UAPP 2053 Organizational Psychology - Lecture 7 Work Motivation

Objectives

• Understanding employee motivation
• Theories of motivation

Introduction to Work Motivation

• At one time, employees were considered just another input into the production of goods and services.
• What perhaps changed this way of thinking about employees was research, referred to as the Hawthorne Studies, conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 (Dickson, 1973).
• This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to their attitudes (Dickson, 1973).
• The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993).
• Every person has different reasons for working.
• The reasons for working as individual as the person.
• But, we all work because we obtain something that we need from work.
• The something we obtain from work impacts our morale and motivation and the quality of our lives. Here is the most recent thinking about what people want from work.
• The great majority of employees are quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies, our research finds, employees’ morale sharply declines after their first six months – and continues to deteriorate for years afterward.
• That finding is based on surveys of about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies from 2001 through 2004, conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence (Purchase, New York).
• The fault lies squarely at the feet of management – both the policies and procedures companies employ in managing their workforces and in the relationships that individual managers establish with their direct reports.
• To maintain the enthusiasm employees bring to their jobs initially, management must understand the three sets of goals that the great majority of workers seek from their work – and then satisfy those goals:
  - Equity: To be respected and to be treated fairly in areas such as pay, benefits, and job security.
  - Achievement: To be proud of one’s job, accomplishments, and employer.
  - Camaraderie: To have good, productive relationships with fellow employees.
• To maintain an enthusiastic workforce, management must meet all three goals. Indeed, employees who work for companies where just one of these factors is missing are three times less enthusiastic than workers at companies where all elements are present.
• One goal cannot be substituted for another. Improved recognition cannot replace better pay, money cannot substitute for taking pride in a job well done, and pride alone will not pay the mortgage.

Definition

• Many contemporary authors have also defined the concept of motivation. Motivation has been defined as: the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995).
• A predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995).
• An internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993).

Theories of Motivation

• Understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study results (Terpstra, 1979).
• Five major approaches that have led to our understanding of motivation are Maslow’s need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory.
• According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self-actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees.
• Herzberg’s work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Motivators or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction.
• Vroom’s theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated.
• Adam’s theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965).
• Skinner’s theory simply states those employees’ behaviors that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953).
• Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviors that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee behavior that leads to negative outcomes.
• Goal setting is a powerful way of motivating people. The value of goal setting is so well recognized that entire management systems, like Management by Objectives, have goal setting basics incorporated within them.
• Locke’s research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people’s performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals.
• To motivate, goals must take into consideration the degree to which each of the following exists:
  - Clarity
  Ø Clear goals are measurable, unambiguous, and behavioral. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded.
  Ø You know what’s expected, and you can use the specific result as a source of motivation. When a goal is vague – or when it’s expressed as a general instruction, like “Take initiative” – it has limited motivational value.
  - Challenge
  Ø One of the most important characteristics of goals is the level of challenge. People are often motivated by achievement, and they’ll judge a goal based on the significance of the anticipated accomplishment. When you know that what you do will be well received, there’s a natural motivation to do a good job.
  Ø Rewards typically increase for more difficult goals. If you believe you’ll be well compensated or otherwise rewarded for achieving a challenging goal, that will boost your enthusiasm and your drive to get it done.
  - Commitment
  Ø Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective. Employees are more likely to “buy into” a goal if they feel they were part of creating that goal. The notion of participative management rests on this idea of involving employees in setting goals and making decisions.
  - Feedback
  Ø In addition to selecting the right type of goal, an effective goal program must also include feedback. Feedback provides opportunities to clarify expectations, adjust goal difficulty, and gain recognition. It’s important to provide benchmark opportunities or targets, so individuals can determine for themselves how they’re doing.
  - Task complexity
  Ø The last factor in goal setting theory introduces two more requirements for success. For goals or assignments that are highly complex, take special care to ensure that the work doesn’t become too overwhelming.People who work in complicated and demanding roles probably have a higher level of motivation already. However, they can often push themselves too hard if measures aren’t built into the goal expectations to account for the complexity of the task.