EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Group 1
ICE BREAKER
4 PICTURES, 1 WORD.
+ 1 EXAMPLE.
 Incentive
__C_____
 Motivation

________N
Motivation
___L_
 Reward

_____D_
 Punishment

_______E__
Are employees predisposed to being motivated?

Yes and no, there are some employees that are

predisposed to being motivated and some are not.

There are four individual differences that are most

related to work motivation, which are namely:

■ Personality
■ Self esteem
■ Intrinsic motivation tendency
■ Need for achievement and power
Are employees predisposed to being motivated?
Personality
- Five main personality dimensions
- Openness to experience, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, stability
- Conscientiousness is the best personality
predictor for work performance, organisational
citizenship behaviours, academic performances.
- Stability is most correlated with salary and
setting high goals.
- Extraversion is most associated with the
amount of promotions received.
 Self-Esteem
- Self esteem is the extent of how the
employee views his/her value and
worth.
- High self esteem = more motivation and
will perform better than that of low self
esteem colleagues.
- Consistency theory - employees
motivation to perform will be consistent
with their current self esteem levels.
- Types of self esteem - chronic, socially
influenced, and situational self-esteem
Types of Self-Esteem
■ As a whole (chronic self esteem)
■ In a particular situation (situational self esteem)
■ Based on the expectations of others (socially
influenced self esteem)

All three self esteems are important to job

performance.

Based on the consistency theory, we can improve

performance by the improvement of the
organisations employees self esteem.
Ways to Improve Self-Esteem
● Self esteem workshops
○ Employees can attend workshops to gain insights
about their strengths.
● Experience with success
○ Employees are given easy-to-succeed tasks.
● Supervisor behaviour
○ Train supervisors to communicate feelings of
confidence.
Intrinsic Motivation
- Work motivation in the absence of external
facets such as pay, promotion, coworkers.
- Intrinsically motivated people will work due to
their enjoyment of the task at hand rather than
rewards or the avoidance of negative
consequences which are extrinsically motivated
individuals.
- Individual orientations towards intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation can be measured by the
work preference inventory (WPI).
Needs for Achievement and Power
● Need for achievement
○ The extent to which an individual's desires to be
successful.
● Need for affiliation
○ … An individual's desires to be around other people.
● Need for power
○ … an individual's desires to be in control to be of other
people .
Needs for Achievement and Power
Employees with a strong need for:

● achievement are motivated by challenging

jobs.
● affiliation are motivated by jobs in which they
work with or help people.
● power are motivated by a desire to influence
others rather than to simply be successful.
Are Employees Effectively Involved in
Self-Regulating Behavior?
Self regulation is a theory
which states that
employees can be
motivated by monitoring
their own progress
toward the goal they set
and adjusting their
behaviour to reach those
goals.
Are Employees Effectively Involved in
Self-Regulating Behavior?
Self regulation is a 4-step process (Aamodt,
2016):

1. Choose their goal and set levels.

2. Plan how to accomplish those goals.
3. Take action (goal striving).
4. Evaluate progress toward goal attainment and
adjust accordingly.
Employee’s Values and Expectations

■ Job Expectations
■ Job Characteristics
■ Needs, Values, Wants
■ Maslow’s Theory
■ ERG Theory
■ Two Factor Theory
Job Expectations

■ A discrepancy between what an employee

expected a job to be like and the reality of the
job can affect motivation and satisfaction

■ It is important that applicants should be given

a Realistic Job Preview (RJP)
Job Characteristics
■ Employees desire jobs that are meaningful,
provide them with the opportunity to be
personally responsible for the outcome of
their work, and provide them with feedback of
the results of their efforts
Needs, Values, and Wants
Three theories focused on employees’ needs and
values:

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

2. ERG Theory

3. Two-Factor Theory
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Basic Biological Needs
- Survival needs for food, air, water and the like
Safety Needs
- The need for security, stability, and physical
safety
Social Needs
- The need to interact with people
Ego Needs
- The individual’s need for recognition and
success
Self-Actualization Needs
- The need to realize one’s own potential
ERG Theory
■ It has three levels: existence, relatedness, and
growth

■ A higher-level need sometimes does not

become more important once a lower-level
need has been satisfied
Two-Factor Theory
Job related factors can be divided into two

■ Hygiene Factors

■ Motivators
Hygiene Factors
■ Job-related elements that results from but do
not involve the job itself
■ Pay and benefits
■ Making new friends

Motivators
■ Job elements that do concern actual tasks and
duties
■ Level of responsibility and job control
DO EMPLOYEES HAVE
ACHIEVABLE GOALS?
Qualities of Goals
■ Goal:
– It is a desired place toward
which people are working.

■ Goal Setting:
– increasing performance of
employees by giving them
specific performance goals
to aim for.
 Specific
■ More specific = More productive
■ Create goals that are clear and specific to
what needs to be done

Who: Who is involved in this goal?

What: What do I need to accomplish the goal?
Where: Where is this goal to be achieved?
When: When do I need to finish this goal?
Why: Why do I need to accomplish this goal?
Measurable

■ Can be numerical or
financial terms.

■ Used to track progress.

also, It makes goal
meaningful and
motivational for
employees.
Difficult but
Attainable
■ Goals should be
attainable by the
employee but it
should challenge the
employee in their role.
■ Higher Goals
generally leads to
better performance.
 Relevant

■ Goals should line up with the other goals of the

company and needs to be important/worthwhile for
the employee.
■ Goals should be realistic and something that an
employee can develop and achieve.
Time-Bound
■ Goals work best when
there is a time frame.
■ Goal should have a
start and finish date.
■ It gives a sense of
urgency and
motivation to
employees to achieve
the goal.
Employee Participation

■ Productivity increases when

employees are at least in part
of setting the goals.

■ Participation of employees
also increases the
commitment to the goal.
 References
https://www.successfactors.com/resources/knowledge-hub/educational-articles/setting-employee-goals-effec
tively.html#targetText=With%20specific%20goals%2C%20managers%20can,too%20high%20or%20too%20
low.
https://www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/7-tips-for-effective-employee-goal-setting
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/smart-goal/#targetText=SMART%20is%20
an%20acronym%20that,Well%20defined%2C%20clear%2C%20and%20unambiguous
https://www.briantracy.com/blog/leadership-success/5-tips-for-motivating-employees-smart-goal-setting-for-
managers/
 Are employees
receiving feedback on
their goal progress?
FEEDBACK ❏ Verbal communication such as
smiles, glares, and pats on the
back.

❏ Best increases performance

when it is positive and
informational rather than
negative and controlling.
Sources of Feedback
● Managers and
supervisors

● Measurement systems

● Peers

● Customers, etc.
 Tips for providing effective feedback
■ Identify the employee’s behavior and focus on
it rather than the employee’s personality.

■ Explain how the behavior is impacting others.

■ Ask the employee for suggestions how the

behavior can be changed.

■ After a solution, set a specific goal.

 Elements of Giving Feedback
❏ Specificity

■ Feedback works best when it relates to a specific

goal.
■ Establishing employee performance expectations
and goals before work begins is the key to providing
tangible, objective, and powerful feedback.
■ Telling employees that they are doing well because
they exceeded their goal by 10% is more effective
than simply saying "you're doing a good job.
Elements of Giving Feedback
❏ Timeliness

■ Employees should receive information about how

they're doing as timely as possible.
■ If improvement needs to be made in their
performance, the sooner they find out about it the
sooner they can correct the problem.
■ If employees have reached or exceeded a goal, the
sooner they receive positive feedback, the more
rewarding it is to them.
Elements of Giving Feedback
❏ Manner

■ Feedback should be given in a manner that will

best help improve performance.
■ Since people respond better to information
presented in a positive way, feedback should be
expressed in a positive manner.
 5

Are Employees Rewarded for

Achieving Goals?
◈ Incentives are an essential in
motivating employees to accomplish
the goals set by the organization
◈ Operant Conditioning
⬥ Employees will engage in
behaviors for which they are
rewarded and avoid behaviors for
which they are punished
6 factors to determine the effectiveness of incentive programs:

◈ Timing of the Incentive

◈ Contingency of Consequences
◈ Type of Incentive Used
◈ Use of individual-based versus group-based incentives
◈ Use of positive incentives (rewards) versus negative
incentives (punishment)
◈ Fairness of the reward system (Equity)
 Timing of the Incentive

◈ Reinforcer or punishment is most effective if it occurs after the

performance of the behavior
 Contingency of Consequences
◈ It should be made clear that the employee understands the
behaviors that brought reward or punishment
 Type of Incentive

Premack Principle Financial Rewards

◈ Principle stating that a more ◈ Cash prizes used to
preferred activity can serve encourage staffers to meet
as a reinforcer for a less specific goals within a
preferred activity business or organization
◈ Reinforcement hierarchy ◈ Can be an integral part of

<
employee’s compensation
package or as bonus when
goals are accomplished
◈ Stock option also available
 Type of Incentive

Recognition Travel
◈ May help create a sense of ◈ Some organizations offer
commitment to the travel awards rather than
company by creating financial awards
positive experiences that
are attributed to the
company
◈ Recognition programs
◈ Social recognition
ARE EMPLOYEES REWARDED FOR
ACHIEVING GOALS?

INDIVIDUAL VS.
GROUP INCENTIVES
Incentives can be
given for either
individual
performance or group
performance
Individual Incentive
Plans
● Make high levels of
individual performance
financially
worthwhile.
● Monetary incentives
increase performance over
the use of a guaranteed
hourly salary.
 Main Problems

Difficulty in Individual incentives For the incentive plan to

measuring plans can foster effectively motivate

individual competition among employees, it is essential

performance. employees. that employers understand

the incentive plan.
 Pay for Performance /
Earning-at-risk (EAR)
● Pay employees according to
how much they
individually produce.
Steps in making a more complicated plan
• Determine the average or standard

amount of production

• Determine the desired average

amount of pay
 Merit Pay
● Base incentives on
performance appraisal
scores.
● Potentially good technique
for jobs in which
productivity is difficult to
measure.
● Disadvantage: Increases are
based on subjective
performance appraisal.
 Group Incentives Plan

● Get employees to
participate in the success
or failure of the
organization.
● Reward employees for
reaching group goals.

Audora Art Gallery | 2020

Disadvantages:

promote Difficult to
explain to
social
explain to
loafing employees
Profit Sharing
● Provide employees a
percentage of profits above
a certain amount.
● Profits can be paid directly
to employees as a bonus, or
placed into deferred plans.
(retirement fund)
 Gainsharing
A group incentive system in which employees are
paid a bonus on improvements in group
productivity.
 Elements

Cooperative/ Incentives Group-based

participative based on bonus formula
management improvement
philosophy
 Steps for
Gainsharing

Productivity goals End of each

Company monitors Provide feedback to
above the baseline reporting period,
performance employee on how
are set, employees bonuses are paid
measures over some current performance
are told they will on the basis of how
period of time to is in relation to the
receive bonuses each well the group did
derive a baseline goal
period that the goal
is reached
 Advantages

Improvement Increase employee Decline

and union
in productivity absenteeism
satisfaction
Stock Options
● Employees are given the
option of buying stock in
the future price of the
stock when the options
were granted.
● As the company does
well, the value of its
stock increases, as does
the employee’s profit.
 ADVANTAGE DISADVANTAGE
● Having partial • Employees have
ownership can trouble understanding
increase the concept of stock 
• Incentives (profit from
performance
selling stock) is
psychologically
removed from
day-to-day
performance
ARE EMPLOYEES REWARDED FOR
ACHIEVING GOALS?

EXPECTANCY
THEORY
Expectancy Theory
● Motivation is a function of expectancy,
instrumentality, and valance.
● Can be used to suggest ways to
change employee motivation.

Audora Art Gallery | 2020

Components Expectancy (E)
perceived relationship between
the amount of effort an employee
puts in and the resulting outcome

Instrumentality (I)
Motivation = the extent to which the outcome
of a worker’s performance, if
E (I x V) noticed, results in a particular
consequence
Valance (V)
the extent to which an employee
values a particular consequence
Criticisms
● Components
Equation
● Values assigned to
each component
● Internal Locus of
Control
ARE EMPLOYEES REWARDED FOR
ACHIEVING GOALS?

REWARDS VS.
PUNISHMENTS
Rewards vs. Punishments
Rather than rewarding desired behaviors,
employee performance can be changed by
punishing undesired behaviors

If applied properly punishment not only reduces

undesired behavior in a particular employee but
also sets an example for other employees
 PUNISHMENTS
● Employee must understand why
he/she is being punished and be
shown alternative ways of behaving
that will result in some type of
desired reinforcement.
● Must “fit the crime”.
● Usually done in private.
Are Rewards and Resources
Given Equitably?
 Equity Theory
Satisfaction of
employees will be
based on the similarity
of ratio of their efforts
to award compared to
that of the other
employees
 Input/Output
Input ratio Output
Elements Ratio of an What
that employee’s employees
employees input and get from
put on their outputs their jobs
jobs
 Underpayment
● Input is greater than
output
● Works less hard and
● Output is greater than exerts little effort
input ● Lower job satisfaction
● Works harder
● Team-oriented

Overpayment
 Organizational
Justice
Procedural Distributive
Justice Justice
Employees that are
treated fairly will more
Interactional
Justice
likely be satisfied with
their jobs and
motivated to do well
Are Other Employees
Motivated?
 Employees observe the
levels of motivation and
satisfaction of other
employees and then model
those levels.
 Sources:

◈ https://learn.marsdd.com/article/creating-employee-bonus-and-incentive-program
s-an-overview/
◈ https://bizfluent.com/info-8112048-types-financial-rewards-incentives.html
◈ https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_organizational-behavior-v1.1/s10-05-motivating-
employees-through-p.html
◈ https://www.thoughtco.com/contingency-behavior-and-reinforcement-3110376
◈