Lecture 7 Flashcards
How do organizations motivate employees and managers?
have developed various ways of motivating their employees due to:
As boarders between/among many countries are fading away, organizations are looking for universal theories of leadership that explain how to motivate employees.
Good Leadership requires skill to inspire others and to
influence the way employees think and make decisions.
Many theorists including McGregor, Hofstede, Laurent and Adler believe that leaders should use their cultural background to
influence and motivate their subordinates.
Understanding motivation:
It is a process that energizes workers to behave in a productive way.
It is a mechanism which helps organizations maintain the desired behavior.
Following are some of the known theories that explain what motivates people in different cultures:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
McClenland’s Three Motives Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory Vroom’s Expectancy Theory Hofstede’s Five Cultural Dimensions
Maslow suggests that the needs of people can
determine the ways to motivate them.
It becomes a challenge to motivate individuals who are in
the lower level of the hierarchy of needs by motivational tools that serves to individuals who have already realized upper level of their needs.
Hofstede and Trompenaars believe that people who live in weak uncertainty avoidance culture are
more motivated to work harder and take risk than people who live in strong uncertainty avoidance and collective societies.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Top to Bottom:
Self Actualization Esteem Social Safety Physiological Needs
Can Maslow’s theory, which is based on America socio-economic environment, be applicable to other countries of different cultural background?
In general it is suggested that developing counties often exhibit high uncertainty avoidance, low individualism, high power distant and a low emphasis career success
Job security is more important in countries such as
Japan and Greece.
Quality of life is more important in
Scandinavian countries than job securities.
In-group’s welfare is more important than individual interest in countries which manifest
collectivist behavior (Pakistan)
In traditional societies, communal responsibility is more valued than
individual drive.
East African culture suppresses self-seeking individualism
Two Steps of Motivating Individuals from Various Countries:
Understand where the individual’s cultural background is located on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Consider the individual’s personal drive and how his/life style deviates from the commonly accepted cultural background.
David McClenland, an American theorist claims that workers can be motivated in the context of understanding “three motives” :
The individual’s need for achievement
The individual’s need for Power
The individual’s need for affiliation to a group or an organization
McLenland focuses on the need for power in motivating people to produce, however later on he found that
the need for achievement was the main reason why some nations are motivated to produce more than others. His latest assertion was based on his research of Indian entrepreneurs trained in the need for achievement.
Hofstede questions the universality of
McClenland’s motivators.
Hofstede doubts that the word “achievement” which is understood in the context of western culture will
have the same meaning in other countries.
Furthermore, Hofstede thinks that achievement might be realized by factors other than
need driven objectives.
Hofstede, found that countries with a high need for career and weak uncertainty avoidance have
a strong desire for achievement.
On the other hand, countries such as Chile and Portugal which have strong uncertainty avoidance and strong commitment to quality of life follow
low achieving pattern of life style.
Frederick Herzberg identifies two motivators of individuals or groups
Extrinsic (exterior ) factor
Intrinsic (internal) factor
Extrinsic (exterior ) factor
environmental factors such as reward, promotion, travel bonus.
Intrinsic (internal) factor
motivators are referred to the higher-order needs on the needs of hierarchy. Such factors include, the work itself, responsibility, recognition of a job or challenge at work.
Frederick Herzberg indicates that certain extrinsic (external) factors can in fact __ people.
de-motivate
Herzberg on the other hand, states that certain intrinsic (internal) factors which are related to the job,
energize or motivate people.
Thus, Herzberg believes that an attempt to motivate employees by applying a wrong motivator might be
counterproductive.
For example, increasing material supply or reward may not bring a positive effect on motivation in some traditional societies.
The challenges of Herzberg’s two factor motivation theory:
The intrinsic motives after realization can become extrinsic motives. Hence, it becomes difficult to hold them constant or to identify which is which, when we attempt to read in the value system of many nations.
Therefore, it is recommended that managers entering a new market should observe which motivational factors would work in a specific condition.
Vroom’s Expectancy theory claims that people are driven by
their assumption that their acts will lead to results.
e.g. people work in expectation of reward in a form of continued employment, a paycheck, or the ability to support family members.
Motivation =
Goals & attractiveness of the result
In a collective society, an individual can be tied up with an organization not for his/her beliefs in realizing goals or maximizing gains from his/her achievements but for
moral reasons.
The concept of moral here is commitment or loyalty to bosses or an organization or a community.
In countries where individualism dominates, individuals act or performance is based on a
calculated perspective
In countries where individualism dominates, individuals act or performance is based on a
calculated perspective
Adler adds that, Americans being an individualist society don’t expect the firm they work for to
take care of them. As a result, they don’t have so much responsibility to the organization. This leads to high turn-over of executives and employees.
Sampling countries a/g to Vroom’s theory:
In the United States the relationship between employees and employers is based on
calculative objectives. Vroom believes that both parties are result-oriented.
Sampling countries a/g to Vroom’s theory:
In the Arab World, things will happen by
God’s will.
Sampling countries a/g to Vroom’s theory:
Latin Americans believe that things happen because of
family or social status related factors.
Sampling countries a/g to Vroom’s theory:
Chinese tend to attribute happening of things to
luck.
Sampling countries a/g to Vroom’s theory:
Research indicates the expectation/goals may not be uniform in all countries due to the variations of
individuals’ income, social status and education.
Intrinsic satisfaction can be attributed to
early commitment made not necessarily to job related activities.
People who got intrinsic satisfaction, most of the time attribute it (the satisfaction) later to
external factors. This suggestion makes Vroom’s expectancy theory questionable or doubtful.
Hofstede thinks only the national culture is the factor behind employees’ state of
motivation or demotivation.
Cultural Intelligence:
a person’s ability to adapt effectively to new cultural contexts.
There are three aspects of cultural intelligence:
Cognitive aspects
Motivational
Behavioral
Cognitive aspects of cultural intelligence include
thinking, learning and strategizing.
Cognitive cultural intelligence helps to learn to
think.
Cognitive cultural understanding helps us to understand that perception can
help or hinder cross-cultural understanding.
Motivational aspects of cultural intelligence include
confidence, persistence, value congruence level of affinity or attraction toward a new culture.
Motivational cultural intelligence helps to explain how strongly we hold our
particular cultural values and norms toward a new culture when encountering it for the first time.
Behavioral aspects of cultural intelligence include
a range of actions and responses that can be used in intercultural encounters which need acquiring new ability and new behavior.
It is important to note that while learning new behavior is important, integrating what was previously learned behavior that is appropriate for a particular situation becomes
fundamental for the process of motivation.
