These ten questions are original and use fictional businesses. They run from easy to harder and cover the skills in motivation at work. Write each answer on paper in full sentences before you open the worked answer.
Check the Cambridge page for your code (0450 or 0264) to see which incentives and terms are expected. The reasoning practised here applies to both. The business case-answer planner and the ratios tool can help as you work.
Questions
1. Staff at a laundry in Kuantan say: “Every day we fold the same towels. We never learn anything new.” Which motivation approach fits this clue most strongly, and what is one action?
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The clue is about the content of the job, so the job-content approach fits. One action is to rotate staff between folding, ironing and customer counter. A condition is that staff need short training for each task.
2. Classify each as financial or non-financial: an annual bonus, flexible working hours, commission on sales, a company-paid training course.
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Annual bonus: financial. Flexible working hours: non-financial. Commission: financial. Training course: non-financial. Check your syllabus list in case it classifies an item differently.
3. A salesperson earns a basic salary of RM2,500 plus 4% commission. Sales in a month are RM35,000. Calculate total pay.
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Commission = 4% × RM35,000 = RM1,400. Total = RM2,500 + RM1,400 = RM3,900.
4. A sewing worker earns RM65 a day plus RM0.25 for every item above 120. She sews 150 items. Find her pay for the day.
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Items above 120 = 150 − 120 = 30. Extra pay = 30 × RM0.25 = RM7.50. Total = RM65 + RM7.50 = RM72.50.
5. A firm made RM84,000 profit and shares 10% of it equally among 12 staff. How much does each person receive?
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10% of RM84,000 = RM8,400. Each person gets RM8,400 ÷ 12 = RM700.
6. A workshop with 12 workers makes 2,160 units a week. After a change it makes 2,400 units a week with the same 12 workers. Calculate productivity before and after and the percentage rise, to one decimal place.
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Before: 2,160 ÷ 12 = 180 units per worker. After: 2,400 ÷ 12 = 200 units per worker. Rise = 20 ÷ 180 = 0.111, so 11.1%.
7. Which job suits pay per item better: sewing identical uniforms, or handling customer complaints? Give a reason.
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Sewing identical uniforms. Output is easy to count and quality is easy to check. Paying per complaint closed could push staff to end calls quickly instead of solving the problem.
8. A shop introduces a sales bonus in October. Sales in November rise by 8%. Hari Raya shopping, a promotion and the bonus all took place in these months. Can the owner say the bonus caused the rise? Explain.
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Not with certainty. Other changes may account for part or all of the rise. The owner can say the bonus may have contributed, and could compare with the same period last year or with a staff group without the bonus.
9. A snack maker has 8 packers. A bonus of RM0.10 is paid for every item above 500 a day. Each packer now packs 560 items. Each extra item gives RM0.50 profit before the bonus. If all extra items are sold, what is the net gain per day?
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Extra items per packer = 60, so total extra items = 60 × 8 = 480. Extra profit = 480 × RM0.50 = RM240. Bonus bill = 480 × RM0.10 = RM48. Net gain = RM240 − RM48 = RM192 a day, if all are sold and quality holds.
10. Kafe Rimba in Petaling Jaya has 10 staff. The owner’s criteria are as follows. The policy must cost no more than RM1,500 a month. Late arrivals must fall below 8 a month (now 15). More than 3 of the 10 staff should be trained to run the till (now 3). The policy is a RM50 monthly reward for each staff member with no late arrival. Evaluate the policy against each criterion and judge.
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Cost: at most 10 × RM50 = RM500, below RM1,500, so it passes with RM1,000 spare.
Lateness: the reward is paid for punctuality, so it links directly to the 15 late arrivals. It is likely to help, though staff may arrive on time and still be slow in other ways.
Till training: the policy does nothing for this criterion.
Judgement: the policy passes two criteria and misses one. The RM1,000 spare could pay for till training. The combined package fits the criteria better than the reward alone, provided lateness actually falls.
If you got these wrong
| Where it went wrong | Lesson to revisit |
|---|---|
| Question 1, picked the wrong approach or ignored the clue | Connect a motivational approach to the case facts |
| Questions 2, 3 and 5, mixed up the incentive types or the arithmetic | Compare financial and non-financial incentives |
| Questions 4, 7 and 9, forgot that the bonus applies only above the threshold, or ignored the task | Explain why one incentive may not suit all tasks |
| Questions 6 and 8, wrong productivity calculation or claimed certainty | Trace motivation through productivity without certainty |
| Question 10, judged on only one criterion | Evaluate a fictional policy with stated business criteria |
Note the type of error, not just the question number. A mistake log helps you see whether your slips are arithmetic, interpretation or incomplete reasoning.
What next?
When you can answer all ten without opening the worked answers, move on to case analysis and evaluation. If the arithmetic is fine but the written reasoning is where marks are lost, our teachers can work on that in online one-to-one Business tuition.