Motivation

Objectives
– Define the motivation process
– Describe motivation theories
– Explain how goals motivate people
– Identify ways to design motivating jobs
– Describe current motivation issues
facing managers
– Identify management practices that are
likely to lead to more motivated
employees
 Definition
• Factors that cause channel and sustain an individual’s
behavior
• Psychological forces within a person that determine :
– Direction of behavior in an organization
– People’s effort
– Persistence displayed in meeting goals
Intrinsic motivation : behavior performed for its own sake
- motivation comes from performing the task
Extrinsic motivation : behavior performed to acquire
rewards
- motivation sources is the consequences of an
action
 Outcomes & Inputs
• Outcome : anything a person gets from a job
– People seek outcome regardless of the source
– Ex., pay, autonomy, accomplishment
• Input : anything a person contributes to their job
– Organizations hire workers to obtain inputs
– Ex., skills, knowledge, work behavior
Thus managers use outcomes to motivate workers to
provide inputs.
 Motivation equation

Inputs Performance
Outcomes

Time
Effort
Education Pay
Contribute to
Experience Job security
organizational efficiency
Skills Benefits
Effectiveness
Knowledge Vacation
And
Work behv. Autonomy
Attain goals
responsibility
 Expectancy theory

• Victor Vroom suggests that motivation will

be high when workers feel :
– High levels of effort lead to high performance
– High performance will lead to the attainment
of desired outcomes
• Expectancy , Instrumentality , Valence
 Expectancy, Instrumentality & Valence

EFFORT PERFORMANCE OUTCOME

Person’s Perception that

How desired are
Perception that performance
the outcome
their effort will result Results in
from a job
in performance outcomes
 High motivation

• High motivation results from high levels of

expectancy, instrumentality and valence
– If one value is low, motivation will be low
– Even if desired outcomes are close to
performance, the worker must feel the task Is
possible to achieve for high motivation to
result
– Managers need to consider this relationship to
build high performance firm
 Need theory
• People are motivated to obtain outcomes
at work to satisfy their needs
– Requirement for survival
– To motivate :
• Managers must determine what needs worker
wants
• Ensure that a person receives the outcomes when
performing well
– Several need’s theories exist.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Alderfer’s ERG
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

– lower-order needs - largely satisfied externally

• physiological - food, drink, shelter, sexual satisfaction
• safety - security and protection from physical and emotional
harm
– assurance that physiological needs will be satisfied
– Higher-order needs - largely satisfied internally
• social - affection, belongingness, acceptance
• esteem - internal factors like self-respect, autonomy
– external factors like status, recognition, attention
• self-actualization - achieving one’s potential
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (cont.)

– each level in hierarchy must be satisfied

before the next is activated
• once a need is substantially satisfied it no
longer motivates behavior
– theory received wide recognition
– little research support for the validity of
the theory
 Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Self-
Actualization

Esteem

Social

Safety

Physiological

© Prentice Hall, 2002 16-12

 Alderfer’s ERG
• People strive to meet a hierarchy of existence ,
relatedness and growth needs, if efforts to reach one
level are frustrated individuals will regress to a lower level
• Growth : self development, creative work – worker
improves skills
• Relatedness : interpersonal relations, feelings-good
relations, feedback
• Existence: food, water, shelter – basic pay levels
– People move up and down the hierarchy of needs
from time to time
 McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

– Theory X - assumes that workers have little ambition,

dislike work, want to avoid responsibility, and need to
be closely controlled
• assumed that lower-order needs dominated
– Theory Y - assumes that workers can exercise self-
direction, accept and actually seek out responsibility,
and consider work to be a natural activity
• assumed that higher-order needs dominated
– no evidence that either set of assumptions is valid
– no evidence that managing on the basis of Theory Y
makes employees more motivated
 Motivation – hygiene theory

• Motivation needs : relates to nature of

work and how challenging it is
• Hygiene needs : relates to the physical
and psychological context of the work
– Good work environment, pay , job security
– When hygiene needs are not met, workers are
dissatisfied
 Equity theory
• Individual’s evaluation of the equity or fairness of
the reward received
• Considers workers perceptions of the fairness of
work outcomes in proportion to their inputs.
– Adams notes it is the relative rather than the absolute
level of outcomes a person receives.
• The Outcome/input ratio is compared by worker with another
person called a referent.
• The referent is perceived as similar to the worker.
– Equity exists when a person perceives their
outcome/input ratio to be equal to the referent’s ratio.
• If the referent receives more outcomes, they should also give
more inputs to achieve equity.
 Inequity
• Inequity exists when workers outcome/input ratio is not
equal to referent.
– Underpayment inequity: ratio is less than the referent. Worker
feels they are not getting the outcomes they should given inputs.
– Overpayment inequity: ratio is higher than the referent. Worker
feels they are getting more outcomes then they should given
inputs.
• Restoring Equity: Inequity creates tension in workers to
restore equity.
• In underpayment, workers reduce input levels to correct.
Overpayment, worker can change the referent to adjust.
• If inequity persists, worker will often leave the firm.
 Goal setting theory
• Focus worker’s inputs in the direction of high
performance & achievement of organizational
goals.
• Goal is what a worker tries to accomplish.
– Goals must be specific and difficult for high
performance results.
– Workers put in high effort to achieve such goals.
• Workers must accept and be committed to them.
– Feedback on goal attainment also is important.
– Goals point out what is important to the firm.
• Managers should encourage workers to develop
action plans to attain goals.
 Guidelines for Job Redesign

© Prentice Hall, 2002 16-19

 Guidelines For Job Redesign
Suggested Core Job
Actions Dimensions

Combining Tasks Skill Variety

Forming Natural
Work Units Task Identity

Forming Natural
Work Units Task Significance

Load Vertically Autonomy

Opening Feedback
Channels Feedback
© Prentice Hall, 2002
 Job Characteristics Model
Core Job Critical Personal and
Dimensions Psychological States Work Outcomes
High Internal
Skill Variety Experienced Work Motivation
Task Identity meaningfulness
Task Significance of the work
High-Quality
Work Performance
Experienced responsibility
Autonomy
for outcomes of work
High Satisfaction
with the Work
Knowledge of the actual
Feedback Low Absenteeism
results of the work
and Turnover

Strength of Employee Growth

Need
© Prentice Hall, 2002
 Pay and motivation
• Pay can help motivate workers.
• Expectancy: pay is an instrumentality (and
outcome), must be high for motivation to be high.
Need Theory: pay is used to satisfy many needs.
Equity Theory: pay is given in relation to inputs.
Goal Setting Theory: pay linked to goal attainment.
Learning Theory: outcomes (pay), is distributed
upon performance of functional behaviors.
• Pay should be based on performance, many firms
do this with a Merit Pay Plan.
 Motivating a diverse workforce

– flexibility is the key to motivating a

diverse workforce
• diverse array of rewards necessary to
satisfy diverse personal needs and goals
– Flexible Working Schedule
• compressed workweek - employees work
longer hours per day but fewer days per
week
 Motivating a diverse workforce (cont.)

– Flexible Working Schedule (cont.)

• flexible work hours (flextime) - employees
required to work a specific number of hours a week
but are free to vary those hours within certain limits
– system entails common core hours when all employees
are required to be on the job
– starting, ending, and lunch-hour times are flexible
• job sharing - two or more people split a full-time
job
• telecommuting - employees work at home and
are linked to the workplace by computer and
modem
 Motivating a diverse workforce (cont.)

– Cultural Differences in Motivation

• motivation theories developed in the U.S. and
validated with American workers
• may be some cross-cultural consistencies
• Pay-for-Performance
– instead of paying for time on the job, pay is adjusted
to reflect some performance measure
– compatible with expectancy theory
• imparts strong performance-reward linkage
– programs are gaining in popularity
• research suggests that programs affect performance
 Motivating new workforce

– Motivating Professionals - professionals

tend to derive intrinsic satisfaction from their
work and receive high pay
• more loyal to their profession than their employer
• value challenging jobs and support for their
 Motivating new workforce (cont.)

– Motivating Contingent Workers - part-time,

contract, or temporary workers
• less security and stability than permanent
employees
– receive fewer benefits
• display little identification or commitment to their
employers
• hard to motivate contingent workers
– opportunity to become a permanent employee
– opportunity for training
• repercussions of mixing permanent and contingent
workers when pay differentials are significant
 Motivating new workforce (cont.)

– Motivating Low-Skilled, Minimum-Wage

Employees
• difficult challenge to keep performance levels high
• employee recognition programs
– highlight employees whose work performance has been
good
– encourage others to perform better
– power of praise
• in service industries, empower front-line
employees to address customers’ problems
– tie compensation to customer satisfaction
 From Theory To Practice
Recognize
Match people
individual
to jobs
differences

Don’t ignore
Use goals
money Suggestions
for
Motivating
Ensure that goals
Check the system Employees are perceived as
for equity
attainable

Link rewards Individualize

to performance rewards

© Prentice Hall, 2002