apply CASE STUDY: MOTIVATED TO WORK IN THE SLOW LANE

The main thing that Quinn McGee learned after working

several summers at the city's Parks and Recreation Depart$-$

ment was how to get the job done at a very leisurely pace.

Soon after he was hired for the first summer. McGee heard

a coworker jokingly refer to the department as "Parks and

Relaxation." It was an accurate title. A few days later, while

performing his job at a pace normal to most human beings,

McGee was scolded by a "lifer" $($a permanent city worker

with life$-$time employment$)$ for going too fast. He was told

in no uncertain terms to slow down.

Quinn McGee learned that this was useful advice. The

department assigned goals for how long each task should

take to complete, but there were no rewards for crew mem$-$

bers to finish work sooner than the goals specified. On the

contrary, if the crew completed a task faster than expected,

the supervisor seldom had anything else for the team to do

that day. This visibly frustrated the supervisor because it

didn't look good if employees were sitting around. Finishing

work quickly also left employees with the painful duty of

trying to look busy for the rest of the day.

At first, looking busy was difficult for McGee. "During

the first summer, I couldn't look busy even if my life de$-$

pended on it$,"$ he recalls. In his performance evaluation at

the end of the first summer season, McGee's supervisor

complained that he was standing around too much. So$,$ to

avoid warnings from lifers and poor evaluations from his

boss, over the next few summers McGee tried his best to

adopt a more leisurely pace of work.

Another deterrent to working efficiently was that McGee

and other seasonal employees would be laid off each

summer after their assigned projects were completed or the

department's budget for summer help was spent. The em$-$

ployees didn't want to get laid off early, and the department

managers didn't want a budget surplus because city hall

might cut the extra money from next year's budget. So ev$-$

eryone was quite happy to see McGee and others working

slowly and taking longer for lunch and coffee breaks until

the budget was depleted.

Quinn McGee eventually mastered the skill of working

slowly without appearing to be sloth$-$like. But now that he

no longer works summers in the city's Parks and Recreation

department, he has trouble getting motivated for jobs that

require real work effort. "I became a role model on how to

look like a reasonably productive employee while actually

working at a snail's pace," McGee admits. "Who should I

blame for this sorry state?"

Discussion Questions

Apply expectancy theory of motivation to explain why

Quinn McGee and coworkers were motivated to work

at a slow pace rather than at a "normal pace for most

humans."

To what extent do goal setting and equity theories of

motivation explain the motivation problems in this case?

Assume you are a consultant with this information. What

recommendations would you provide the city's executives

to improve employee motivation in the Parks and

Recreation Department?

$($C$)2022$ Steven L$.$ McShane. Based on information described by "Quinn

McGee" in a newspaper article. The name Quinn McGee was created for

this case; it is not the person's real name.