Introduction/Summary

Microsoft, a huge software development company that has been around ever since 1975,

is the one the largest software developers in the world. Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen,

Microsoft has been growing to be one of the top business cooperation. BASIC interpreters for the

Altair was first developed and sold. At the year of 1980, they took over the world by introducing

the home computer operating system to the market with MS-DOS and the dominated the

industry. Microsoft Windows was then added to the line of operating systems and Microsoft

office was then dominating the office suite market.

Microsoft then decided to come up with a new line and introduced the video game

industry with Xbox and its next generation, Xbox 360. Besides that, they also shocked the

consumer electronics and digital services world with the Windows Phone and Zune and MSN

which is now considered as one of the popular gadgets and social networking system

respectively. Microsoft today lives on a mission that is

At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world

realize their full potential.

Employing more than 39 000 people, Microsoft is well-known for its crazy and heavy

working hours. Although working at Microsoft might involves days of boredom and hours of

dullness, this big cooperation never fails to find and retain software programmers.

From the day these new ‘Microsofties’ begins work at Microsoft they instantly knew that

they were special and that their employer is special too. For this special company, they put their

new employee through an intense ‘interview loop’ and only the best will survive to become an
employee. These fellows ‘Microsofties’ also believes that the company’s destiny is to change the

world.

Life working at Microsoft will not be complete without mentoring the company’s

beneficial stock option program. This special company has produced many millionaires’

employees. During the year of 1986, rising of the company’s stocks, an estimated 4 billionaires

and thousands of millionaires’ employees were born. Although the company’s stock prices were

down during the recession, employees at Microsoft still continue the company’s dominance of

the software industry.

Question 1

If you were a programmer, would you want to work at Microsoft? Why or why not?

First of all, who does not want to work in Microsoft? First, Microsoft is a huge

company of software. The Microsoft’s employees are known for the putting in long hours.

Although, the workers there working with codes and evaluating the bugs in every single days,

the employees still got appreciated by many people out there. The meaning of appreciated here

is, they are very special if they get a job in Microsoft. Because the company putting new recruits

through a grueling ‘interview loop’, and it is not that easy to get a job there, and only the best

and the brightest survive to become employees in Microsoft.

In spring of 2002, the Microsoft stocks prices down, and the growth for Microsoft

products were slowing. Though the company had fallen down caused by the economic situation,

I still would like to work for this company. There will be no others companies would give a high

salaries than Microsoft.

Q2. How many activities in this case study can you tie into specific motivation
theories? List and explain the activities, the motivation theories and how they
apply.

Introduction

      Motivation has to do with the forces within the individual that account for the
level, direction and persistence of effort expended at work. Extrinsic rewards are
given by another person while intrinsic rewards derive naturally from the work
itself. There are three major types of motivation theories, which are the content,
process and reinforcement theories. Content theories identify human needs and
how people with different needs (physiological and psychological) may respond to
different work situations. Process theories focus on how people give meanings to
rewards, perceive and respond with various work-related behaviors. Reinforcement
theory focuses on how people’s behavior is influenced by environmental
consequences.

Body

Activity 1:

      Microsoft gives their employees a lot of freedom in their work, giving them a
chance to design their own career paths and the opportunity to gain new skills,
broaden their knowledge and advance their careers. The acquired needs theory is
applied in this situation.

      Acquired needs theory involved three needs that are need for achievement,
need for power, and need for affiliation. The need for achievement is the desire to
do something better or more efficiently, to solve problems, or to master complex
tasks. The need for power is the desire to control other people, to influence their
behavior, or to be responsible for them. The need for affiliation is the desire to
establish and maintain friendly and warm relations with other people.

      Microsoft gives their professionals autonomy to follow their interests and allow
them to structure their work in ways they find productive. As a result, their
employees can satisfy their need for achievement and need for power. After
that,Microsoft's employees can show passion for their jobs, value the
empowerment they feel in their own areas of responsibility and enjoy working
while meeting challenging goals.

Activity 2:

      Employee compensation is another area of priority for Microsoft. They are

committed to their pay-for-performance compensation approach, which is designed
to attract and reward exceptional talent. Stock awards, bonus opportunities, and
service awards are several ways in which they demonstrate this approach. The
employee stock options are the major compensation of Microsoft. In this situation,
the ERG theory is appropriate.

      The ERG theory included three needs that are existence needs, related needs,
and growth needs. Existence needs are desires for physiological and material
wellbeing. Related needs are desires for satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Growth needs are desires for continued psychological growth and development.

      Approximately 90 percent of employees participate in Microsoft's stock

programs. Through this stock option, it can give incentives to the employees
andsatisfy the existence needs of employees. Therefore, the employees work
harder, the faster the company grew, the more valuable their stock became.

Activity 3:

      Microsoft employees are famous for putting in long hours. For example, a
former programmer at Microsoft that he worked 20 hours a day to start with and
now he is a program manager. The two-factor theory of Frederick Herzberg is
applied in this situation.

      The two-factor theory includes two important factors that are Hygiene factors
and Satisfier factors. Hygiene factors are needed to ensure that an employee does
not become dissatisfied. They do not cause higher levels of motivation, but without
these factors there is dissatisfaction. Satisfier factors are needed in order to
motivate an employee into higher performance. These factors can become the
motivator for employee.

      Employees in Microsoft willing to work for long-hour because the hygiene

factors in Microsoft are well maintained. Microsoft provides good working
conditions to its employees, such as health-care coverage, maternity and parental
leave, fitness programs and other benefits. Besides, pay is another hygiene factor
that Microsoft concerned with. Microsoft uses merit pay to award pay increases in
proportion to individual performance contributions. Other than that, Microsoft also
works with their employees in a lot of company’s activities. By doing so,
Microsoft is not only encourages the participation of their employees in company’s
activities but helping their employees to build interpersonal relationships as well.

      The satisfier factors that can increase the job satisfaction to the employees
work at Microsoft and become the motivator for them to drive them perform well.
The employees at Microsoft have their own achievement of their job, like achieve
the recognition, praise, and identity from the company and so on. Hence, they work
in long hours to accomplish it as fast as possible. Moreover, the work of Microsoft
itself is quite difficult and complex so the employees need to spend more time and
put more effort to finish it. Furthermore, the job of Microsoft has its limited time to
complete. In brief, the employees have the responsibility to do their job in long
hours to make sure they can finish their work in a limited time and accomplish the
objective of the company. Besides, the employees work at Microsoft that all are
prominent and excellent worker so they will intend to achieve the personal growth.
Therefore, they spend a long time to learn and study in their job ensure can get the
advancement and personal growth.

Activity 4:

      Micro softies is the belief that the firm has a manifest destiny to change the
world. Employees at the Microsoft work with greater dedication as they know that
their input will turn into the output which will be used by 50 million people, hence
they get a push from this all & produce better goods. In this situation, we can apply
the expectancy theory.

      The expectancy theory included three expectancy factors that are expectancy,
instrumentality, and valence. Expectancy is a person’s belief that working hard will
result in a desired level of task performance being achieved. Instrumentality is a
person’s belief that successful performance will be following by rewards and other
potential outcomes. Valence is the value a person assigns to the possible rewards
and other work-related outcomes.

      All the employees of Microsoft have the three expectancy factors that are
expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. The expectancy factor of the employees
is that they expect themselves can create a new release that might be used by 50
million people and believe their firm can has a manifest destiny to change the
world. After that, they also have the instrumentality that they belief that the new
release used by 50 million people can bring a big profit to the company and make
their company become the head in the industry to achieve the manifest destiny to
change the world . Lastly, the valence of those various outcomes is high to them.
The valence of those outcomes can let them feel pride and achieve high status in
front of their competitors in the industry. These three factors can bring the high
motivation to the employees and lead them perform well in their job.

Activity 5:

      Employees know that they’re the best in the business and when they compare
their performance & rewards with the employees of other firms in the software
business they are motivated highly. In this situation, the equity theory is the most
suitable use.

     The Equity theory is based on the idea that employees basically expect a fair
balance between their inputs and outputs. When people believe that they have
been unfairly treated in comparison to others, they will be motivated to eliminate
the discomfort and restore a perceived sense of equity to the situation.

      The employees at Microsoft perceived that they are being treated unfairly in
comparison with the employees of other firms. They realized that their
performance and rewards are received higher and better than other, so they will
perceive inequity is associated with a sense of guilt. Therefore, they will increase
their efforts and more hardworking to restore perceived equity. This theory can
motivate the employees effectively and efficiency.

 Conclusion

      Motivation is a very important element for the firms that use it to inspire their
employees and helps them perform well in their field. Microsoft can make full use
of those theories of motivation to encourage and motivate their employees
effectively. The good performance of the employees makes the entire company has
the extraordinary performance. Therefore, Microsoft can dominate the software
industry continually.
Works Cited
Web

About Us: Microsoft. (2011). Retrieved April 3, 2011, from Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/about/en/us/default.aspx
Conclusion :

There are a lot of reasons for which Microsoft is able to continuously keep its employees

motivated throughout irrespective of the fact that they are one of the most hardworking

employees in the whole of the world working for as long as 80-hour weeks, but 60- and 70-

hour weeks are more typical and some even are doing their jobs in only 40 hours.

The main reasons for this is that at Microsoft the employees when hired

instantly know that they are the smartest of all the people and the most special to be

selected for such a special company, Only the best and the brightest survive to become

employees. .This particular feeling of being the most special people is what motivates the

employees for such a job. Moreover the stock options given by the company to its

employees also gave them the financial motivation in combination with the esteem needs

being fulfilled by the “special“feel. This special company has produced many millionaires’

employees because of the stock options.

A combination of all of these is what drives the ever so special dedicated employees

of the enormously special Microsoft.