MBA Case 4

Kayla Rodney MBA 575 Case 4 Questions The University of Northwestern Ohio Jinjian Garment Factory Motivating Go-Slow Workers Piecework is a suitable form of paying employees in the garment factory, however it is not the best form of payment for the Shenzhen factory. The piecework system employed by the factory in Shenzhen was well suited to the nature of the work. Each worker was assigned to a specific job and earned an exact amount derived from the number of finished pieces times the price of that particular job to finish the procedure (piecework). Ones pay was strictly linked with ones performance (Seijts, 2006). Though there are many great aspects to piecework such as productivity and motivation to earn more money by working faster there are also drawbacks. Workers have been known to work slower on orders to force management to pay them more to work faster so that the order would not be late. Thus, in order for piecework to be beneficial for the company, management must understand what motivates majority of their workers. Since piecework is based on performance, then it is important that employees are motivated to work at a decent pace so that the company is not put in jeopardy with a late shipment. As with every situation, there are always positives and negatives. Piecework employees are under a great deal of stress during seasonal production and the company is at risk for many organizational consequences. One way to help counter the stress of piecework would be to offer a base pay which would incorporate about 50 percent of their pay instead of 10 percent. This would allow workers more stability in their pay and possibly relieve some of the stress of making sure that they made enough garments every day. Workers in the Shenzhen garment industry were willing to work overtime during the peak season, and the average workday was more than 12 hours. The workers rested for only one or two days each month during the six-month peak season because they were able