Motivation Flashcards
What is motivation?
Motivation is the degree to which an individual wants AND chooses to engage in certain behaviours.
It’s also a cognitive decision process and was developed in the USA through empirical evidence.
What is extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?
- Extrinsic Motivation in organisations is about activities influenced by the desire to secure rewards or avoid punishment. More tangible.
- Intrinsic Motivation in organisations can be understood as a feeling of joy, a sense of achievement or accomplishment that guides a person towards action. Intangible.
- The relationships between performance and intrinsic reward are more immediate than those between performance and extrinsic reward. Intrinsic rewards are thus more important influences on our motivation to work.
What is are real life examples of Taylors motivation?
- McDonald’s invests in training and development programmes to equip employees with the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their tasks efficiently. New hires undergo comprehensive training that covers everything from food safety protocols to customer service techniques. Ongoing training and development initiatives help employees improve their performance and stay up to date with the latest procedures. McDonald’s regularly provides opportunities for advancement and skill development, fostering a motivated and knowledgeable workforce.
- Ford broke down the automobile assembly process into smaller, specialised tasks.
- The practice of timing emergency departments in hospitals and determining the shortest possible amount of time to attend to a patient. Also the NHS staff are trained in their department.
What is demotivation?
A lack of interest and lack of enthusiasm in an activity/subject. Links to McGregor’s X and Y theory as X workers avoid work, lack ambition and value job security more than anything else.
Why does demotivation happen?
- Values Mismatch: I don’t care enough to do this.
- Lack of Self-Efficacy: I don’t think I’m able to do this.
- Disruptive Emotions: I’m too upset to do this.
- Attribution Errors: I don’t know what went wrong with this.
Why is motivation important?
- Motivation is crucial for understanding interactions within the social construct of the organisation.
- Affective behaviour is relevant in practical issues such as:
absenteeism, turnover, etc. - Can inform efficiency, productivity, effectiveness and quality.
- Strong link between the individual’s psychological state and organisational citizenship.
What is the scientific management and human relations’ significance towards motivation?
- Taylor’s Scientific Management was one of earliest theories on motivation.
- He believed that people were motivated only by money.
- So pay for what people produce – ‘piece rate’- A fair days pay for a fair days work.
- Most often applied in industrial/manufacturing setting.
- Jobs broken down into small units of work.
- Repetitive – individual only did one element.
- Little opportunity for creativity.
- No incentive to develop.
- Often a very demotivating experience.
What are the motivation theories?
- Hierarchy of needs
- McGregors Theory X and Y
- Motivator - hygiene factors
- Equity
- Expectancy
- Goal theory
Historical context: Scientific
Management and Human
Relations Mayo
- In an experiment intended to measure how a work environment impacts worker productivity, Mayo’s researchers noted that workers productivity increased not from changes in environment, but when being watched. It’s a form of performance bias.
- High employee turnover despite relatively high levels of pay at Ford Motor Company suggested that other factors motivate people at work.
- Elton Mayo’s 1930s research at Western Electric Company, Hawthorne, USA
- ‘Hawthorne effect’.
- Motivation improved by paying attention to people.
- Giving people a degree of freedom to make choices.
- Supporting factors
- Good teamwork
- Non-repetitive work
- Involving people in decision making
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- The basic premise of the theory is that we all have 5 levels of needs and that starting at the lowest level we are motivated to satisfy each level in ascending order. As each level is sufficiently satisfied, we are then motivated to satisfy the next level in the hierarchy. The levels are physiological, safety, love, esteem and self actualisation.
- Maslow’s theory has been criticised for reflecting white American middle-class values in the mid-twentieth century, meaning its ethnocentric.
- This may represent a naive view. It is recognised that cultures have a tendency either to have a collective orientation or to focus more on the individual.
What satisfies high order needs?
- Self actualisation is the desire for personal fulfilment, to develop one’s potential, and to become everything that one can become.
- Esteem code
What satisfies low order needs?
- Social needs
- Safety needs
- Physiological needs
What is Herzberg’s two factor theory?
- When it comes to our work lives, there are different, mutually exclusive factors.
- Job dissatisfaction: Influenced by hygiene factors, e.g. working conditions, policies and rules and coworker relations. Extrinsic factors are low order needs.
- Improving the motivator factors increases job satisfaction and vice Versa.
- Job satisfaction: Influenced by motivator factors, e.g. personal growth, responsibility and recognition. Intrinsic factors are more high order needs.
What is job enlargement?
Workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Herzberg’s two factor theory?
- Defines the reasons why team members are satisfied or dissatisfied with their project or role.
- Uncovers the motivators and hygiene factors already deployed in the company that should be continued.
- Based on the assumption that all employees have the same needs. Doesn’t account for individual differences.
- That it places too much emphasis on job satisfaction and not enough on external factors, such as economic or social conditions.
What is job enrichment?
Involves workers being given a wider range of more complex and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement.
What is empowerment?
Means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.
Following Content Theories, Managers should:
- Understand how employees differ in what they need from work.
- Know what can be offered (i.e. rewards) to employees in response to their needs.
- Know how to create conditions that give employees opportunities to satisfy their needs by contributing to task performance.
What are content theories?
- The most common examples of content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Alderfer’s ERG model, Herzberg’s two-factor model, and McClelland’s need for achievement, affiliation, and power.
- Content theories argue that we direct and sustain our behaviour towards meeting unmet needs.
What are the criticisms of content theories?
- Overly simplistic – do not account for the complexity of the real world and the complex decision-making process that individuals often make.
- Universality – Do they really apply to everyone? They take no account of gender, age, culture, religious or other factor differences.
- Individual differences and stability over time - Their static nature doesn’t relate to the real world.
What is the equity theory?
- Equity is based on social comparison, people are gauge the fairness of their work outcomes compared to others.
- Negative inequity exists when employees feel they have received relatively less than others have in proportion to work inputs.
- Positive inequity exists when employees feel they have received relatively more than others have.
- By applying equity theory, organisations can strive to create a fair and just work environment where employees feel valued, respected, and rewarded fairly for their efforts. This can result in higher levels of satisfaction, commitment, and productivity among employees.
- Contains inputs, outputs and comparison.
What type of theories are process theories?
- Expectancy theory
- Equity theory
- Goal theory
What are the managerial implications?
The message for managers is that employees need to be seen to be rewarded on a fair and equitable basis, and inequities quickly adjusted.
- Underpaid people experience anger.
- Overpaid people experience guilt (sometimes).
What is the equity theory criticism?
- An over-simplistic model: a number of demographic and psychological variables affect people’s perceptions of fairness and interactions with others.
- Much of the basic propositions of the theory were developed in laboratory settings; not from organisational contexts.