Ch. 9: Motivation

Question 1

What is the motivation equation?

Answer 1

Question 2

What is motivation?

Answer 2

Psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behavior in an organization, a person’s level of effort, and a person’s level of persistence.

Question 3

What is intrinsically motivated behavior?

Answer 3

Behavior that is performed for its own sake.

Question 4

What is extrinsically motivated behavior?

Answer 4

Behavior that is performed to acquire material or social rewards or to avoid punishment.

Question 5

What is prosocially motivated behavior?

Answer 5

Behavior that is performed to benefit or help others.

Question 6

What is outcome?

Answer 6

Anything a person gets from a job or organization.

Question 7

What is input?

Answer 7

Anything a person contributes to his or her job or organization.

Question 8

What is expentancy theory?

Answer 8

The theory that motivation will be high when workers believe that high levels of effort lead to high performance and high performance leads to the attainment of desired outcomes.

Question 9

How do expectancy, instrumentality and valence interact?

Answer 9

Question 10

What is expectancy?

Answer 10

In expectancy theory, a perception about the extent to which effort results in a certain level of performance.

Question 11

What is instrumentality?

Answer 11

In expectancy theory, a perception about the extent to which performance results in the attainment of outcomes.

Question 12

What is valence?

Answer 12

In expectancy theory, how desirable each of the outcomes available from a job or organization is to a person.

Question 13

Describe expectancy theory.

Answer 13

Question 14

What is need?

Answer 14

A requirement or necessity for survival and well-being.

Question 15

What are need theories?

Answer 15

Theories of motivation that focus on what needs people are trying to satisfy at work and what outcomes will satisfy those needs.

Question 16

Describe Marslow’s hierachy of needs.

Answer 16

An arrangement of five basic needs that, according to Maslow, motivate behavior. Maslow proposed that the lowest level of unmet needs is the prime motivator and that only one level of needs is motivational at a time.

Question 17

What is Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory?

Answer 17

A need theory that distinguishes between motivator needs (related to the nature of the work itself) and hygiene needs (related to the physical and psychological context in which the work is performed) and proposes that motivator needs must be met for motivation and job satisfaction to be high.

Question 18

What is the need for achievement?

Answer 18

The extent to which an individual has a strong desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet personal standards for excellence.

Question 19

What is the need for affiliation?

Answer 19

The extent to which an individual is concerned about establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relations, being liked, and having the people around him or her get along with each other.

Question 20

What is the need for power?

Answer 20

The extent to which an individual desires to control or influence others.

Question 21

What is equity theory?

Answer 21

A theory of motivation that focuses on people’s perceptions of the fairness of their work outcomes relative to their work inputs.

Question 22

What is equity?

Answer 22

The justice, impartiality, and fairness to which all organizational members are entitled.

Question 23

What is equity theory?

Answer 23

Question 24

What is underpayment inequity?

Answer 24

The inequity that exists when a person perceives that his or her own outcome–input ratio is less than the ratio of a referent.

Question 25

What is overpayment inequity?

Answer 25

The inequity that exists when a person perceives that his or her own outcome–input ratio is greater than the ratio of a referent.

Question 26

What is goal-setting theory?

Answer 26

A theory that focuses on identifying the types of goals that are most effective in producing high levels of motivation and performance and explaining why goals have these effects.

Question 27

What are learning theories?

Answer 27

Theories that focus on increasing employee motivation and performance by linking the outcomes that employees receive to the performance of desired behaviors and the attainment of goals.

Question 28

What is learning?

Answer 28

A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that results from practice or experience.

Question 29

What is operant conditioning theory?

Answer 29

The theory that people learn to perform behaviors
that lead to desired consequences and learn not to perform behaviors that lead to undesired consequences.

Question 30

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 30

Giving people outcomes they desire when they perform organizationally functional behaviors.

Question 31

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 31

Eliminating or removing undesired outcomes when people perform organizationally functional behaviors.

Question 32

What is extinction?

Answer 32

Curtailing the performance of dysfunctional behaviors by eliminating whatever is reinforcing them.

Question 33

What is punishment?

Answer 33

Administering an undesired or negative consequence when dysfunctional behavior occurs.

Question 34

What is social learning theory?

Answer 34

A theory that takes into account how learning and motivation are influenced by people’s thoughts and beliefs and their observations of other people’s behavior.

Question 35

What is vicarious learning?

Answer 35

Learning that occurs when the learner becomes motivated to perform a behavior by watching another person performing it and being reinforced for doing so; also called observational learning.

Question 36

What is a self-reinforcer?

Answer 36

Any desired or attractive outcome or reward that a person gives to himself or herself for good performance.

Question 37

What is self-efficacy?

Answer 37

A person’s belief about his or her ability to perform a behavior successfully.

Question 38

What is a merit pay plan?

Answer 38

A compensation plan that bases pay on performance.

Question 39

What is an employee stock option?

Answer 39

A financial instrument that entitles the bearer to buy shares of an organization’s stock at a certain price during a certain period or under certain conditions.