff employees and improve performance and employees' resistance to increasing productivity. This paper will examine the organizational efforts of Target Retail Stores in this area, and identify and analyze two motivational theories not currently in practice by Target. It will also apply the chosen motivational theories to management and discuss their impact and offer possible solutions that could have been implemented before employee motivation became an issue.

In order to eliminate the time it normally took to neatly present merchandise on the sales floor, Target implemented a program that would effectively eliminate unnecessary packaging (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). The results of this was the elimination of approximately 1.5 million pounds of waste, an estimated saved $4.5 million through packaging reduction, and the implementation of a more efficient method of merchandise distribution (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). This led to an easier and more efficient merchandise placement in preparation for store opening every morning. Before the program's implementation, Target's management team observed both the amount of waste from packaging and the time workers spent opening and unwrapping shipments (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). The team found that a great deal of labor...

For example, one typical clothing shipment contained 20 individually wrapped sweaters. The sweaters had to be unwrapped before they could be displayed in the store. The team ultimately determined that an entire shipment of 20 sweaters could be safely shipped in just one outside wrapper (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005).
The total reduction in packaging for the Target merchandise resulted in an estimated $3 million savings to the vendor for the reduced packaging material used in shipments (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). To see whether the merchandise would arrive at the store in good condition, the Target Team asked its vendors to test its packaging reduction idea. After several shipments of clothing arrived unwrinkled and presentable, the team decided to change Target's packaging specifications to the vendor (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). Target's current goal is to ship floor-ready apparel and minimize excess packaging; floor-ready means that the merchandise requires minimal preparation before being displayed on the sales floor (EDA's Waste Reduction Update, 2005). As a result of an easier and more effective process, employee motivation in this area has been boosted. Although this method has increased efficiency, there are other methods that can still be implemented to increase employee motivation and productivity.

One such theory of employee motivation is called motivation theory, which seeks to explain all kinds of motivated behavior in different situations, including behavior in organizations. Compensation administration is an application of motivation theory (Mitchell, 1992). Since the majority of behavior is sense motivated, individuals are greatly influenced by their environment. Thus, organizations can influence people's behavior by changing environments and rewards. The best known theory of motivation in this area is Maslow's theory of human motivation, which centers on the theory of…