Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
What is Motivating?
Factors Contributing to Motivation
Theories of Motivation
Techniques of Motivation
CHAPTER 10 | MOTIVATING
Objectives
INTRODUCTION
Businesses must produce outputs that will help maintain their competitive stance in the market.
Products or services must be produced with the least cost, even if it is only one of the factors required
for business survival and growth.
Economy in production, however, will depend on how motivated the employees are in the
performance of their assigned tasks. As the outputs will be needed by customers in various qualities and
quantities, at different times and places, the firm must be able to deliver the requirement, or it will be
driven out of the market.
It will take a different motivation level to meet quality standards than to produce the required
quantity. Although motivation is a common ground among the various activities, the levels may not be
so, and this makes motivation a complicated undertaking.
In any case, it is important for management to understand that motivation is a function that can
be used as a powerful means to achieve the company's objectives. Literature abounds with stories of
organizations, which succeeded because of highly motivated employees.
WHAT IS MOTIVATING?
Motivating refers to the act of giving employees reasons or incentives to work to achieve
organizational objectives. Motivation, on the other hand, refers to the process of activating behavior,
sustaining it, and directing it toward a particular goal (Figure 44). This definition is useful because it
specifies three stages: activating, sustaining, and directing actions towards the achievement of
objectives.
Figure 44
1. Willingness to Do the Job. People who like what they are doing are highly motivated to produce
the expected output.
2. Self-Confidence in Carrying Out the Task. When employees feel that they have the required skill
and training to perform the task, they get more motivated.
3. Need Satisfaction. People will do their job well if they feel that by doing so, their Mick needs will
be satisfied.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
There are various theories of motivation, but only the four most influential ones will be
presented. They consist of the following:
The Relevance of Maslow's Theory to Management. Even if Maslow's theory has been
largely questioned, one basic premise cannot be discarded: "a fulfilled need no longer motivates
an individual." If this is the situation the subordinate is in, the manager will be at an advantage if
he identifies his subordinate's unfulfilled need and work out a scheme so that the subordinate
will be motivated to work in order to satisfy the unfulfilled need.
Herzberg identified two classes of factors associated with employee satisfaction and
dissatisfaction. In his research, Herzberg found out that satisfied employees consider the
following factors (satisfiers or motivation factors) as responsible for job satisfaction:
achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth.
Dissatisfied employees consider the following factors (dissatisfiers or hygiene factors) as
responsible for job dissatisfaction: company policy and administration, supervision,
relationship with supervisor, work conditions, salary, relationship with peers, personal life,
relationship with subordinates, status, and security.
If the manager considers Herzberg's theory in motivating employees, he must do
something to eliminate the dissatisfiers and install satisfiers. As shown in Figure 46, even if
the dissatisfiers are eliminated (point zero), the employee is still not motivated to work
hard.
Figure 46
The theory poses the idea that motivation is determined by expectancies and
valences. Expectancy is a belief about the likelihood or probability that a particular
behavioral act (like attending training sessions) will lead to a particular outcome (like a
promotion). Valence is the value an individual places on the expected outcome or rewards.
See Figure 47.
Figure 47
An Expectancy Model
a. A combination of forces within the individual and in the environment determines behavior.
b. People make decisions about their own behavior and that of organizations.
c. People have different types of needs, goals, and desires. d. People make choices among
alternative behaviors based on the extent to which they think a certain behavior will lead to a
desired outcome.
Figure 48
a. Goal Content. To be sufficient in content, goals must be challenging, attainable, specific and
measurable, time-limited, and relevant.
When goals are challenging, higher performance may be expected. The sales quotas
imposed by companies on individual members of their sales force indicate reliance of these
companies to the use of challenging goals. Goals must be attainable if they are to be set. If they
are not, then workers will only be discouraged to perform.
Goals must be stated in quantitative terms whenever possible. When exact figures to be
met are set, understanding is facilitated and workers are motivated to perform.
The more relevant the goals are to the company's mission, the more support it can
generate from various levels of employment in the organization.
b. Goal Commitment. When individuals or groups are committed to the goals they are supposed to
achieve, there is a chance that they will be able to achieve them.
c. Work Behavior. Goals influence behavior in terms of direction, effort, persistence, and planning.
When an individual is provided with direction, performance is facilitated. In trying to attain goals
that are already indicated, the individual is provided a reason to persist in his efforts until the
goal is attained. Once goals are set, the first important input to planning is already in place.
Feedback Aspects.
d. Feedbacks provide the individuals with a way of knowing how far they have gone in achieving
objectives. Feedbacks also facilitate the introduction of corrective measures whenever
necessary.
TECHNIQUES OF MOTIVATION
Individuals or groups of individuals may be motivated to perform through the use of various
techniques. These techniques may be classified as motivation through job design, motivation through
rewards, motivation through employee participation, and other motivation techniques for the diverse
work force (Figure 49).
Figure 49
Techniques of Motivation
1. Motivation Through Job Design. A person will be highly motivated to perform if he is assigned a
job he likes. The first requisite, however, is to design jobs that will meet the requirements of the
organization and the persons who will occupy them. Job design is concerned with specifying the
tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a group.
In motivating through the use of job design, two approaches may be used:
a. Fitting People to Jobs. Routine and repetitive tasks make workers suffer from
chronic dissatisfaction. To avoid this, the following remedies may be adapted:
i. Realistic Job Preview - is undertaken by management by
"conveying to applicants what organizational life will actually be
like on the job, warts and all."
ii. Job Rotation-is where people are moved periodically from one
specialized job to another.
iii. Limited Exposure - is where a worker's exposure to a highly
fragmented and tedious job is limited.
b. Fitting Jobs to People. Instead of changing the person, management could consider
changing the job. This may be achieved with the use of the following:
i. Job Enlargement - is where two or more specialized tasks in a
work flow sequence is combined into a single job.
ii. Job Enrichment - is where efforts are made to make jobs more
interesting, challenging, and rewarding. Motivating Through
Rewards. Rewards consist of material and psychological benefits
to employees for performing tasks in the workplace. Properly
administered reward system can improve job performance and
satisfaction.
2. Rewards may be classified into two categories:
a. Extrinsic Rewards - refer to rewards external to the job, such as pay, promotion, or
fringe benefits (Figure 50).
Figure 50
An Array of Monetary and Other Incentives for Employees
b. Intrinsic Rewards - are internally experienced payoffs and which are self- granted.
Examples are a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
Extrinsic and intrinsic rewards coincide with the needs spelled out in the need
theories principally represented by Maslow and Herzberg.
Management of Extrinsic Rewards. To motivate job performance extrinsic rewards must
be managed in line with the following:
i. It must satisfy individual's needs.
ii. The employees must believe effort will lead to reward.
iii. Rewards must be equitable.
iv. Rewards must be linked to performance.
No single type of reward is generally applicable to all employees. This is so because
individuals have needs different from others. As much as possible, the particular needs of an
individual must be matched with the corresponding reward if motivation is the objective.
Although the administrative constraints inherent to such systems could be a hindrance to their
adoption, they must be used whenever feasible.
Employees must believe that efforts will lead to reward. Otherwise, they will not strive
to turn in more efforts in their particular job assignments.
Rewards that are not equitable will not produce the desired motivation. When
employees know that reward is tied up with individual performance, management may expect
extra efforts from them. A negative example is the practice in some government offices where
every employee, regardless of performance, is given a productivity bonus. As a result, the
majority is not motivated to exert extra efforts.
3. Motivation Through Employees Participation. When employees participate in deciding on
various aspects of their jobs, their personal involvement is often carried up to the point where
the tasks are completed.
The specific activities identified where employees may participate are as follows: setting
goals, making decisions, solving problems, and designing and implementing organizational
changes. The more popular approaches to participation included the following:
a. Quality Control Circle. A method of direct employee participation is the quality control
circle (QCC). The objective of QCC is to produce ideas for improving productivity and
working condition.
The circle consists of a group of three to ten employees, usually doing related work,
who meet at regular intervals (once a week for an hour, for example) to identify problems
and discuss their solutions. The circle includes a leader such as a foreman, but relies on
democratic processes. The members are trained in various analytical techniques by a
coordinator. The circle forwards its recommendations to management, which in turn, makes
decisions on its adoption (Figure 51).
Figure 51
b. Self-Managed Teams. When workers have reached a certain degree of discipline, they
may be ripe for forming self-managed teams. Also known as autonomous work group,
or high performance teams, self-managed teams take on traditional managerial tasks as
part of their normal work routine.
The self-managed team works on their own, turning out a complete product or
service and receiving minimal supervision from managers who act more as facilitators than
supervisors. When a product or service is produced by a group of professionals or
specialists, they might as well be formed as a self-managed team to save on supervisory
costs.
iii. a concerted effort to build and maintain group cohesiveness; and iv. protection of
the individual employee's rights.
3. Other Motivation Techniques. The advent of theories of individual differences and the
biological clock of human being has challenged managers to adapt other motivation techniques such as:
a. Flexible Work Schedules. There is an arrangement, called flextime, which allows employees
to determine their own arrival and departure times within specified limits. For example, a
business firm may allow one group of employees to take the 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
schedule, another group takes the 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. schedule, and another takes the
10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. schedule. Another alternative is the adaptation of the forty-hour
workweek in four days allowing the employees to choose a "day-off". An innovation adapted
by a popular bank in Makati is the hiring of part-time tellers to work four hours a day from
Monday to Friday.
There are certain benefits offered by flexible work schedules although it is not
appropriate for all situations. Nevertheless, the manager has an option and he decides when
it is applicable.
Family Support Services. Employees are oftentimes burdened by family obligations like
caring for children. Progressive companies provide day care facilities for children of
employees. For instance, a multinational company in faraway Davao province has even
opened an elementary and a high school facility within the plantation site.
b. Sabbaticals. A sabbatical leave is one given to an employee after a certain number of years
of service. The employee is allowed to go on leave for two months to one year with pay to
give him time for family, recreation, and travel. It is expected that when the employee
returns for work, his motivation is improved.
SUMMARY
Motivating is the management action of giving employees reasons or incentives to work to
achieve organizational objectives. Motivation is the process of activating behavior, sustaining it, and
directing it towards a particular goal.
There are four theories of motivation that are crucial to management Maslow's need hierarchy
theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory, expectancy theory, and goal setting theory.
Various techniques of motivation consist of motivation through job design, motivation through
rewards, motivation through employee participation, and other motivation techniques like flexible work
schedules, family support services, and sabbaticals.
CHAPTER EXERCISES
1. Discuss how important a motivated person is in accomplishing work.
2. Contrast the various techniques in motivation.
3. Examine how can Maslow's theory of need be used to motivate people.
4. Assess the value of motivation to job satisfaction.
5. Choose a type of business and match appropriate motivation technique.
Within five years, the branch had a full complement of twenty persons including the branch
manager, a cashier, a credit and collection supervisor, a sales supervisor, and a parts and service
supervisor. Mr. Cortes' record as salesclerk was commendable and the branch manager was considering
him for promotion as sales supervisor. The salesclerk's job consisted of entertaining inquiries from
prospective customers. If a sale is made, he prepares the various documents required including the deed
of sale, invoice, and receipt.
The sales supervisor, on the other hand, was responsible for overseeing the activities of the
salesclerk, the utility boy, the driver, the records clerk, the documents clerk, and the stock clerk.
Oftentimes, the sales supervisor had to leave office at 8:00 P.M. due to the requirements of the job.
Mr. Cortes indicated to the branch manager that he was happy with his job as salesclerk and he
did not aspire to have a bigger responsibility. The branch manager, however, was very insistent, and he
informed Mr. Cortes that the following month, he would be replacing the current sales supervisor who
was going to be promoted as branch manager and assigned to another area.
Since the announcement of the impending promotion, Mr. Cortes' behavior began to change.
Although the reports he previously prepared had been error-free, the ones he was currently
accomplishing were filled with some mistakes in computation. His perfect attendance record was now
marked with a few absences. He easily got irritated when customers asked a lot of questions.
The branch manager is perplexed and is now pondering on the wisdom of pushing through with
the promotion of Mr. Cortes.
Learning Assessment
1. Assess the situation and describe what factor/s of motivation is not innate with Mr.
Cortes.
2. Which motivational theory do you think is appropriate for Mr. Cortes?
3. Devise a plan or strategy to motivate Mr. Cortes to accept additional responsibility
and perform as expected.
Chapter Test 10
Name: Score:
Section: Professor:
1. _______________ refers to the act of giving employees reasons or incentives to work to achieve
organizational objectives.
2. According to Maslow, the five basic human needs consist of physiological, security, social, esteem,
and _______________.
3. _______________ is a type of need that involve the realization of the individual's potential as a
human being and becoming someone that he could be.
4. _______________ is a belief about the likelihood or probability that a particular behavioral act will
lead to a particular outcome.
6. _______________ is concerned with specifying the tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a
group.
7. _______________ is combining two or more specialized tasks in a work flow sequence into a single
job.
8. _______________ allows employees to determine their own arrival and departure times within
specified limits.
9. Chronic dissatisfaction of workers may be avoided by realistic job previews job rotation, and 10. The
components of the goal setting model consist of goal content, goal commitment, work behavior, and
_______________.
______ 1. motivation
B. process of activating behavior, sustaining it, and directing it toward a particular goal
G. a technique of motivation
H. where people are moved periodically from one specialized job to another