ch 6: applied performance practices Flashcards
the meaning of money
o Tool – instrument for acquiring other things of value
o Drug – an object of addictive value in itself
gender differences money
- Men more likely than women to view money as a symbol of power and status, means to autonomy
o Women – more likely to view money in terms of things for which it can be exchange + as a symbol of generosity and caring
country differences money
- People in China, Japan (countries with high power distance) – high respect and priority for money
o Denmark, Austria, Israel (strong egalitarian culture) – discouraged from openly talking about money or displaying their personal wealth
o Swiss culture values saving money, Italian culture places more value on spending it
membership and seniority-based rewards
- Sometimes called “pay for pulse” – the largest part of most paychecks (especially in egalitarian cultures)
o Benefits provided equally to everyone – free or subsidized meals during wok, but others increase with seniority - Potentially reduce turnover and attract job applicants (those who want predictable income)
o But don’t directly motivate performance – discourage poor performers from seeking work better suited to their abilities
o Good performers are more easily lured to better-paying jobs - Some rewards are also “golden handcuffs” – discourage employees from quitting because of deferred bonuses or benefits that aren’t available elsewhere
o Potentially weaken job performance – generate continuance rather than affective commitment
job status-based rewards
- Job evaluation – systematically rating the worth of jobs within an organization by measuring the required skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions
- The higher the worth of a job – the higher the minimum and maximum pay for people in that job
o Tries to maintain pay equity and minimize pay discrimination, but this process may actually institutionalize inequities - Besides higher pay, employees with more valued jobs sometimes receive larger offices, company-paid vehicles, other perks
o Motivates employees to compete for promotions - Can encourage bureaucratic hierarchy, reinforce status mentality (millennials want a more egalitarian workplace), motivates them to compete with one another for higher-status jobs, to exaggerate their job duties and hoard resources as ways to increase the worth of their current job
competency-based rewards
- Reward priorities to skills, knowledge, other competencies that lead to superior performance
o Identify a list of competencies relevant across all job groups + those that are group specific - Ex: set of pan-organizational competencies (accountability, technical competency)
o Four broad organizational levels: technical/professional (team-oriented, technical acumen), supervisory (informing, emotional intelligence), managerial (financial acumen, fostering innovation), executive (strategic thinking, managing stakeholders)
o Each has a pay range - Skill-based pay plans – more specific variation of competency-based rewards – people receive higher pay determined by their mastery of measurable skills
- Pro: motivate employees to learn new skills (support a more flexible workforce, increase employee creativity, allow employees to be more adaptive to embracing new practices in a dynamic environment), products also improve (employees with multiple skills are more likely to understand the work process, know how to improve it)
- Con: often over-designed (difficult to communicate to employees), abstract (raises questions about fairness)
o Skill-based measure specific skills so they’re usually more objective, but expensive
peformance-based rewards
- Individual rewards – for accomplishing a specific task or exceeding annual performance goals
o Sometimes as commissions – pay depends on the sales volume - Team rewards – also include penalties
o Gainsharing plan – a team-based reward that calculates bonuses from the work unit’s cost savings and productivity improvement – implemented in many hospitals (reduction of costs – negotiating better prices of materials) – improves team dynamics, knowledge sharing, pay satisfaction + strong link between effort and performance - Organizational rewards – bonuses to all employees for achieving preset organizational goals or companywide variation of a gainsharing plan
o Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) – a reward system that encourages employees to buy company stock
o Stock options – a reward system that gives employees the right to purchase company stock at a future date at a predetermined price
o Profit-sharing plan – a reward system that pays bonuses to employees on the basis of the previous year’s level of corporate profits - ESOP and stock options – create an ownership culture – feel aligned with the organization’s success (might increase firm performance, but the effects are modest)
- Profit sharing and organization-wide productivity bonuses – improved productivity, but their effectiveness depends on industry, bonus complexity and other factors
o Profit sharing – advantage of automatically adjusting employee compensation with the firm’s prosperity (reducing the need for layoffs or negotiated pay reductions in recession) - Doesn’t improve motivation – weak connection between their individual effort and the determinants of rewards
o Even in small companies – stock influenced by economic conditions, competition - ESOP and other organizational rewards – more robust influence on motivation and firm performance when employees are also involved in organizational decisions
do employees think there is a clear link between job performance and pay
o 42% of employees think that there is a clear link between job performance and pay + 32% of employers
how can inconsistencies and bias for rewards be minimized
minimized through gainsharing, ESOPS – objective performance measures
o Subjective – rely on multiple sources of information + apply rewards as soon as the performance occurs and in a large-enough dose so that employees experience positive emotions
- The more employees see a “line of sight” between their daily actions and the reward, the more they’re motivated to improve their performance
o Reward systems also need to correct for situational factors
when are team rewards better
when employees work in highly interdependent jobs – can’t measure individual performance + encourage cooperation + support employee preferences for team-based work
o Concern: employees in low-collectivism cultures prefer rewards based on their individual performance
unintended consequences of rewards
o Rewarding employees for how much they produce results in lower quality and more product defects + employees who work mainly on piece-rate pay experience worse physical and emotional health
o Money isn’t the only thing that motivates people – employees more engaged in work through intrinsic motivation (jobs that are interesting, challenging, provide autonomy)
job design practices
- Describes how jobs, tasks, roles are structured, enacted and modified, as well as their impact on individual, group, and organizational outcomes
job specialization
– the result of a division of labor, in which work is subdivided into separate jobs assigned to different people
cycle time
the time required to complete the task before starting over with another item or client
job specialization improves work efficiency
o Less variety of tasks to juggle – less time lost changing over to a different type of activity, mental attention doesn’t linger on the previous type of work
o Employees become proficient more quickly – fewer physical and mental skills to learn, less time to train and develop for high performance
o Shorter work cycles give employees more frequent practice with the task – mastered more quickly
o Increase work efficiency by allowing employees with specific skills to be matched more precisely
scientific management
– the practice of systematically portioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency
extreme job specialization
affects employee attitudes and motivation – tedious, trivial, socially isolating
o Short cycle times – higher levels of employee turnover and absenteeism
o Higher wages to offset boredom
job specialization affects output quality
o Higher-quality results – master work faster
o Many jobs are so specialized that they’re highly repetitive – the positive is offset by the negative effect of lower attentiveness and motivation
o Difficult for employees to visualize or understand the overall product or service
job characteristics model
a job design model that relates the motivational properties of jobs to specific personal and organizational consequences of those properties
core job characteristics
o Skill variety – the extent to which employees must use different skills and talents to perform tasks within their jobs
o Task identity – the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or an identifiable piece of work
o Task significance – the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the organization and/or larger society
Increases with direct contact with clients
o Autonomy – freedom, independence, discretion in scheduling the work
o Job feedback – how much employees can tell how well they’re doing
critical psychological states
o Meaningfulness (belief that one’s work is worthwhile or important) – skill variety, task identity and task significance contribute
o Experienced responsibility (being personally accountable for the work outcomes) – autonomy
o Knowledge of results (awareness of the work outcomes) – feedback from the job
job design doesn’t increase work motivation for everyone in every situations
o Employees will be motivated by the five core job characteristics only when they’re satisfied with their work context and have a high growth need strength (an individual’s need for personal growth and development – offers challenges, cognitive stimulation, learning, independent thought and action
o But research mixed
two clusters of job features overlooked in the job design model
o Social characteristics – requires employees to interact with others
Emotional labor and task interdependence (the extent to which team members must share materials, information, or expertise in order to perform their job)
Feedback from others – motivating
o Information processing demands – how predictable the job duties are (task variability – nonroutine work patterns, different types of tasks from one day to the next, don’t know which tasks are required until that time) + (task analyzability – how much the job can be performed using known procedures and rules)
job rotation
moving employees from one job to another for the purpose of improving the motivational and physiological conditions of the work – changing jobs one or more times each days
benefits of job rotation
o Higher motivational potential – a wider variety of skills – improves motivation and satisfaction (skill variety)
o Better knowledge of quality issues – clearer picture of the production process and ways to improve quality
o Lower health risks – typically requires different muscles and physical positions
o Greater workplace flexibility – learn how to perform multiple jobs
concerns of job rotation
lower task performance, lower task proficiency + people may differ in the specific types of work they want to do, identification of individual performance is more difficult
job enlargement
giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, planning their own work
o Higher job satisfaction and work motivation, lower absenteeism and turnover
o Higher when task identity and job feedback are improved – increased felt responsibility and sense of ownership over the product or service
a job’s full motivational potential
when skill variety is combined with more autonomy and job knowledge
o Motivated when they perform a variety of tasks and have the freedom and knowledge to structure their work to achieve the highest satisfaction and performance
job enrichment
giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, planning their own work
o Higher job satisfaction and work motivation, lower absenteeism and turnover
o Higher when task identity and job feedback are improved – increased felt responsibility and sense of ownership over the product or service
two ways of job enrichment
o Natural grouping – stitching highly interdependent tasks into one job
o Establishing client relationships – directly responsible for specific clients, communicate directly with them
psychological empowerment
a perceptual and emotional state in which people experience more self-determination, meaning, competence, and impact regarding their role in the organization
o Self determination – feel that they have freedom, independence, discretion over their work activities
o Meaning – care about their work and believe that what they do is important
o Competence – confident about their ability to perform the work well and have the capacity to grow with new challenges
o Impact – view themselves as active participants in the organization, believe their actions have an influence
structural empowerment practices
o Jobs with a high degree of autonomy, minimal bureaucratic control + high levels of task identity and task significance + receive feedback
o Information and other resources are easily accessible + organizations that demonstrate a commitment to employee learning by providing formal training programs, nurturing a culture that encourages informal learning and discovery + leaders trust employees
self-leadership
specific cognitive and behavioral strategies to achieve personal goals and standards through self-direction and self-motivation
sequence of self-leadership
personal goal setting, constructive thought strategies, designing natural rewards, self-monitoring, self-reinforcement
o Personal goal setting – goals that are self-determined – more motivated, perform better
o Constructive thought strategies
Positive self-talk – the process of talking to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions
* When it’s negative – undermines our confidence and potential to perform a particular task
* Positive – “can-do” belief + motivation by raising our self-efficacy and reducing anxiety about challenging tasks
Mental imagery – the process of mentally practicing a task and visualizing its successful completion
o Designing natural rewards – expanding tasks they enjoy, offloading to others tasks they don’t enjoy, changing how tasks are done + cognitively reframing the activity
o Self-monitoring – keeping track at regular intervals of one’s progress toward a goal
Some ppl can receive feedback from the job itself, but for those that can’t – feedback mechanisms
o Self-reinforcement – whenever an employee has control over a reinforcer but doesn’t take it until completing a self-set goal
what kind of people have high self-leadership
higher levels of conscientiousness and extroversion
