MOTIVATION

Define motivation.

Motivation refers to the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and
sustained toward attaining a goal.

Elements

Three key elements: energy, direction, and persistence

The energy element is a measure of intensity, drive, and vigor. A motivated person puts forth
effort and works hard. However, the quality of the effort must be considered as well as its
intensity. High levels of effort don’t necessarily lead to favorable job performance unless the
effort is channeled in a direction that benefits the organization.

Effort that’s directed toward, and consistent with, organizational goals is the kind of effort
we want from employees.

Finally, motivation includes a persistence dimension. We want employees to persist in

putting forth effort to achieve those goals.

EARLY THEORIES
Four early motivation theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGregor’s theories X
and Y, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, and McClelland’s threeneeds theory.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow was a psychologist who proposed that within every person is a hierarchy of five
needs:

1. Physiological needs: A person’s needs for food, drink, shelter, sex, and other physical
requirements.

2. Safety needs: A person’s needs for security and protection from physical and emotional
harm, as well as assurance that physical needs will continue to be met.

3. Social needs: A person’s needs for affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.

4. Esteem needs: A person’s needs for internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy,
and achievement and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention.

5. Self-actualization needs: A person’s needs for growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-
fulfillment; the drive to become what one is capable of becoming.

Maslow argued that each level in the needs hierarchy must be substantially satisfied before
the next need becomes dominant. An individual moves up the needs hierarchy from one level
to the next. In addition, Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower levels.
Physiological and safety needs were considered lower-order needs; social, esteem, and self-
actualization needs were considered higher-order needs. Lower-order needs are
predominantly satisfied externally while higher-order needs are satisfied internally.

How does Maslow’s theory explain motivation? Managers using Maslow’s hierarchy to
motivate employees do things to satisfy employees’ needs. But the theory also says that once
a need is substantially satisfied, an individual is no longer motivated to satisfy that need.
Therefore, to motivate someone, you need to understand what need level that person is on in
the hierarchy and focus on satisfying needs at or above that level.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor is best known for proposing two assumptions about human nature:
Theory X and Theory Y. Very simply, Theory X is a negative view of people that
assumes workers have little ambition, dislike work, want to avoid responsibility, and
need to be closely controlled to work effectively. Theory Y is a positive view that
assumes employees enjoy work, seek out and accept responsibility, and exercise self-
direction. McGregor believed that Theory Y assumptions should guide management practice
and proposed that participation in decision making, responsible and challenging jobs, and
good group relations would maximize employee motivation.

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory

Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory (also called motivation-hygiene theory) proposes that
intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated with job
dissatisfaction.

Certain characteristics were consistently related to job satisfaction (factors on the left side of
the exhibit), and others to job dissatisfaction (factors on the right side). When people felt
good about their work, they tended to cite intrinsic factors arising from the job itself such as
achievement, recognition, and responsibility. On the other hand, when they were dissatisfied,
they tended to cite extrinsic factors arising from the job context such as company policy and
administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, and working conditions.

In addition, Herzberg believed that the data suggested that the opposite of satisfaction was
not dissatisfaction. Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job would not necessarily
make that job more satisfying (or motivating). As shown in Exhibit, Herzberg proposed that a
dual continuum existed: The opposite of “satisfaction” is “no satisfaction,” and the opposite
of “dissatisfaction” is “no dissatisfaction.”

Again, Herzberg believed that the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and
distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, managers who sought to
eliminate factors that created job dissatisfaction could keep people from being dissatisfied but
not necessarily motivate them.

The extrinsic factors that create job dissatisfaction were called hygiene factors. When
these factors are adequate, people won’t be dissatisfied, but they won’t be satisfied (or
motivated) either. To motivate people, Herzberg suggested emphasizing motivators, the
intrinsic factors having to do with the job itself.

Three-Needs Theory

David McClelland and his associates proposed the three-needs theory, which says there
are three acquired (not innate) needs that are major motives in work. These three needs
include the

need for achievement (nAch), which is the drive to succeed and excel in relation to a set
of standards; and

the need for affiliation (nAff), which is the desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships.

Of these three needs, the need for achievement has been researched the most. People with a
high need for achievement are striving for personal achievement rather than for the
trappings and rewards of success. They have a desire to do something better or more
efficiently than it’s been done before. They prefer jobs that offer personal responsibility
for finding solutions to problems, in which they can receive rapid and unambiguous
feedback on their performance in order to tell whether they’re improving, and in which
they can set moderately challenging goals. High achievers avoid what they perceive to
be very easy or very difficult tasks. Also, a high need to achieve doesn’t necessarily lead
to being a good manager, especially in large organizations. That’s because high
achievers focus on their own accomplishments, while good managers emphasize helping
others accomplish their goals. McClelland showed that employees can be trained to
stimulate their achievement need by being in situations where they have personal
responsibility, feedback, and moderate risks. The other two needs in this theory haven’t been
researched as extensively as the need for achievement. However, we do know that the best
managers tend to be high in the need for power and low in the need for affiliation.

CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Contemporary motivation approaches include goal-setting theory, reinforcement theory, job
design theory, equity theory, expectancy theory, and high-involvement work practices.

Goal-Setting Theory

The proposition that specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals, when
accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals

According to this theory, goals that are clear, specific, and challenging are more
motivating than vague goals or easy goals. And when employees are more motivated,
they’re more successful in hitting their goals.

Working of Goal Setting Theory

The Goal Setting Theory encourages people to strive towards clear, difficult, but attainable
goals. People gain purpose and direction when they make objectives because they create
definite aims to strive for. Establishing quantifiable goals allows people to monitor their
development and gives them a sense of success as they approach their goals. The theory
also highlights the value of reflection and feedback, which help people modify their plans
and actions to continue moving in the direction of their objectives. Goal Setting Theory
enhances performance in a variety of settings, including business, by ensuring that
individual goals are hard but attainable and that they are in line with organisational
objectives. Our overall conclusion is that the intention to work toward hard and specific goals
is a powerful motivating force. Under the proper conditions, it can lead to higher
performance.
The important features of goal-setting theory are as follows:

 The willingness to work towards attainment of goal is main source of job motivation.
Clear, particular and difficult goals are greater motivating factors than easy, general
and vague goals.
 Specific and clear goals lead to greater output and better performance. Unambiguous,
measurable and clear goals accompanied by a deadline for completion avoids
misunderstanding.
 Goals should be realistic and challenging. This gives an individual a feeling of pride
and triumph when he attains them, and sets him up for attainment of next goal. The
more challenging the goal, the greater is the reward generally and the more is the
passion for achieving it.
 Better and appropriate feedback of results directs the employee behaviour and
contributes to higher performance than absence of feedback. Feedback is a means of
gaining reputation, making clarifications and regulating goal difficulties. It helps
employees to work with more involvement and leads to greater job satisfaction.
 Employees’ participation in goal is not always desirable.
 Participation of setting goal, however, makes goal more acceptable and leads to more
involvement

Goal setting theory has certain eventualities such as:

a. Self-efficacy- Self-efficacy is the individual’s self-confidence and faith that he has

potential of performing the task. Higher the level of self-efficacy, greater will be the
efforts put in by the individual when they face challenging tasks.

While, lower the level of self-efficacy, less will be the efforts put in by the individual
or he might even quit while meeting challenges.

b. Goal commitment- Goal setting theory assumes that the individual is committed to
the goal and will not leave the goal.
 The goal commitment is dependent on the following factors:

i. Goals are made open, known and broadcasted.

ii. Goals should be set-self by individual rather than designated.
iii. Individual’s set goals should be consistent with the organizational goals and
vision.

Advantages of Goal Setting Theory

 Goal setting theory is a technique used to raise incentives for employees to complete
work quickly and effectively.
 Goal setting leads to better performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but also
through increasing and improving the feedback quality.

Limitations of Goal Setting Theory

 At times, the organizational goals are in conflict with the managerial goals. Goal
conflict has a detrimental effect on the performance if it motivates incompatible
action drift.
 Very difficult and complex goals stimulate riskier behaviour.
 If the employee lacks skills and competencies to perform actions essential for goal,
then the goal-setting can fail and lead to undermining of performance.
 There is no evidence to prove that goal-setting improves job satisfaction

Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory says that behavior is a function of its consequences. Those

consequences that immediately follow a behavior and increase the probability that the
behavior will be repeated are called reinforcers.

People will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they are rewarded for doing so. These
rewards are most effective if they immediately follow a desired behavior; and behavior that
isn’t rewarded, or is punished, is less likely to be repeated.

Using reinforcement theory, managers can influence employees’ behavior by using positive
reinforcers for actions that help the organization achieve its goals. And managers should
ignore, not punish, undesirable behavior. Although punishment eliminates undesired behavior
faster than nonreinforcement does, its effect is often temporary and may have unpleasant side
effects including dysfunctional behavior such as workplace conflicts, absenteeism, and
turnover.

Designing Motivating Jobs

Because managers want to motivate individuals on the job, we need to look at ways to design
motivating jobs. The term job design is used to refer to the way tasks are combined to
form complete jobs. Managers should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect
the demands of the changing environment, the organization’s technology, and employees’
skills, abilities, and preferences. When jobs are designed like that, employees are motivated
to work hard. Let’s look at some ways that managers can design motivating jobs.

JOB ENLARGEMENT. Job enlargement involves increasing the number of job tasks
that an employee is responsible for. Imagine a customer service representative. Initially,
they might only answer customer queries. But with job enlargement, they could also be given
the task of handling customer satisfaction surveys. It's all about adding more tasks to an
existing job.

Most job enlargement efforts that focused solely on increasing the number of tasks don’t
seem to work. However, research has shown that knowledge enlargement activities
(expanding the scope of knowledge used in a job) lead to more job satisfaction, enhanced
customer service, and fewer errors.

JOB ENRICHMENT. Another approach to job design is the vertical expansion of a job by
adding planning and evaluating responsibilities—job enrichment. Job enrichment
increases job depth, which is the degree of control employees have over their work. In other
words, employees are empowered to assume some of the tasks typically done by their
managers. Thus, an enriched job allows workers to do an entire activity with increased
freedom, independence, and responsibility. In addition, workers get feedback so they can
assess and correct their own performance.

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL - an effective framework for managers to design

motivating jobs.

It identifies five core job dimensions, their interrelationships, and their impact on employee
productivity, motivation, and satisfaction. These five core job dimensions are:

1. Skill variety, the degree to which a job requires a variety of activities so that an employee
can use a number of different skills and talents.

2. Task identity, the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable
piece of work.

3. Task significance, the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or work
of other people.

4. Autonomy, the degree to which a job provides substantial freedom, independence, and
discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used
in carrying it out.

5. Feedback, the degree to which doing work activities required by a job results in an
individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her
performance
The first three dimensions—skill variety, task identity, and task significance—combine to
create meaningful work. In other words, if these three characteristics exist in a job, we can
predict that the person will view his or her job as being important, valuable, and worthwhile.

Jobs that possess autonomy give the jobholder a feeling of personal responsibility for the
results and that if a job provides feedback, the employee will know how effectively he or she
is performing.

The JCM suggests that employees are likely to be motivated when they learn (knowledge of
results through feedback) that they personally (experienced responsibility through autonomy
of work) performed well on tasks that they care about (experienced meaningfulness through
skill variety, task identity, or task significance). The more a job is designed around these
three elements, the greater the employee’s motivation, performance, and satisfaction and the
lower his or her absenteeism and likelihood of resigning.

The links between the job dimensions and the outcomes are moderated by the strength of the
individual’s growth need (the person’s desire for self-esteem and self-actualization).
Individuals with a high growth need are more likely to experience the critical psychological
states and respond positively when their jobs include the core dimensions than are low-
growth need individuals. This distinction may explain the mixed results with job enrichment:
Individuals with low growth need aren’t likely to achieve high performance or satisfaction by
having their jobs enriched.

The JCM provides specific guidance to managers for job design.

These suggestions specify the types of changes that are most likely to lead to improvement in
the five core job dimensions.

1. Combine tasks. Put fragmented tasks back together to form a new, larger work module (job
enlargement) to increase skill variety and task identity.

2. Create natural work units. Design tasks that form an identifiable and meaningful whole to
increase employee “ownership” of the work. Encourage employees to view their work as
meaningful and important rather than as irrelevant and boring.

3. Establish client (external or internal) relationships. Whenever possible, establish direct

relationships between workers and their clients to increase skill variety, autonomy, and
feedback.

4. Expand jobs vertically. Vertical expansion gives employees responsibilities and controls
that were formerly reserved for managers, which can increase employee autonomy.

5. Open feedback channels. Direct feedback lets employees know how well they’re
performing their jobs and whether their performance is improving or not.

Equity Theory

Equity theory, developed by J. Stacey Adams, proposes that employees compare what they
get from a job (outcomes) in relation to what they put into it (inputs), and then they compare
their inputs–outcomes ratio with the inputs–outcomes ratios of relevant others.
If an employee perceives her ratio to be equitable in comparison to those of relevant others,
there’s no problem. However, if the ratio is inequitable, she views herself as under rewarded
or over rewarded. When inequities occur, employees attempt to do something about it. The
result might be lower or higher productivity, improved or reduced quality of output, increased
absenteeism, or voluntary resignation.

The referent—the other persons, systems, or selves individuals compare themselves against
in order to assess equity—is an important variable in equity theory. Each of the three referent
categories is important. The “persons” category includes other individuals with similar jobs
in the same organization but also includes friends, neighbors, or professional associates. The
“system” category includes organizational pay policies, procedures, and allocation. The “self
” category refers to inputs–outcomes ratios that are unique to the individual. It reflects past
personal experiences and contacts and is influenced by criteria such as past jobs or family
commitments.

When inequities persist, employees may do any of the following:

 Decrease inputs (give less time, do less work)

 Push for more output from the company (more pay, authority)
 Go into survival mode (do their job and little more)
 Become resistant (act out on other issues)
 Become overly competitive (focus on reducing the outputs of others)
 Quit

These outcomes harm an organization’s bottom line and where organizational turnover
occurs the loss is two-fold (economic and talent based).
What are the implications for managers?

They should consider openly sharing information on how allocation decisions are made,
follow consistent and unbiased procedures, and engage in similar practices to increase the
perception of procedural justice. By increasing the perception of procedural justice,
employees are likely to view their bosses and the organization as positive even if they’re
dissatisfied with pay, promotions, and other personal outcomes.
Procedural justice: Perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of
rewards.

Distributive justice Perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among
individuals.

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory states that an individual tends to act in a certain way based on the
expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that
outcome to the individual.

It includes three variables or relationships

1. Expectancy or effort–performance linkage is the probability perceived by the individual

that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to a certain level of performance.

2. Instrumentality or performance–reward linkage is the degree to which the individual

believes that performing at a particular level is instrumental in attaining the desired outcome.

3. Valence or attractiveness of reward is the importance that the individual places on the
potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the job. Valence considers both the goals
and needs of the individual.

The key to expectancy theory is understanding an individual’s goal and the linkage between
effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and finally, between rewards and
individual goal satisfaction.

It emphasizes payoffs, or rewards. As a result, we have to believe that the rewards an

organization is offering align with what the individual wants.

Expectancy theory recognizes that no universal principle explains what motivates individuals
and thus stresses that managers understand why employees view certain outcomes as
attractive or unattractive. After all, we want to reward individuals with those things they
value positively.

Also, expectancy theory emphasizes expected behaviors. Do employees know what is

expected of them and how they’ll be evaluated? Finally, the theory is concerned with
perceptions. Reality is irrelevant. An individual’s own perceptions of performance, reward,
and goal outcomes, not the outcomes themselves, will determine his or her motivation (level
of effort).

CURRENT ISSUES IN MOTIVATION

However, even the contemporary theories of employee motivation are influenced by some
significant workplace issues—motivating in tough economic circumstances, managing cross-
cultural challenges, motivating unique groups of workers, and designing appropriate rewards
programs.

1. Motivating in Tough Economic Circumstances

The economic recession of the last few years was difficult for many organizations, especially
when it came to their employees. Layoffs, tight budgets, minimal or no pay raises, benefit
cuts, no bonuses, long hours doing the work of those who had been laid off—this was the
reality that many employees faced. As conditions deteriorated, employee confidence,
optimism, and job engagement plummeted as well. It wasn’t an easy thing for managers to
keep employees motivated under such challenging circumstances.

Managers came to realize that in an uncertain economy, they had to be creative in keeping
their employees’ efforts energized, directed, and sustained toward achieving goals. They were
forced to look at ways to motivate employees that didn’t involve money or that were
relatively inexpensive.

a) So they relied on actions such as holding meetings with employees to keep the
lines of communication open and to get their input on issues;
b) establishing a common goal, such as maintaining excellent customer service,
to keep everyone focused;
c) creating a community feel so employees could see that managers cared about
them and their work; and
d) giving employees opportunities to continue to learn and grow.
e) an encouraging word always went a long way

2. Managing Cross-Cultural Motivational Challenges

In today’s global business environment, managers can’t automatically assume that

motivational programs that work in one geographic location are going to work in others.

Maslow’s need hierarchy argues that people start at the physiological level and then move
progressively up the hierarchy in order. This hierarchy, if it has any application at all, aligns
with American culture. In countries like Japan, Greece, and Mexico, where uncertainty
avoidance characteristics are strong, security needs would be the foundational layer of the
need hierarchy. Countries that score high on nurturing characteristics— Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland—would have social needs as their foundational level.
Another motivation concept that clearly has an American bias is the achievement need. The
view that a high achievement need acts as an internal motivator presupposes two cultural
characteristics—a willingness to accept a moderate degree of risk (which excludes countries
with strong uncertainty avoidance characteristics) and a concern with performance (which
applies almost singularly to countries with strong achievement characteristics). This
combination is found in Anglo-American countries such as the United States, Canada, and
Great Britain. On the other hand, these characteristics are relatively absent in countries such
as Chile and Portugal.

Equity theory has a relatively strong following in the United States, which is not surprising
given that U.S.-style reward systems are based on the assumption that workers are highly
sensitive to equity in reward allocations. In the United States, equity is meant to closely link
pay to performance.

Despite these cross-cultural differences in motivation, some cross-cultural consistencies are

evident. For instance, the desire for interesting work seems important to almost all workers,
regardless of their national culture. In a study of seven countries, employees in Belgium,
Britain, Israel, and the United States ranked “interesting work” number one among 11 work
goals. It was ranked either second or third in Japan, the Netherlands, and Germany.

3. Motivating Unique Groups of Workers

Employees come into organizations with different needs, personalities, skills, abilities,
interests, and aptitudes. They have different expectations of their employers and different
views of what they think their employer has a right to expect of them.

Given these differences, how can managers do an effective job of motivating the unique
groups of employees found in today’s workforce? One thing is to understand the motivational
requirements of these groups including diverse employees, professionals, contingent workers,
and low-skilled minimum-wage employees.

MOTIVATING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE. To maximize motivation among today’s

workforce, managers need to think in terms of flexibility. A diverse array of rewards is
needed to motivate employees with such diverse needs. Many of the work–life balance
programs that organizations have implemented are a response to the varied needs of a
diverse workforce. In addition, many organizations have developed flexible work
arrangements—such as compressed workweeks, flextime, and job sharing, that recognize
different needs. Another job alternative that we also discussed earlier is telecommuting.

MOTIVATING PROFESSIONALS. Professionals are different from nonprofessionals. They

have a strong and long-term commitment to their field of expertise. To keep current in their
field, they need to regularly update their knowledge, and because of their commitment to
their profession they rarely define their workweek as 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. five days a week.
What motivates professionals? Job challenge tends to be ranked high. They like to tackle
problems and find solutions. Their chief reward is the work itself. Professionals also value
support. They want others to think that what they are working on is important. That may be
true for all employees, but professionals tend to be focused on their work as their central life
interest, whereas nonprofessionals typically have other interests outside of work that can
compensate for needs not met on the job.

MOTIVATING CONTINGENT WORKERS. There’s no simple solution for motivating

these employees. For that small set of individuals who prefer the freedom of their temporary
status, the lack of stability may not be an issue. In addition, temporariness might be preferred
by highly compensated physicians, engineers, accountants, or financial planners who don’t
want the demands of a full-time job. But these individuals are the exceptions. What will
motivate involuntarily temporary employees? An obvious answer is the opportunity to
become a permanent employee. In cases in which permanent employees are selected from a
pool of temps, the temps will often work hard in hopes of becoming permanent. A less
obvious answer is the opportunity for training. The ability of a temporary employee to find a
new job is largely dependent on his or her skills. If an employee sees that the job he or she is
doing can help develop marketable skills, then motivation is increased.

MOTIVATING LOW-SKILLED, MINIMUM-WAGE EMPLOYEES. Although money is

important as a motivator, it’s not the only reward that people seek and that managers can use.
In motivating minimum-wage employees, managers might look at employee recognition
programs. Many managers also recognize the power of praise although these “pats on the
back” must be sincere and given for the right reasons.

Designing Appropriate Rewards Programs: Employee rewards programs play a powerful role
in motivating appropriate employee behavior.

OPEN-BOOK MANAGEMENT. Many organizations of various sizes involve their

employees in workplace decisions by opening up the financial statements (the “books”).
They share that information so that employees will be motivated to make better
decisions about their work and better able to understand the implications of what they
do, how they do it, and the ultimate impact on the bottom line. This approach is called
open-book management and many organizations are using it. The goal of open-book
management is to get employees to think like an owner by seeing the impact their decisions
have on financial results. By sharing this information, employees begin to see the link
between their efforts, level of performance, and operational results.

EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION PROGRAMS. Employee recognition programs consist of

personal attention and expressing interest, approval, and appreciation for a job well
done. And recognition can take many forms. You can personally congratulate an employee in
private for a good job. You can send a handwritten note or e-mail message acknowledging
something positive that the employee has done. For employees with a strong need for social
acceptance, you can publicly recognize accomplishments. To enhance group cohesiveness
and motivation, you can celebrate team successes. During the economic recession, managers
got quite creative in how they showed employees they were appreciated.

PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE. Pay-for-performance programs are variable compensation

plans that pay employees on the basis of some performance measure. Piece-rate pay plans,
wage incentive plans, profit-sharing, and lump-sum bonuses are examples. Pay-for-
performance is probably most compatible with expectancy theory. Individuals should
perceive a strong relationship between their performance and the rewards they receive for
motivation to be maximized. If rewards are allocated only on nonperformance factors— such
as seniority, job title, or across-the-board pay raises—then employees are likely to reduce
their efforts. From a motivation perspective, making some or all an employee’s pay
conditional on some performance measure focuses his or her attention and effort toward that
measure, then reinforces the continuation of the effort with a reward.