Transactions in Action

I have been working at Stratus Solutions for the past 7 weeks. While I don’t interact much with other people, I do receive constant emails, attend meetings, and stay in the loop regarding company news. I have noticed that Stratus wants employees to feel motivated. I have identified the motivation and leadership in Stratus as being primarily transactional, but I think it would serve the company well to incorporate transformational leadership into the company.

Stratus Solutions gives its employees ample incentives to work hard. There are performance bonuses, referral bonuses, and continued education bonuses. The company also gives a generous amount of paid time off, and its healthcare plans are top notch. The company is constantly sending surveys to determine the benefits people want the most. This type of leadership is very effective according to Stratus. Over 90% of workers surveyed were completely satisfied with their benefits and didn’t want to change them.

The company gives these benefits because the work is very challenging, and there is fierce competition for computer scientists. Many jobs, particularly on the west coast, pay much more than Stratus. In addition, many jobs at Stratus require a security clearance, which is just another hoop to jump through. The leadership thus provides cash incentives for these security clearances so that people are motivated to maintain them and not leave the company.

During COVID, I have realized that there are ways Stratus can simply not compete with other companies, and thus I believe it must switch to transformational leadership if it wants people to stay at the company. Remote work is especially liberating for computer scientists. Instead of having to live in Silicon Valley and commute to work 2 hours every day, people can simply work from home. Many jobs at Stratus however cannot be done from home because of rules regarding classified documents. These jobs require workers to be in the office to access them. With the changing times and more people looking for remote work, Stratus needs to change its approach to motivating people to work for them. I think a transformational model would benefit Stratus. The company already has a strong work culture, and I think emphasizing the “family” aspect of working for them would be effective.