Chapter 7: Motivation Concepts

Definition: The processes that account for an individuals intensity,

direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal

specifically, an organizational goal

Three elements of motivation
o Direction effort that is channeled toward, and consistent with,
organizational goals
o Intensity how hard a person tries
o Persistence how long a person can maintain effort

Early Theories of Motivation Content theories

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory: Physiological Safety

Social Esteem Self-Actualization
Alderfers ERG (remodeling of Maslows)
o Existence: physiological and safety
o Relatedness: social and status
o Growth: esteem and self-actualization
McGregors Theory X and Theory Y
o X believes that employees have little ambition, dislike work
o

and avoid responsibility

Y believes that employees are self-directed, enjoy work and

accept responsibility
Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory
o Hygiene Factors (extrinsic, related to dissatisfaction): company
policies, salary, work conditions
o Motivators (intrinsic, related to satisfaction): growth,
responsibility, achievement
o Limitations:
Participants had self-serving bias
Bias or errors of observation
No overall measure of satisfaction was used
Assumption: a strong relationship between satisfaction and

productivity
McClellands Theory of Three Needs
o Need for Achievement (nAch): The drive to excel, to achieve
in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed
o Need for Power (nPow): The need to make others behave in a
way that they would not have behaved otherwise
o Need for Affiliation (nAff): The desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships
o Good research support but not practical

Contemporary Theories of Motivation more on process

Self-determination Theory
o People prefer to feel they have control over their actions
o Acknowledges that extrinsic rewards can improve even intrinsic
motivation under specific circumstances
Cognitive Evaluation
o Providing an extrinsic reward for behavior that had been
previously only intrinsically rewarding tends to decrease the
overall level of motivation
o Implications:
Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are not independent
Extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic rewards
Pay should be non-contingent on performance
Verbal rewards increase intrinsic motivation; tangible
rewards reduce
o Self-concordance: When the personal reasons for pursuing
goals are consistent with personal interests and core values

(intrinsic motivation), people are happier and more successful

Lockes Goal-Setting Theory
o Specific and difficult goals, with self-generated feedback, lead to
higher performance (challenging yet attainable)
o Dependent on few factors:
Goal commitment (the more public the better!)
Task characteristics (simple, well-learned)
Culture (best match is in North America)
o Management by Objectives
Goals: Tangible, Verifiable, Measurable
4 Common Ingredients of MBO Programs
Goal specificity
Participative decision making
Explicit time period
Performance feedback
Reinforcement Theory
o Behavior is environmentally caused
o Thought (internal cogitative event) is not important - Feelings,
attitudes, and expectations are ignored
o Positive reinforcement: positive response when an individual
shows positive and required behavior
o Negative reinforcement: removing negative / undesirable
consequences.
o Punishment: applying undesirable consequence for showing
undesirable behavior

o Extinction: lowering the probability of undesired behavior by

removing reward for that kind of behavior

Banduras Self-Efficacy Theory
o An individuals belief that he or she is capable of performing a
task.
o Higher efficacy is related to: Greater confidence, greater
persistence in the face of difficulties, better response to negative
feedback (work harder)
o Increasing Self-Efficacy
Enactive Mastery practice makes perfect
Vicarious Modeling increase confidence by watching

(similar)
Verbal Persuasion self fulfilling prophecies
Arousal emotionally aroused/hyped
Expectancy Theory (VIE)
o Expectancy: Effort-performance relationship
o Instrumentality: individual performance-organizational rewards
relationship
o Valuation: Organizational rewards-personal goals relationship
Equity Theory - ratios
o Employees compare their ratios of outcomes-to-inputs of relevant
others
o Underrewarded states cause anger; Overrewarded states
cause guilt
o Tension motivates people to act to bring their situation into
equity
o Relevant Others
Self-Inside - persons experience in a different job in the

same organization
Self-Outside - persons experience in a different job in a

different organization
Other-Inside - another individual or group within the

organization
Other-Outside - another individual or group outside of the

organization
Organizational Justice
o Distributive Justice: Fairness of outcome
o Procedural Justice: Fairness of outcome process
o Interactional Justice: Being treated with dignity and respect

Job Engagement

Defined as the investment of an employees physical, cognitive, and

emotional energies into job performance.

Degree to which an employee believes it is meaningful to engage in

work
Match between the individuals values and the organizations
Leadership behaviors that inspire workers to a greater sense of mission
Construct is partially redundant with job attitudes but may also predict
work outcomes better than job attitudes.