Problem-Solving Case: Motivating Employees at Tec de Monterrey Do you feel joyful at work? Helping employees feel richly satisfied in their jobs is a major goal of Tecnolgico de Monterrey, a large nonprofit private university in Monterrey, Mexico. With nearly 150,000 students attending more than 30 campuses around the country, "Tec," as it's called, is an accredited institution committed to fostering academic quality and nurturing students' entrepreneurial spirit. It includes a top-ranked business school and medical school and offers more than 50 undergraduate degrees, 37 of them taught in English. Master's and PhD programs are also offered. Page 313 When it comes to its employees, for the last several years Tec's administrators have been working on creating a climate of trust to attract and retain the best faculty and staff that it can. The effort seems to be succeeding. One recruit is Alejandro Castro Ruiz, a Tec alumnus who had launched a career in a Fortune 500 company in the United States when he decided to return to his alma mater as an administrator. "I know I made the right decision and I've been inviting other people to come," Ruiz says. "We're telling our employees 'we trust you,' says Hernn Garca Gonzlez, the universitys vice president of employee experience. "Your supervisor is not the owner of your time." As proof of that trust, Tec offers employees reserved spaces for meditating, nursing babies, and even napping, assuming that faculty who are more relaxed will be happier and more enthusiastic in the classroom and that students, in turn, will benefit. "We want professors to feel positive and enthusiastic about working at Tec de Monterrey so that they can pass on their love for learning to students," says Gonzlez. Annual employee surveys help guide the administration's human resource decisions and determine the employee benefits offered. When employees responded to one survey by saying they thought they should be better paid, Tec earmarked about $135 million in added compensation. But understanding that money isn't everything, the university also regularly asks its 32,000 employee what they feel about job satisfaction and the quality of leadership. It makes a point of including survey questions to discover whether employees feel they are well rewarded financially, but also whether they believe they are helping solve problems in their country and their communities and whether they feel joyful at work. A recent Qualtrics survey showed that more than 91 percent of Tec's employees say they are "proud" to work there, and hard-fought efforts to standardize systems, processes, organizational culture, and communication across the university's many campuses have also yielded measurably better employee attitudes, engagement, and performance. Ruiz sums up Tec's atmosphere of trust like this: "We want the employee to feel that we trust them. I'm going to remove myself from the equation because I trust you. Since I trust you, I'm going to empower you. 1. Why do you think Tec de Monterrey's culture of trust is motivating? What other motivators does the university offer its employees? 2. What role could supervisors play if an organization wanted to duplicate some of Tec's successful motivators? 3. Do you think you would be a motivated employee at Tec? Why or why not? Which theory of motivation best explains your