Name: Murtaza Naseem

Case Study: Hausser Food Product Company

Question: If you were Brenda Cooper, what would be your strategy to motivate the
sales team in Florida?
Answer: It is quite apparent, from the facts and opinions gathered by the researcher
after his visit to the sales team in Florida, that the team is highly de motivated. This
de motivation have made them reluctant to share any ideas, approaches and
techniques to improve sales with the senior levels of the organization.
A disconnect have been developed between the sales team and the rest of the
management, where they have isolated themselves from the company. The reasons
for this disconnect was that the team had been working cohesively for a very long
time and their Hierarchy of needs as defined by Maslows theory were satisfied
within. However, they were not able to achieve this satisfaction of needs when the
management was involved. Thus, making them indifferent to the issue of
decreasing sales.
Maslow hypothesized that within every human being, there exist a hierarchy of five
needs.
Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst shelter, sex and other bodily needs.
Safety: Security and protection
Social: Affection, belongingness, acceptance and friendship
Esteem: Internal factors such as self respect and autonomy and achievement.
Self actualization: Driving to become what we are capable of becoming include
growth and achieving our potential.
Being in the shoes of Brenda Cooper, my immediate action would be to devise a
strategy with the senior management keeping in view the Maslow Hierarchy of
needs in view.
Physiological needs: Here most of the physiological needs of the team are being
met; however there were certain instances that team members have complained of
Freedom to work as they wanted. The team wanted to working without being in
the office all the time making sales reports. The Two Factor theory could also be
used as guide to motivate the sales force. The two factor theory supports the notion
that intrinsic factors lead to job satisfaction while extrinsic factors to dissatisfaction.
The finding of the researcher shows that the sales team felt very uncomfortable
when they had to work in the office and get supervised all the time by their bosses.
This created stress and disliking towards the management.
I would thus introduce the concept of Management by objectives, in which the
team shall work in their own suitable hours in meeting the company goals. There
wouldnt be any restriction of working within the hours defined by the company for

the sales force only. Since sales teams are target oriented, this strategy would give
them the room to work freely, without stress plus involving less paper work.
Safety needs: Portnow, a member of the sales team complained that it looked as if
the company wants to screw the salesman. The sales force believed that company
was interested in the numbers and targets only and not the well being of the sales
team and if the targets were met, they felt financially insecure for the next year
because then they would have to make an extra effort to beat the new increased
sales target. Thus, my immediate step would be to finish the quota and the
extrapolation of the historical sales to decide the target next year. Instead, I would
ask Joy Boyar and other district mangers to join up in meetings along while the new
sales target is being decided.
Apart from this I would also try implement better commission and bonus packages
for the sales team. This view is also shared by the Expectancy theory, which
suggests that performance reward relationship is very strong proponent in
motivating employees. In this case Joys sales team also raised the issue that their
efforts were not rewarded properly. Despite beating the sales target each year and
putting in a considerable effort they had been not rewarded adequately by the
organization.
Social needs: The reason Joy boyars sales force gel in amongst themselves
perfectly is that they have an intimate relation with each other for instance they go
out and spend the night in the town drinking and having fun. These informal
meeting have lead them to develop very good friendship and bonding amongst
themselves, thus terming anyone out of the team an outsider.
However, this taste of bonding and affection is completely missing when they
involve Brenda Cooper and other senior management. Hence, I would be devising
strategy to enforce this belonging and brotherhood into the fabric of the
organization. This would include getting involved in various activities such dinners,
trips and spending some days with the team force , so that I could also understand
the insights of sales and personally addressing the problems of the team.
Esteem: The component of recognition, achievement and attention is also a
prevailing issue within the team. They felt that their efforts are not being recognized
by the management and even if they pitch an idea, they wont be much
appreciated. This has even led the team in not disclosing the new market
discovered by them. Some of the team argued that $500, where considered
enough as monetary reward by the management for an idea shared. This shows
that the esteem, respect and the attention demanded by the sales force was not
recognized by the organization.
Hence, being Brenda Cooper I would focus on profit sharing techniques and
bonuses. Regular appraisals, appreciations and policies focusing on the
achievements of the employees would help them get more involved and make them
get in line with the overall success of the organization rather, personal success only.

Self actualization: Joy Boyars sales team is very content with their performance and
have achieved their level of satisfaction, however they dont realize that their status
quo behavior will jeopardize their and the companys well being in the future. In
order to avoid this I would make rapid implementation of the policies discussed
above, this would help them realize the new potential and the growth that they can
attain.
I hope by implementing the above strategies will motivate Joys team to place
organizational benefits over personal benefits, while working as a cohesive team of
the organization in meeting the companys target and goals.