2.4 Motivation and demotivation questions for IB Business Management

Mwendo Couriers

[1] Mwendo Couriers (MC) is a private limited company that delivers parcels for online retailers across Nairobi, Kenya. It was founded in 2016 by Chebet Rotich and now employs 140 motorcycle riders, 22 warehouse staff and 9 managers. Riders are paid a piece rate of KES 85 for each parcel delivered. There is no basic wage, and riders pay for their own fuel.

[2] Operations manager Peter Otieno runs MC using methods he describes as “scientific”. Each morning, delivery routes are planned by software that calculates the fastest sequence of stops. Riders must follow the route exactly, and a GPS tracker records any stop longer than four minutes. Peter believes that “riders are motivated by money, so the more they deliver, the more they earn, and everyone wins”.

[3] In 2025 the number of parcels delivered per rider rose by 11 %, but customer complaints about damaged parcels and rude riders doubled. Two riders were injured in road accidents after riding through red lights to keep to schedule. A local newspaper published an article titled “Racing for shillings”.

[4] Chebet is considering replacing the piece rate with a time rate of KES 450 per four-hour shift, plus a monthly bonus for riders with no complaints and no damaged parcels. Peter warns that output will fall and that MC’s prices, already the lowest in Nairobi, would have to rise.

Casa Albera is an estate agency in Valencia, Spain. Its agents are paid a basic salary of €1 200 per month plus commission of 1.5 % of the value of every property they sell. In March, agent Núria Vilaplana sold three apartments for €145 000, €160 000 and €175 000.

Ubuntu Reclaim

Ubuntu Reclaim (UR) is a social enterprise in Cape Town, South Africa, set up in 2017 by Ayanda Qwabe. It employs 85 former informal waste pickers (“reclaimers”), who once collected recyclable materials from landfill sites and streets with no protective equipment and unpredictable earnings. UR collects recyclable waste from apartment buildings and offices, sorts it at its depot and sells the sorted paper, plastics and metals to recycling plants. It pays a fixed monthly wage above the national minimum wage, provides protective clothing and runs a savings scheme for its workers. UR is a private company; all surpluses are reinvested.

Excerpt 1: Email from Ayanda Qwabe to UR’s board

Prices paid by recycling plants for our sorted materials have fallen by about 30 % this year. We are now running a monthly deficit (see below). If nothing changes, our reserves will last about five months. I propose we move from a fixed wage to a piece rate of R1.40 per kilogram sorted, so that pay reflects what we earn. Our best sorters would earn more than now.

Excerpt 1 (continued): UR average monthly figures (R)

Excerpt 2: Social media post by Sipho Dlamini, UR sorter and chair of the newly formed UR branch of the Cape Reclaimers’ Union (CRU)

We left the landfill for a fixed wage, safety and respect. Now they want to pay us by the kilo again, like the old days. The average sorter does about 220 kg a day. At R1.40 that is a pay cut. We were never asked. If UR goes ahead, we will strike. #NotMachines

Excerpt 3: Results of an anonymous survey of UR workers (72 responses)

Excerpt 4: Article in a Cape Town business newspaper

The city plans to require all large apartment buildings to separate recyclables at source from 2027. This should raise the quality, and the price, of collected materials. A large waste-management company has said it will bid for the new collection contracts. Social enterprises such as Ubuntu Reclaim may struggle to compete on price, but the city says it will give “additional weight” to bidders that create jobs for former reclaimers.

Excerpt 5: Email from Lerato Khumalo, impact investment manager at a development foundation

We would consider a five-year loan of R1.2 million at a low interest rate to help UR through this period, possibly linked to converting UR into a worker co-operative. We would need to see a plan showing how UR will become financially sustainable and how labour relations will be stabilized. A strike now would make us very cautious.

Pinheiro Dental

[1] Pinheiro Dental (PD) is a partnership of three dentists, Ana, Rafael and Beatriz Pinheiro, that runs four clinics in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. PD employs 12 dental hygienists, 18 dental assistants and 9 receptionists. Most staff are paid a monthly salary that is 5 % above the average for the city.

[2] A staff survey in 2025 showed that morale was low. Hygienists said that they had no say in how appointments were scheduled, that their skills in preventive care were not used, and that “the dentists only notice us when something goes wrong”. Receptionists complained about an old booking system that regularly crashed, and assistants complained that two clinics had no staff room.

[3] Rafael wants to give every employee a 10 % pay rise, costing BRL 480 000 a year. He argues that “people work for money”. Beatriz disagrees. She proposes to spend part of the money on a new booking system and staff rooms, and to enrich the hygienists’ jobs: each hygienist would run their own preventive-care clinic for patients one day a week and present their results at a monthly partners’ meeting.

[4] The partners must decide before PD opens a fifth clinic next year, when it will need to recruit eight more staff in a competitive labour market.

Fresas de Lepe is a strawberry farm in Huelva, Spain. Pickers are paid a piece rate of €0.80 per kilogram of strawberries picked, with a guaranteed minimum of €60 per day. Table 1 shows the output of one picker, Ioana, over three days.

Table 1: Strawberries picked by Ioana

Calculate Ioana’s total pay for the three days (show all your working).

Paso Común (PC)

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Paso Común (PC) is a social enterprise in Medellín, Colombia. It was founded in 2017 by Mariela Ospina, a former social worker, as a non-profit foundation. PC makes canvas shoes with soles cut from recycled tyres in a workshop where former members of armed groups, who have completed the government’s reintegration programme, work side by side with people whose families were victims of the armed conflict. PC’s mission is “to rebuild trust one step at a time”. It sells its shoes in its own shop, online and at craft fairs.

Image: a pair of PC’s canvas shoes in deep green, with a black sole made from a recycled tyre. Two hands, one older and one younger, are tying the laces together. Printed on the shoe box: “Paso Común – two stories, one step”.

Resource 1 – News article from *Medellín Hoy*

The workshop where former enemies make shoes together – but can it grow without losing its soul?

Eight years ago, few people believed that former fighters and conflict victims could share a workbench. Today PC employs 34 people and its shoes are worn by two city councillors and a famous salsa singer. Yet the foundation reported its first deficit in 2025. Donations from international peace-building programmes are falling as donors move their attention to other parts of the world.

Table 1: Selected information for PC, 2022–2025

COP m = millions of Colombian pesos. USD 1 ≈ COP 4 000.

Resource 2 – Social media posts from Yeison, a PC employee

Seven years ago I came down from the mountains with nothing. PC gave me a trade, a salary and people who now call me brother – including Doña Rosa, whose son was killed in the war. That is what these shoes mean. [1/2]

Now there is talk of investors and big shops. We were told PC belongs to all of us. If strangers buy it, will we still have a voice, or will we just be machines that make shoes faster? #PasoComún [2/2]

Resource 3 – Internal email from Mariela Ospina to PC’s board of trustees

From: Mariela Ospina, Director

To: Board of trustees

Subject: The Calzado Andino offer and how we pay for it

Calzado Andino, a national footwear retailer with 140 stores, has offered PC a three-year contract for 2 000 pairs a month. The shoes would be sold under Calzado Andino’s own brand, not ours, and it would pay 60 days after delivery. To meet the order we need a second workshop and new cutting machines costing about COP 960 million.

As a foundation we cannot sell shares, and the bank will only lend the full amount at 14 % a year, secured on our building. Fondo Semilla Andina, an impact investor, would invest COP 700 million for 30 % of the shares if we become an S.A.S. BIC*, and would want one seat on a five-person board. Some staff have asked whether we could become a worker co-operative instead.

Please read the lawyer’s summary (attached) before our meeting on Friday. We must answer Calzado Andino within six weeks.

CONFIDENTIAL: this email and any attachments are intended only for the named recipients.

* S.A.S. BIC: a Colombian private limited company that registers a social and environmental purpose and must report every year on its social impact.

Resource 4 – Lawyer’s summary of three legal forms for PC

Resource 5 – Results of a staff survey (30 of 34 employees replied)

Resource 6 – Cost and price information for the Calzado Andino contract