The warehouse organization of F. Hoffmann La-Roche on the site in Kaiseraugst is transforming its currently classic hierarchical organization into a self-organized one. As intrinsic motivation and engagement of the whole organization is crucial for this transformation the Warehouse Management was faced with the question how to enable motivation within the new organizational set-up. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to evaluate which aspects of the work environment are supporting intrinsic motivation within self-organized teams and give recommendations for action for the warehouse.

The author used a multi-method approach to gather data about the aspects influencing motivation within the organization and the teams. An employee survey over the whole population has been conducted to get an overview of the researched aspects of motivations. Further a form for evaluation of the application and perception of management and coaching methods has been developed and handed out for data gathering. As the focus of the client was laid on the team responsible for the Inbound & Outbound processes, interviews with six delegates of the team have been conducted.

The gathered data lead to a total of twelve areas of recommendations. Within these the author found potential for improvements to foster motivation within self-organized teams. These areas are employee satisfaction, balance of skills and tasks, coaching through managers, feedback culture, acknowledgment, level of responsibility, gap between management and operators, self-efficacy, self-determination, self-confidence, error handling, and goal setting. A prioritisation of the recommendations has been given which put the highest priority to the aspect of self-efficacy as only employees who are believing in making a difference will actively participate in the transformation process. Secondly the focus should be laid on the improvement of the feedback culture and the error handling as these are two basic principles of collaboration within the teams. Moreover, they allow to develop the mindset necessary for self-organization. The third priority has been given to the aspect of goal setting as there is currently no common purpose which would guide the teams within decision taking. Further purpose-oriented goals are enabling higher commitment and motivation.