Unit 6 Flashcards
Discuss the meaning of money and identify several individual, team, and organizational-level performance-based rewards.
Money (and other financial rewards) is a fundamental part of the employment relationship, but it also relates to our needs, our emotions, and our self-concept. It is viewed as a symbol of status and prestige, as a source of security, as a source of evil, or as a source of anxiety or feelings of inadequacy. Organizations reward employees for their membership and seniority, job status, competencies, and perfor- mance. Membership-based rewards may attract job applicants and seniority-based rewards reduce turnover, but these reward objectives tend to discourage turnover among those with the lowest performance. Rewards based on job status try to maintain internal equity and motivate employees to compete for promotions. However, they tend to encourage a bureaucratic hierarchy, support status differences, and motivate employees to compete and hoard resources. Competency-based rewards are becoming increasingly popular because they encourage skill develop- ment. However, they tend to be subjectively measured and can result in higher costs as employees spend more time learning new skills. Awards and bonuses, commissions, and other individual performance-based rewards have existed for centuries and are widely used. Many companies are shifting to team-based rewards such as gainsharing plans and to organi- zational rewards such as employee share ownership plans (ESOPs), share options, and profit sharing. ESOPs and share options create an ownership culture, but employees often perceive a weak connection between individual performance and the organizational reward.
Describe five ways to improve reward effectiveness
Financial rewards have a number of limitations, but reward effectiveness can be improved in several ways. Organizational leaders should ensure that rewards are linked to work performance, rewards are aligned with performance within the employee’s control, team rewards are used where jobs are interdependent, rewards are valued by employees, and rewards have no unintended consequences
List the advantages and disadvantages of job specialization
Job design is the process of assigning tasks to a job, including the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs. Job specialization subdivides work into separate jobs for different people. This increases work efficiency because employees master the tasks quickly, spend less time changing tasks, require less training, and can be matched more closely with the jobs best suited to their skills. However, job specialization may reduce work motivation, create mental health problems, lower product or service quality, and increase costs through discontentment, absenteeism, and turnover.
Diagram the job characteristics model and describe three ways to improve employee motivation through job design.
The job characteristics model is a template for job redesign that specifies core job dimensions, psy- chological states, and individual differences. The five core job dimensions are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback. Jobs also vary in their required social interaction (task interdependence) and information processing characteristics (task variability and analyzability). Contemporary job design strategies try to motivate employees through job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment. Organizations introduce job rotation to reduce job boredom, develop a more flexible workforce, and reduce the incidence of repetitive strain injuries. Job enlargement involves increasing the number of tasks within the job. Two ways to enrich jobs are clus- tering tasks into natural groups and establishing client relationships
Define empowerment and identify strategies that support empowerment.
Empowerment is a psychological concept represented by four dimensions: self-determination, mean- ing, competence, and impact regarding the individual’s role in the organization. Individual character- istics seem to have a minor influence on empowerment. Job design is a major influence, particularly autonomy, task identity, task significance, and job feedback. Empowerment is also supported at the organizational level through a learning orientation culture, sufficient information and resources, and corporate leaders who trust employees.
Describe the five elements of self-leadership and identify specific personal and work environment influences on self-leadership
Self-leadership is the process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self- motivation needed to perform a task. This includes personal goal setting, constructive thought patterns, design- ing natural rewards, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement. Constructive thought patterns include self-talk and mental imagery. Self-talk occurs in any situation in which a person talks to himself or herself about his or her own thoughts or actions. Mental imagery involves mentally practising a task beforehand and imagining performing it successfully. People with higher levels of conscientiousness, extraversion, and a positive self-concept are more likely to apply self-leadership strategies. It also increases in workplaces that support empowerment and have high trust between employees and management
