Motivation_at_Foxconn

Motivation is a quest to unlock the virtuous circle of productivity of satisfaction. Improving the motivation of employees improves morale, productivity, and other factors. Motivation is affected by the characteristics of the individuals, including their differences in needs, values, personality, beliefs, emotions, as well as by work and job nature. These factors could be examined by the content approach. From Alderfer’s ERG theory, there’re three types of Needs (Existence needs, relatedness needs, growth needs). The needs of Foxconn’s factory workers and what the company has offered are examined below: Existence needs, the first level needs, is the basic needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, and a secure and safe environment. In Foxconn’s medium-sized city-like factory plant, Foxconn provides food allowance and dormitory, and a secure and safe environment for its employees. Whether the salary is good enough has drawn heated debates. Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) argued that even though Foxconn claimed that it had been in compliance with local laws, minimum legal standards a safety net could not guarantee decent living conditions in the cities. Basic wage in Foxconn is only slightly more than minimum wage . From the documentary project titled “Dreamwork China” by Italian journalists Tommaso Facchin and ivan Franceschini, many workers in Foxconn work over time to earn more money such that they can bring home; or can save up the money towards their “dreams” such as opening a shop in the future. There are also employees expressing their opinion complimenting Foxconn as one of the big factories in China which provides good salary, food, welfare comparing with the smaller factories in China. In response to the suicide crisis, Foxconn has responded by raising the salary by as much as 66% in late 2010. However, the suicide crisis continued, indicating money might not the only factor leading to the crisis. There may be some other needs of Foxconn’s workers that are not satisfied. The next level of needs is the relatedness needs. The relatedness needs include the needs to have good interpersonal relations, to share thoughts and feelings, and to have open two-way communication. Growth needs, the highest level of needs, is the needs for self-development and creative and productive work. This is however dependent on the nature of the company and job. For a company like a factory, and job as machine operators, there is little evidence that the growth needs are what the immediate concerns of the grass-root employees. Speaking about their dreams, these 20-something workers said that they did not have big dreams – some of them want to own a shop, some wanted to make money for their families back home, some graduated from high school and did not have enough marks to enter universities and could only work in a factory like Foxconn, and they wanted to make enough money to bring home and leave the factory. Therefore, there is little evidence that it would require Foxconn’s significant resources to address these needs at this stage. However, further communication with the workers is encouraged to deep dive what their drives and needs are, and create a plan accordingly while still maintaining the balance of operating efficiency.