Research Question: Can Herzberg motivation theory help explain the

improvement in productivity at Casio Computer Co. Ltd. ?

Introduction

Casio Computer Co. Ltd. Is Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing

company headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It produce many widespread

useful products that we use very regularly in our daily life. They include calculators,

mobile phone, digital cameras, electronic musical instrument and analogue and

digital watches. Casio have been producing basic and scientific calculator that are

used by student around the world contain many beneficial function which are

graphing, programming, LCD (one line) and professional. Casio also satisfy human’s

needs and wants by producing watches and one of the most successful brand was

G-shock. Casio’s watches have many consumer friendly features like vibration

alarm, multiple timers, prayer compass and stopwatch lap memory.

Objective

This research was conducted on three purpose which firstly, it will focus on

identifying what kind of motivation Casio use to make them become more dedicated

on their works. Furthermore, this research will classify each motivation into

motivational theory developed by expert a long time ago. To show the improvement

in productivity in Casio, numerical method will be used to calculate productivity in

range of years which are 2016 until 2020. Moreover , in order to analyse which

motivation gives a huge improvement in motivation of employees, SWOT analysis

will be used. It can show which motivation strategies give more benefit or limitation to

Casio. Lastly, the most beneficial and useful motivation strategies will be decided

and then discussion on how to make this strategy further more effective will be
discussed. To answer the research question, it will be shown on the most beneficial

motivation strategies.

Methodology

Data and information were gathered through secondary research which were

conducted through online sources and also Business Management textbook. Most of

the information about Casio Computer Co. Ltd were obtained from Casio website

itself and other website such as Wikipedia. For the information from Casio website

could be biased as Casio would not expose any negative topic about the company.

To solve this problem, I also refer to other online sources such as pressure group to

know about information that were not revealed by Casio. For the tools, theories,

business concept and techniques used in this research will be gained from

Cambridge Business Management textbook. Numerical data like financial statement

will be analyzed from years 2016 until 2020 to further discuss the implementation of

motivation strategy on the finance of the company

Objective 1: Showing the improvement in productivity

The calculation of employees productivity will be using a formula: total revenue/total

cost1. The purpose of using formula rather than interviewing human resource officer

is because figure can show a precise result where it shows a degree of something.

1
How to Calculate the Productivity of an Employee Correctly (siteware.co)
By using formula, productivity of workers can be assessed precisely whether it

decreases/increases so high/low.

Productivity in 20192

Revenue: ¥298,161 mil

Number of workers: 11,868 workers

298,161
Productivity ∈2019=
11,868

Productivity ∈2019=¥ 25.123 per workers

Productivity in 20203

Revenue: ¥280,750

Number of workers: 11,193

280,750
Productivity ∈2020= Productivity ∈2020=25.082 per workers
11,193

Objective 1: Identifying motivation strategies

Casio use diversity and work environment incentive in making Casio a great place to

work and maintaining optimal workplace environments:

1. Supporting Advancement of Women

2
Integrated Report 2019 (casio.com)
3
Integrated Report 2020 (casio.com)
 Casio start this strategy by increasing the number of women senior staff from

four in 2011 to 30 in 2020 and they are all talented and well-trained

employees. Casio was being optimistic about the future of women senior staff,

it set an objective of positioning 5% of women in senior staff to advance that

position even more. To do this, Casio has actively implemented measure to

foster ambition for promotion among women who are the candidates for

senior staff positions and to uphold the career formation of young women.

Casio improve this objevtive by set at least 25% of new graduates women to

join the company and also expand the number of engineers among women by

targeting technically minded women in its PR

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Number of woman in senior staffs 24(10) 24(11) 27(10) 26(11) 30(11)

positions (number of manager)

Percentage of woman employees in 2.6% 2.6% 2.9% 2.9% 3.6%

senior staff positions (percentage of (2.1%) (2.3%) (2.0%) (2.3%) (2.8%)

managers)
Table 1: Woman in senior staff position

2. Encouraging Seniors to Play an Active Role / Supporting the Lives and

Employment of Seniors

Casio’s Senior Employee Program had agreed to provide retirement-age

employees with employment opportunities to use effectively the skills that

these individual have over their career. This opportunities like continued

employment will be assessed based on their past performance and

responsibility after retirement age. Senior can continue provide their skills and
 expertise to Casio. For employees who reach age of 49, they will receive new

roles and compensation level

3. Initiatives in Hiring

To instill its code of conduct “we will respect all fundamental human rights,

and will not engage in any form of discrimination.” Casio open its job vacancy

to all people who have desire to work. They also minimize hiring the

undergraduate student because they concern about their studies. To promote

the job among international students, Casio will publish video of company

introduction seminars via online media and participate in selection events for

international students without taking into account about where they are from

or their academic circumstances. Casio also providing workplace-hosted

internship for student who still thinking about where to work so they will have

an insight into what work is and what a job is.

4. Ensuring fair evaluation and compensation

The present basic human resources policy combines a role-based system that

grades individual employees based on the extent of their roles with a

performance-based approach to evaluation and compensation based mainly on

outcomes of job performance within their roles.

In addition, Casio strives to find the optimal balance between employee growth

and vitalization and expanding the company by promoting HR policies that

prioritize the following perspectives.

 Respect of will: Grant significance to the individual’s will and intentions

 Human resources development: Create opportunities for the acquisition of

knowledge and skills needed in work

 Significance of abilities: Grant significance to abilities demonstrated through work

  Right person for the right job: Reflect individual wishes in job requests

 Priority distribution: Distribute limited management resources as efficiently as

possible

 Stable employment: Strive to create workplaces where employees can work

according to their abilities

Accordingly, Casio introduced a double-track evaluation that encourages motivation to

take up challenges and change one’s actions.

 Biannual evaluation (reflected in compensation): Goal management

Challenging goals have been introduced, based on a system in which each

individual sets a goal (theme) at the start of the fiscal year and results are

evaluated at the end of the fiscal year, in order to respect employees’ motivation

to take up challenges and encourage more independent action.

 Full-year evaluation (reflected in salary raises and promotions): Biannual

evaluation + process evaluation

Considers the performance process evaluation, including initiatives that will lead

to future results

5. Initiatives to Support Work-Life Balance

Casio create and promote the system and environment that diverse human

resources can work easily and display their maximum performance

Introduction of staggered commuting times ensure the concentration of

employees on their work and maximize their performance. Casio created a

program that ease employees’ parental work and help them balancing the

work and parenting such as a shorter working hours system for childcare.

6. Communication between Labor and Management

 Casio operates on a union-shop basis; as a rule, all employees except for

managers are members of the union. Regular communication between

management and the labor union hopes to raise the awareness of employees

about their participation in the management of the company. Casio values close

communication between labor and management and maintains a good

relationship. At the core of this labor-management communication is the Group

Workers’ Labor-Management Conference, which is held four times a year

(February, May, September, and November). At these conferences, management

and labor, together representing the entire group, exchange opinions about

current conditions at the company. Casio is also working toward even smoother

operation of human resource systems by holding various regular labor-

management talks.

The labor-management agreement stipulates that the revision or elimination of

human resource labor related systems is carried out via labor-management

discussions. This process is carried out over a sufficient period of time and

involves the sharing of issues by both labor and management.

Objective 2: Classifying motivational strategies into motivation theories

Casio motivation strategies have based on some motivational theory that I learned in

IB business management textbook and this strategies will be classified into these

theories to assess which theory mostly adopted by Casio for their employees. The

theories would be used are F.W. Taylor and scientific management, Maslow’s

hierarchy of human needs, Herzberg and the “two-factory history”, Adam and equity

theory and Daniel Pink. This assessment is really helpful because each theory gives

different approach to improve the motivation and by classifying the strategies, this
study can focus on what Casio need to enhance regarding its human resource

management.

Motivation Strategies Motivational Reason

Theory
Supporting Advancement Herzberg Increasing the number of female

of Women employment can give a marvelous

outcome as the quality of work that

male and female workers bestow are

different and these both can be used

to enhancing the system of work and

create a wonderful image for external

stakeholders
Encouraging Seniors to F.W. Taylor Providing employment benefit to

Play an Active Role / and scientific retirement-age employees based on

Supporting the Lives and management their past performance is Taylor’s

Employment of Seniors approach where Casio employers

believe that money can motivate staff

and record their past performance to

decide whether they are eligible or not

for this benefit

Initiatives in Hiring Herzberg Casio’s image of stopping

discrimination of worker can enhance

the code of conduct as workers will

build a relationship with people with

different background and get more

knowledge from each other

Ensuring fair evaluation Daniel Pink Double-track evaluation can be a
and compensation goal/challenge that employees

struggle to achieve. It encourage them

to pursue difficult problems that they

never face before.

Initiatives to Support Herzberg Program for easing the parental work

Work-Life Balance for employees can be a job

satisfaction for them as they can be

more focus to their work and give the

best outcome to Casio

Communication between Daniel Pink This strategy an autonomy support for

Labor and Management employees as it can help employees

make progress by giving meaningful

feedback about their work and some

encouragement. Managers are the

only benchmark that employees need

to achieve regarding their quality of

work and by doing this, employees

can be more motivated to achieve that

level

Objective 3: Analyze SWOT for each strategies