ASIA PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Foundation

Individual Assignment

Prepared By: Adithya Jayawaradene

CB007614

Module Code & Title

BMI006-4-0
Organisational and Social Environment

Cohort: FF1821

Date of Submission:

08th May 2018

Instructor:

Dr. Hemamali Tennakoon

Word Count:

1958

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 MARKING CRITERIA MARKS

Question 01 (20)

Question 02 (20)

Question 03 (20)

Question 04 (20)

Language & Report Writing (10)

Referencing (Use of Correct Harvard Referencing Style) (10)

Total 100%

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 1. How does Kellogg’s motivate its employees?

The Kellogg company is the world’s leading producer of breakfast cereals (Reuters, 2018). This
company was started on 11th December 1922.The main products of this company are cereals. Its
products are manufactured in 18 countries and sold more than 180 countries. Now Kellogg have
33,000 employees (Statista, 2018). Considering the size and complexity of the company, it is
important that Kellogg has a strong motivation tools at its disposal. Motivation is known as the
process that accounts for individuals “intensity, direction and persistence of effort attending a
goal” (Robbins, Judge, & Vorhra, 2017). Persistence means how long that individual puts effort
to achieve that goal. There are many theories of motivation. We can categorize them in to two
main groups, namely, early theories of motivation and contemporary theories of motivation. The
early theories of motivation are, Hierarchy of needs theory by Abraham Maslow, Theory X and
theory Y by Douglas McGregor, two factor theories by Fredric Herzberg and MC Cleland’s theory
of needs. Contemporary theories of motivation are Goal setting theory by Edwin Locke,
reinforcement theory, equity theory, self-efficiency theory By Albert Bandura and expectancy
theory By Victor Vroom. Goal setting theory means achieving higher achievements through hard
goals. Reinforcement theory defines that changing the individual’s motivation by giving some
reinforcement.

A key tool used by Kelloggs’ to motivate its employees are the company culture and values. The
company’s’ culture and values also known as “K-values” are important motivational factors
because it gives ownership to employees over their own projects, strive for continuous
improvement and industry leading results. Therefore, the company culture and values provide an
environment to continuously seek new challenges and self-improvement. Additionally, the
company culture encourages employees to speak positively about each other when apart, focusing
on their strengths. Therefore, the company has a positive culture encouraging team work and
motivating employee achievement.

The Kelloggs company helps to motivate its employee by establishing a strong human resources
management function. Through the human resources management function Kellogg has
implemented a system to recruit, train, mentor, promote and reward its employees. For example,

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Laura Bryant was selected and recruited to Kellogg in 2002 as a member of the field sales team.
Then because of her hard work the company promoted to Customer Marketing Manager at Head
office. Laura wanted to preserve a carrier on Marketing, with the help of her managers she was
able to achieve a goal of brand manager in Kellogg. Therefore, the human resources function of
Kellogg has been designed to achieve employee’s goals, keep employees motivated and happy.

When we look at the communication side of the Kelloggs company it keeps a two-way dialogue
with employees through its communication programs. This helps to empower the workforce. For
an example in this company it has an open-plan lobby area with coffee bar. It accommodates as
200 people. It provides an informal venue for briefing and presentation.

When employee performs well at work, the company recognizes them by giving awards. The
company it gives WK Kelloggs Values Awards to those employees. This is a good way of
motivation. The Kelloggs company belives that listening is a central premise of work because they
think that their employees have best ideas of work. The Kellogg company act on those ideas to
develop the company. These programs mean developing employee’s motivation to achieve the
goals. In the company employees can give suggestions for improvement via their rep who will
raise and act on it on monthly meetings.

Conclusion

Therefore it is clear that Kelloggs uses a number of motivation tools. These motivation tools are
based on the earlier theories of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the contemporary
theories of motivation. By using the right tools of motivation Kelloggs has built one of the most
successful companies in the world.

References

Reuters. (2018, 05 07). https://www.reuters.com/. Retrieved from www.reuters.com:

https://www.reuters.com/

Robbins, S., Judge, T., & Vorhra, N. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education.

Statista. (2018, 05 o4). The Statistics Portal. Retrieved from www.statista.com:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/247496/number-of-employees-of-the-kellogg-company-
worldwide/

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02.What is the most suitable leadership style for Kellogg’s?
Considering that Kelloggs has over 33,000 employees and is the world’s leading producer of
breakfast cereals (Statista, 2018), the company has to face the challenge of leading this large
workforce. Therefore it should identify the type of leadership style that is most suited to the
company based on its values and business environment.

Simply leadership means the ability to influence and inspire others to accomplish a goal.
Robins. Sharma stated that (Sharma, 2018) “Leadership is not about a title or a designation.
It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about
spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and
customers”. The importance of leadership is it can motivate employees to get more and build
an effective workforce, direct and coordinate the people and various activities among units,
communicate between organizational sub-units, create confidence and raise morale.

In the leadership concept there are few leadership (Robbins, Judge, & Vorhra, 2017) styles.
They are, Trait theories of leadership, Behavioral theories of leadership, Contingency theories
of leadership, and Contemporary theories of leadership. In the trait theory means function of
personal qualities of a leader. These qualities have been identified as (Phoon, 2017) relevant
knowledge related to the job, honesty, intelligence and self-confidence. In the behavioral
concept there are four ways of leadership styles they are authoritarian or autocratic,
participative or democratic, Laissez-faire or free-rein and paternalistic. In the contemporary
theories of leadership there are three main theories. Known as charismatic leadership, authentic
leadership and transformational leadership.

The leadership style that use in the Kellogg company is participative or democratic leadership
style. Participative or democratic means guiding the group members to achieve their goals. The
examples for that leadership style in Kelloggs company are encourage employees to live K-
values through the business creates culture of people that have owner ship over their own
projects and strive for continuous improvement and industry leading results. Participative or
democratic leadership style can be seen an open -plan lobby area with coffee bar
accommodates as many as 200 people. It provides an informal venue for briefing and
presentation. Another example for that leadership style is any employee can raise an issue or a
suggestion via their rep who will raise it at one of their monthly meetings.

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 It can also identify that transformational leadership style also use in Kellogg Company. Bass
(1997) identified four diomensions of transformation leadership style, Charisma/idealized
influence, Inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation and Individualized
consideration.An example for tranformational leadership style in kellogs company is its
culture that strive for continuous improvement and industry-leading results.For another
example for transformational leadership style is Kelogg’s suggestion box.This suggestion box
helps to generate ideas and improve productivity.

Referances

Bass, B. (1997). Does the transactional/transformational leadership paradigm transcend organizational

and national boundaries? American Psychologist, 130-139.

Phoon, W. C. (2017). https://www.mindmeister.com/871156937/seven-traits-associated-with-

leadership. Retrieved from www.mindmeister.com:
https://www.mindmeister.com/871156937/seven-traits-associated-with-leadership

Robbins, S., Judge, T., & Vorhra, N. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education.

Sharma, R. S. (2018, 05 04). https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robin_s_sharma_628747. Retrieved

from https://www.brainyquote.com:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robin_s_sharma_628747

Statista. (2018, 05 o4). The Statistics Portal. Retrieved from www.statista.com:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/247496/number-of-employees-of-the-kellogg-company-
worldwide/

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3. Discuss the importance of having a motivated workforce. Provide
examples from the case study.

Kelloggs is international company which provide cereal products more than 180 countries.
With over 33,000 (Statista, 2018) employees the company must ensure its employees are
motivated to have a smooth operation. There are many examples of how the motivated work
in Kellogg has been an important factor in the success of the company. One of the advantage
of having a motivated workforce is the company can get higher productivity from employees
(Chand, 2018). Higher productivity means when the company employees continuously
produces more products or services than before. Higher productivity is important because when
the productivity increases the company can increase the revenue and profits. The best example
for this is Kellogg being the world’s leading cereal producer of breakfast cereals.

Having a motivated work force the company can gain good reputation (Riley, 2015) among
customers and society. (Bracey, 2018).Some of the main components of Good reputation
include (Bracey, 2018) Ethics, Financial performance, Leadership, Customer focus, Social
responsibility and Quality. If the customers or society have good image of above factors in a
company that means the good reputation. As an example, Kelloggs company placed in the top
100 Best Companies to Work For list in The Sunday Times. To achieve this goal Kelloggs
company should have a good reputation.

Another advantages of having a motivated workforce is increased employee commitment (R,

2018).When employees are motivated to work they will do their best to achieve tasks assigned
to them. There are many examples of the high level of employee commitment at Kelloggs. One
example for this is the employees are motivated to share their new ideas to improve the
company through the employee suggestion box and employee representative at the monthly
meetings. Another example for commitment is new employees such as Laura have been
motivated and committed to company seeking new opportunities in the sales department and
then the marking department.

Employee Need satisfaction is another importance of having a motivated workforce (Chand,

2018).Employee need satisfaction means how the employee is satisfied with his/her job.
Employee job satisfaction can be measured by employee satisfaction survey. In Kelloggs

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 company they always motivate its own employees. As an example, Laura Bryant was joined
just after the university in 2002. In 2009 she was promoted to manage the marketing plan for
special K and she is now Brand Manager for Kelloggs Cornflakes’ the Kellogg company gives
employee satisfaction to the employees.

References

Chand, S. (2018, 05 05). http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-management/6-major-benefits-of-

motivation-in-an-organisations/2524. Retrieved from www.yourarticlelibrary.com:
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-management/6-major-benefits-of-motivation-in-
an-organisations/2524

R, H. (2018, 05 05). https://inside.6q.io/employee-motivation-important/. Retrieved from

https://inside.6q.io: https://inside.6q.io/employee-motivation-important/

Riley, J. (2015). https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/people-management-introduction-to-

motivation. Retrieved from www.tutor2u.net:
https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/people-management-introduction-to-motivation

Robbins, S., Judge, T., & Vorhra, N. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education.

Robinson, M. D. (2012, 07 24). https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-power-of-

agreeableness. Retrieved from www.psychologicalscience.org/:
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-power-of-agreeableness

Sharma, R. S. (2018, 05 04). https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robin_s_sharma_628747. Retrieved

from https://www.brainyquote.com:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robin_s_sharma_628747

Statista. (2018, 05 o4). The Statistics Portal. Retrieved from www.statista.com:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/247496/number-of-employees-of-the-kellogg-company-
worldwide/

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Using the understanding of individual at work, briefly describe the personality
traits suitable for employees working in Kellogg’s.
Personality has been defined by American Psychological Association (2018) as “individual
differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving”. Therefore, the way an
individual behaves can be considered as personality. There are few personality theories (Chand,
2018) namely Type theory, Trait theory, Psychodynamic theory, Behavioral theory and Humanist
theory. Trait theory ( Management Study Guide , 2018) introduces us to five factors that helps to
understand an individuals’ personality. These five factors are Openness to experience,
Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Introversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. These factors are
known as “Big Five Factors”. Understanding these traits will help Kellogg to build a better
company.

There are some (Psychologist World, 2018) employees that do not stay in the safe zone, will search
for new experiences and search for new destination within the company. Those employees have
the Openness to experience characteristic. Kellogg should recruit these types of employees because
these employees would help the company to achieve there aims of continuous improvement and
industry-leading results.

Another important element in the Big Five Factors is Conscientiousness. Some of the
characteristics of conscientious individuals (Cherry, 2018) are they listen to their own thoughts,
self-discipline, cautious, goal oriented and proactive. Kelloggs company creates a culture of people
that have ownership over their own projects and strive for continuous improvement and industry-
leading results. Therefore, Kelloggs company needs employees that have characteristics of
conscientious. Laura Bryant is an individual who can be considers to be highly conscientious
employee.

Extraversion and Introversion is another factor of a Big Five Factors. Extraversion means working
with the social environment. Characteristics of Extraversion are (Cherry, 2018) Gregariousness
Assertiveness, Cheerfulness, Talkativeness and Enjoys being the center of attention. Introversion
means individuals who are not working with the social environment. The characteristics of
Introversion (Cherry, 2018) individuals are Very self-aware, Thoughtful, enjoys understanding
details, interested in self-knowledge and self-understanding and Tends to keep emotions private.
Kelloggs should recruit employees by matching them to the job according to the fields. Experience

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The fourth factor identified by trait theory is Agreeableness. The term Agreeableness refers to
individuals who can adjust according to the situation. The advantages of (Robinson, 2012)
Agreeable employees are that they avoid anger and aggression. Considering that Kelloggs
company has over 33,000 employees it is important to have employees who can work with each
other. Therefore, company should recruit agreeable employees in order to ensure the harmony in
the work place.

Neuroticism is the fifth factor identified in the traits theory. Individuals who are necrotic (
Management Study Guide , 2018) show characteristics of anxiety, anger, envy and guilt. These are
negative traits which effect work environment negatively. Kelloggs should not be recruiting
employees who display necrotic characteristics.

Conclusion

Kelloggs is the one of the leading multinational companies’ in the world with a workforce of over
33,000 employees. In order to achieve its goals Kelloggs should recruit good employees through
the personality trait theories.

References

Management Study Guide . (2018, 05 06). https://www.managementstudyguide.com/personality-

traits.htm. Retrieved from www.managementstudyguide.com:
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/personality-traits.htm

American Psychological Association. (2018, 05 06). http://www.apa.org/topics/personality/. Retrieved

from www.apa.org: http://www.apa.org/topics/personality/

Chand, S. (2018, 05 05). http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-management/6-major-benefits-of-

motivation-in-an-organisations/2524. Retrieved from www.yourarticlelibrary.com:
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-management/6-major-benefits-of-motivation-in-
an-organisations/2524

Cherry, K. (2018, 04 30). https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-introversion-2795995. Retrieved from

www.verywellmind.com: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-introversion-2795995

Psychologist World. (2018, 05 07). https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/openness-

to-experience-trait. Retrieved from www.psychologistworld.com:
https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/openness-to-experience-trait

Robbins, S., Judge, T., & Vorhra, N. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education.

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Robinson, M. D. (2012, 07 24). https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-power-of-
agreeableness. Retrieved from www.psychologicalscience.org/:
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-power-of-agreeableness

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