Since the first store opened in 1997, FreshMart has expanded across the world. FreshMart began its business with one single lady, Marry Ann, a market stallholder selling groceries in the US. It now has over 900 stores including superstores and express outlets to meet different customer needs. The company was formed out of a merger with another company DavidCoffee from whom Marry Ann purchased coffee for sale on the stall. Moving on with technologies, Freshmart has now offered alternative goods and services such as online shopping and other retail business. With net profits of around US$1.4 billion, the company has become the largest retailer and one of the famous leading retail outlets.

Today, FreshMart's growth has resulted in a workforce of over 195,000 employees. To ensure the company’s growth, FreshMart staff are constantly rewarded beside their basic salary, flexible working hours are practiced and they are well-trained to recognise customer needs. In return, FreshMart's employees are supporting the company with their respective roles at different levels - from customer assistants in stores to department managers; from warehouse employees to office and logistics staff. FreshMart recognises that employee motivation is the utmost important for the continued development of the company. The company encourages enthusiasm through its many training and advanced opportunities. FreshMart offers strategic career planning to help staff 'achieve the extraordinary'. They perform their job well having developed leadership skills and grow within the company.

The employees are provided with an “Individual Growth Plan” which they build through their 360-degree feedback and other measurement tools. This enables FreshMart managers to offer meaningful packages to employees and provide opportunities for continuous personal development. This personal approach helps employees to reach their full potential by encouraging self-assessment and advancement through ongoing training. It also enables individuals to take responsibility for their own career progress.

FreshMart provides opportunities for its managers and staff to take a share and a greater interest in their own employment. Since every employee is an individual, with different needs and aspirations, the process of reviews and individual growth plans allows recognition of their abilities and achievement, as well as job enrichment. This benefits the individual by providing professional consultation. It also benefits FreshMart by ensuring the business can deliver high levels of customer service through its skilled employees.

Still, FreshMart is faced with a “real problem” in inspiring its young staff. The supermarket giant’s head of resourcing, Laura Jane, who supervises these Gen Y admitted that employee ages between 17 and 24 are least motivated. She said these new generations need more motivation through managers. “We have got a real problem with motivating our young people,” she said. “We have got to teach our supervisors how to manage Generation Y, as they are highmaintenance and needy, they are hardly satisfied. We need to hand-hold them, as they absolutely want to know where their career is going.” To add things worse, young employee turnover becomes the serious issue for service-oriented businesses like FreshMart. The employee retention issues have a direct link with its young employees’ productivity and efficiency.

On the contrary, an effective and efficient employee motivation technique has become a very challenging task for human resources management. “Obviously, there is a significant change in the young employee’s need and they have about the same expectation as well as their satisfaction level.” Lorna said. This is also due to recently there being an excessive increase in the number of company’s rivals, raising the cause for the management having difficulty to motivate its existing employees as well as retainer employees. Staff were comparing the fridge benefits not just within the department but also with the salary range. Take from the recent case, two of its supervisors, Jeremy and Michael, who were colleagues work as purchasing managers. During one fine day, after a conversation, Jeremy learned that Michael's salary was nearly 10% higher than his even though their job duties were quite similar. Although Jeremy seems to enjoy his jobs and having good relationships with colleagues, he was upset about Michael’s higher salary. He was frustrated not only because of the different salary range, but also, he worked longer hours and considered himself more hardworking. Although the management of Fresh Mart realized the role of employee motivation issues where “one size doesn’t fit all”, how to overcome the current employee dispute remains a challenge to achieve an effective and efficient employee’s motivation policy.

Q1. (a) Based on the above case study do you agree or disagree with Lorna’s statement - “Obviously, there is a significant change in the young employee’s needs and they have about the same expectation as well as their satisfaction level.”? Apply an appropriate behavioral model to justify your answers in terms of employee’s response to dissatisfaction. 

Q1. (b) From the case study above, what will Jeremy probably do to reduce his upset feelings? Apply an organizational behavioral theory to support your answers where applicable. 

Q1. (c) With the evidence from the case, identify a motivational theory that is best practiced by Fresh Mart. Describe the theory and provide justification to support your answers.