Application Based Theories

• Draw on needs and process based theories but focus on more real-world applications

Goal Setting Theory

• Locke and Latham, 1990

• One of the most studied and best supported WOP theories

• Focuses on the goals people adopt and how they strive towards meeting them

• In most situations, best to set difficult and specific goals

• SMART

  • Specific: set specific goals

  • Measurable: devise way to measure achievement

  • Achievable: set goals that are realistic

  • Relevant: set goals that serve a purpose

  • Time-bound: place a time frame on goal achievement

• Goal Commitment: determination of an individual to reach their goal

  • When ppl are not committed to a goal, they are not motivated to achieve the goal

  • Self-Concordance: when the personal reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with personal interests and core values, people are happier and more successful

  • Managers can help employees accept and commit to goals by encouraging employee participation in the goal-setting process

• Self-Regulation: the capacity to control one’s impulses

• Goal Orientation: motivation to develop and learn vs just wanting to do well

• Self-Efficacy: person’s belief they can succeed

Self-Efficacy Theory

• Bandura

• An individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task

• Higher efficacy related to: greater confidence, greater persistence, better response to negative feedback

• Complements goal-setting theory

• Increasing Self-Efficacy

  • Enactive Mastery

    • Most important source

    • Gaining relevant experience with task or job

    • Practice makes perfect

  • Vicarious Modeling

    • Increasing confidence by watching others perform the task

    • Most effective when observer sees the model to be similar to themself

  • Verbal Persuasion

    • Motivation through verbal conviction

    • Pygmalion (external person that feels you’d do well at a task, converse is true) and Galatea (internally believe you’ll do well or not) effects, self-fulfilling prophecy

  • Arousal

    • Getting psyched up to complete task

    • Can hurt performance if emotion is not a component of the task

Job Characteristics Theory

• Hackman and Oldham, 1980

• Way of understanding the motivating potential of the job itself in relation to the individual

• 5 perceived core job characteristics

  • Skill Variety: the variety in job tasks in terms of skills and abilities required

  • Task Identity: the association between a task and the job’s ultimate outcome

  • Task Significance: the impact of a job on others’ lives

  • Autonomy: the freedom to dictate and control one’s job

  • Feedback: the receipt of direct information regarding how effective one’s job performance is

• Psychological States: meaningfulness, responsibility, knowledge of results

• Outcomes: motivation, performance, satisfaction, absenteeism7

• May be individual differences in the experienced motivating potential of a job

  • Sources

    • Knowledge and skill

    • Growth-needs strength

    • Satisfaction with contextual factors

• Motivating Job Design

  • Job Rotation: moving workers from one job to another to promote interest and satisfaction

  • Job Enlargement: expanding a person’s job to include tasks previously performed by other workers (horizontal loading)

  • Job Enrichment: granting the worker more control over the job (vertical loading), enrich jobs by accountability, feedback, work-pace, control over resources

  • Sociotechnical Systems: new technology and job design

  • Self-Managed Work Teams: autonomous working groups

  • Social Information: what is going on at work shapes individual’s perception of the job and the response to it

  • Work Schedules: such as flexi-time, job sharing, teleworking

  • Worker Flexibility: employees are trained to do a number of jobs (refinement of job rotation)

Reinforcement Theory

• Luthans and Kreitner, 1985

• Pioneered by Skinner, based on operant conditioning

• Behavior is environmentally caused

• Theory posits that behavior that is reinforced tends to be repeated while behaviors that are punished/ignored tend to be extinguished

• Requires a definition of what good performance looks like and clarity about what behavior should be reinforced

• Types of Reinforcers

  • Positive Reinforcement: positive behavior is demonstrated, positive reward is given

  • Negative Reinforcement: positive behavior is demonstrated, negative thing is taken away

  • Punishment: negative behavior is demonstrated, negative consequence is given

  • Extinction: negative behavior is demonstrated, positive consequence taken away

• Reinforcement Schedules

  • Continuous: reinforcement follows every instance of a behavior

  • Fixed Ratio: reinforcement follows after a set number of behaviors are observed

  • Fixed Interval: reinforcement follows after a set period of time

  • Variable Ratio: reinforcement follows a random pattern, unknown to the person

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

• Providing an extrinsic reward for behavior that had been previously only intrinsically rewarding tends to decrease the overall level of motivation

• Major implications for work rewards

  • Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are not independent

  • Extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic rewards

  • Pay should be non-contingent on performance

  • Verbal rewards increase intrinsic motivation, tangible rewards reduce it

• Creating a motivating environment

  • Autonomy: 

    • Self-leadership

    • Shared leadership

    • Participatory goal-setting

    • Flexible working practices

  • Meaningfulness:

    • Purpose

    • Relatedness

    • Meaningful social contact

    • Having a positive impact

  • Competence:

    • The need to feel like you’re good at stuff

    • The feeling that you’re learning and developing

  • Recognition:

    • How good is performance recognized in your organization