Employee Motivation in the Workplace

What is Motivation?

• Motivation is the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in individuals to be continually interested in and committed in something.

• It is essential for achieving organizational goals and maintaining employee satisfaction. 

Individual differences related to work motivation

• Personality

• Conscientiousness is the best predictor of work performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and academic performance

• Stability is associated with salary and setting high goals

• Extraversion is correlated with the number of promotions received 

• Self-Esteem

  • The extent to which a person views themselves as valuable and worthy. 

• Korman’s Consistency Theory: Employees will be motivated to perform at levels consistent with their levels of self-esteem. 

  • Chronic: a person’s overall feeling about themself

  • Situational: a person’s feeling about themself in a particular
    Situation

    • Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) 

• Socially influenced: how a person feels about themself based on the expectations of others. 

• Can be improve through

  • Workshops

  • Experience with success

    • Self-fulfilling prophecy: individuals will perform as well or as poorly as they expect to perform 

    • Galatea effect: high self-expectations result in higher levels of performance 

  • Supervisor behavior 

    • Pygmalion effect: if people believe that something is true, they will act in a manner consistent with that belief 

    • Golem effect: negative expectations of an individual cause a decrease in that individual’s actual performance

• Intrinsic Motivation

  • Work motivation in the absence of external factors (pay, promotion, and coworkers)

  • Need for achievement

Employee’s Values and Expectations 

• Job expectations 

• Realistic Job Preview (RJP): A method of recruitment in which job applicants are told both the positive and the negative aspects of a job

• Job Characteristics Theory: suggests that certain characteristics of a job will make the job more or less satisfying, depending on the particular needs of the worker. 

Motivation Theories 

• Maslow’s needs hierarchy

1. Self actualization: morality, ctearyivity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of acts

2. Esteem: self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect to others and self

3. love/belonging: friendship, family, sexual intimacy 

4. Safety: security of body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health, property 

5. Physiological: breathing, food, water, sex, sleep 

• Alderfer’s ERG theory

  • Existence needs: Basic material and physiological desires 

  • Relatedness needs: Interpersonal relationships and social interaction 

  • Growth needs: Personal development and self-fulfillment 

• Herzberg’s two factor theory

  • Motivators: factors that lead to job satisfaction (e.g., growth, recognition, achievement) 

  • Hygienes: Factors that prevent dissatisfaction (e.g., salary, work conditions) 

• McClelland’s theory of needs

1. Need for achievement: Desert to excel and succeed 

2. Need for Affiliation: Desire for friendly and close relationships 

3. Need for Power: Desire to control or influence others 

Self Determination Theory

• SDT postulates that people have an innate need for three things: 

  • Competency: to be able to successfully perform the tasks that are
    important to us. 

  • Autonomy: the ability to decide what we want to do and how we are going to do it 

  • Relatedness: to feel that we are a part of a group

Four Drive Theory of Human Nature 

• Employees are influenced by four drives: 

  • Drive to acquire 

  • Drive to bond

  • Drive to learn

  • Drive to defend

Goal Setting

• SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Bound

• ​​Some studies indicate that Employee Participation would lead to the greatest increase in productivity 

Giving feedback on employee’s goal progress 

• Ineffective feedback is a reason why some employees they would change jobs. 

• Most employees do not receive enough feedback to help them improve their performance

• Physical, verbal, and nonverbal feedback is appreciated

• Positive vs negative feedback 

• Supervisors should encourage employees to ask for feedback

• Must be given immediately, frequently, and constructively. 

​​Incentives for achieved goals 

• Overtime pay, weekend pay, referrals, length of service awards, performance/bonus pay

• Incentive systems are based on operant conditioning: Employees engaging in positive behavior will be rewarded and engagement in negative behaviors will be punished

Factors of an effective incentive program 

• Timing of incentive

  • Reinforcement or a punishment is most effective if it occurs immediately after the performed behavior

• Contingency of consequences 

  • Reward or punishment is directly connected to an employee's behavior.

• Type of incentives used

  • Premack Principle: reinforcement is relative both within an individual and between individuals.

    • Reinforcement Hierarchy: Rank-ordered list of reinforcers for an individual

  • Financial Rewards: Can be a part of an employee’s compensation package or be a bonus for accomplishing certain goals.

  • Recognition

    • Employee of the month, quarter, year; People’s choice award; Most outstanding employee

    • Social Recognition: consists of personal attention and signs of approval, and expressions of appreciation. 

  • Travel: travel rewards

• Individual VS group incentives

  • Individual incentive plans

    • Pay for performance: employees are paid on the basis of how much they individually produce (ex. commissions) 

    • Merit pay: employees receive pay bonuses based on performance appraisal scores (annual salary increase; promotions)

    • Advantage: Avoids social loafing

    • Disadvantage: difficulty in measuring individual performance; can foster unhealthy competition; some employees don’t understand how the incentive system works. 

  • Group incentive plans

    • Profit sharing: employees get a percentage of the profits made by an organization

    • Gainsharing: employees are paid a bonus based on improvements in group productivity

      • Baseline: The level of productivity before the implementation of a gainsharing plan

    • Stock options: employees are given the option of buying shares in the future at the price of the stock when the options were granted

• Expectancy theory

  • MOTIVATION = E (I*V)

  • Expectancy (E): perceived relationship between the amount of effort an employee puts in and the resulting outcome.

  • Instrumentality (I): The extent to which the outcome of a worker’s performance, if noticed, results in a particular consequence

  • Valence (V): extent to which an employee values a particular outcome 

  • Criticisms

    • If one component is zero, the resulting motivation is zero. It might be better to add instead of multiplying.

    • The theory assumes people are rational and believe they have control over their own lives. 

• Reward VS Punishment 

  • Punishment can be used to change employee behavior 

• Advantage: It can reduce bad behavior and set an example for others.

• Disadvantage: It might only change behavior temporarily, doesn't teach good behavior, and can make employees feel resentful.

• Rewards are generally more effective than punishment in changing employee behavior

Equitable rewards and resources

• Equity theory: How people feel when they compare their work situation to others'. If they think they're treated unfairly, they'll try to change that.

  • Inputs: the elements that employees put into their jobs 

  • Outputs: What employees get from their jobs.

  • Input/Output ratio: The ratio of how much employees believe they put into their jobs to how much they believe they get from their jobs

• Main postulates

  • People strive to maintain a state of equity.

  • When inequity is perceived, a state of tension results.

  • When faced with this tension, people are motivated to reduce the tension. 

  • The greater the magnitude of the perceived inequity, the greater the motivation to act to reduce the tension

• Reducing percieved inequity

  • Change of inputs

  • Change of outcomes

  • Alter perceptions