Lecture 13 & 14 Flashcards
What was the primitive view on the production process and motivation?
- humans as inputs
- Uniform treatment of inputs
- Employment contracts
- Shirking (employees avoiding responsibilities)
Why does motivation matter?
- Human inputs are not simple, but complex (ambitions, emotions, needs)
- Employment contracts cannot fully specify quantity & quality of work
What is motivation?
Psychological processes that cause the arousal direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed
What are the key features of motivation?
- Direction of goals
- Intensity (effort level)
- Persistence
What is extrinsic motivation?
Factors that are external to the activity itself, e.g. power, money, rewards
What is intrinsic motivation?
Internal factors related to activity, e.g. personal enjoyment or satisfaction from task
What is the over justification effect?
Phenomenon occurs when providing external rewards for activities individuals already find enjoyable can decrease intrinsic motivation
What was Taylor’s management theory?
Objective of maximising efficiency through financial incentives (piece rate pay)
What principles were developed in the 1920s-30s on the human relations approach?
- Relationships at work determine productivity
- Social and psychological issues more important than money
- Values of peer are more important than those of managers
- workers need work units, social relationships and participative management styles
What is McGregor’s X theory?
Assumes employees are lazy, avoid responsibility, extrinsically motivated, highly authoritarian, strict control, detailed supervision, top-down hierarchy
What is McGregor’s Y theory?
Assumes employees are intrinsically motivated, want to improve, keen to take responsibility
Participative and democratic, where managers trust employees to take initiative and make decisions
What are the levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (bottom to top)?
- Psychological needs
- Safety needs
- Belonging & love
- Esteem needs
- Self Actualisation
What are Herzberg’s two factors of motivation?
- Hygiene factors (extrinsic) prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate e.g. salary, policies, work conditions, relationships
- Motivators (intrinsic) drive job satisfaction and motivation e.g. achievement, recognition, opportunities for growth, responsibility, quality of work
What are some notable criticisms these motivational theories?
- Needs do not always function as the theories predict
- Theories lack precision, often failing to explain how needs translate to behaviour
- Individual differences are overlooked
- Content theories rooted in wester cultural values (application across cultures)
What are features of process theories of motivation?
- Dynamic nature
- Choice and experiences
- Role of managers:
- transforming experiences
- managing expectations
What are the features of Vroom’s Expectancy theory?
- Valence: emotional orientation towards x
- Instrumentality: if I do X it will enable me to achieve Y
- Expectancy: am I capable of doing X?
What is Adams Equity Theory?
Suggested that perceptions of equity are central to motivation.
Held Equity has three components:
- inputs
- Outcomes
- Comparisons with others
How do process theories improve on basic motivational theories?
- recognise dynamic nature of motivation
- have some empirical support
What are some limitations of process theories?
- Little attention to why people value certain outcomes
- Invokes no concept of underlying need
- Assumes motivation is always a matter of conscious decision-making
What are limitations of mainstream approaches to motivation theories?
- Prescriptive and manager-centred view
- Engineering-style approach
- Overlook broad context
What are some key concepts that Marx used in his theories?
- Means of production
- tools. tech used in production
- Raw materials - Relations of production
- Relations humans enter with each other to use the means of production
- E.g. employee with employer; supplier with retailer, buyer with seller
What was feudalism?
Political and social system of Europe pre industrial revolution. Society divided into classes, high inequality
What is capitalism?
Post industrial revolution, succeeded feudalism, production owned by capitalists, operated by workers, some inequality (due to corruption)
What is socialism?
A load of bs, nevertheless, involves mutual ownership of means of production by workers, surplus production redistributed for benefit of society, health warning: may lead to decline of ownership, money, exchange and state (not clearly described or analysed by marx)
What was Marx’s opinion on capitalism?
- People are social rather than purely self-serving
- Production for exchange (not use) is a feature of capitalism
- Motivation to produce driven by profit rather than human need
- Different interests of groups in org shaped by class position
What did Marx claim about people and alienation under capitalism?
Claimed that separation between work and ownership leads to:
1. Alienation from product
2. Alienation from process of production
3. Alienation from others
4. Alienation from self
What are some Critiques of ‘critical’ approaches?
- Too black-and-white
- Idealistic view of post-capitalist work
- Neglect of individual agency
- Underestimation of non-economic motivators
- Context of Marx’s time
