Factor Affecting Employee Behaviour (BM1102) - Study Notes

Motivation

  • Motivation is when people expect that a course of action will lead to attaining a goal and a valued reward that satisfies their needs and wants.
  • 3 components of motivation:
    • Direction – what a person is trying to do
    • Effort – how hard a person is trying
    • Persistence – how long a person keeps on trying
  • Relationship among components: as Direction and Persistence and Effort adjust, motivation changes; a common representation is that M is a function of (D, E, P):
    M=f(D,E,P)M = f(D, E, P)
    with positive relationships indicating that higher Direction, higher Effort, and greater Persistence generally increase motivation:
    \frac{\partial M}{\partial D} > 0, \quad \frac{\partial M}{\partial E} > 0, \quad \frac{\partial M}{\partial P} > 0.
  • Motivation leads to discretionary behaviour: well-motivated people engage in positive discretionary behaviour, deciding to make an extra effort.
  • Additional motivation is provided by the work itself, quality of leadership, and forms of recognition and reward; this builds on self-motivation and helps people maximize their abilities and performance.

Types of Motivation

  • Motivation by the work itself (Intrinsic motivation / Quality of working life):
    • When work is important, interesting, and challenging
    • Associated with engagement
  • Extrinsic motivation (rewards outside the work itself):
    • Rewards, incentives, increased pay, praise or promotion, punishments
    • Motivation occurs when things are done to or for people to motivate them (external stimuli)
  • Overall framing: intrinsic motivation relates to the work content; extrinsic motivation relates to rewards provided by the environment.

Motivation Strategies

  • Aims to:
    • Create a working environment conducive to high performance
    • Develop policies and practices that achieve higher levels of performance from employees
  • Focus areas:
    • Working environment
    • Policies and practices to raise performance

Commitment

  • Definition (Armstrong & Taylor, 2016):
    • The strength of an individual’s identification with, and involvement in, an organisation
    • Refers to attachment and loyalty; feelings about the organisation; emotional attachment from shared values and interests
  • Three Characteristics of Commitment:
    • A strong desire to remain a member of the organisation (DESIRE)
    • A strong belief in and acceptance of the values and goals of the organisation (BELIEF)
    • A readiness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation (READINESS)
  • Significance of Commitment:
    • Strong commitment can lead to conscientious and self-directed job performance
    • Regular attendance, less supervision required, and higher discretionary effort
    • Commitment to the organisation relates to intention to stay
  • Factors affecting commitment are illustrated across three levels:
    • Strategic level (STRATEGIC): supportive business strategies; top management value commitment; effective voice for HR in strategy and governance
    • Functional level (FUNCTIONAL): investment in training and development; contingent compensation reinforcing cooperation, participation, and contribution
    • Workplace level (WORKPLACE): high standards in selection; board task design and teamwork; employee involvement in problem solving; climate of cooperation and trust
  • Factors affecting levels of commitment (Purcell et al., 2003):
    • Received training
    • Career opportunities
    • Satisfaction with performance appraisal system
    • Leadership and people management aspects of work
    • Work challenges
    • Work–life balance practices
    • Organisational communication
    • Overall performance
  • HR’s Role in Enhancing Commitment (six steps):
    1. Advise on methods of communicating the values and aims of management
    2. Emphasize to management that commitment is a two-way process
    3. Impress on management the need to develop a climate of trust
    4. Develop a positive psychological contract
    5. Develop performance management processes
    6. Enhance employee job engagement through job design processes

Employee Engagement

  • Definition (Armstrong & Taylor, 2016):
    • A situation in which people are committed to their work and the organisation and are motivated to achieve high levels of performance
    • A combination of commitment to the organisation and its values plus a willingness to help out colleagues (Organisational Citizenship Behavior, OCB)
  • What engagement means to different stakeholders:
    • Employers want employees who will do their best work or go the extra mile
    • Employees want meaningful, worthwhile work that is appealing
    • Organisations want to meet the needs of both the organisation and its employees, creating an engaged workforce

Components of Employee Engagement

  • Engagement relates to and connects with:
    • Motivation
    • Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)
    • Job satisfaction
    • Commitment
  • Visual cue from the source indicates these components as core interlinked elements of engagement

Drivers of Employee Engagement

  • Factors that enable engagement include:
    • Opportunities to feed your views upwards (voice)
    • Feeling well-informed about what is happening in the organisation (information symmetry)
    • Believing that your manager is committed to the organisation (trust in leadership)

Why Employee Engagement?

  • Reasons to pursue engagement include:
    • Delivering improved business performance
    • Reinforcing employees’ sense of fairness and trust in the organisation
    • Generating a positive psychological contract between employer and employee
    • Engaged employees help promote the brand and protect the employer from risks related to poor service levels or product quality
    • A strong employer brand aids in attracting and retaining employees

Enhancing Job Engagement

  • Strategies involve line managers and organizational practices:
    • Line managers
    • Job design
    • Learning and development programs
    • Performance management development
    • Reward systems

How Employers Build an Engaged Workforce

  • Method: measure employee attitudes
  • Results: identify areas for improvement and combine with other data to support performance management
  • Implementation: measure attitudes to identify improvements and drive performance management

The Essential Elements

  • Build on good people management (Leadership)
  • Develop policies (Alignment)
  • Active support of frontline managers (Support)

Findings from Institute of Employment Studies (IES) Study

  • Key themes:
    • Feeling valued and involved
    • Involvement in decision-making
    • Freedom to voice ideas, with managers listening
    • Feeling enabled to perform well
    • Opportunities to develop the job
    • Perception that the organisation cares about employees’ health and well-being

Dimensions of Engagement

  • Intellectual Engagement: thinking hard about the job and how to do it better
  • Affective Engagement: feeling positively about doing a good job
  • Social Engagement: actively taking opportunities to discuss work-related improvements with others at work
  • Behavioral/Going the extra mile: willingness to go beyond the minimum and contribute

Conclusions

  • The employment relationship requires regular attention and maintenance
  • An effective engagement strategy provides opportunities for HR to develop new skills and collaborate with other business functions
  • Engaged employees are more likely to be organisational advocates and can help promote the organisation as an employer of choice