Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

More significantly, what works for some employees may not be effective with others. Human Resource Management could be more flexible in terms of adapting to the methods and approaches that motivate staff to the specific situations and aspects of Tesla. It is critical for any CEO to understand that employees everywhere do not respond the same way to one specific motivational theory (Stimpson, 2015). This is especially important when talking about culture. Employees at Tesla could be from various different countries; this means that every culture will have a different approach on how they are best motivated. In fact, in some parts of the world it is more acceptable to motivate extrinsically, such as Asian cultures (Stimpson, 2015). An aspect about Musk’s motiv ational strategies that deserves appreciation, is his ability to shift between them. As mentioned before, Tesla’s use of intrinsic motivation is evident. However, Musk also chooses to motivate his workers extrinsically. Examples of this are: the times when “Musk encourages employees with free food and an in-house massage therapist. Musk has also rented out an entire movie theatre for employees to see “The Martian.” Well-known people, like actor George Takei and Jeremy Edberg, from Reddit, give private talks to employees. (Jackson, 2017). This ability to shift between two distinct strategies exemplifies his flexibility as a CEO.

Additionally, it greatly contributes to the success of the innovation outcomes at Tesla, proven with statistics by Forbes.

14