People and Organization: Enterprise Rent-A-Car Case Study

This report examines the people and organization dynamics within Enterprise Rent-A-Car. It begins with an introduction to the importance of building a strong workforce to achieve organizational goals. The report then delves into a case study of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, an international car rental company, and analyzes its motivational and leadership approaches. The first part assesses various motivational techniques, including Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory, and leadership styles such as Kurt Lewin's and Daniel Goleman's models. The second part provides recommendations to improve motivation and leadership within Enterprise, including creating a positive working environment, setting clear goals, recognizing achievements, and providing incentives. The analysis highlights the practical application of these theories and offers actionable strategies for enhancing employee engagement and organizational effectiveness.

People and Organization
1

INTRODUCTION
To develop a good organization and become a leader of the organization, it is important to
build a good workforce. It is essential for the management that development of people in such as
direction so that they can help in achieving business objectives and aims. Many of the firm focus
on getting the right people with the right skills for job position. It is needed to ensure that
employees should have the appropriate skills or not. The present research is based on People and
Organization and to understand its importance, a case of Enterprise Rent-A-Car is taking into the
consideration. It is an international car rental company which is doing its business in North
America. It provides a service to the customers to use of car. To deliver the excellent services to
the end users, cited organization trains its employees and motivate them. The following is
dividing into two parts in which first section will be related to different motivation and
leadership approaches and various communication techniques used by the company. Second one
will be related to feedback process and performance management methods use by firm to
translate individual performance into a development plan.
PART 1
TASK 1
Assessment of motivation and leadership approaches with Enterprise by using theory and
practical examples
The case study of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Enterprise) defines that how its managers
explore the ways to motivate the staff. In the present time, company has more than 750000 rental
cars in the services at the international level. The focus of the firm is deliver good services to the
customers and meets their satisfaction level. To achieve this objective, Enterprise knows that it is
important to motivate employees because company prides itself on providing excellent customer
services. In this context, organization determines various factors that are non financial and
deliver high level of motivation to its employees (About, 2016). For this, cited firm applies
several motivational and leadership approaches which assessment is as follows:
Motivational approaches
Motivation is a driving force which gives a reason to individual to do something good. It
3

is belonging to each and every person so it is essential to determine those driving forces which
motivate individual. Some employees may be motivated by working in a team where others can
be a driver for each and every one to make a difference (About, 2016). Some motivation
approaches use by Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Enterprise) and their evaluation is as follows:
Maslow hierarchy of needs
Its 8 factors fit closely with the motivation of human resources in an organization.
According to the following model, with the application of hierarchy of needs, workers may fulfil
their wants (Turner, Conkel, Starkey and Landgraf, 2010). At the lower level, they entail good
pay so that they can fulfil their basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter etc. Second level is
safety needs in which an employee expects safety needs from the employer to feel secure at the
workplace. At social level, staff member requires a need for affection, support and
encouragement from the colleagues. At fourth self esteem stage, employee looks for self respect
and the respects form others. At self actualization level, worker needs an opportunity for personal
fulfilment (Pinder, 2014).
Enterprise Rent-A-Car impose Maslow hierarchy needs to motivate its employees in the
effective manner so that set objectives can be achieved. From the evaluation of following
motivation theory, it has determined that to fulfil the basic needs of staff, company pay good
wages to them (Schunk, D.H. and Zimmerman, B.J., 2012). Along with this, it also provides the
food and water facilities to the employees within the workplace. In safety needs, Enterprise gives
job security to the workers by insurance and different health and safety policies. For the same,
during the work, personal protective equipments also give by the firm to its staff members for
their safety and security (What is motivation?, 2016). Further, management creates a friendly
environment to the workforce which helps in develop trust between owner and employees. It
meets the social needs of the workers and motivates them in the right direction. Apart from this,
Enterprise gives recognition to the work of the staff members by promotion, performance
appraisals, increase job responsibilities, etc. With the help of this, it increases the level of self
esteem in the workers and motivates them. In addition to this, to achieve self actualization,
organization provides opportunities to workforce to learn something new and for this, it organize
various training and development programs. So, with the application of Maslow hierarchy of
needs, Enterprise Rent-A-Car effectively motivates the employees and meets their needs and
4

wants (Knowles, Anokhina and Serpell, 2013).
Frederick Herzberg
Frederick Herzberg motivation theory defines that actual motivation comes from internal.
Good pay and working conditions type’s factors stop employees to de-motivate. According to the
following theory, there are two factors: hygiene and motivators factors. Hygiene feature may
causes dissatisfaction in the working environment and but cannot motivate by themselves (Miller
and Rollnick, 2012). Motivators factors motivates and the staff and make them more productive.
In the case of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, there are number of de-motivating factors present within
the workplace and these are lack of proper organization structure, lack of effective method of
feedback, unable to understand why a task is essential and lack of consequences for poor
performance. To overcome all these issues and motivate the employees, Enterprise use Frederick
Herzberg motivation theory. Under this, organization divides factors into hygiene and motivators
categories (Lin and Lu, 2011).
From the evaluation of the following framework, it has found that Enterprise starts give
training to its all branches managers to identify and workout on to reduce the impacts of de-
motivating elements on the employees. For this, company introduce a new system which is
called “The Vote” (Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 2011). With the help of this, assessment
of each and every employee takes place to determine their performance level. By doing this, the
best performer and most improved employee can be finding out and it’s communicated in all
branches. By giving recognition to the efforts to the staff, it becomes easy for the company to
show that its employees are valuable. So, this is the way by which firm can identify those who
may need additional motivation. On the other hand, organization also gives training to the
managers so that they enable to motivate employees in non-management roles. For this, a
checklist of actions prepares that takes by managers from employees (Wlodkowski, 2011). Apart
from this, managers of Enterprise also motivate staff via informal competitions and giving
opportunities to lead the team and develop new skills
Leadership approaches
Enterprise Rent-A-Car uses two different models of leadership: Kurt Lewin and Daniel
Goleman. The aim of following both of the approaches by the organization is to achieve the
objectives of the business. Evaluation of both leadership styles is as follows:
5

Kurt Lewin
The selection following approach depends on the style of the leader and the determine
outcomes. It includes three different styles: Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-faire. By
Enterprise use autocratic style because there are some decisions which need to be taken by
management itself without involving the employees (Akers, 2013). Mainly, organization use
skills of its workers to deliver high level of customer services. For this, company develops some
standards to provide good customer services and managers instruct all staffs to follow guidelines
for dealing with customers. A branch manager sets the same standards for the entire team but
encourage them to adopt flexible and responsive different approaches to follow the set standards.
This thing ensures that end users get the services as they are expecting from the firm
(AlMazrouei and Zacca, 2015).
For example, Andy Taylor insisted all branches to use ESQi (Enterprise Service Quality
Index) which is a measure of customer satisfaction. With the help of this, he ensures that
business objective can effectively meet. On the other hand, The Vice President of Corporate
Communications for Enterprise established an environmental committee. The aim of this was to
influence the behaviour in order to reduce waste and improve carbon footprint. As an industry
leader, organization sets high standards to minimize the impact of rental cars operations on
environment. These examples show the application of autocratic style at Enterprise (Autocratic
style, 2016).
Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman leadership style divides leadership into six styles: Visionary /
Authoritative, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting and Commanding / Coercive
(Democratic style, 2016). From these, Enterprise use democratic leadership approach to make
decisions in many parts of the business (Avolio and Mhatre, 2012). Organization gives
opportunities to its employees to contribute ideas at the of decision making process. Under this,
manager first takes decisions and then persuades staff to make the right decisions. Along with
this, sometimes managers invite groups in contributing to make decisions. So, with the help of
Daniel Goleman leadership style, Enterprise enables to deliver good customer services and
achieve business objectives in more effective manner (Barrick and et.al., 2013).
6

TASK 2
Recommendation to improve motivation and leadership approach within Enterprise
From the above evaluation, it has found that Enterprise used different motivation and
leadership approaches to achieve business objectives. It delivers various benefits to the firm but
there are some drawbacks of them. In order to overcome the impact of those limitations and
improve motivation and leadership approach within the firm, some recommendations are as
follows:
Recommendations for improve motivation within Enterprise
 Creating a positive working environment:
For effective implementation of motivation approach within the cited firm, it is
important for manager to create a positive working environment at workplace. By
encouraging teamwork and idea-sharing, it becomes easy to ensure that employees gain
good knowledge and perform their jobs very well (Turner, Conkel, Starkey and Landgraf,
2010). It eliminates conflict as it arises, and gives employees freedom to work
independently when appropriate.
 Setting of goals:
To implement motivation approach within the workplace of Enterprise,
management should set the goals for the employees. The reason of suggesting this is it
delivers the benefits to the organization to give contribution in the success. So, it is
important to make sure that set goals are reasonable and achievable and it does not
discouraged employees (Knowles, Anokhina and Serpell, 2013).
 Recognize achievements:
By give the recognition to the efforts of the employees, Enterprise can able to
improve execution of motivation approaches in the organization. For this, management
should celebrate the achievement of staff by giving rewards. Print certificates or engrave
plaques, issue a press release or post a notice on company website etc are some methods
to recognize the efforts of the workers and motivate them (Miller and Rollnick, 2012).
 Provide Incentives:
It is considering as a major motivation source for Enterprise. With the help of this,
7

it becomes easy and simple for organization to effective implementation of motivation
approaches. By giving incentives to staff for their efforts, they motivated in effective
manner. For this, nonfinancial incentives and financial incentives can be given by
Enterprise to its workforce (Schunk and Zimmerman, 2012).
 Provide clarity:
It is more important to understand the goals so that it becomes easy to motivate
the employees by the managers. For many of staff, it is hard to clear about the goals and
business objectives. For the same, in the case of Enterprise, the managers should ensure
that every team members clearly understand about the objectives and aim of business. If
this thing become clear for them then it will be easy for organization to motivate staff
(Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 2011). So, by adopting the following suggestion,
Enterprise can improve its motivation approaches.
Recommendations for improve leadership within Enterprise
 Find great mentors:
Enterprise should identify those people who can lead the teams in the effective
manner. By doing this, organization can lead the employees in the right direction. The
selected person should be have proper leadership styles and know how to lead the team
members in appropriate way (Collinson and Cook, 2013). So, with the help of this,
Enterprise can improve leadership approach in the workplace.
 Learn from mistakes:
By learning from the mistakes, management of Enterprise improve its different
leadership styles. For this, it should analyse from its past experience and find the out the
reason of failure of leadership style in different situations. It assists in effective
implementation and improving existing leadership style within the firm (Daft, 2014).
 Taking initiative:
Most of the organization managers assign tasks to its employees and do not take
imitative to start the work. This is the major reason of failure of leadership styles of
management. In this context, Enterprise should take initiative to take more
responsibilities and help the staff in the different project. By doing this, they become
influence and follow the leaders (Daicoff, 2012). So, with the help of following approach,
8

Enterprise improves its present leadership styles.
 Critical thinking:
Enterprise management should be adopting critical thinking at the time of
implementation of leadership styles. It is a sign of good leaders that they are able to
foresee potential problems before they happen. On the basis of this, preventive actions
from those problems can be made (Frick and et.al., 2014). Therefore, it assists Enterprise
to improve its leadership approaches within the workplace in more effective manner.
 Listening effectively:
A good leader should have the skills of listening because without having this, he
cannot be understood the needs and requirements of its followers (Fullan, 2011). Along
with this, it is not possible to get sense of what team members like about the projects they
work on. Managers of Enterprises should develop the skill of listening and for this; they
have to maintain eye contacts with the employees. Along with this, they should avoid
distractions and respond appropriately. They should also keep in mind that to lead the
people is not only possible by good verbal communication (Hakanen and van
Dierendonck, 2013). It is essential to listen the views, ideas and issues of staff related to
work and other aspects. Hence, Enterprise can improve its leadership approaches.
Implementation plan to help manager to execute recommendations with appropriate time
scales
Activities in weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6
Creating a positive working environment
Setting of goals
Recognize achievements
Provide Incentives
Provide clarity
The above implementation plan is related to execution of recommendations of improving
motivation approaches within the workplace of Enterprise. From the table, it is clear understand
that every suggestion takes almost a week to execute. Creating a positive working environment
takes 2 weeks to complete and when it will the stage of completion, next recommendation setting
of goals will take place. It will also take 1 week to execute. For the same, recognize
9

achievements, provide incentives and provide clarity activities will also takes one – one week to
complete. So, it can be said that within the 1 and half month, Enterprise will improve its
motivation approaches within the workplace.
Activities in weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6
Find great mentors
Learn from mistakes
Taking initiative
Critical thinking
Listening effectively
The above implementation plan is related to execution of recommendations of improving
leadership approaches within the workplace of Enterprise. From the table, it is clear understand
that every suggestion takes almost a week to perform (Iqbal, 2013). Find great mentors in the
workplace who can lead the team will take about 2 weeks to complete and when it will the stage
of completion, next recommendation learn from mistakes will take place. It will also take a one
week to perform. For the same, taking initiative, critical thinking and listening effectively
activities will also takes one – one week to complete (Kaur, 2015). So, it can be said that within
the 1 and half month, Enterprise will improve its leadership approaches within the workplace.
TASK 3
Assessing the different types of communication that can be used within Enterprise and
suggesting ways to improve them.
Communication is important process that refers to exchange of information, ideas,
knowledge or news between employees. With the help of proper communication method, the
Enterprise Rent a Car can provide information about the new services introduced by business to
its customers. In addition to this aspect, news about business or important decisions can be
communicated by executives to its employees (Arvidsson, 2010). The communication process
also help the Enterprise Rent a Car to develop profound strategies to engage with its different
stakeholders. Basically, there are two types of communications that are used in enterprise,
verbal and non verbal. The verbal communication includes transfer of information with the help
of words. This type of communication can be either written or oral. The written communication
10

methods further involve use of different methods like, letter, email, memos, publication on
organization website, social media sites, newsletters or magazine advertisement etc (Eijnden and
et.al., 2008). On the other hand, oral communication involve contrasting methods like, face to
face interaction such as between management and employee, group discussions etc. Other than
this, telecommunication or transmit of information through television or radio ad is another type
of oral communication. Furthermore, the non verbal communication includes exchanging
information via signals such as body language ( postures), facial expression (gestures), pitch of
voice etc.
From the provided case scenario, it has been identified that communication procedure
includes a sender conveying information in a proper way to assure the message is understood by
the receiver. In this respect the entity use a well organized and sequential communication
process which is further termed as Shannon-Weaver model of communication. It is important
framework that is particularly designed to develop the effective communication between receiver
and sender (Sutter and Strassmair, 2009).
The description of which is provided with the help of following picture:
Here, Enterprise Rent a Car is a sender that intend to transmit variety of information to its
11

stakeholders. For example, entity wants to generate information about vacant job post in
company. For this aspect, it want to give message that company is best place to work. This
information will be encoded which means will be converted into signals by transmitters. Further,
this information can be provided to potential receivers like, graduates, individuals looking for job
switch or career opportunity etc (Bennett, 2010). The receivers on acquiring the information
will convert the signals into understandable messages which will be referred as process of
decoding. Thereafter communicate the intended information, entity can use different media
channels like, job portals, career fair, printed mediums like, newspapers etc. The noise can affect
the exchange of information and its interpretation by target group. Here, noise are those
distractions or dissonance that change the meaning of communicated information such as due to
noise from background during telecommunication individual could not hear the entire message
and get wrong meaning from it (Lundgren and McMakin, 2013). Therefore, proper action must
be taken to reduce the prospective barriers to communication. Further, to determine the
effectiveness of communication process it is important for management of cited entity to take
feedback from receiver. This will help in understanding that they have understood the message in
same way as communicated by entity. On the basis of the feedback company can take effective
steps to minimize the identified issues faced during communication in future. Therefore, with the
help of feedback, the sender; management of Enterprise Rent a Car ask for clarification from
receiver and assure message has been received properly (Broadbent, 2013).
Suggestions to improve the communication process
1. To improve listening ability: It is important for both management and employees of
Enterprise Rent a Car to enhance their listening ability so that they can communicate after
having proper understanding of what the sender wants to convey.
2. Assessing the present internal communication method: It is important for entity to
assess the effectiveness of current procedures used for transmitting information. On the
basis of it company can determine the need to install and adopt new communication
instruments as per the upgrading techniques and processes. For instance, email can be
replaced with social intranet software (Ishikawa and Cancelas, 2012).
12