Motivating Employees
Motivating Employees
LO 12-1: Motivation in Accomplishing Goals
Motivation is crucial for directing people's behavior towards achieving goals in the workplace.
Companies offer various incentives to motivate employees, such as free food, on-site laundry, four-day workweeks, child-care assistance, gym memberships, and tuition reimbursement.
Student loan repayment is a significant motivator for younger workers; a study showed that 86% of younger workers would stay with a company for at least five years if the company helped with loan repayment.
Motivation is defined as the psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-directed behavior.
Motivation is inferred from behavior and is influenced by personal (personality, ability, emotions, attitudes, needs, values) and contextual factors (organizational culture, work attitudes, physical environment, rewards, group norms, communication technology, leader behavior, organizational design, job design, HR practices).
A simple model of motivation: unfulfilled needs create a desire, which motivates behavior to fulfill the need, resulting in rewards and feedback on whether the behavior was effective.
Rewards can be extrinsic (given by others, e.g., money) or intrinsic (self-given, e.g., feeling of accomplishment).
Extrinsic Motivation Example: Companies offering cash incentives to employees who quit smoking. Research indicates that employees are three times more likely to quit successfully with cash incentives.
Intrinsic Motivation Example: Disney encourages employees to imagine the impact of their actions on children, fostering a sense of pride and purpose.
LO 12-2: Needs That Motivate Most Employees
Motivation is important for employee engagement, organizational citizenship, reducing absenteeism, and improving service quality.
Managers aim to motivate employees to join, stay with, show up for work, be engaged at, and do extra for the organization.
Four major perspectives on motivation: content theories, process theories, job design, and reinforcement theory.
Content theories emphasize needs as motivators.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs presents five levels in order: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
McClelland's acquired needs theory focuses on three needs: achievement, affiliation, and power.
Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory emphasizes competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Herzberg's two-factor theory distinguishes between hygiene factors and motivators.
Content Perspectives: These theories highlight the specific needs that drive people's behavior.
Needs: Physiological or psychological deficiencies that trigger behavior.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
Proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943.
Five levels of needs:
Physiological: Basic needs like food, clothing, shelter; met by wages.
Safety: Physical and emotional security; met by health insurance, job security, safety rules, and pension plans.
Love: Friendship and affection; met by office parties and company teams.
Esteem: Self-respect, status, recognition, and self-confidence; met by bonuses, promotions, and awards.
Self-actualization: Self-fulfillment and competence; met by sabbatical leaves.
Needs are never completely satisfied; actions aim to fulfill deprived needs.
Modern organizations must address higher-level needs to gain a competitive advantage.
McClelland's Acquired Needs Theory:
Proposed by David McClelland.
Three major motives: achievement, affiliation, and power.
Needs are learned from culture and early life experiences.
One need often dominates.
Need for achievement: Desire to excel at tasks.
Need for affiliation: Desire for close relationships.
Need for power: Desire to control others.
Personal power (negative): Desire to dominate others for personal gratification.
Institutional power (positive): Desire to solve problems that further organizational goals.
Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory:
Developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan.
People are driven to grow and attain fulfillment.
Three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Focuses on intrinsic motivation, which is longer lasting and has a positive impact on task performance.
Competence: Feeling qualified and capable.
Autonomy: Feeling independent and able to influence the environment.
Relatedness: Feeling connected to others.
Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory:
Frederick Herzberg's study of accountants and engineers.
Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise from different factors.
Hygiene factors: Factors associated with job dissatisfaction (e.g., salary, working conditions, interpersonal relationships, company policy).
Motivating factors: Factors associated with job satisfaction (e.g., achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement).
LO 12-3: Similarities and Differences Among Three Process Theories
Process theories focus on the thoughts and perceptions that motivate behavior.
Equity/justice theory proposes that people seek fairness in their interactions.
Expectancy theory suggests motivation is driven by the desire for something and the perceived likelihood of obtaining it.
Goal-setting theory posits that specific, challenging, and achievable goals are strong motivators.
Process Perspectives: These theories focus on the psychological processes that drive motivation.
Assumptions: Employees have different needs, select behaviors to satisfy them, and decide if their choices were successful.
Equity/Justice Theory:
Pioneered by J. Stacey Adams.
People strive for fairness in social exchanges.
Based on cognitive dissonance; discomfort motivates action to maintain consistency between beliefs and behavior.
Discomfort is corrected by changing attitude, behavior, or committing sabotage.
Key elements:
Inputs: What people perceive they give to the organization (time, effort, training, intelligence, creativity).
Outputs (Rewards): What people receive from the organization (pay, bonuses, benefits, promotions, praise).
Comparison: How one's ratio of outputs to inputs compares with that of others.
Reactions to inequity:
Reducing inputs
Changing outcomes
Distorting inequity
Changing the object of comparison
Leaving the situation
Justice theory expands on equity theory and includes organizational justice, which has three components:
Distributive justice: Perceived fairness of resource and reward allocation.
Procedural justice: Perceived fairness of the process used to make allocation decisions.
Interactional justice: How fairly employees are treated during procedure implementation.
Expectancy Theory:
Proposed by Victor Vroom.
Motivation depends on how much effort to exert in a specific task situation.
Elements:
Expectancy: Belief that effort leads to performance.
Instrumentality: Expectation that successful performance will lead to the desired outcome.
Valence: Value a worker assigns to the possible outcome or reward.
Goal-Setting Theory:
Developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham.
Employees are motivated by goals that are specific, challenging, and achievable.
Goal-setting is effective if people understand, accept, and are committed to the goals.
Motivational mechanisms:
Direct attention
Regulate effort
Increase persistence
Foster the use of strategies and action plans
Stretch goals: Goals beyond what is expected to achieve.
Goal Orientations propose that we have one of two reasons for trying to achieve a goal.
Learning goal orientation sees goals as a way of developing competence through the acquisition of new skills.
performance goal orientation views goals as demonstrating and validating a competence we already have by seeking the approval of others.
LO 12-4: Different Ways to Design Jobs
Job design involves dividing an organization's work among employees and applying motivational theories to enhance satisfaction and performance.
Traditional approach: fitting people to jobs (e.g., scientific management to simplify tasks).
Modern approach: fitting jobs to people (e.g., job enlargement and job enrichment).
Job Design:
Division of an organization's work among its employees, including application of motivational theories to increase satisfaction and performance.
Two approaches:
Fitting people to jobs: People will adapt to any work situation; jobs must be tailored so nearly anyone can do them.
Scientific Management: Reducing the number of tasks a worker performs to increase efficiency and productivity.
Fitting jobs to people: Assumes people are underutilized at work and want more variety, challenges, and responsibility.
Job enlargement: Increases the number of tasks to increase variety and motivation.
Job enrichment: Builds into a job motivating factors such as responsibility, achievement, recognition, and stimulating work.
Job Characteristics Model:
Developed by J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham.
Five core job characteristics affect three critical psychological states, which in turn affect work outcomes.
Five Job Characteristics:
Skill variety: The extent to which a job requires a person to use a wide range of different skills and abilities.
Task identity: The extent to which a job requires a worker to perform all the tasks needed to complete the job from beginning to end.
Task significance: The extent to which a job affects the lives of other people.
Autonomy: The extent to which a job allows an employee to make choices about scheduling different tasks and deciding how to perform them.
Feedback: The extent to which workers receive clear, direct information about how well they are performing the job.
Three Psychological States:
Experienced meaningfulness of work
Experienced responsibility for work outcomes
Knowledge of the actual results of the work
MPS - Motivation Potential Score
LO 12-5: How to Use Four Types of Behavior Modification
Reinforcement theory: behavior will be repeated if it has positive consequences and not if it has negative consequences.
Four types of behavior modification: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and punishment.
Reinforcement Perspective:
How consequences affect behavior.
Operant conditioning (B.F. Skinner): controlling behavior by manipulating its consequences.
Law of effect (Edward Thorndike): behavior with favorable consequences tends to be repeated, while behavior with unfavorable consequences tends to disappear.
Behavior modification: using reinforcement theory to change human behavior.
Four types of behavior modification:
Positive reinforcement: Introduction of positive consequences to strengthen the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
Negative reinforcement: Removal of a negative stimulus to strengthen the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
Extinction: Decreases the likelihood of a particular behavior will occur again in the future by ignoring it or making sure it is not reinforced.
Punishment: Decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur again in the future by presenting something negative or withdrawing something positive.
LO 12-6: Role of Compensation in Motivating Employees
Compensation includes pay for performance, bonuses, profit sharing, gainsharing, stock options, and pay for knowledge.
Nonmonetary incentives: work-life balance, growth in skills, positive work environment, and meaning in work.
Compensation:
Monetary and nonmonetary incentives to motivate superior employee performance.
Pay for performance (merit pay)
Bonuses
Profit sharing
Gainsharing
Stock options
Pay for knowledge (skill-based pay)
Nonmonetary incentives:
Work-life balance
Personal growth
Positive work environment
Meaningful work
LO 12-7: Career Readiness Competency of Self-Motivation
Self-motivation: the ability to work productively without constant direction, instruction, and praise.
Self-management: understanding who you are, what you want in life, what you want to accomplish.
Six-step self-management process:
Identify your wildly important long-term goal.
Break your wildly important goal into short-term goals.
Create a “to-do” list for accomplishing your short-term goals.
Prioritize the tasks.
Create a time schedule.
Work the plan, reward yourself, and adjust as needed.
Recharging is essential for maintaining consistent focus and self-direction.
Career Corner: Managing Your Career Readiness Competency of Self-Motivation:
Self-motivation: ability to work productively without constant direction, instruction, and praise.
Self-management: making a conscious choice to resist a preference or habit, and instead demonstrate a more productive behavior.
Self-Management Process:
Identify Your "Wildly Important" Long-Term Goal
Break Your Wildly Important Goal into Short-Term Goals
Create a "To-Do" List for Accomplishing Your Short-Term Goals
Prioritize the Tasks
Create a Time Schedule
Work the Plan, Reward Yourself, and Adjust as Needed
Recharging
Figure Out What Recharging Means to You
Include Mental and Physical Relaxation
Accept Kindness