Motivation Flashcards
What is motivation?
Definition?
What are two types of motivation in organisations?
- Motivation is the degree to which an individual wants AND chooses to engage in certain behaviours.
- Extrinsic Motivation in organisations is about activities influenced by the desire to secure rewards or avoid punishment.
- Intrinsic Motivation in organisations can be understood as a feeling of joy, a sense of achievement oraccomplishmentthat guides a person towards action.
Demotivation
Definition?
Why does it happen and what do they mean? (4)
Demotivation: A lack of interest and lack of enthusiasm in an activity/subject.
Why Demotivation happens:
- 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 Motivation is Important
What is motivation crucial for?
Affective behaviour is relevant in practical issues such as (2)
Can inform: (3)
Strong link between…?
- 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 a quality
- Strong link between the individual’s psychological state and organisational citizenship
Historical context: Scientific Management and Human Relations
What did Taylor believe?
So?
Where was it most often applied?
Problems of jobs broken down into small units of work:(4)
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’
- 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
Historical context: Scientific Management and Human Relations
What did they find (2)
Supporting factors?(3)
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
Motivation theories - Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
What is the basic premise of the theory?
What happens as each level is sufficiently satisfied?
What satisfies higher-order needs? (2/3,3)
What satisfies lower-order needs? (3/3,3,3)
“Despite gaining little support in ___________ ________and being criticized for promoting an ________, _______________view of management, Maslow’s theory remains __________, its _____________ underpinned by its widely-recognized _________ form. However, Maslow never created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy of needs. “ (Bridgman, Cummings and Ballard, John A. 2018)
The basic premise of the theory is that we all have five 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.
What satisfies higher-order needs?
Self-actualization needs:
- Creative and challenging work
- Participation in decision making
- Job flexibility and autonomy
Esteem needs:
- Responsibility of an important job
- Promotion to higher status job
- Praise and recognition from boss
What satisfies lower-order needs?
Social needs:
- Friendly coworkers
- Interaction with customers
- Pleasant supervisor
Safety needs:
- Safe working conditions
- Job security
- Base compensation and benefits
Physiological needs:
- Rest and refreshment breaks
- Physical comfort on the job
- Reasonable work hours
Maslow’s background in primatology – even he was unconvinced of its use in workplace!
“Despite gaining little support in empirical studies and being criticized for promoting an elitist, individualistic view of management, Maslow’s theory remains popular, its popularity underpinned by its widely-recognized pyramid form. However, Maslow never created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy of needs. “ (Bridgman, Cummings and Ballard, John A. 2018)
Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory
How does it work?
Job enlargement:
Job enlargement:
Empowerment:
- Improving the motivator factors increases job satisfaction
- Improving the hygiene factors decreases job dissatisfaction
Job Dissatisfaction
Influenced by Hygiene Factors:
- Working conditions
- Coworker relations
- Policies and rules
- Supervisor quality
- Base wage, salary
Job Satisfaction
Influenced by Motivator Factors:
- Achievement
- Recognition
- Responsibility
- Work itself
- Advancement
- Personal growth
Job enlargement:
- workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.
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.
Empowerment:
- means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.
Following Content Theories, Managers should: (3)
- 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.
Criticisms of Content Theories (6)
- Whilst specific criticisms can be levelled at particular theories, the following general criticisms apply to all of the content theories.
- Universality – Do they really apply to everyone? They take no account of gender, age, culture, religious or other factor differences.
- Research support and methodology biases - despite many research projects little to no support has been established for these theories.
- Work focus - They ignore the importance of other aspects of our lives and their impact on our work lives.
- Individual differences and stability over time - Their static nature doesn’t relate to the real world.
- Overly simplistic – do not account for the complexity of the real world and the complex decision-making process that individuals often make.
Equity Theory
What is equity based on?
What is negative and positive inequity?
What is the message for managers?
What are 4 consequences
Do not underestimate the impact of pay as a source of equity controversies in the workplace.
Equity theory criticism (3)
Equity is based on social comparison; people 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 input.
Positive inequity exists when employees feel they have received relatively more than others have.
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).
- Perceptions of rewards determine motivational outcomes.
- Negative consequences of equity comparisons should be minimised, if not eliminated.
Do not underestimate the impact of pay as a source of equity controversies in the workplace.
Gender equity
Comparable worth
- Problems with the assumptions and practical application of equity theory.
- 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.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
What does this theory highlight?
What are key expectancy theory variables (3)
What are implications (3/4,3,2)
Expectancy theory criticism
This theory highlights that motivation is partly a decision-making process that evaluates effort for outcomes.
Key expectancy theory variables:
- Expectancy — belief that working hard will result in desired level of performance.
- Instrumentality — belief that successful performance will be followed by rewards.
- Valence — value a person assigns to rewards and other work related outcomes.
Expectancy Theory - implications
To maximize expectancy, managers should:
- Select workers with ability
- Train workers to use ability
- Support work efforts
- Clarify performance goals
To maximize instrumentality, managers should:
- Clarify psychological contracts
- Communicate performance-outcome possibilities
- Identify rewards that are contingent on performance
To maximize valence in a positive direction, managers should:
- Identify individual needs
- Adjust rewards to match individual needs
Expectancy theory criticism
Over-simplistic!
Motivation is a personal, cognitive implicit calculation.
It is based on the assumption that if an employer makes a reward attractive enough, then employees will increase their productivity to obtain the reward.
However, this only works if the employees believe the reward is beneficial to their immediate needs.
For example, if a promotion that provides higher status but requires longer hours it may be a deterrent to an employee who values maintaining their current work-life balance.
Behaviourism and Motivation
(5)
Skinner’s Behaviour Modification Techniques (2)
- Carrot and stick’ approach (both the offer of reward and the threat of punishment)
- Rewards and punishment
- Stimulus-response psychology
- Focus on extrinsic motivators – e.g. using pay as reward or threat of withholding pay as punishment
- Motivation or coercion
Skinner’s Behaviour Modification techniques
Different schedules of reinforcement have different effects on motivation:
- Fixed rewards (e.g. monthly salary) for doing your job
- Variable rewards (e.g. bonus, award, promotion, pat on the back) for doing more than just your job!
Negative reinforcement in the workplace
What is it?
The outcome?
Employer reviews..?
Negative reinforcement is when something already there is removed because of a person’s action. The outcome is something favourable for that person, so they are encouraged to keep repeating the action to get the favourable result.
Managers often conduct employee reviews, which they employees often dislike. The manger could use the ‘dislike’ as an opportunity to use negative reinforcement to increase productivity.
For example, the manager could pitch an offer to the employees that if production goes up by 5% during the next quarter, with no increase in defective parts, they could skip the quarterly review next time.
Behaviourism assessed (4 disad, 2 ad)
Disadvantages
- Exactly what behaviours are rewarded?
- Underlying behaviour change, or simply meeting targets?
- Coercion doesn’t genuinely motivate
- Surface: relies on extrinsic not intrinsic rewards
Advantages
- In some cases, behaviour is changed
- Use in the workplace: knowledge and learning; change management; leadership
Pay as a Motivation Tool
Theoretical Perspective and its Perception of Pay
Behaviourism
Maslow - Hierarchy of Needs
Herzberg – Hygiene and Motivator factors
Adams- Equity
Vroom -Expectancy
Behaviourism
- Pay is a stimulus- it can be used as a reward and its withdrawal can used as punishment
Maslow - Hierarchy of Needs
- Pay motivates differently at different levels of the hierarchy. At lower levels it is needed for survival. At higher levels it can be an indicator of social status and esteem
Herzberg – Hygiene and Motivator factors
- Pay must be at a certain level to avoid dissatisfaction, but pay does not motivate in itself
Adams - Equity
- Pay is used by employees to compare against the inputs and rewards of others
Vroom - Expectancy
- Pay is reward, but the value of that reward depends upon how it is perceived.
