Chapter 13 Flashcards
SETTING GOALS
goal-setting theory
- a motivation theory stating that people have conscious goals that energize them and direct their thoughts and behaviors toward a particular end
- keeping in mind the principle that goals matter, managers set goals for employees or collaborate with employees on goal setting
- works for any job in which people have control over their performance
- you can set goals for performance quality and quantity, and behavioral goals such as cooperation and teamwork
SETTING GOALS
stretch goals
- targets that are particularly demanding, sometimes even thought to be impossible
- two types :
1. Vertical stretch goals - aligned with current activities including productivity and financial results
2. Horizontal stretch goals - involve people’s professional development such as attempting and learning new, difficult things - stretch goals can generate a major shift away from mediocrity and reword tremendous achievement
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
law of effect
- a law formulated by Edward Thorndike in stating that behavior that is followed by positive consequences will likely be repeated
- this powerful law of behavior laid the foundation for countless investigations into the effects of the positive consequences, called reinforcers
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
reinforcers
- positive consequences that motivate behavior
MOTIVATING FOR PERFORMANCE
motivation
- forces that energize, direct, and sustain a person’s efforts
- a highly motivated person will work hard toward achieving performance goals
- managers must know what behaviors they want to motivate people to exhibit
- although productive people appear to do a seemingly limitless number of things, which can be grouped into five general categories :
1. Join the organization
2. Remain in the organization
3. Come to work regularly
4. Perform : one employees are at work, they should work hard to achieve high output and high quality.
5. Exhibit good things that can help the company
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
Four consequences of behavior
- Positive reinforcement
- Negative reinforcement
- Punishment
- Extinction
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
organizational behavior modification (OB mod)
- the application of reinforcement theory in organizational settings
- attempts to influence people’s behavior, and improve performance, by systematically managing work conditions and the consequences of people’s actions
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
positive reinforcement
- applying consequence that increase the likelihood that a person will repeat the behavior that led to it
- examples of positive reinforcers include compliments, letters of commendation, favorable performance evaluations, and pay raises
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
punishment
- administering an aversive consequence
- examples include criticizing or shouting at an employee, assigning an unappealing task, and sending a worker home without pay.
- negative reinforcement can involve the threat of punishment and not delivering the punishment when employees perform satisfactorily.
- punishment is the actual delivery of the aversive consequence
- managers use punishment when they think it is warranted or when they believe others expect them to, and they usually concern themselves with following company policy and procedure
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
The greatest management principle in the world
Should reward what?
- Solid solutions - instead of quick fixes
- Risk taking - instead of risk avoiding
- Applied creativity - instead of mindless conformity
- Decisive action - instead of paralysis by analysis
- Smart work - instead of busywork
- Simplification - instead of needless complication
- Quietly effective behavior - instead of squeaky wheels
- Quality work - instead if fast work
- Loyalty - instead of turnover
- Working together - instead of working against
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
extinction
- withdrawing or failing to provide a reinforcing consequence
- when this occurs, motivation is reduced and the behavior is extinguished, or eliminated
- ways that managers may unintentionally extinguish desired behaviors include not giving a compliment for a job well done, forgetting to say thanks for a favor, and setting impossible performance goals so a person never experienced success.
- extinction may be used to end undesirable behaviors, too
- the manager might ignore long-winded observations during a meeting or fail to acknowledge unimportant emails in the hope that the lack of feedback will discourage the employee from continuing
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
expectancy theory
- a theory proposing that people will behave based on their perceived likelihood that their effort will lead to a certain outcome and on how highly they value that outcome
- people develop two important beliefs linking these three events : expectancy, which links to performance, and instrumentality, which links performances to outcomes
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
outcome
- a consequence a person receives for his or her performance
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
A person will not be highly motivated if these conditions are present
- He believes he can’t perform well enough to achieve the positive outcomes that he knows the company provides to good performers (high valence and high instrumentality but low expectancy).
- He knows he can do the job and is fairly certain what the ultimate outcomes will be (say, a promotion and a transfer). However, he doesn’t want those outcomes or believes other, negative outcomes outweigh the positive (high expectancy and high instrumentality but low valence).
- He knows he can do the job and wants several important outcomes (a favorable performance review, a raise, and a promotion). But he believes the outcomes will not be forthcoming (high expectancy and positive valences but low instrumentality).
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
Three implications that influence motivation (expectancy theory)
- Increase expectancies :
- provide a work environment that facilitates good performance and set realistically attainable performance goals.
- provide training, support, required resources, and encouragement so that people are confident they can perform at the levels expected of them. - Identify positively valent outcomes :
- understand what people want to get out of work
- think about what their jobs provide them and what is not, but could be provided.
- consider how people may differ in valences they assign to outcomes
- know the need theories of motivation and their implications for identifying important outcomes - Make performance instrumental toward positive outcomes :
- make sure that good performance is followed by personal recognition and praise, favorable performance reviews, pay increases, and other positive results
- also, make sure that working hard and doing things well will have as few negative results as possible
- it is useful to realize, too, that bosses usually have control rewards and punishments, but others do so as well
- peers, direct reports, customers, and others tend to provide rewards in the form of compliments, help, and social punishments
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
instrumentality
- the perceived likelihood that performance will be followed by a particular outcome
- like expectancies, instrumentalities can be high (up to 100 percent) or low (approaching 0 percent)
- for example you can be fully confident that if you do a good job, you’ll get a promotion; or you can feel that no matter how well you do, the promotion will go to someone else
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
valence
- the value an outcome holds for the person contemplating it
- valences can be positive or negative
UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S NEEDS
McClelland’s Needs
- identified the most important needs for managers :
1. Achievement : characterized by a strong orientation toward accomplishment and an obsession with success and goal attainment
2. Affiliation : reflects a strong desire to be liked by other people. Individuals who have high levels of this need are oriented toward getting along with others and may be less concerned with performing at high levels
3. Power : desire to influence on control other people. This need can be a negative force - termed personalized power - if it is expressed through the aggressive manipulation and exploitation of others. People high on the personalized power need want power purely for the pursuit of their own goals. But the need for power also can be a positive motive - called socialized power - because it can be channeled toward the constructive improvement of organizations and societies.
PERFORMANCE-RELATED BELIEFS
expectancy
- employees’ perception of the likelihood that their efforts will enable them to attain their performance goals
- all else equal, high expectancies create higher motivation than do low expectancies
- an expectancy can be high (up to 100 percent), such as when a student is confident if she’s studies hard, she can get a good grade on the final
- an expectancy can also be low (down to a 0 percent likelihood), such as when a suitor convinced that his dream date will never go out with him
REINFORCING PERFORMANCE
negative reinforcement
- removing or withholding an undesirable consequence
- for example, a manager takes an employee (or school takes a student) off probation because of improved performance
UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S NEEDS
Maslow’s need hierarchy
- a conception of human needs organizing needs into a hierarchy of five major types
- bottom of pyramid to top :
1. Physiological : food, water, sex, and shelter
2. Safety or security : protection against threat and deprivation
3. Social : friendship, affection, belonging, and love
4. Ego : independence, achievement, freedom, status, recognition, and self-esteem
5. Self-actualization : realizing one’s full potential, becoming everything one is capable of being - people are motivated to satisfy the lower needs before they try to satisfy the higher needs
- Maslow made three important contributions :
1. He identified important need categories, which can help managers create effective positive reinforcers.
2. It is helpful to think of two general levels of needs, in which lower-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become important.
3. Maslow alerted managers to the importance of personal growth and self-actualization
UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S NEEDS
Alderfer’s ERG theory
- a human needs theory postulating that people have three basic sets of needs that can operate simultaneously
- aims his theory expressly at understanding people’s needs at work
- three sets of needs :
1. Existence - are all material and physiological desires
2. Relatedness - involve relationships with other people and are satisfied through the process of mutually sharing thoughts and feelings
3. Growth - motivate people to change themselves or their environment productively or creatively - Alderfer’s maintains that people - particularly working people in our postindustrial society - can be motivated to satisfy existence, relatedness, and growth need at the same time
DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS
extrinsic reward
- reward given to a person by the boss, the company, or some other person
DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS
intrinsic reward
- reward a worked derives directly from performing the job itself
- an interesting project, an intriguing subject that is fun to study, a completed sale, and the discovery of the perfect solution to a difficult problem all can give people the feeling that they have done something well.
- are essential to the motivation underlying creativity
DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS
job rotation
- changing from one task to another to alleviate boredom
- workers who spend all their time in one routine task can instead move from one task to another
- is intended to alleviate boredom by giving people different things to do at different times.
DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS
The Hackman and Oldham Model of Job Enrichment
- They believe they are doing something meaningful because their work is important to other people.
- They feel personally responsible for how the work turns out.
- They learn how well they perform their jobs.
- Psychological states that occur when people are working on enriched jobs : - Skill variety - different job activities involving several skills and talents
- Task identity - the completion of a whole, identifiable piece of work
- Task significance - an important, positive impact on the lives of others
- Autonomy - independence and discretion in making decisions
- Feedback - information about job performance; many companies post charts or provide computerized data indicating productivity, number of rejects, and other data