Transcript
Chapter 12: Motivating Employees
Motivation: may be defined as the psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-directed behavior
A simple model of motivation: unfulfilled need—motivation—behaviors—rewards—feedback (and recycle)
Extrinsic rewards—satisfaction in the payoff from others
Extrinsic reward: the payoff, such as money, that a person receives from others for performing a particular task
Intrinsic rewards—satisfaction in performing the task itself
Intrinsic reward: the satisfaction, such as feeling of accomplishment, that a person receives from performing the particular task itself
In order of importance, you want to motivate people to:
1.) join your organization
2.) stay with your organization
3.) show up for work at your organization
4.) be engaged while at your organization
5.) do extra for your organization
The 4 Major Perspectives on Motivation
1.) Content
2.) Process
3.) Job Design
4.) Reinforcement
Content perspectives: also known as need-based perspectives, are theories that emphasize the needs that motivate people
Needs: defined as physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouse behavior
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory: proposes that people are motivated by 5 levels of needs:
1.) physiological (bottom of the pyramid)
2.) safety
3.) love
4.) esteem
5.) self-actualization (top of the pyramid)
ERG Theory: developed by Clayton Alderfer, assumes that 3 basic needs influence behavior—existence, relatedness, and growth
Unlike Maslow’s theory, ERG theory suggests that behavior is motivated by 3 needs, not 5
From lowest to highest level, the 3 needs are:
1.) Existence needs: the desire for physiological and material well-being
2.) Relatedness needs: the desire to have meaningful relationships with people who are significant to us
3.) Growth needs: the desire to grow as human beings and to use our abilities to their fullest potential
Acquired needs theory: proposed by David McClelland, states that 3 needs—achievement, affiliation, and power—are major motives determining people’s behavior in the workplace
Need for achievement: “I need to excel at tasks”
Need for affiliation: “I need close relationships”
Need for power: “I need to control others”
2 forms of the need for power:
The negative kind is the need for personal power, as expressed in the desire to dominate others, and involves manipulating people for one’s own gratification
The positive kind, characteristic of top managers and leaders, is the desire for institutional power, as expressed in the need to solve problems that further organizational goals
Two-Factor Theory: proposed by Frederick Herzberg, proposed that work satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise from two different factors—work satisfaction from motivating factors and work dissatisfaction from hygiene factors
Motivating factors: “what will make my people satisfied?”
Achievement
Recognition
The work itself
Responsibility
Advancement and growth
Hygiene factors: “what will make my people dissatisfied?”
Pay and security
Working conditions
Interpersonal relationships
Company policy
Supervisors
Using Two-Factor Theory to Motivate Employees
During the Great Recession, with fewer jobs available, more people were stuck with jobs they disliked; the US reached its job satisfaction peak in 2009 when the recession ended because people were grateful for having their jobs
If using Herzberg’s research, you should first eliminate dissatisfaction making sure that working conditions, pay levels, and company policies are reasonable
You should then concentrate on spurring motivation
Positive hygiene factors could include allowing pets at work, offering video game arcades, etc.
Process perspectives: concerned with the thought processes by which people decide how to act
Equity theory: focuses on employee perceptions as to how fairly they think they are being treated compared with others
The elements of equity theory: Comparing your inputs and outputs with those of others
Inputs—“what do you think you’re putting into the job?”
Time, effort, training, experience, intelligence, creativity
Outputs or rewards—“what do you think you’re getting out of the job?”
Pay, benefits, praise, recognition, promotions, status perquisites
Comparison—“how do you think your ratio of inputs and rewards compares with those of others?”
Using Equity Theory to Motivate Employees
Adams suggests that employees who feel they are being underrewarded will respond to the perceived inequity in one or more negative ways, as by reducing their inputs, trying to change the outputs or rewards they receive, distorting the inequity, changing the object of comparison, or leaving the situation
Also, employees who think they are treated fairly are more likely to support organizational change, more apt to cooperate in group settings, and less apt to turn arbitration and the courts to remedy real or imagined wrongs
Expectancy Theory: How much do you want and how likely are you to get it?
Introduced by Victor Vroom, expectancy theory suggests that people are motivated by two things: (1) how much they want something and (2) how likely they think they are to get it
Assuming they have choices, people will make the choice that promises them the greatest reward if they think they can get it
Your motivation, according to the expectancy theory, involves the relationship between your effort, your performance, and the desirability of the outcomes of your performance. These relationships are affected by 3 elements: expectancy, instrumentality, and valence
1.) Expectancy—“will I be able to perform at the desired level on a task?”
Expectancy is the belief that a particular level of effort will lead to a particular level of performance. This is called the effort-to-performance expectancy
2.) Instrumentality—“what outcome will I receive if I perform at this level?”
Instrumentality is the expectation that successful performance of the task will lead to the outcome desired. This is called the performance-to-reward expectancy
3.) Valence—“how much do I want the outcome?”
Valence is value, the importance a worker assigns to the possible outcome or reward
Using Expectancy Theory to Motivate Employees
When attempting to motivate employees, managers should ask the following questions:
What rewards do your employees value?
What are the job objectives and the performance level you desire?
Are the rewards linked to performance?
Do employees believe you will deliver the right rewards for the right performance?
Goal-setting theory: suggests that employees can be motivated by goals that are specific and challenging but achievable (Edwin Locke and Gary Latham)
Job design is (1) the division of an organization’s work among its employees and (2) the application of motivational theories to jobs to increase satisfaction and performance
There are two different approaches to job design, one traditional, one modern, that can be taken in deciding how to design jobs.
The traditional way is fitting people to jobs; the modern way is fitting jobs to people
For managers the main challenge becomes “how can we make the worker most compatible with the work?”
Job simplification: the process of reducing the number of tasks a worker performs
Job enlargement: consists of increasing the number of tasks in a job to increase variety and motivation
Although proponents claim job enlargement can improve employee satisfaction, motivation, and quality of production, research suggests job enlargement by itself won’t have a significant and lasting positive effect on job performance
Job enrichment: consists of building into a job such motivating factors as responsibility, achievement, recognition, stimulating work, and advancement
Instead of the job enlargement technique of simply giving employees additional tasks of similar difficulty (known as horizontal loading), with job enrichment employees are given more responsibility (known as vertical loading)
Job characteristics model: consists of (a) 5 core job characteristics that affect (b) 3 critical psychological states of an employee that in turn affect (c) work outcomes—the employee’s motivation, performance, and satisfaction
5 core job characteristics:
Skill variety—“how many different skills does your job require?”
Task identity—“how many different tasks are required to complete the work?”
Task significance—“how many other people are affected by your job?”
Autonomy—“how much discretion does your job give you?”
Feedback—“how much do you find out how well you’re doing?”
3 psychological states:
Experienced meaningfulness of work
Experienced responsibility for work outcomes
Knowledge of actual results of the work
Work outcomes:
High work motivation
High work performance
High work satisfaction
Low absenteeism and turnover
Contingency factors:
Degree to which individuals want personal and psychological development:
Knowledge and skill
Desire for personal growth
Context satisfactions
Applying the Job Characteristics Model
Diagnose the work environment to see whether a problem exists
Hackman and Oldham developed a self-report instrument for managers to use called the job diagnostic survey. This will indicate whether an individual’s so-called motivating potential score (MPS)—the amount of internal work motivation associated with a specific job—is high or low
Determine whether job redesign is appropriate
If a person’s MPS score is low, an attempt should be made to determine which of the core job characteristics is causing the problem
Consider how to redesign the job
Reinforcement Theory: attempts to explain behavior change by suggesting that behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, whereas behavior with negative consequences tends not to be repeated
The 4 types of Reinforcement: positive, negative, extinction, and punishment
Reinforcement: anything that causes a given behavior to be repeated or inhibited
Positive reinforcement: strengthens behavior
Positive reinforcement is the use of positive consequences to strengthen a particular behavior
Negative reinforcement: also strengthens behavior
Negative reinforcement is the process of strengthening behavior by withdrawing something negative
Extinction: weakens behavior
Extinction is the weakening of behavior by ignoring it or making sure that it is not reinforced
Punishment: also weakens behavior
Punishment is the process of weakening behavior by presenting something negative or withdrawing something positive
Pay for performance: also known as merit pay, bases pay on one’s results
One standard pay for performance plan is according to a piece rate, in which employees are paid according to how much output they produce
Another is sales commission, in which sales reps are paid a percentage of the earnings the company made from their sales
Bonuses: cash awards given to employees who achieve specific performance objectives
Profit sharing: the distribution to employees of a percentage of the company’s profits
Gainsharing: the distribution of savings or “gains” to groups of employees who reduced costs and increased measurable productivity
Stock options: certain employees are given the right to buy stock at a future date for a discounted price
Pay for knowledge: also known as skill-based pay, ties employee pay to the number of job relevant skills or academic degrees they earn
