Acta Musealia

Become World-Wide Entrepreneurs or, Motivation in Baťa Company Structure

The expansion of Baťa Company was inherently linked to personal development of its co-workers. The management therefore put a great emphasis on their continuous motivation, which took various forms.
Baťa slogans were the most visible part of motivation as they were displayed publicly. Inner motivation was far more varied.
High salary was, most probably, the greatest temptation. To achieve the best possible results, co-workers were also motivated by a promise of a share in the profit. Bad work of one member of a workshop reflected on the whole workshop, thus all co-workers strived to be as efficient as possible and in that sense they checked the work of one another and influenced one another. They were encouraged to think about their work all the time and suggest improvements and innovations.
The company made it possible for their co-workers to achieve personal growth and enabled them to gain further education but at the same time the company urged them to make use of these opportunities.
We could therefore sum up that important parts of motivation in Baťa Company structure were financial reward, individual responsibility for the company prosperity, trust in one's co-workers, praise by the boss, but, above all, the opportunity to reach out from the workshop as far as the highest places in the company management.

Keywords: Baťa, motivation, profit and loss sharing, self-government, Baťa slogans, entrepreneurial principle, system of management