EDUC 503: HUMAN
BEHAVIOR IN
ORGANIZATION
MOTIVATION & HUMAN BEHAVIOR
REPORT
Submitted by:
JOY MAE T. GABATINO
MAED – 1A
Submitted to:
Dr. MUSALEM M. GALTA, EdD
MOTIVATION & HUMAN BEHAVIOR
I. Law of Effect
• Law of Effect is a psychology principle advanced by Edward Thorndike in 1898 on the
matter of behavioral conditioning which states that “responses that produce a satisfying
effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and
responses that produce a discomforting effect becomes less likely to occur again in that
situation. (Gray, 2011,p.108-109).”
HE suggested that responses closely followed by satisfaction will become firmly attached to
the situation and therefore more likely to reoccur when the situation is repeated. Conversely,
if the situation is followed by discomfort, the connections to the situation will become
weaker, and the behavior of response is less likely to reoccur when the situation is repeated.
Examples:
a. If you study and then get good grade on a test, you will be more likely to
study for the next exam.
b. If you work hard and then receive a promotion and pay raise, you will be
more likely to continue to put in more effort at work.
c. If you run a red light and then get a traffic ticket, you will be less likely
to disobey traffic lights in the future.
Two key aspects of the Law of Effect:
• Behaviors immediately followed by favorable consequences are more likely to occur
again.
In our earlier example, being praised by a supervisor for showing up early for work
made it more likely that the behavior would be repeated
• Behavior followed by unfavorable consequences are less likely to occur again.
If you show up late for work and miss an important meeting, you will probably be less
likely to show up late again in the future. Because you view the missed meeting as a
negative outcome, the behavior is less likely to be repeated.
II. Job Enrichment
• The concept of job enrichment was developed by Fredrik Herzberg in the 1950s.
• Job enrichment involves providing an employee with more responsibility for a job
and challenges the individual’s skills at work.
• Enrichment involves increasing the decision-making authority and encouraging the
employee with their tasks.
What is the different between job enrichment and job enlargement?
• Job enlargement is a way to enrich a job while job enlargement, or horizontal
loading, involves a broadening of a role by adding different tasks; job enlargement
can lead to higher skill variety.
• Goal of job enrichment is to create a motivating job.
This can be done, for example, by taking a regular, ‘boring job and adding extra
responsibilities that make the job more meaningful for the worker.
Job enrichment is the process of adding motivators to existing roles in order to increase
satisfaction and productivity for the employee.
III. Elements of Objective Setting
• Objective/Goal Setting was the seminal work of John Locke way back in 1968. His
theory has generated a considerable research on goal setting.
• Goal setting works as a motivational tool because it creates a discrepancy between
current and expected performance.
• Goal setting results in a feeling of tension which is diminished through goal
attainment.
1. Goal Acceptance
Effective goals need to be not only understood but also accepted.
• Accepted goals arrived at through participation seem preferable to assigned
goals.
• There is ample evidence to suggest that people who set their goals through
participation, and who won their goals, perform better than those who are told what
their goals are going to be.
2. Specific Goals
Goal needs to be as specific, clear, and measurable as possible.
Specific goals are always better than vague or general goals such as “ do your best”, “do better”
or “ work harder”.
Giving a salesperson a specific quota should be preferable to setting a goal such as “ try as hard
as you can”, or “ try to do better that last year”.
3. Challenging Goal
Must be attainable/reachable and not so difficult that they would be frustrating.
Research shows that most employees work harder when they have difficult goals to attain rather
than easy ones.
4.Monitoring and Feedback
Are very important to complete the process of goal-setting. Performance monitoring is
observing one’s behaviour, inspecting output, etc. Monitoring needs to be followed by
performance feedback to enable employee to have an idea how successful he/she is.
Man, by nature, is hungry for information about how well he/she is performing.
Therefore, performance feedback tends to increase better job performance, and self-
generated feedback is an especially powerful motivational tool.
IV. Tips for Building Employee Self-Efficacy
• Self-efficacy, or the belief in one’s ability to successfully execute a task, is directly tied
to performance.
• Self-efficacy is the belief we have in our own abilities, specifically our ability to meet the
challenges ahead of us and complete a task successfully. (Akhtar,2008)
• General self-efficacy refers to our overall belief in our ability to succeed.
• Managers seeking to increase the performance of their team should engage in practices
that enhance self-efficacy in their employees and teams.
9 Tips to Increase Self-Efficacy in the workplace (Shauna Geraghty)
1. Recruit applicants with high self-efficacy
-selecting individuals who have higher self-efficacy beliefs will increase the
probability that they will be more motivated to perform well.
2. Ensure job demands are appropriate
- individuals who gain mastery completing complex, challenging, and
autonomous jobs increase self-efficacy.
3. Improve training and professional development practices
-employee’s self-efficacy expectations for tasks can be increased through
guided experience, mentoring, and role modeling.
-enhance self-efficacy with professional development opportunities for all
employees.
4. Enhance self-management
-encourage employees to set realistic personal goals, delineate clear
priorities, be well-organized, and improve time-management skills.
- systematic self-management training enhances self- efficacy expectations
5. Set reasonable goals and expectations
- goal difficulty should match the individual or group’s level of perceived self-
efficacy. As self-efficacy and performance increase, so should the complexity of the task
demands and level of the goal.
Example:
If goals are too ambitious result in performance failure and can hurt self-efficacy and future
performance
Goal that are too low can result in a false sense of self-efficacy. This will lead to greater
frustration and discouragement when the employee faces more difficult tasks.
Goal that are challenging and attainable lead to both the highest performance levels and more
resilient self-efficacy beliefs
Break larger goal into tangible steps, the achievement of mini-goals provides a sense of task
mastery and competence, increasing self-efficacy
6. Improve coaching strategies
- increase the quality and quantity of constructive pointers, feedback, guidance, support,
and education you provide your team
- the feedback must be accurate, timely, and specific
for the individual to understand the cause-and-effect relationship involved in performance in
the future
7. Have confidence in your employees
- it is necessary to have confidence on employees and to convince them that they can
succeed at a particular task.
communicate your confidence in your employees in various ways to have the largest impact
8. Improve leadership and mentoring
-identify your top performers and promote them to leadership or mentoring positions
- improve the quality and quantity of positive role models within the team to increase the
self-efficacy of the individuals and team
-encourage managers & team leaders to engage in supportive leadership activities
9. Acknowledge and reward
-both small and large successes should be acknowledged and rewarded; these will
enhance self-efficacy and lead to greater achievement
-point out to the team when an employee succeeded at a particular demanding task
• Increasing self-efficacy in both individuals and teams should be made a managerial
priority. When executed properly, increasing employee self-efficacy will lead to enhance
capabilities of employees and will have a major impact on the performance of individual
employees as well as the team
Let me also share, that the only way to do great work is to love what you do. because you’re
probably a lucky person to have that kind of job while many others aspire to be on that spot. I
thought all of us have this kind of perception. So let us say I love my job!
Self-motivation is a power that drives us to keep moving ahead. It encourages
continuous learning and success, whatever be the scenario. Self-motivation is a
primary means of realizing our goals and progressing. It is basically related to our
inventiveness in setting dynamic goals for ourselves, and our faith that we possess the
required skills and competencies for achieving those challenging goals. We often feel
the need for self-motivation.
The following are the ways/techniques for self-motivation:
Communicate and talk to get motivated: Communicating with someone can boost
up your energy and make you go on track. Talk with optimistic and motivated
individuals. They can be your colleagues, friends, wife, or any one with whom you
can share your ideas.
Remain optimistic: When facing hurdles; we always make efforts to find how to
overcome them. Also, one should understand the good in bad.
Discover your interest area: If you lack interest in current task, you should not
proceed and continue with it. If an individual has no interest in the task, but if it is
essential to perform, he should correlate it with a bigger ultimate goal.
Self-acknowledgement: One should know when his motivation level is saturated
and he feels like on top of the world. There will be a blueprint that once an
individual acknowledges, he can proceed with his job and can grow.
Monitor and record your success: Maintain a success bar for the assignments you
are currently working on. When you observe any progress, you will obviously want
to foster it.
Uplift energy level: Energy is very essential for self-motivation. Do regular
exercises. Have proper sleep. Have tea/coffee during breaks to refresh you.
Assist, support and motivate others: Discuss and share your views and ideas with
your friends and peers and assist them in getting motivated. When we observe others
performing good, it will keep us motivated too. Invite feedback from others on your
achievements.
Encourage learning: Always encourage learning. Read and grasp the logic and jist
of the reading. Learning makes an individual more confident in commencing new
assignments.
Break your bigger goals into smaller goals: Set a short time deadline for each
smaller goal so as to achieve bigger goal on time.
