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20 Mar 2012, 09:35
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Analysis of an Issue
"Companies should not try to improve employees' performance by giving incentives - for example, awards or gifts. Incentives encourage negative kinds of behavior instead of encouraging a genuine interest in doing the work well."
Discuss the extent....
My try:
Nowadays companies manage different forms of incentives to their employees. It is true that if these incentives are not the right incentives and are not delivered at the right time and for the right reason, they could have the opposite effect and bring down the performance of employees. However, I do believe that a good program of incentives and awards is beneficial for the company. That said, I disagree with the statement presented.
First, a good plan of awards shows that a company recognizes the efforts and good performance of an employee, and this only reinforce the employee to keep doing her/his job the way she/he has been doing or even improve. It is well known that a good atmosphere and the sense of recognition are very important factors for a good performance of employees.
Second, a good incentive plan brings competitiveness between the members of a division. The majority of the members will move forward to improve their performance, and be more even with the performance of the rest of the team. Nobody likes to be left behind or look like the black sheep of the team.
Third, a good incentive plan can boost sales campaigns and team work. Let's see the example of the sales force of Insurance Company, the team that makes productivity of 4 polices during a month will win a trip to Bahamas. All the teams will get together and make their strategy to work together towards that goal. This can make the job even more fun.
In conclusion, it is true that a company cannot overuse awards and incentives, and that these incentives cannot be used as a way to get something out of the blue, but a good yearly plan, with awards and incentives, not necessarily monetary, can boost productivity, foment competitiveness, and offer recognition to the good workers.
Analysis of an Argument:
The following appeared as part of a recommendation from the business manager of department store.
"Local clothing stores reported that their profits decreased, on average, for the three-month period between August 1 and October 31. Stores that sell products for the home reported that, on average, their profit increased during the same period.
Clearly,customers are choosing to buy products for their homes instead of clothing. To take advantage of this trend, we should reduce the size of our clothing departments and enlarge our home furnishings and household products departments."
My try:
In the argument presented the manager of a department store underline that because during a period of three months - August 1 to October 31- the profit of the local clothing stores decreased, and the profit of home stores increased, then the department store should reduce the size of its clothing departments and enlarge its household product departments. The evidence presented it is not sufficient to get the manager's conclusion as it doesn't have clear evidence that justify making the proposed change.
First, the manager is only saying that during a period of three months one kind of department increased its profit and the other decreased it. Here, we don't know anything regarding the trends of these departments in a whole year or prior years. It could be the case that over the last five years, specifically during these 3 months the profit has always decreased in the clothing departments and increased in the home department.
Second, there is not necessarily a change in consumers behaviour, maybe there were other incentives to increase the profit in home departments.
It could be the case that home departments were not achieving their yearly goals, and they decided to lunch a sale campaign that brought down the prices but generated more sales.
Third, the reason behind the decreased in sales of clothing department should be more clear, maybe the collection lunched for the season were not attracted enough. Or it was a weather matter. Once a clothing department launch its autumn-winter clothing collections, but then the Nino phenomenon came, and there was no winter, so all the clothes had to be sale for have the price and the profit that was expected was not reached.
Finally, to take a decision the manager should look at all the other possible factors behind the decrease and increase of profit on these two departments. With the statement presented like that, he doesn't have a strong support to make the changes, and doing so without considering factors such as the ones presented above can bring the department store to a bigger lost in profit.
PLEASE PLEASE ANY COMMENTS WILL BE GRATEFUL!
"Companies should not try to improve employees' performance by giving incentives - for example, awards or gifts. Incentives encourage negative kinds of behavior instead of encouraging a genuine interest in doing the work well."
Discuss the extent....
My try:
Nowadays companies manage different forms of incentives to their employees. It is true that if these incentives are not the right incentives and are not delivered at the right time and for the right reason, they could have the opposite effect and bring down the performance of employees. However, I do believe that a good program of incentives and awards is beneficial for the company. That said, I disagree with the statement presented.
First, a good plan of awards shows that a company recognizes the efforts and good performance of an employee, and this only reinforce the employee to keep doing her/his job the way she/he has been doing or even improve. It is well known that a good atmosphere and the sense of recognition are very important factors for a good performance of employees.
Second, a good incentive plan brings competitiveness between the members of a division. The majority of the members will move forward to improve their performance, and be more even with the performance of the rest of the team. Nobody likes to be left behind or look like the black sheep of the team.
Third, a good incentive plan can boost sales campaigns and team work. Let's see the example of the sales force of Insurance Company, the team that makes productivity of 4 polices during a month will win a trip to Bahamas. All the teams will get together and make their strategy to work together towards that goal. This can make the job even more fun.
In conclusion, it is true that a company cannot overuse awards and incentives, and that these incentives cannot be used as a way to get something out of the blue, but a good yearly plan, with awards and incentives, not necessarily monetary, can boost productivity, foment competitiveness, and offer recognition to the good workers.
Analysis of an Argument:
The following appeared as part of a recommendation from the business manager of department store.
"Local clothing stores reported that their profits decreased, on average, for the three-month period between August 1 and October 31. Stores that sell products for the home reported that, on average, their profit increased during the same period.
Clearly,customers are choosing to buy products for their homes instead of clothing. To take advantage of this trend, we should reduce the size of our clothing departments and enlarge our home furnishings and household products departments."
My try:
In the argument presented the manager of a department store underline that because during a period of three months - August 1 to October 31- the profit of the local clothing stores decreased, and the profit of home stores increased, then the department store should reduce the size of its clothing departments and enlarge its household product departments. The evidence presented it is not sufficient to get the manager's conclusion as it doesn't have clear evidence that justify making the proposed change.
First, the manager is only saying that during a period of three months one kind of department increased its profit and the other decreased it. Here, we don't know anything regarding the trends of these departments in a whole year or prior years. It could be the case that over the last five years, specifically during these 3 months the profit has always decreased in the clothing departments and increased in the home department.
Second, there is not necessarily a change in consumers behaviour, maybe there were other incentives to increase the profit in home departments.
It could be the case that home departments were not achieving their yearly goals, and they decided to lunch a sale campaign that brought down the prices but generated more sales.
Third, the reason behind the decreased in sales of clothing department should be more clear, maybe the collection lunched for the season were not attracted enough. Or it was a weather matter. Once a clothing department launch its autumn-winter clothing collections, but then the Nino phenomenon came, and there was no winter, so all the clothes had to be sale for have the price and the profit that was expected was not reached.
Finally, to take a decision the manager should look at all the other possible factors behind the decrease and increase of profit on these two departments. With the statement presented like that, he doesn't have a strong support to make the changes, and doing so without considering factors such as the ones presented above can bring the department store to a bigger lost in profit.
PLEASE PLEASE ANY COMMENTS WILL BE GRATEFUL!
25 Jul 2013, 10:23
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi, I like the structure with clear flow and focus on each paragraph. One thing you must watch out is grammar. in the AWA the grammar requirement is same as the rules for SC section. i have spotted quite a few of grammatical mistakes here.
25 Jul 2013, 10:27
Kudos
Bookmarks
Sorry, omitted another point, misuse of word LUNCH, i guess you wanted to say LAUNCH. but you have said LUNCH two times.
This is something spell-check cannot spot because it is not a spelling mistake.
but anyway, the GMAT AWA section has no spell check function. you are suggested to practice on "Note" which has the closest function (no function, no formatting, just type) to GMAT AWA. then you will be more used to eye-checking your spelling along typing.
Cheers
This is something spell-check cannot spot because it is not a spelling mistake.
but anyway, the GMAT AWA section has no spell check function. you are suggested to practice on "Note" which has the closest function (no function, no formatting, just type) to GMAT AWA. then you will be more used to eye-checking your spelling along typing.
Cheers
