Chapter 5 - Foundations of Employee Motivation

Question 1

What is motivation?

Answer 1

The forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behaviour

Question 2

What are drives?

Answer 2

Hardwired characteristics of the brain that correct deficiencies or maintain an internal equilibrium by producing emotions to energize individuals

Question 3

What are needs?

Answer 3

Goal-directed forces that people experience

Question 4

What is the four-drive theory?

Answer 4

Motivation theory based around innate needs that incorporates emotions and rationality

• Drive to acquire
• Drive to bond
• Drive to comprehend
• Drive to defend

Question 5

How does the mental skill set (social norms, personal values, past experience) impact the emotions generated by drive?

Answer 5

The mental skill set channels the emotional forces created by the drives into goal-directed choices and effort

Question 6

What is Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory?

Answer 6

Motivation theory of needs arranged in a hierarchy, whereby people are motivate to fulfill a higher need as lower ones become gratified

Tiers: (Top to Bottom)
- Self-actualization
- Esteem
- Belongingness
- Safety
- Physiological

Sit outside of the tiers:
- Need to know
- Need for beauty

Question 7

What are the three learned needs?

Answer 7

• Need for Achievement (nAch)
• Need for Affiliation (nAff)
• Need for Power (nPow)

Question 8

What is expectancy theory?

Answer 8

A motivation theory based on the idea that work effort is directed toward behaviours that people believe will lead to desired outcomes

Question 9

What are the three factors of expectancy theory?

Answer 9

• E-P expectancy (individual’s perception that their effort will result in a specific level of performance
• P-O expectancy (perceived probability that a specific level of performance will lead to a certain outcome)
• Outcome valences (anticipated satisfaction or dissatisfaction that an individual feels toward an outcome), can be positive or negative

Question 10

What is organizational behavior modification (OB Mod)?

Answer 10

A theory that explains employee behaviour in terms of the antecedent conditions and consequences of that behaviour

Antecedents - events preceding the behaviour

Essentially manage the inputs and outputs to generate desired behaviour

Question 11

What is social cognitive theory?

Answer 11

A theory that explains how learning and motivation occur by observing and modelling others as well as by anticipating the consequences of our behaviour

• Learning Behaviour Consequences
• Behaviour Modelling
• Self-Regulation

Question 12

How does the SMARTER acronym define what makes a goal effective?

Answer 12

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-framed
• Exciting
• Reviewed

Question 13

What is strengths-based coaching?

Answer 13

An approach to coaching and feedback that focuses on building and leveraging the employee’s strengths rather than trying to correct their weaknesses

Question 14

What is distributive justice?

Answer 14

The perception that appropriate decision criteria (rules) have been applied to calculate how various benefits and burdens are distributed

Question 15

What is procedural justice?

Answer 15

The perception that appropriate procedural rules have been applied throughout the decision process

Question 16

What is interactional justice?

Answer 16

The perception that appropriate rules have been applied in the way that people involved are treated throughout the entire process

Question 17

What is equity theory?

Answer 17

A theory explaining how people develop perceptions of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources

A central feature of equity theory is that individuals determine fairness in terms of a comparison of other