Week 12 · Readings & resources

Week 12 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Business Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 12 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 50–58 minutes for everything. Each group links back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

① Noticing the people: the Hawthorne studies and Maslow's needs

Chapter 12, Section “Notice the people: the Hawthorne studies” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Notice the people” · Remember: the Hawthorne studies turned managers toward people and groups, and the Hawthorne effect is a contested reading, not a law.

Elton Mayo: Human Relations School of Thought — Two Teachers — a business-studies explainer on the Hawthorne experiments, the human-relations view they led to, and the critics who call the studies unscientific and too small; it credits Mayo with running the tests from the start, while the chapter's account has the lighting tests beginning in 1924 and Mayo drawn in from 1928, so learn the chapter's version, and treat the video's claims about Mayo's early views and the first personnel department as its own. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
Hawthorne effect — Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia's article on the studies and the phrase they produced; read the part on interpretation and criticism to see why later researchers argue over what the studies showed. (reading, 6–8 min)
Do Psychologists Still Use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? — SciShow Psych — a science channel's short look at the pyramid diagram and why the needs are hard to measure; as you watch, note the reasons the order is looser than the drawing suggests. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)

② Telling hygiene factors from motivators, and naming a manager's assumptions

Chapter 12, Section “Separate two kinds of factors: Herzberg's hygiene factors and motivators” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Two kinds of factors” · Remember: meeting a hygiene factor such as pay stops dissatisfaction, while motivators such as responsibility build satisfaction.

Frederick Herzberg's Motivation Theories — Business Partner — a three-minute business-studies explainer that puts pay, working conditions, and company policy on the hygiene side and achievement, recognition, and responsibility on the motivator side; it presents the two factors as a model, not a law, so sort the cart helper's pay and the weekly special as you watch. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
McGregor's Theory X & Y — Jessica Blaisdell — a short animated class video on Theory X and Theory Y as a manager's beliefs about what motivates employees. This builds on Week 10's leadership styles: ask which style each set of assumptions leans toward. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Comparing, expecting, and aiming

Chapter 12, Section “Compare, expect, and aim: the contemporary theories” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Compare, expect, and aim” · Remember: people compare what they get and give with others, and a specific, hard goal beats do your best.

How to Create a Fair Workplace: Crash Course Business: Soft Skills #15 — CrashCourse — an episode on how people judge fairness at work and why unfair treatment costs trust; connect it to equity theory's comparison of outcomes and inputs. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Improved Performance Starts with Planning I — U.S. Office of Personnel Management — the federal personnel agency's short article on goal setting at work; read the findings on specific, hard goals and the three ways goals raise performance, then compare them with the cart's 48-drink daily goal. (reading, 3–5 min)

④ Putting theory to work: job design and recognition

Chapter 12, Section “Put theory to work: job design and empowerment” · Session 2, Segment 8, “Put theory to work” · Remember: enlargement adds more tasks, while enrichment adds responsibility, and only enrichment works on the motivators.

Understanding Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment — Business Partner — a business-studies channel's short explainer on the difference between adding tasks and adding responsibility; use it to plan the helper's enriched job in the Week-12 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
Performance Management Cycle — U.S. Office of Personnel Management — the federal personnel agency's page on the cycle of planning, monitoring, developing, rating, and rewarding; read the Rewarding part, from a sincere thank-you to formal awards, as a real employer's view of recognition. Stop before the award-processing guides; next week turns to the cart's financial statements. (reading, 3–5 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Manage your business: employee incentive programs — U.S. Small Business Administration — the federal small-business agency's guide, which this course returns to; read the short part on employee incentive programs, including flex time, as a real-world list of motivation tools, and skip the tax and legal sections around it. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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