Motivation concepts and theoretical frameworks

Schering-Plough was founded in 1971 through a merger. During World War II

Schering's American assets were seized, when the war ended, the company's research department had developed numerous drugs, including Chlor-Trimeton, one of the first allergy medicines on the market. (Page Three of Case Study) The product line was not limited to only medications. They also produced cosmetics and consumer needs as well, such as Coppertone and Lotrimin AF.

Schrering-Plough normally employed 500 sales representatives who were assigned to different territories and manage all of the sales activities. The Sales

Managers report to the District Mangers who would oversee 9 to 12 territories, and they were overseen by the Regional Sales Managers. The number of territories would change frequently due to shifts of population. (Page Three of Case Study)

Fred Maiorino started his career as a salesman at the age of 28 with Schering-

Plough in 1956. Fred successfully climb the ladder within the company and in 1984 he was assigned to the South Jersey Sales District which promoted asthmatic products. Fred was well liked within the Medical community. Gerald Novick, a physician, stated, "Fred knows all the secretaries, all the nurses and he could get in and do his business and get out in minutes, while other sales reps would be sitting in the waiting room for hours."

(Page one of case study) Another physician, Dr. Loren Southern, said "Fred was very effective, he knew what he was talking about and was a pleasure to deal with. If you needed, drug samples, or information on side effects, Fred would get it for you like that."

Not only was Fred making a good living, in 1986

he was earning $40,000 a year and $10,000 a year in commissions, he was providing excellent results for the company and obtained company recognition and performance awards. Fred had achieved Schering's Diamond 110 Club Membership six times. The award was given to sales representatives who sold at least 110% of the annual sales quotas. In 1987 of the nine representatives Fred was ranked at the top of the list.

All was going well for Fred until 1987. Due to changes within the company Fred

was assigned a new boss, Jim Reed. Although Fred was considered to be the top-rated salesman for the company, Reed did not feel this was an accurate assessment. When the six-month performance evaluation came out, Reed gave Fred a "Good" performance record, the lowest ever in Fred's career. It was also the lowest ranking with all of the sales representatives, who were at least 20 years younger than Fred and they received salary increases of 12.7% while Fred only received a 5% salary increase. (Page Two of Case Study). Reed had implemented a new system that based the performance of sales employees by quantity of sales and critical incidents of effective and ineffective actions, instead of the usual assessment of quotas that were filled. With this new system in place,

Fred was ranked at a 496 level of 500 employees.

Reed stated that he was trying to build Fred back up to being the top-rated salesman again by coaching, providing medical journals to stay up-to-date, and by increasing the number of sales calls for Fred. He also suggested that Fred set realistic goals for himself. In response to this Fred sent a memo to Reed: "I have opted not to do this at this time, but would like to make the following statement instead 'I have always, during my long career with Schering, strived to do the best I can do, be the best I can be, and that is all anyone can expect of me. Of course, this is nothing new as I will, as in the past, continue to do the same."

There were other numerous issues with Fred as well. Reed had begun checking

up on Fred and he had discovered that Fred had been at home instead of being out in the field working as he was supposed to be and Fred was stating he had been working all day. Fred was given a two suspension without pay for falsifying his reports. Fred was also placed on probation for three months and eventually fired in 1991 for not meeting his set goals.

Fred felt his being fired was based on his age rather than his performance levels.

In 1989 Schering announced it's new Voluntary Retirement Program to it's employees that were 55 and older. The company had even hired 75 to 80 new young sales representatives feeling that the older employees would take the early retirement offer.