oxes; since the monies paid for boxes increased with the size of the box, using a larger box for the smaller item was costing the company money.
A consultant was hired who had mangers and supervisors watch employees packing and whenever they used the proper size box, the manager would walk over and say something such as, "You're doing a great job," or simply "Good job." The consultant also asked managers to stop criticizing employees when they packaged incorrectly and, instead, only to focus on delivering praise when the job task was correctly accomplished.
Feldman and Arnold (1990) reported that in the first year, the system of praise was found to have saved the company almost one million dollars previously lost to it due to incorrect packaging. Moreover, measures taken of employee motivation showed a strong increase in both worker motivation and job satisfaction.
What is important about the program at Emery Air-Freight is that it provides a cost-effective means which the smaller company may be able to use as a way of increasing employee motivation and performance. It seems reasonable therefore to conduct research that examines for the influence of praise on worker motivation in a small company. This psychological research prospectus provides the design for such a study.
Unfortunately, most research on employee motivation and systems of reward has investigated for the effects of reward systems that combine both extrinsic and intrinsic components (Davis, 1996). Thus, there are relatively few studies that have specifically examined only for the effects of praise/recognition---this despite the fact that several authors constantly advocate praise as an effective means of enhancing worker motivation (e.g., Caudron, 1995; Daly & Kleiner, 1995; Pollock, 1995; Rigsbee, 1996). Moreover, most of the conducted studies are relatively older studies; thus, newer research in the area is definitely needed.
However, there ...