Chapter 8: Workplace Motivation and Emotion - Detailed Notes
Introduction to Workplace Motivation and Emotion
Motivation: Goal-directed behavior that pushes people towards certain actions while avoiding others.
Emotion: Emotions drive behavior, influence motivation strength, and affect how we evaluate situations, which in turn triggers behavior.
Motivation and emotion are intertwined, complementing each other.
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic Motivation:
External drivers such as circumstances, situations, and rewards.
Behaviors are performed due to perceived benefits or avoided due to perceived punishment.
Intrinsic Motivation:
Internal drivers such as feelings of satisfaction , achievement and accomplishment
Current concepts describing internal motivation:
Flow: Optimal enjoyment and fully focused while working
Engagement:Really liking your job and working hard to reach goals.
Theories of Motivation and Their Applications
Understanding why employees behave in specific ways is crucial for I-O psychologists.
Motivational and reward strategies should be designed based on this understanding.
Various motivational theories offer different explanations of motivation.
Employees bring unique attributes and experiences to an organization.
These differences include:
Physiological and psychological make-up.
Individual experiences.
Distinctive talents and abilities.
Influence of diverse cultural factors impacts work performance and motivation.
Failure to acknowledge different perspectives and practices can be demotivating.
Motivation Theories Focusing on Organisational Factors
1. Quality of Work Life (QWL)
An approach to motivation.
Environmental Sculpting Approach: Focuses on maintaining a healthy physical work environment.
Job Sculpting Approach: Focuses on individual needs and job design.
Values Underlying QWL:
Employees are treated with respect.
Employees understand organizational functions and their contribution.
Employees are invested in what they help create.
Employees treated as adults act more responsibly.
Employees want to learn and grow with the organization.
2. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
Identifies factors that lead to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Motivational Factors (Satisfiers): Tap into internal or intrinsic needs.
Achievement, advancement, promotion, recognition, nature of work, responsibility.
Lead to motivation and job satisfaction.
Hygiene Factors (Dissatisfiers): Extrinsic factors.
Pay, supervision, work conditions, policies, and procedures.
Lead to dissatisfaction and demotivation.
3. Job Design
Finding your work fulfilling helps you be more motivated and satisfied, which improves your performance.
Techniques:
Job Rotation:
Switching employees between different jobs or tasks to reduce boredom and increase skills.Job Enlargement:
Adding more tasks at the same level of difficulty to make a job more diverse.Job Enrichment:
Adding more responsibility or opportunities for growth to make a job more rewarding.
Job Crafting:
When employees adjust their jobs to match their strengths or interests.
Job Characteristics:
Creating a complete piece of work.
Scope in decision-making responsibility, variety, and control.
Direct feedback for the employee.
Theories Focusing on Employee Factors
A need is an internal physical or psychological drive that creates tension and motivates behavior to ease the tension.
These theories focus on personal attributes, especially needs that must be satisfied for optimum work motivation.
4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Hierarchy from basic to complex needs:
Psychological and Survival Needs: Basic needs.
Safety Needs: Free from danger.
Social Needs: Desire for love and affection.
Ego and Esteem Needs: To be respected, have self-respect.
Self-Actualization Needs: Self-realization and self-fulfillment.
Lower-order needs must be satisfied before higher-order needs become motivators.
5. Alderfer’s ERG Theory
Existence: Material and physical desires required to survive.
Relatedness: Need to have relationships, share thoughts and feelings, belonging.
Growth: Need to be productive, change oneself, and progress towards one’s ideal self.
Several needs can operate simultaneously.
6. McClelland’s Needs Theory
Need for Achievement (nAch): Focus on goals, improving performance, and achieving tangible results.
Need for Power (nPow): Wanting to gain control over people, resources, and the general environment.
Need for Affiliation (nAff): Need to make friends, join groups, and associate with other people.
One need is more dominant than the others in each individual.
Motivating People by Facilitating Change in Behaviors
Goal-setting theory and behavior modification enhance performance in relation to specific behaviors.
These theories influence a particular behavior, rather than creating an environment that enhances motivation.
7. Goal-Setting Theory
Behavior is regulated by intentions.
Key Propositions:
Specific goals lead to higher performance levels.
Higher the goal, the higher the level of performance (depending on commitment).
Monetary incentives, participative decision-making, feedback, and knowledge of results affect performance only when employees are committed to goals.
Goals should be mutually acceptable to the manager and employee.
8. Behavior Modification
Governed by the law of effect.
Behaviors followed by a positive outcome are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by negative outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
Theories Focusing on People’s Beliefs
Employees are rational, thinking beings who can make decisions on how much work to do to achieve expected or desired results.
9. Expectancy Theory
Employees are motivated by the expected results of their actions with three elements:
Valence: How happy an employee expects to be with the result of their work
Instrumentality: The belief that actions will lead to results
Expectancy: The belief (probability) that the individual will achieve their desired goal.
Vroom's equation: MF = Expectancy \, x \, Instrumentality \, x \, Valence , where MF represents motivational forces.
10. Equity Theory
Employees want fair rewards compared to others in similar situations.
Comparisons Made On Three Levels:
Comparisons with other individuals.
Comparisons with reference groups.
Comparisons with general occupational classifications.(comparing your job or career with average standards or roles in your industry or job level.)
11. Self-Efficacy Theory
Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s estimate of their own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation.
Persons with high levels of self-efficacy believe:
They have the necessary abilities.
They are resourceful enough.
They can overcome any obstacles that may hinder their ability to achieve their goals.
12. Cognitive Evaluation Theory
Self-determination theory that centers on the idea that when a behavior is perceived to be self-determined, this drives intrinsic motivation.
Psychological meaning an individual attaches to an event determines its motivational value.
Four Propositions:
External events perceived beyond an individual’s control undermine intrinsic motivation; if believed to be under their control, it tends to enhance motivation.
Events that enhance perceived competence strengthen intrinsic motivation and vice versa.
Demotivating aspects promote perceived incompetence, undermining perceived competence.
Intrapersonal events differ in significance and impact.
Management-Centred Theories of Motivation
McGregor’s Theories X and Y
Assumptions that managers make about their subordinates can become self-fulfilling. For example, if a manager believes employees are lazy (Theory X), employees are more likely to exhibit that behavior. Conversely, if a manager believes employees want to work hard (Theory Y), employees are more likely to prove that belief true
Mood, Temperament, and Expression of Emotion
Primary Emotions: tend to be universal in all people and are easily recognizable with distinctive physiological patterns.
Secondary Emotions: blends of emotions that tend to be specific to cultures and will differ from culture to culture.
Temperament / Dispositional (Trait) Affect: personality dimensions that are largely genetic, consistent across situations, and relatively stable. E.g., positive affectivity.
Mood: general feelings resulting from a specific situation; a pervasive and sustained emotion.
Empathy: the ability to understand the emotions of others.
Emotional Intelligence (EI): “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.”