Publix's Two-Factor Theory Essay

An organization almost always has the intention of being successful. The many factors that contribute to an organizations success is organizational factors such as motivation, leadership, communication, structure, change, culture and more, which can affect an employee’s behavior. Organizational behavior is defined as the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organization’s performance (Judge & Robbins, 2016). Integrating these organizational ideologies into a corporation can create tremendous outcomes. These ideologies are enforced on a management level to ensure optimal employee engagement. Understanding organizational behavior is important for managers because they must always be kept on their toes

due to an ever-changing environment with technology, diversity, and interpersonally.
Organizational behavior seeks to improve the effectiveness an organization has through its individuals, culture, and the state of the workplace, often known as structure. The best way to look at behavior is to think about reasons that would cause certain behaviors and how it can affect the attitudes and productivity of the workers. Taking a look at Publix Supermarkets, Inc., we can say that as an employee owned company, they treat their employees with respect. The company was founded by Mr. George Jenkins with the philosophy of treating employees and customers like family. Their practices and standards are very beneficial to the success of their organization. Their mission is to commit to be passionately focused on customer value, intolerant of waste, dedicated to the dignity, value and employment security of our associates, devoted to the highest standards of stewardship for our stockholders, and involved as responsible citizens in our communities (corporate.publix.com, 2017). These values and philosophies are great behavioral characteristic examples of creating a healthy workplace environment/culture and structure for all.
Working in any customer service setting, like Publix, there needs to be a great amount of motivation.

Motivation is one of the most important factors to a successful organization, helping define and reach individual and organizational goals. There are many different theories of motivation, however; being a former Publix employee, I would say that Publix follows the two-factor theory. The two-factor theory, also known as the motivation-hygiene theory, focuses on intrinsic factors and hygiene factors. The intrinsic factors that relate to job fulfillment comprise of advancement, recognition, responsibility, and achievement, while the hygiene factors are considered to be quality of supervision, pay, policies, physical working conditions, relationships with others, and job security (Judge & Robbins, 2016). Publix likes to make an employee feel safe and taken care of. There is a policy for everything and have a great benefit plan in place. Both part-time and full-time employees sit down for a quarterly assessment with their direct department managers and, based on performance, can receive a 25-cent raise. Publix also has a system in place called an ROI or “registration of interest”. The ROI allows for an employee to express their interest in a promotion to a different department/position or even to transfer to the corporate office from the store. These opportunities increase employee engagement and give the individuals something to look forward to and create personal

goals.
Branching off of motivation, leadership is another key factor that is essential in making an organization the best it can be. Leadership, or the act of leading, is being able to inspire many to work towards and achieve an individual and organizational set of goals. I believe that transformational leadership is one of the most important leadership principles and believe that Publix supermarkets train their leaders to be this way. Transformational leaders inspire others to transcend their self-interests for the good of the organization (Judge & Robbins, 2016). These leaders allow for the workers to understand their influence of their work through interaction with customers and through seeing how well these customers respond to the well put together organization. Publix has many great leaders in every store, not just at a management level but at lower or starting position levels. Employees feel encouraged to be leaders themselves through clearly knowing their specific roles, going out of their way to help others, even if it does not involve their own department, which shows true teamwork, and also by having a clear understanding of the message the company is trying to convey and being excited as well as willing to instill that message in others. Not only are the leaders’ employee-oriented, but they are also production-oriented, ultimately leading to the success the company has become. Leadership at Publix has led to repeatedly outdoing the industries competitors and by doing that, they have shown that you can treat your personnel equally and reward them well while still being successful.