CHAPTER 5

FOUNDATIONS OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATIONOUTLINE 

I.                    OVERVIEW 

A.      Definitions

1.       Motivation -- refers to the forces within a person that affect his or her direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior.

2.       Content theories of motivation – explain the dynamics of employee needs, such as why people have different needs at different times.

3.       Process theories of motivation – describe the processes through which needs are translated into behavior.

II.                  CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

A.      Needs Hierarchy Theory

1.       Theory which condenses the numerous needs that scholars have identified into a hierarchy of five basic categories:

a.       Physiological needs – the need to satisfy the requirements for food, air, water, and shelter.

b.       Safety needs – the need for a secure and stable environment and the absence of pain, threat, or illness.

c.        Belongingness – includes the need for love, affection, and interaction with other people.

d.       Esteem – includes self-esteem through personal achievement as well as social esteem through recognition and respect from others.

e.        Self-actualization – represents the need for self-fulfillment – a sense that the person’s potential has been realized.

2.       Satisfaction-progression process states that even if a person is unable to satisfy a higher need, he or she will be motivated by it until it is eventually satisfied.

3.       Physiological needs are initially the most important and people are motivated to satisfy them first.

B.      ERG Theory

1.       Developed by organizational behavior scholar Clayton Alderfer to overcome the problems with the needs hierarchy theory.

2.       The theory groups human needs into three broad categories:  existence, relatedness, and growth.

a.       Growth needs – correspond to Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs.

b.       Existence needs – include a person’s physiological and physically related safety needs, such as the need for food, shelter, and safe working conditions.

c.        Relatedness – include a person’s need to interact with other people, receive public recognition, and feel secure around people.

3.       Includes a frustration-regression process whereby those who are unable to satisfy a higher need become frustrated and regress back to the next lower need level.

4.       ERG is used to explain the dynamics of human need sin organizations.

C.      Motivator-Hygiene Theory

1.       Differs from Maslow’s and Alderfer’s needs hierarchy models because it does not suggest that people change their needs over time.

2.       Developed by OB scholar Frederick Herzberg.

3.       Proposes that employees are motivated by growth and esteem needs.

a.       Motivators include recognition, responsibility, advancement, achievement, and personal growth.  Employees experience job satisfaction when they are received and are therefore motivated to obtain them.

b.       Hygienes affect the extent that employees feel job dissatisfaction.  They include job security, working conditions, company policies, coworker relations, and supervisor relations.

4.       Limitations

a.       Some studies show that employees are motivated more by the job itself.

b.       Hygiene factors are widely used to motivate people to join organizations, attend work on time, perform their jobs better, and learn new skills.

D.      McClelland’s Theory of Learned Needs

1.       Definition

a.       A theory developed by David McClelland which discusses three secondary needs that he considered important as sources of motivation:  need for achievement, need for affiliation, need for power.

2.       Need for achievement (nAch)

a.       People with a high nAch want to accomplish reasonably challenging goals through their own efforts.

b.       People prefer working alone rather than in teams and to choose tasks with moderate risk.

c.        Money is a weak motivator.

d.       High nAch people may perform well in large companies where they are given considerable independence.

3.       Need for affiliation (nAff)

a.       Refers to a desire to seek approval from others, conform to their wishes and expectations, and avoid conflict and confrontation.

b.       High nAff employees are more effective in coordinating roles and in jobs requiring social interaction.

4.       Need for power (nPow)

a.       Refers to a desire to control one’s environment, including people and material resources.

b.       People with high nPow want to exercise control over others and are concerned about maintaining their leadership position.

c.        Some people have a high need for personalized power, while others have a high need for socialized power.

5.       Learning needs

a.  Achievement, affiliation, and power needs are learned rather than instinctive.

E.       Practical Implications of Content Motivation Theories

1.       Corporate leaders need to be sure that the rewards fulfill needs, or they will have little value.

2.       Content theories of motivation suggest that different people have different needs at different times.

3.       These theories also warn against relying too heavily on financial rewards as a source of employee motivation.

4.       Critics argue that the theories sometimes are not culture bound because different people have different needs.

III.               PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Process theories describe the processes through which need deficiencies are translated into behavior.

A.      Expectancy Theory

1.       A process motivation theory based on the idea that work effort is directed toward behaviors that people believe will lead to desired outcomes.

2.       Key variable of interest is effort – the individual’s actual exertion of energy.

3.       Individuals effort level depends on:

a.  Effort-to-performance (E      P)

(1)     Individual’s perception that his or her effort will result in a particular level of performance. (2)     Expectancy is defined as probability, and ranges from .0 to 1.0.

b.  Performance-to-outcome (P      O)

·         Perceived probability that a specific behavior or performance level will lead to specific outcomes.

c.        Outcome values (V)

(1)     Valence refers to the anticipated satisfaction or dissatisfaction that an individual feels toward an outcome.

(2)     Outcomes have a positive valence when they directly or indirectly satisfy our needs, and have a negative valence when they inhibit need fulfillment.

4.       Expectancy Theory in Practice

a.  The E      P expectancies are influenced by the individual’s self-efficacy, therefore organizations strive to highlight an employee’s necessary competencies, role perceptions, and favorable conditions.b.  To increase the P      O expectancies, organizations measure employee performance accurately and distribute more valued rewards to those with higher job performance.d.       Performance outcomes influence work effort only when they are valued by employees. 

B.      EQUITY THEORY

1.       Definition:  explains how people develop perceptions of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources.

2.       It explains what employees are motivated to do when they feel inequitably treated.

3.       Outcome/Input Ratio is the value of outcomes you receive divided by the value of inputs you provide in the exchange relationship.

a.       Inputs include skills, effort, experience, amount of time worked, performance results, and other employee contributions to the organization.

b.       Outcomes are the things employees receive from the organization in exchange for the inputs, such as pay, promotion, recognition, or an office with a window.

4.       Equity theory states that we compare our situation with a comparison other, but it doesn’t define the comparison other.

5.       Equity evaluations are formed after determining one’s outcome/input ration and comparing this with the other’s ratio.

6.       Consequences of Inequity

a.       Changing inputs

b.       Changing outcomes

c.        Changing perceptions

d.       Leaving the field

e.        Acting on the comparison other

f.        Changing the comparison other

7.       Ethics of inequity

a.       Inequity relates to the organization’s ethical conduct through distributive justice.

b.       If everyone has equal access to more favored positions in society, and the inequalities are ultimately in the best interest of the least well off in society, then inequity is acceptable.

8.       Individual Differences in Equity

a.       People vary in their equity sensitivity –their outcome/input preferences and reaction to various outcome/input ratios.

b.       Differences operate on an equity sensitivity continuum with “Benevolents” on one end and “Equity Sensitives” on the other.

C.      Goal Setting

1.       Goals are the immediate or ultimate objectives that employees are trying to accomplish from their work effort.

2.       Goal setting is the process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives.

3.       Goal setting potentially improves employee performance in two ways:

a.       by stretching the intensity and persistence of effort, and

b.       by giving employees clearer role perceptions so that their effort is channeled toward behaviors that will improve work performance.

4.       Management-by-objectives (MBO) is a goal setting process whereby managers identify organizational objectives, then cascade them down to work units and individual employees.

5.       Characteristics of effective goals

a.       Specific goals

b.       Relevant goals

c.        Challenging goals

d.       Goal commitment

e.        Participation in goal formation

f.        Goal feedback

6.       Goal setting applications and limitations

a.       A problem occurs when goals are tied to monetary incentives, enticing employees to select easier rather than difficult jobs.

b.       Goal setting cannot be applied to every performance dimension of every job.