Case Study of National Office Machines

Case Study of National Office Machines—Motivating Japanese Salespeople: Straight Salary or Commission?

Question # 1:

Combination of salary and commission are used by most American firms to motivate sales people, while in contrast, in Japanese firms, straight salary is much more frequently the practice.

For NABCM, the problem of incentives or straight salary is a complicated one as it has both new and old salespeople. The young Japanese seem willing to have the incentive method, whereas older ones are reluctant. It is suggested by a study conducted by Japanese government for the analysis of attitudes of youth that US incentive method is very much popular among the Japanese Youth. (Cateora & Hess, 1971) The payment plan of Sales Workforce can be, therefore, changed by the NABMC as it can give the company competitive advantage over the others in the field. Employees are motivated by commissions to sell products to their customers. In comparison to their older counterparts, younger employees are more competitively-minded and more contented with job insecurity in trade for more salaries. However, it will not be sufficient enough for NABMC to boost within Japan, just only on the basis of younger salespersons. And for encouraging all Japanese employees to deliver the goods, a simple transplantation of American competitive model into Japan will not work at all. A more Americanized system might not stimulate motivation among older employees of NABMC and thus their productivity gets affected and it will, then, not be affordable for NABMC to fire all long-standing, older employees on the basis of their declined performance. Moreover, it is demonstrated by a study that Japanese sales people prefer being a member of a winning team with mutual values and goals over getting financial rewards. (Ingram et. al., 2008)

NABMC should initiate a combination of salary and commission incentive payment plan. Though it will be complex to administer but it may attract high potential but not proven recruits. Moreover, it is widely used more popular financial plan. (Ingram et. al., 2008) NABMC will be allowed by it to see raised incentives for sales; the staff will be let in to get accustomed to the plan that for ineffective work, they will not be paid. The company will see increased sales, by initiating the combination financial pay plan and the employees still will have payment security just not as much as they are used to. With the implementation of the Sales plan where salary constitutes half part of the salary whereas another half is constituted by commission, motivation for creating and sustaining sales will be increased and for NABMC, it will be like a catalyst to recuperate its lost market share in the Japanese market.

Question # 2

One of a greatest incentives and motivator is sense of accomplishment and recognition. Even a bonus plan, if ill designed, can lead to discourage greater performance from the same team of people that can produce improved performance if it is given exact parameters and a feeling of ownership ...