Employee Behavior and Policy Change
Summary Managers of every organization with large numbers of employees recognize the significance of employee behavior factor in further success of the company. As employees make a basis of organizations within various industries that supply both products and services the importance of this issue is hard to overestimate. In general it would be rather fair to outline that employee behavior influences soundly the entire productivity of the company. Therefore finding optimal ways to affect employee behavior I a way for managers to get a key to affect the company’s success. 
As the behavior of every individual is an outer result of their inner mind processes, it is correct to seek for sources of human behavior inside their mind (Banks 1997, p.69). Therefore it is not hard to understand the source of employee behavior. It is their motivation. The way employees behave at work, the way they perform themselves, their relations and attitudes within the company, - all this is the expression of their motivation. Thus for affecting employee behavior within any company, managers have to affect their motivation. The problem of motivation has been discussed many times already, and various economists have already suggested numerous ways of solving the problem of motivation. Although the motivating process is very complex, it is very useful to understand the determinant factors of employee motivation in general and within the separate company in particular.
Introduction  The major purpose of current research is to conduct the investigation concerning the behavior of employees and analyze the factors that influence it. According to the previous investigations, it was already determined that the major factor that affects employee behavior is the level of their motivation. Therefore, our goal is to analyze the motivating process of employees within particular company, and to elaborate the appropriate change policy to be implemented. 
The organization chosen for our research is the department store “Berg.” This is the company containing several divisions with many employees, hence the investigation carried out within “Berg” can be rather indicative. The research of the present question includes the list of complex issues to be investigated and surveys to be carried out. It is of no doubt very efficient to use the works of well-known economists that have studied the theory of motivation process. The major approaches of investigation of motivation-making theory belong to such experienced researchers as Maslow, Herzberg, Skinner, Adams, Vroom, and some more. Guided by these approaches, the managers of “Berg” would better understand the essence of the psychological process of motivation in their particular case.
Background  The current situation in the company and the factors that have led to this situation must be accurately investigated in order to analyze the nature of developing motivation process. Understanding of both causes and results of the recent state of motivation degree and behavior indexes of employees would help the managers in forming their overall impression and realizing the framework of future research of the current problem. The employees in the given company, the department store “Berg”, are currently showing very low motivation degree that results in their behavior with consumers and subsequently in the productivity of the company. Because the field of market in the represented case is more related to service and supplying consumer products than producing goods the staff factor is of great importance here. 
Problem Definition  In the present case the managers of the organization face the situation that may seem strange for the first glance. The low level of employees’ motivation results in the high level of staff turnover and absenteeism though the remuneration and salary packages are much above the industry average level. Usually it seems obvious that the higher motivation level may be provided with the help of reinforcement by monetary items. The managers of the store have implemented the appropriate inner policy of monetary reinforcement and now they face the result of this strategy. However, both monetary and non-monetary items participate equally in the process of increasing motivation of workers. The roles of both of these reinforcement techniques are important and make great parts of the sufficient motivation-making process. The managers of “Berg” have overestimated the role of monetary tools of motivation and conversely underestimated the meaning of non-monetary ones. Though it was known previously from the studies of the greatest theorists that monetary items are only functioning on the first stages of motivation-making process (Maslow, 1987, p.127). With the increase of employees’ income money reinforcement becomes less of a motivator, thus the increased salary could be efficient only in the beginning. Later the money factor gets less vital for employees and loses its attractiveness, especially for older employees. Therefore, the framework for the research of the current problem may be defined as the implementation of both monetary and non-monetary items in the process of growth of the employees’ motivation level in the company “Berg” and the development of methods of the motivation-making process.
Objective  Outlining the main purpose of the current research the managers must set the goal clearly and follow it consistently. The current research questions to be answered are defined as: What are the most efficient ways to increase the motivation of employees in the department store “Berg”? What is the optimal change policy to be implemented? The major objective of the present investigation includes several minor ones. They consist of the following steps: Identifying and analyzing the reasons of the existing low motivation of employees; realizing the factors that turned to be the bad motivators in the given company; discovering the factors that are the good motivators in the present company; applying the higher motivators to the employees of the company.
Changes Expected  After conducting our investigation we would implement the appropriate items that will appear to be good employee motivators. As the result the motivation level employees in the department store “Berg” will be increased and the employee behavior will be changed appropriately. As for the more motivated employees increase the entire productivity of the company (Burns, 1959, p. 94) the whole sales indicator in the company will be changed significantly towards growth.
Change Strategy  The practical side of the research reflects in the methodological approaches and strategies.  First of all we need to determine the design of the present research. Research Design: It seems to me that the optimal research design for this study would be descriptive design. It is the best type of research design in the present situation. According to the research problem we have defined the descriptive design of research methodology would help answering the major questions of the present research. This design is optimal because in the present case there is only one group represented, which is the group of employees of the department store “Berg”. We do not have any other groups to compare this one with so any kind of comparative design would not apply here. Our goal is simply to gather and analyze the information in order to answer the main question of the current research. Research methods and procedures: The appropriate methodology for this research to my mind is the qualitative method. This method allows describing some experience of the group taken and to interpret and analyze it. For this purpose the qualitative methodology of the research is the most suitable because it provides the appropriate tools for understanding the reasons of behavior of the group’s representatives. As for the main purpose of this study is to recognize the reasons of employee behavior the steps to be taken within qualitative methodological approach are tightly related to the understanding of their behavior and realizing the conditions that influence it. The instrumentation for this type of methodology in the present research would be managers’ surveys, employees’ tests, interviews and questionnaires. Data analysis: The analysis of all the information gathered is the final stage of the research. Usually the research data analysis includes some statistical or mathematical methods of operating the information. In the present case as we deal with the qualitative method of research the information gathered during the research process would be performed by very few numbers and much more words. It is usually much more difficult to analyze such kind of information because the exact data like numbers within the quantitative research are more certain and thus more simple to deal with. The best way here to analyze all the gathered data is creating some kind of table with all the research issues portrayed and putting all the replies in the form of words and numbers in this table with the relation to the departments the respondents belong to.
Conclusion  The process of change within any organization always means some kind of stress for the participants. Thus implementing the change policy in the company will result in some side effects that may be negative in the beginning of the process. However as the current research is aimed on the increasing of employee motivation level and employee behavior change in the department store “Berg” the expected results of the appropriate change policy must be positive in general. 
The reason for confidence of success in our change lies in the proper understanding of the nature of human behavior. As for our research is based on the previous investigations of the best theorists in this field we look forward for good results of our change policy. According to the certain surveys of Bruce and Pepitone (1998) we hope that the effect of our change policy of implementing high-motivating strategy will be permanent (p.105). During the change policy implementing many aspects will be involved in the process in the company “Berg” like power structure, personalities, communication, decision-making, and others. All this will form the outcome we are willing to achieve and result in change of employee behavior.
Though influencing the behavior of other people, especially by affecting their motivational process, is very difficult task it is possible to achieve success in it if choosing proper strategy of change and consistently following it. The research conducted in the department store “Berg” is the demonstrative portrayal of such change policy.   
Bibliography
1. Bruce, A., & Pepitone, J. (1998). Motivating Employees. McGraw-Hill Publishing.
2. Banks, L. (1997). Motivation in the Workplace: Inspiring Your Employees. American Media Publishing.
3. Burns, R. (1959). Management and Employee Motivation. Industrial Relations Center.
4. McBurney, D., & White, T. (2003). Research Methods. Wadsworth Publishing.
5. Maslow, A. (1987). Motivation and Personality. Harper Collins Publishers.