Module 3: Contemporary Theories of Motivation

-Human behavior rests on the basic concepts of needs (is an experienced state of deficiency that pushes one's
behavior Examples of needs are hunger, thirst and belongingness). And motives (pulls one's behavior in a
predictable direction)
- Motivation theories are of two types: 1- A content theory of motivation: specifies those factors in
individuals which stimulate, direct, sustain and stop behaviour and 2- A process theory of motivation: explains
how motivation occurs.
-I- A content theory of motivation: 1- Maslow's Hierarchy Focus: on human needs and life situation like work.
Maslow believed that motivation could be explained by organizing human needs into five levels: 1Physiological
needs: are basic to our biological,2- Safety needs: relate to protection against danger, threat or deprivation. Safety
needs are tied strongly to physiological needs because meeting safety needs ensures continuity and predictability
for fulfillment of the basic needs, 3- Belongingness needs: covers the desire to give and receive affection, The
belongingness need level marks the beginning of higher-level needs which were considered by Maslow to be
personally infinite that gets develop them through sustained contact with their social environments.4- Esteem
needs: had an external component identified as social status ex: recognition, prestige and appreciation from
others. The internal component: challenge, autonomy and self-reliance (if it s nt the case it might lead to job
dissatisfaction). Self-efficacy is defined as personal confidence to achieve a very high level of performance. 5-
Self-actualization: the desire to fulfill oneself by making maximum use of talents and experience: in other
words, living up to one's potential. It can occur in many other life settings than work.
- Some crucial points to understand Maslow s hierarchy: 1- a satisfied need ceases to motivate behaviour at that
need level. 2- Unsatisfied employee needs lead to undesirable outcomes at work. Unsatisfied needs create
perceived inequity for employees, 3- People are assumed to have a need to grow and develop their full potential,
4- Needs are not usually satisfied completely. Individuals can satisfy more of their lower-order needs than their
higher-order needs 5- unmet needs are more motivating than satisified needs
- Applying the Need Hierarchy: 1- Early career stages: Security concerns and Org values 2- After five years or:
Appearance of Professional identity 3- Self-actualisation needs soon materialise 4- Seniors try to make
contribution by being mentor for new hires.
- Summary: 1- lower-order needs become less important as they are satisfied, there is no decline in the importance
of higher-order needs as they are satisfied .2- as managers advance in an organisation, their needs for security and
safety decrease, with a corresponding increase in their social, esteem and self-actualisation needs.
- 2-Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Motivation: Focus: with job and organisational sources of
job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.1- hygienes are necessary but not sufficient conditions for sustaining high job
satisfaction and motivation.2- absence of hygiene factors leads to job dissatisfaction, but when present, hygiene
factors do not necessarily provide job satisfaction. 3- In contrast, the presence of motivators does lead to job
satisfaction if the hygienes are already in place.
- Hygienes are defined as components of job context or Contextual factors; employees soon take hygiene
improvements for granted. However, if the hygienes are removed due to organisational restructuring or corporate
take-over, job satisfaction plunges. For this reason, hygienes are often referred to as maintenance factors.
- Motivators The factors that raise job satisfaction and performance in the long run. Related to the employee–job
interaction, and are job-centred characteristics. Called also intrinsic job factors or content factors.
- II-A process theory of motivation: 1- equity theory: shows how employees react to the available rewards
from work in terms of their experienced levels of job satisfaction. A felt negative inequity occurs when the
employee believes that he has received relatively fewer rewards than others in proportion to the level of effort that
he expended on the job. Felt positive inequity occurs when an employee feels that he has received relatively
more rewards than someone else for a measured level of effort or input. Negative inequity is a stronger
motivating state than felt positive inequity
- To restore a state of equity, an employee might: 1- Change work inputs and reduce performance efforts, 2-
Change the outcomes received,3- leave a job or request a transfer, 4- Change the comparison other ,5- rationalise
that the inequity is only temporary and will be resolved in the future.
-3 types of individuals with different preferences for equity: 1- Benevolents: employees who are comfortable
with an equity ratio which is less than that of their comparison other(s). 2- Equity sensitives: employees who are
comfortable with an equity ratio which exceeds that of their comparison others. 3-‘slackers’ who will gladly
accept additional rewards without feeling any desire to exert more effort on behalf of the organisation or their
work group.
- 2-Expectancy Theory: that behaviour is always purposeful and goal directed. It must be understood in terms of
the probabilities that certain behaviour will lead to outcomes valued by the individual like: 1) turnover, 2)
absenteeism etc.
- Expectancy theory has two classes of outcome. First-level outcomes are the result of expending effort in some
directed way. Important first-level outcomes at work would be job performance, coming to work late, leaving or
accepting a position and working at home. . Second-level outcomes occur after first-level outcomes and are the
direct result of achieving, or not achieving, first-level outcomes. Employees assign valences to each type of
outcome. Prompt feedback about performance and rewards (second-level outcomes) is necessary to sustain high
effort levels.
- IIIComponents of Expectancy Theory: 1- Valence: is defined as the personal attractiveness of different
outcomes. If an outcome such as a promotion has a positive valence, then the employee is strongly pulled to
those behaviours, which make that outcome more likely. Negative valence is attached to undesirable outcomes
2- Instrumentality: is the personal belief that first-level outcomes lead to second-level outcomes. Negative
instrumentality refers to the employee belief that a second-level outcome will not occur after a given first-level
outcome.3- Expectancy is the subjective belief that a given level of effort will lead to a first-level outcome on
the job. Judgements about the relationships between given levels of effort and various first-level outcomes.
4- ability: Ability must be sufficient to attain a given level of performance. If ability is low, no amount of effort
will cause successful performance 5-work environment: The elements in this component include both
hygienes and motivators. The reward and performance appraisal systems would also be included in the work
environment. Finally, the way work is organised is an element of work environment.
- Expectancy theory is a powerful analytical tool for managers. It can help them to have a better understanding
of their subordinates and the organisation in which they work.
- A-Individual Factors in expectancy theory: 1-The individual's need for achievement, If the achieving
individual believes the organisation rewards performance instead of effort, then his instrumentalities will be high
and positive. If the achieving employee believes the organisation does not equitably reward performance, then he
will probably leave.2- Locus of control: employee's beliefs about whether his behaviour influences the outcomes
he experiences in work.3- self efficacy: internally oriented employees.we must notice the importance of providing
employees with opportunities to control significant features of their jobs.4- Self-esteem: If employees have a
positive self-image, then they are likely to believe that their ability will lead to successful performance.
-Organizational Factors in expectancy theory: 1- Role ambiguity: lack of clarity or lack of understanding of
job or work demands.in that case employees will lower their expectancies and instrumentalities about
performance and its connection to rewards.2- Role conflict: having two sets of work expectations which are
in disagreement, this may happen when reporting to more than one supervisor. 3-The organisational performance
appraisal system: It provides employees with tangible information on their performance progress and goal
attainment. Excellent systems provide periodic feedback formally and informally during the year.
-Goals of performance appraisal are: 1) informing employees about where they stand relative to performance,
2) developing information to make personnel decisions, e.g., promotion, pay rises and termination and 3)
identifying employees with training and development needs.4- The reward system. 5- The job design
system: . Most employees prefer more control rather than less control to their work. The more skills they learn,
the more control they acquire over their work assignments.
- Behaviour modification is an environmental theory of motivation. This means that behaviour modification de-
emphasises the role of the individual in the motivation process and emphasises instead the role of the
environment. B Mod states that external or environmental consequences determine behaviou.
- The main principles of B Mod are the four methods of reinforcement: 1- Positive Reinforcement: behaviour
is strengthened by the occurrence of pleasant consequences. A manager gives a subordinate a difficult
assignment. The employee exerts great effort and completes it on time in excellent form so he gets a bonus. 2-
Negative Reinforcement: A behavior is strengthened by removal of an unpleasant consequence. This is called
avoidance learning. Employees come to work on time to avoid supervisory reprimands. 3- Extinction: Behaviour
is weakened if a positive consequence does not follow. 4- Punishment: an unpleasant consequence occurs after
the behavior.
- The essence of behavioral shaping is ‘catching employees doing things approximately right’. So With positive
reinforcement combined with behavioral shaping, employees can acquire new and valuable behaviors.
- Continuous reinforcement: consequences occur predictably after each relevant behavior. Partial
reinforcement schedules refer to the number of behaviors occurring before reinforcement or the amount of
elapsed time between reinforces.
- Characteristics of Partial Reinforcement Schedules:1- The fixed ratio schedule: links consequences to a
given number of behaviors. This schedule produces a very high behavioral response rate. , 2- The variable ratio
schedule: presents consequences based on an average number of responses. A variable ratio schedule implies that
an uncertain (but around some average) number of responses must occur before the consequence is given.
3- Fixed interval schedules: require that a constant amount of time pass before the consequence occurs. This
schedule produces response rates that are punctuated by bursts of high and low activity. 4- the variable interval:
schedule means that a consequence is given for the first behaviour after a variable amount of time has passed. The
interval between consequences always averages out to a pre-established time.
- Stretching the Ratio and Interval of Reinforcement: refers to shifting a reinforcement schedule from one rate to
another.
- The procedure is used to keep employees from taking rewards for granted. And their potency can be
maintained by stretching the ratio or interval of reinforcement.
- Major benefit of B Mod: 1- B Mod systems can be designed to assist workers in obtaining higher performance
levels and more significant rewards and it is more objective than other approaches to motivation. 2- giving
employees more control over the process of generating feedback about their performance and discuss it with their
manager.3- This is the team approach to improving performance and can be source of intrinsic work outcomes
(higher-order need satisfaction). 4- B Mod programmes, which are acceptable to employees, influence
substantially expectancy, instrumentality and valences for both first-level and second-level outcomes.
- Critics of B Mod: 1- undemocratic, 2- undermine individual choice in the workplace (manipulative aspects of
B Mod), 3-Experts beleivs that B Mod research results cannot be extended to human beings.4- human behaviour
in organisations is much harder to control and predict
- Understanding the Role of Punishment in Management Practices: Managers do not like to talk about
punishment because it implies that: 1) they have hired the wrong employees, 2) the work environment they help
create is less than ideal and 3) they and their organisations treat their employees badly.
-Negative side of Punishment:1- The definition does not create a positive view of human nature.2- punishment
is much more complex than positive reinforcement, and predicting its effects is much more difficult.3- Managers
cannot always be sure that punishment has taken place.4- Because unpleasant consequences are subjective and
emotion laden, what one person perceives as punishment may turn out to be positive or negative reinforcement
from another's point of view.
5- Punishment never eliminates undesirable behaviour. It only suppresses it temporarily
- Positive side of Punishment: 1- Often employees define successful job performance in terms of escaping
punishing consequences 2- For it to be effective, managers must closely monitor employee behaviour.3-
Employees can readily learn new behaviours from unpleasant encounters with these naturally occurring
punishers.
- How Can Punishment Be Used Effectively? : 1- Undesirable behaviours must be prevented from becoming
bad employee habits 2- Punishment must be intense and immediate. 3- must be equitable across people and
infractions.4- must have information value. 5- Punishment should not be followed by non-contingent rewards.
- General steps to be followed in setting up a B Mod programme: 1- Managers must define the meaning
good of performance so employees understand what they must do to be successful. 2- Reasonable goals set for
performance with their subordinates. 3- Goals should be specified in numbers easily understood by all
employees. 4- Conduct a Baseline Audit: to identify the rate of correct performance behavior. 5- Select
Powerful and Abundant Reinforcers. 6- Use Continuous Reinforcement. 6- Practice Behavioral Shaping
(to obtain closer and closer approximations to the desired performance behavior.).7- Establish desired behaviors
by adding new Positive Reinforces which employees value.
8- Stretch the Ratio or Interval. 9- Review and Evaluate the Program.
 - Initiating a Behaviour Modification Programme: 1- Trust must exist between employees and supervisors.2-
Employees must believe good work hygiene exists. 3- have control over their work. 4- Employee ability cannot be a
cause of the problem. 5- must understand performance measure. 6- Employees must get regular feedback about
progress. 7- Supervisors must be trained and committed.

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