Chapter 7 - Motivation: from concepts to applications

Motivating by job design: the job characteristics model (JCM)

• @@Job design@@: way the elements in a job are organized.

• @@Job characteristics model (JCM)@@: model that proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback.

  • Five core dimensions
  • Skill variety: degree to a which a job requires a variety of different activities.
  • Task identity: degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.
  • Task significance: degree to which job has substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.
  • Autonomy: degree to which job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.
  • Feedback: degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his/her performance.
  • Motivating potential score (MPS): predictive index that suggests the motivating potential in a job.
  • How can jobs be redesigned?
  • @@Job rotation@@: periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another.
  • @@Job enrichment@@: vertical expansion of jobs, which increases the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of work.
  • @@Relational job design@@: making employees see the effects their job.
  • Alternative work arrangements
  • @@Flexi-time@@: flexible work hours, hours a week are obligatory but can be chosen when to invest those hours.
  • @@Job sharing@@: arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job (one from 8 to 12, the other from 1-5).
  • @@Teleworking@@: working from home at least two days a week on a computer that is linked to the employers office.

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Employee involvement

• @@Employee involvement@@: participative process that uses the input of employees and is intended to increase employee commitment to an organization’s success.
  • Examples of employee involvement programs
  • Participative management: process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.
  • Representative participation: system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees.

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Using rewards to motivate employees

• What to pay: establishing a pay structure
• How to pay: rewarding individual employees through variable-pay programs
  • @@Variable-pay program@@: pay plan that bases a portion of an employee’s pay on some individual and/or organizational measure of performance.
  • Piece-rate pay: pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed.
  • Merit-based pay: pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings.
  • Bonuses: pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance.
  • Skill-based pay: pay plan that sets pay levels on the basis of how many skills employees have or how many jobs they can do.
  • Profit-sharing plan: organization-wide program that distributes compensation based on some established formula designed around a company’s profitability.
  • Gainsharing: formula-based group incentive plan to determine amount of money allocated.
  • Employee stock ownership plans (ESOP): company-established benefits plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their prices.
• Flexible benefits: developing a benefits package
  • @@Flexible benefits@@: benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually tailored to their own individual needs and situation.
• Intrinsic rewards: employee recognition programs
  • Rewards are intrinsic in the form of employee recognition
  • Extrinsic in the form of compensation systems

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