Motivation in Practice

Question 1

Variable Pay (Incentive Compensation)

Answer 1

Providing employees some portion of their pay based on a measure of performance
Many organizations use these kinds of programs
Some evidence that can cause increased mental health issues

Question 2

Piece-Rate

Answer 2

Individual workers paid a certain sum of money for each unit of production they complete
Variation: workers paid a basic hourly wage and paid a piece rate differential on top of hourly wage

Question 3

Wage Incentive Plans

Answer 3

Schemes linking pay to performance on production jobs

Question 4

Production Job Pay Incentives

Answer 4

Piece rate
Wage incentive plans

Usually lead to increased productivity

Question 5

Problems With Wage Incentives

Answer 5

Lowered quality
Differential opportunities
Reduced cooperation
Incompatible job designs
Restriction of productivity

Question 6

White Collar Pay Incentives

Answer 6

Fewer objective performance criteria
Employed more frequently than wage incentive plans
Often used to attract and retain employees instead of increasing wages

Merit pay plans

Question 7

Merit Pay Plans

Answer 7

Managers required to evaluate performance of employees on rating scale or written description
Use evaluations to recommend a certain amount of merit pay

Question 8

Problems With Merit Pay

Answer 8

Low discrimination between workers
Small increases (combatted by lump sum bonuses)
Pay secrecy between employees

Question 9

Ways To Use Pay To Motivate Teamwork

Answer 9

Profit sharing
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
Gainsharing
Skill-based pay

Question 10

Profit Sharing

Answer 10

If firm makes a profit some of it is returned to employees
Unlikely that profit sharing is motivational (difficult to see effects of own actions on organization)

Question 11

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP)

Answer 11

Allow employees to own set amount of company’s shares purchased at a fixed price
Can help to create sense of ownership
Increase loyalty and motivation
Works best in small organizations that regularly turn a profit

Question 12

Gainsharing

Answer 12

Group incentive plans based on improved productivity or performance over which workforce has some control
Reduce other costs and the ‘gain’ shared between employees

Question 13

Skill-Based Pay

Answer 13

Motivate employees to learn a wide variety of work tasks, irrespective of the job they are doing at a given time
Useful on self managed teams where employees divide work as they see fit

Question 14

Job Design

Answer 14

Structure, content, configuration of a person’s work tasks and roles

Question 15

Job Scope

Answer 15

Breadth and depth of a job
Breadth: number of different activities performed on the job
Depth: degree of discretion or control the worker has over how these tasks are performed

Question 16

Increasing Job Scope

Answer 16

Stretch assignments: offer employees opportunities to broaden their skills by working on variety of challenging assignments and projects
Job rotation: involves rotating employees to different tasks and jobs in an organization

Question 17

Job Characteristic Model

Answer 17

Several core job characteristics that have psychological impact on workers which influence

Skill variety: amount of skills required
Task identity: how you identify with final product
Task significance: degree of impact that job has on others
Autonomy: freedom and discretion to do the job
Feedback from job: info about level of performance

Question 18

Task Significance Doctor Study

Answer 18

Personal: hand hygiene prevents you from catching disease
Patient focused: hand hygiene prevents patients from catching disease
Control: gel in, wash out
Measure amount of soap used (weight)

For other oriented appeal
Doctors washed hands significantly longer after intervention
Nurses increased too but initial hand washing time started higher to begin with

Question 19

Job Enrichment

Answer 19

Design of jobs to enhance intrinsic motivation, quality of work life, job involvement

Combining tasks
Establishing external client relationships
Establishing internal client relationships
Reducing supervision or reliance on others
Forming work teams
Making feedback more direct

Question 20

Job Involvement

Answer 20

Cognitive state of psychological identification with job and importance of work to one’s total self image

Question 21

Potential Problems with Job Enrichment

Answer 21

Poor diagnosis
Lack of desire or skill (some people don’t want enriched jobs)
Demands for rewards
Union resistance
Supervisory resistance

Question 22

Work Design Characteristics

Answer 22

Attributes of the task, job, and social and organizational environment

Question 23

Relational Job Design

Answer 23

Focus on structural properties of work that shape employees’ opportunities to connect and interact with others
Prosocial motivation: desire to expend effort to benefit other people

Question 24

Job Crafting

Answer 24

Self initiated changes that employees make in job demands and job resources to improve fit or match between job characteristics and personal abilities and needs

Question 25

Management By Objectives (MBO)

Answer 25

Elaborate, systematic, ongoing management program designed to facilitate goal establishment, goal accomplishment, employee development
Leads to productivity gains
Requires time and commitment

Question 26

Flexible Work Arrangements

Answer 26

Work options that permit flexibility in terms of where and/or when work is completed

Question 27

Flex Time

Answer 27

Flexibility in terms of when employees work

Question 28

Compressed Workweek

Answer 28

Compress hours worked each week into fewer days
Most common 4 ten hour days

Question 29

Job Sharing

Answer 29

Two part time employees divide the work of a full time job

Question 30

Work Sharing

Answer 30

Reducing number of hours employees work in order to avoid layoffs when there is reduction in normal business activity

Question 31

Telecommuting

Answer 31

Work from remote locations but stay in touch with offices via the internet