MOTIVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Chapter
Four
MOTIVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
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After reading this chapter you should be able to
1. Define motivation and explain its importance
in the field of organizational behavior. 2.
Describe need hierarchy theory and what it
recommends about improving motivation in
organizations. 3. Identify and explain the
conditions through which goal setting can be used
to improve job performance. 4. Explain equity
theory and procedural justice, and explain how
both may be applied to motivating people in
organizations.
5. Describe expectancy theory and how it may be
applied in organizations. 6. Distinguish between
job enlargement and job enrichment as techniques
for motivating employees. 7. Describe the job
characteristics model and its implications for
redesigning jobs to enhance motivation.
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Motivation - set of processes that arouse,
direct, and maintain human behavior toward
attaining some goal Components Arousal - drive
or energy behind our actions Direction -
choices that we make in pursuing some
goal Maintaining - conditions that suggest
continuance of our actions
Key Points Motivation and job performance are
not synonymous - motivation is one of several
determinants of performance Motivation is
multifaceted - several motives may be operative
at the same time People are motivated by more
than just money - goals, other than financial
goals, are operative at work
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Maslows Need Hierarchy - theory specifying that
there are five human needs that are arranged so
that lower-level, more basic needs must be
satisfied before higher-level needs become
activated
Deficiency needs - if these needs are not met,
people will not develop either physically or
psychologically Physiological needs -
biological drives such as the need for food,
air, water, and shelter Safety needs - need
for a secure environment, free from threats
of physical or psychological harm Social needs
- need to be affiliative, i.e., to have
friends and to be loved and accepted by other
people
Growth needs - gratification of these needs helps
a person to reach her/his full potential
Esteem needs - need to develop self-respect and
to gain the approval of others Self-actualizat
ion needs - need to discover who we are and to
develop ourselves to our fullest potential
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Maslows Need Hierarchy (cont.) Evaluation of
the theory - has not received much empirical
support - other research has failed to confirm
that there are five categories of needs -
needs do not have to satisfied in the order
prescribed in the hierarchy
Alderfers ERG Theory - asserts that there are
three basic human needs that are not
necessarily activated in any specific
order Existence needs - correspond to Maslows
physiological and safety needs Relatedness
needs - correspond to Maslows social
needs Growth needs - correspond to Maslows
esteem and self- actualization
needs Evaluation of the theory - fits better
with research evidence
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Figure 4.4 Need Theories A Comparison
Growth needs
Deficiency Needs
Maslows need hierarchy theory
Alderfers ERG theory
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Managerial Applications of Need Theories - makes
sense to help people satisfy their needs,
especially if self-actualization will bring
about greater creativity on the job
Promote a healthy workforce - satisfy employees
physiological needs by providing incentives for
mental and physical health
Provide financial security - an important safety
need - go beyond traditional forms of
compensation - address issues of job security,
including outplacement
Provide opportunities to socialize - organize
events that help to satisfy social needs
Recognize employees accomplishments - award
programs satisfy esteem needs - must clearly
link award to desired behavior
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Goal Setting - process of determining specific
levels of performance for workers to attain -
one of the most important motivational forces in
organizations
Locke and Lathams Goal-Setting Theory - having a
goal serves as a motivator because it
influences - peoples beliefs about their
ability to perform the task -
self-efficacy - the degree to which people
invest themselves in the task - goal
commitment is determined by the extent
to which an individual desires to attain
the goal and believes that s/he has a
reason- able chance of doing so
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Figure 4.7 Cognitive Summary of the Goal Setting
Process
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Managers Guidelines for Setting Effective
Performance Goals Assign specific goals -
people perform at higher levels when asked to
meet a specific, high-performance goal than when
asked simply to do your best or when no goal
at all is assigned - improve output, reduce
absenteeism, decrease accidents
Assign difficult - but acceptable - performance
goals - people will internalize the goal if it
is perceived as challenging but attainable -
involve employees in the goal setting process
Provide feedback concerning goal attainment -
informs individual about how closely s/he is
approaching the performance goal - without
feedback, workers do their jobs blindly
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Figure 4.8 Goal Setting Some Impressive Effects
Percentage of Maximum Weight Carried on Each Trip
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Seven Years Later
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Before goal
After goal
Four-Week Periods
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Organizational Justice - peoples perception of
fairness in organizations, consisting of
perceptions regarding how decisions are
made concerning the distribution of outcomes
Procedural justice - focus is on the process
used to resource allocation decisions Equity
theory - focus is on the perceived fairness of
the outcomes themselves
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Adams Equity Theory - people strive to maintain a
ratio of their own outcomes (rewards) to their
own inputs (contributions) equal to
the outcome/input ratio of others with whom they
compare themselves Outcomes - the rewards, such
as salary and recognition, that employees
receive from their jobs Inputs - peoples
contributions to their jobs, such as
their experience, qualifications, or amount of
time worked
Overpayment inequity - the condition, resulting
in feelings of guilt, in which the ratio of
ones outcomes to ones inputs is more than the
corresponding ratio of comparison person -
individual may raise her inputs or lower his
outcomes
Underpayment inequity - the condition, resulting
in feelings of anger, in which the ratio of
ones outcomes to ones inputs is less than the
corresponding ratio of comparison person -
individual may lower her inputs or raise his
outcomes
Perceptual resolution of inequity - change how
you think about the situation
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Social Comparison
Figure 4.11 Equity Theory
Person A
Person B
Greater Than
Underpayment inequity for Person B
Overpayment inequity for Person A
Angry
Guilty
Less Than
Underpayment inequity for Person A
Outcomes Inputs
Overpayment inequity for Person B
Outcomes Inputs
Angry
Guilty
Equal To
Equitable payment for Person A
Equitable payment for Person B
Outcomes Inputs
Outcomes Inputs
Satisfied
Satisfied
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Procedural Justice Making Decisions Fairly - for
the outcome to be fair, the procedures must be
fair
Structural side of procedural justice -
determining how decisions need to be made for
them to be considered fair - give people a say
in how decisions are made - voice - provide an
opportunity for errors to be corrected - appeal
process - apply rules and policies
consistently - make decisions in an unbiased
manner
Social side of procedural justice - quality of
interpersonal treatment received at the hands of
decision maker Interactional justice - perceived
fairness of the interpersonal treatment used to
determine organizational outcomes -
informational justification - thoroughness of
the information received about a decision -
social sensitivity - amount of dignity and
respect demonstrated when presenting an
undesirable outcome
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Organizational Justice Some Tips for Managers -
implications of equity theory for motivating
people
Avoid underpayment - employees may attempt to
even the score Two-tier wage structures -
payment systems in which newer employees are
paid less than employees hired at earlier times
who do the same work
Avoid overpayment - managers should strive to
treat all employees equitably - be open and
honest about outcomes and inputs
Give people a voice in decisions that affect them
- give people a say in matters that pertain to
their jobs
Present information about outcomes in a thorough,
socially sensitive manner - take sting out of
undesirable outcomes
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Expectancy Theory - characterizes people as
rational beings who think about what they must
do to be rewarded and how much that reward
means to them before they actually perform their
jobs
Basic elements - three different types of
beliefs Expectancy - belief that ones effort
will influence ones performance
positively Instrumentality - beliefs regarding
the likelihood of being rewarded according to
her/his own level of performance Valence -
value a person places on the rewards s/he
expects to receive from an organization
Combining all three components - motivation is a
multiplicative function of the three
components - if any component is zero, overall
level of motivation is also zero
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Expectancy Theory (cont.) Other determinants of
job performance - motivation is only one
of several important determinants Skills and
abilities - determine person/job fit Role
perceptions - what employees believe their jobs
duties to be Opportunities - chance to
perform the job
Managerial Applications of Expectancy
Theory Clarify peoples expectancies that effort
leads to performance - train, make desired
performance attainable, and help employee to
attain level of performance
Administer rewards with a positive valence -
carrot must be tasty Cafeteria-style benefit
plan - incentive system in which worker can
select the fringe benefits s/he wants from a
menu of available alternatives
Clearly link valued rewards and performance -
enhance beliefs about instrumentality by
specifying what behavior leads to what rewards
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Figure 4.14 Expectancy Theory An Overview
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Job Design - suggests that jobs can be structured
to enhcance peoples interest in doing them
Job enlargement - expansion of the content of a
job to include more variety and more tasks at
the same level - does not increase
responsibility nor skills needed to do job -
horizontal job loading - may help to improve job
performance, but its effects may not be lasting
Job enrichment - gives employees a high degree of
control over their work, from planning and
organization through implementation and
evaluation - employees determine how to do their
jobs - vertical job loading - although
successful in many organizations, popularity
is limited by difficulty in implementation and
lack of employee acceptance
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Figure 4.15 Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment A
Comparison
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Job Characteristics Model - specifies that
enriching certain elements of jobs alters
peoples psychological states in a manner that
enhances their work effectiveness
Components of the Model - affect motivation,
satisfaction, and performance Core job
dimensions Skill variety - extent to which a
job requires worker to use different skills
and talents Task identity - extent to which an
entire piece of work is completed from
beginning to end Task significance - impact of
job on others Autonomy - amount of discretion
to do job as desired Feedback - information
about performance effectiveness
Critical psychological states - beliefs
engendered by core dimensions Experienced
meaningfulness - importance and value of job -
stems from skill variety, task identity and
significance Personal responsibility and
accountability - stems from autonomy Knowledge
of results - stems from feedback
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Job Characteristics Model (cont.) Does model
apply to everyone? - model is especially
effective in describing behavior of people who
are high in growth need strength
Putting it all together Job
Diagnostic Survey (JDS) - questionnaire used
to measure the core dimensions present in
a given job Motivating Potential Score
(MPS) - mathematical index describing the
degree to which a job is designed to
motivate people MPS Skill variety Task
identity Task significance X Autonomy X
Feedback 3
Evidence for the model - most empirical tests
have supported many aspects of the model
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Figure 4.16 Job Characteristics Model
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Techniques for Designing Jobs that
Motivate Combine tasks - instead of having
several workers perform separate parts of a
whole job, have each person perform the entire
job Open feedback channels Establish client
relationships - person performing a job comes
into contact with the recipient of that
service Load jobs vertically - give people
greater responsibility for the job