Chapter 6: Motivational Needs, Processes, and Applications Flashcards
Motivation
- From the Latin word “movere”, which means “to move.”
- is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive
- key to understanding the process of motivation lies in the meaning of, and relationships among, needs, drives, and incentives
The Motivation Process
Needs > Drives > Incentives
Needs
- created whenever there is a physiological or psychological imbalance.
- Although psychological needs may be based on a deficiency, sometimes they are not.
Drives
- With a few exceptions, drives, or motives are set up to alleviate needs.
- A physiological drive can be simply defined as a deficiency with direction
- Physiological and psychological drives are action-oriented and provide an energizing thrust toward reaching an incentive
Incentives
- anything that will alleviate a need and reduce a drive
- attaining an incentive will tend to restore physiological or psychological balance and will reduce or cut off the drive
Primary Motives
Two Criteria to be included in Primary:
- It must be unlearned
- it must be physiologically based
- hunger, thirst, sleep, avoidance of pain, sex, and maternal concern.
- are vital for survival
Secondary Motives
- Are learned behaviors
- the most important to the study of organizational behavior
- Major secondary Motives include: power, achievement, and affiliation, or, as they are commonly referred to, n Pow, n Ach, and n Aff.
Need for Achievement
- Doing better than competitors
- Attaining or surpassing a difficult goal
- Solving a complex problem
- Carrying out a challenging assignment successfully
- Developing a better way to do something
Need for Power
- Influencing people to change their attitudes or behavior
- Controlling people and activities
- Being in a position of authority over others
- Gaining control over information and resources
- Defeating an opponent or enemy
Need for Affiliation
- Being liked by many people
- Being accepted as part of a group or team
- Working with people who are friendly and cooperative
- Maintaining harmonious relationships and avoiding conflicts
- Participating in pleasant social activities
Need for Security
- Having a secure job
- Being protected against loss of income or economic disaster
- Having protection against illness and disability
- Being protected against physical harm or hazardous conditions
- Avoiding tasks or decisions with a risk of failure and blame
Need for Status
- Having the right car and wearing the right clothes
- Working for the right company in the right job
- Having a degree from the right university
- Living in the right neighborhood and belonging to the country club
- Having executive privileges
Extrinsic motives
- are tangible and visible to others
- distributed by other people (agents)
- the drive to avoid punishment, such as termination or being transferred
- is contingent on improved performance or performance that is superior to others in the same workplace
- explain every motivated effort made by an individual employee
- Many motivators have both intrinsic and extrinsic components
Intrinsic Motives
- are internally generated
- include feelings of responsibility, achievement, accomplishment, that something was learned from an experience
- feelings of being challenged or competitive, or that something was an engaging task or goal
- Many motivators have both intrinsic and extrinsic components
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
- proposes that a task may be intrinsically motivating, but that when an extrinsic motivator becomes associated with that task, the actual level of motivation may decrease
- extrinsic motivators may actually undermine intrinsic motivation
- there is considerable research evidence that extrinsic rewards may not detract from intrinsic motivation, and at least for interesting, challenging tasks, extrinsic rewards may even increase the level of intrinsic motivation
- Criticisms: it was built on studies largely using students as subjects rather than workers in the workplace setting and that actual decrements in intrinsic motivation were relatively small when extrinsic rewards were introduced
Negative Extrinsic Motivations
- threats, deadlines, directives, pressures, and imposed goals are likely to be key factors that diminish intrinsic motivation
- example: the difference between writing a book for fun versus writing a book that must be completed by a certain deadline in order to receive payment
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- An important historical contribution
- thought that a person’s motivational needs could be arranged in a hierarchical manner.
- that once a given level of need is satisfied, it no longer serves to motivate
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 5 Levels
Page 137
- Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex)
- Safety needs
- Love needs (loosely corresponds to the affection and affiliation needs); belongingness or social needs
- Esteem needs (power, achievement, and status)
- Needs for self-actualization (person’s motivation to transform perception of self into reality)
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation
Two questions:
- When did you feel particularly good about your job—what turned you on?
- When did you feel exceptionally bad about your job—what turned you off?
- job satisfiers are related to job content and that job dissatisfiers are allied to job context
- labeled satisfiers as motivators and dissatisfiers labeled hygiene factors
- the hygiene factors are those that prevent dissatisfaction
Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors (page 140)
- Company policy and administration
- Supervision, technical
- Salary
- Interpersonal relations, supervisor
- Working conditions
Herzberg’s Motivators
- Achievement
- Recognition
- Work itself
- Responsibility
- Advancement
Herzberg’s Criticisms
- oversimplifies the complexities of work motivation
- sample and setting may affect preferences for motivators and hygiene factors
- it does not adequately describe the complex motivation process of organizational participants that will now be given attention in the more complex theories of work motivation
The Porter-Lawler Expectancy Theory of Work Motivation (page 142)
- the relationship between satisfaction and performance was dealt with directly by a motivation theory
- Motivation (effort or force) does not equal satisfaction or performance
- Motivation, satisfaction, and performance are all separate variables and relate in ways different from what was traditionally assumed
- performance leads to satisfaction
Motivation - Performance Relationship Barriers
- Doubts about ability, skill, or knowledge
- The physical or practical possibility of the job
- The interdependence of the job with other people or activities
- Ambiguity surrounding the job requirements
Motivation - Performance Relationship Guidelines
- Determine what rewards each employee values
- Define desired performance
- Make desired performance attainable
- Link valued rewards to performance
Equity Theory of Work Motivation
Stacy Adams page 144
- Equity theory supports a perception of distributive justice, which is an individual’s cognitive evaluation regarding whether or not the amounts and allocations of rewards in a social setting are fair
- major input into job performance and satisfaction is the degree of equity (or inequity) that people perceive in their work situation
- Inequity occurs when a person perceives that the ratio of his or her outcomes to inputs and the ratio of a relevant other’s outcomes to inputs are unequal
- Inputs and outputs are based on perception
- Age, sex, education, social status, organizational position, qualifications, and how hard the person works are examples of perceived input variables
- If imbalanced in their perception, people will strive to restore equity
- This “striving” to restore equity is used as the explanation of work motivation