Motivation

Motivation

• Definition: The intensity, direction, and persistence of effort a person shows in reaching a goal.
  • Intensity: How hard a person tries (desire).
  • Direction: Where effort is channeled.
  • Persistence: How long effort is maintained (commitment).

Formula for Performance

• Performance is determined by motivation and ability.
  $Performance = Motivation \times Ability$
• Motivation is a product of desire and commitment.
  $Motivation = Desire \times Commitment$
• Ability is a result of aptitude, training, and available resources.
  $Ability = Aptitude \times Training \times Resources$
• If performance is lacking, it must be determined if it's a motivation or ability issue.
• Motivation is a key influence on performance, but it's not the only factor.

Types of Motivation

• Intrinsic Motivation
  • Can produce interest in something which held no interest.
  • Can motivate to acquire new skills.
  • Sustains over the long run.
  • Tackle assigned tasks willingly.
  • Not always possible in every situation.
  • Over-justification effect: Excessive rewards for internally rewarding behavior can reduce intrinsic motivation.
• Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Rewards

• Unexpected external rewards typically do not decrease intrinsic motivation.
• Praise can increase internal motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation decreases when external rewards are given for completing a particular task or only doing minimal work.

Factors of Motivation

• Drives (Primary):
  • Hardwired in the brain
  • Maintain equilibrium
  • Generate emotion
• Needs (Secondary):
  • Goal-directed forces
  • Motivational force of emotion
  • Corrects imbalances

Needs Theories of Motivation (Early Theories)

• Main idea: Unsatisfied needs result in motivation.
• If rewards for high performance satisfy your needs, your motivation to perform will be high.

Main Need Theories

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Alderfer’s ERG theory
• Herzberg’s two-factor theory (Motivation-Hygiene Theory)
• McClelland's theory of needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Self-actualization
• Esteem
• Love & Belonging
• Safety & Security
• Physiological Needs
• Deficiency needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Benefits:
  • Foundational theory
  • Managers use it
  • Positive theory
• Drawbacks:
  • People don’t progress through stages
  • Overly schematic
  • Not universal

Alderfer’s ERG Theory

• Growth Needs
• Relatedness Needs
• Existence Needs
• Three relationships:
  • Satisfaction-progression
  • Frustration-regression
  • Satisfaction-strengthening

Alderfer’s ERG vs. Maslow’s Hierarchy

• Multiple needs can be pursued at the same time
• People can go back and forth through levels
• Different levels can be satisfied at any time

Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory)

• Hygiene Factors:
  • Sources of job dissatisfaction:
    • Work conditions, salary, relationship with supervisor, relationship with peers.
    • Tend to be extrinsic factors.
• Motivators:
  • Sources of job satisfaction:
    • Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, growth.
    • Tend to be intrinsic factors.

McClelland’s Theory of Needs

• Some needs are innate/biological, others are learned
• Based on Maslow’s hierarchy but removes the use of a formal structure
• Need for achievement – desire to excel
• Need for affiliation – desire for strong interpersonal relationships
• Need for power – desire to influence others

How The Theories Relate

• Maslow:
  • Self-Actualization
  • Esteem
  • Social
  • Safety
  • Physiological
• Alderfer (ERG):
  • Growth
  • Relatedness
  • Existence
• Herzberg (Mot/Hyg):
  • Motivators
  • Hygiene Factors
• McClelland:
  • Need for Achievement
  • Need for Power
  • Need for Affiliation

Process Theories of Motivation (Contemporary Theories)

• Focus on the process of motivation, rather than that needs drive motivation

Expectancy Theory

• Individuals act depending on:
  • Expectancy: Whether their effort will lead to good performance (Effort – performance)
  • Instrumentality: Whether good performance will be followed by a given outcome (Performance – reward)
  • Valence: Whether that outcome is attractive to them (Reward – personal goals)

Expectancy (effort – performance)

• The perceived probability that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance
• If I make the effort, will I be recognized?

Instrumentality (performance – rewards)

• The degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to organizational rewards
• If I get a good appraisal, will I get a reward?

Valence (reward – personal goals)

• The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and are attractive to the individual
• Are the rewards attractive?

Expectancy Theory Formula

$Motivation = Expectancy \times Instrumentality \times Valence$

Behavior Reinforcements

• Operant conditioning – people learn how to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don’t want (a strong nurture argument)

Why Motivate Through Reinforcement?

• To encourage exceptional behaviors
• To discourage unacceptable behaviors

A-B-Cs of Behavior

• Antecedents:
  • What happens before behavior
• Behavior:
  • What a person says or does
• Consequences:
  • What happens after behavior

Four OB Mod Consequences

• Positive reinforcement: When a reinforcer (consequence) is introduced, the behavior is increased/maintained
• Punishment: When introduced, the frequency or probability of the behavior decreases
• Negative reinforcement: When this consequence is removed, behavior is increased/maintained
• Extinction: Behavior decreases when no consequence occurs

Social Cognitive Theory

• Learning behavior outcomes
• Observing consequences that others experience
• Anticipating consequences in other situations
• Behavior modeling
  • Observing, imitating, and practicing behaviors of others
• Self-regulation
  • Engage in intentional, purposive actions, based on short and long-term goals
• We reinforce our own behavior

Effective Goal Setting

• Goal Setting:
  • The process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives
• Goals:
  • Objectives that employees try to accomplish from their work effort
    • Direct attention
    • Regulate effort
    • Increase persistence
    • Encourage the development of strategies and action plans

Goal Setting Theory

• Goal specificity effect (Locke & Latham, 2004)
  • Reduces uncertainty
  • Focuses attention and effort
  • Reduces variability in planning and behavior
• Other elements of goal setting
  • Goal commitment
  • Goal participation
  • Goal feedback

SMART Goals

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timed

Self-Determination Theory

• Autonomy: People prefer to have control over their actions
• Cognitive evaluation theory:
  • Introduction of extrinsic rewards for work (pay) that was previously intrinsically rewarding tends to decrease overall motivation
• Self-concordance:
  • How strongly people’s reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core values

Self-Efficacy Theory

• An individual’s belief that they are capable of performing a task
• Self-efficacy increased by:
  • Enactive mastery
  • Vicarious modeling
  • Verbal persuasion
  • Arousal

Self-Efficacy and Goal Setting

• Individual has confidence that a given level of performance will be attained (self-efficacy)
• Individual sets higher personal goal for performance
• Manager sets difficult, specific goal
• Individual has a higher level of job or task performance

Job Characteristics Model

• Core Job Characteristics:
  • Skill variety
  • Skill identity
  • Skill significance
  • Autonomy
  • Feedback from job
• Critical Psychological States:
  • Experienced meaningfulness of the work
  • Experienced responsibility of the outcomes of the work
  • Knowledge of the actual results of the work activities
• Outcomes:
  • High internal work motivation
  • High “growth” satisfaction
  • High general job satisfaction
  • High work effectiveness

Job Characteristics Model

• Core characteristics:
  • Skill variety: Degree job requires various activities, which develop a variety of skills and knowledge
  • Skill identity: Degree job requires completion of a whole, identifiable piece of work
  • Skill significance: Degree the job impacts others' lives
  • Autonomy: Degree the job provides the employee with freedom, independence, and discretion
  • Feedback: Degree the worker has knowledge of results

Job Characteristics Model

• Core individual needs:
  • Meaning: Experiencing meaningful work
  • Responsibility: Experiencing the responsibility for outcomes of work
  • Results: Experience insight on ability

Considerations for Job Characteristics Model

• Optimum levels of job characteristics
• Trade-offs among job characteristics
• People differ

Job Design

• Ways to increase the five core dimensions of the JCM:
  • Job rotation: the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another
  • Job enlargement: the horizontal expansion of jobs
  • Job enrichment: the vertical expansion of jobs
  • Relational job enrichment: increasing employee’s focus on the pro-social benefits of their job

Job Design (cont.)

• Ways to increase the five core dimensions of the JCM:
  • Job sharing: an arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40 hour/week job
  • Flextime: an arrangement in which employees work during common core periods each day but can form their total workday from a flexible set of hours outside the core
  • Telecommuting: the ability to work remotely

Money as a Motivator

How Do Organizations Use Money?

• Pay for pulse
  • Set salaries and wages based on membership and tenure
    • Pros: security & commitment
    • Cons: no link to motivation or performance
• Job-status-based rewards
  • Higher value to jobs with more skill
    • Pros: motivation for competition
    • Cons: reinforces status
• Competency-based rewards
  • Pay based on the skills of employees and how many jobs they can perform
    • Pros: skill improvement, job satisfaction & task performance
    • Cons: may not lead to commitment, people can top out, expensive
• Performance-based rewards
  • Pay based on performance appraisals
    • Pros: effective motivator for high achievers
    • Cons: depends on the effectiveness of evaluation & creates competition

Improving Reward Effectiveness

• Link reward to performance
• Ensure rewards are relevant
• Use team rewards for interdependent jobs
• Ensure the rewards are valued
• Watch out for unintended consequences
• Make things fair – justice and fairness systems

Justice & Fairness

• The extent to which total rewards are perceived as “fair” greatly influences performance, motivation, and job satisfaction
• Procedural, interactive, informational & distributive justice
• Equity theory

Procedural Justice

• The perceived fairness of the process and procedures used to make decisions about employees and pay
• Example: Giving out grades alphabetically or by height is unfair.
• Example: A company that is not transparent about who gets bonuses is unfair.

Interactive Justice

• The perceived degree to which one is treated with dignity and respect
• Important in relationships with our supervisors

Informational Justice

• The perceived degree to which one is provided explanations for decisions and kept informed of organizational matters

Distributive Justice

• The perceived fairness in the distribution of outcomes
  • By equality: Everyone should get either the same outcomes or an equal chance at it regardless of how much they contribute
  • By need: Those who need it most should get the rewards regardless of how much they contribute
  • By equity: The more people contribute, the more they should be rewarded

Distributive Justice Examples

• What if I just gave everyone a B+ (equality)?
  • Slackers would be happy, keeners would not
• What if I gave an A to a B student because she or he needed to get into law school (need)?
  • Make one person happy, but the group may rebel
• What if I gave everyone the grade they deserved based on the exams/papers (equity)?
  • Most are happy with this system but not perfect

Equity Theory

• Individuals are concerned not only with the absolute amount of rewards for their efforts but also with the relationship of this amount to what others receive
• Individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those of others and then respond to eliminate any inequities

Equity Theory Equation

$\frac{Outcomes<em>{your}}{Investments</em>{your}} = \frac{Outcomes<em>{other}}{Investments</em>{other}}$

• Comparisons typically are made to an "Other"

Equity Theory Example

• One instructor gave everyone an “A”
  • Within the class – not much of an issue
    • Positive equity – little work, maximum outcome
  • Between the sections – all hell broke loose!
    • Negative equity – comparison other were the other classes!

Re-Establishing Equity

• Reduce or increase your output or quality appropriately
• Attempt to get more rewards (e.g., stealing)
• Contribute to (e.g., citizenship behaviors) or damage the other person’s success (e.g., sabotage)
• Change your perception of the situation (e.g., the other person actually does deserve more)
• Change your object of reference (e.g., compared to sweat-shop workers, I’m doing great!)
• Leave the field