Chapter 6: Basic Motivation Concepts

Motivation = “The processes that account for an

individual’s direction, intensity and persistence of
effort toward achieving a goal”

➢ Direction = should benefit the organization (i.e.

quality of effort counts!)
➢ Intensity = how hard an employee tries
➢ Persistence = how long can an employee maintain
his/her effort?

Note: the goal is an “organizational” goal

Early Theories of Motivation
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
➢ Physiological
includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex and other bodily needs
➢ Safety
includes security and protection from physical and
emotional harm
➢ Social
includes affection, belongingness acceptance, and
friendship
➢ Esteem
includes internal esteem factors such as self-respect,
autonomy, and achievement; and external esteem factors
such as status, recognition, and attention
➢ Self-actualization
the drive to become what one is capable of becoming;
includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-
fulfillment
Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)
 Two-Factor Theory

➢ Intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction,

while extrinsic factors are related to job
dissatisfaction.
Hygiene factors = when these are adequate,
workers “feel OK” (i.e. they are NOT dissatisfied).
Examples include quality of supervision,
company policies and administration.
Motivators = examines factors contributing to job
satisfaction. Thus, there are factors which lead to
job satisfaction and things that don’t (i.e. notice
there is a difference between “non-satisfying”
and “dissatisfying factors”)
 McClelland's Theory of Needs
➢ The Need for Achievement: the drive to excel,
achieve in relation to a set of standards, strive to
succeed.
➢ The Need for Power: The need to make others
behave in a way that they would not have
behaved otherwise.
➢ The Need for Affiliation: The desire for friendly
and close interpersonal relationships.

Q: So, what can we “do” with such information

about our employees???
Answer: Match People and Jobs (an example…)
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
 Goal -Setting Theory

➢ The theory that specific and difficult goals lead to higher

performance.
➢ Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how
much effort will need to be expended.
➢ Specific goals increase performance; that difficult goals,
when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy
goals; and that feedback leads to higher performance than
does non-feedback.
➢ Specific hard goals produce a higher level of output than
does the generalized goal of "do your best."
– The specificity of the goal itself acts as an internal stimulus.
➢ Be sure to note the importance of goal commitment, self-
efficacy, task characteristics, and national culture on goal-
setting theory.
 Equity Theory
➢ Individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with
those of others and then respond so as to eliminate any
inequities (this is the “motivation” component)
➢ Equity theory recognizes that…
– individuals are concerned not only with the absolute amount
of rewards for their efforts, but also with the relationship of
this amount to what others receive.
➢ Historically, equity theory focused on:
Distributive justice or the perceived fairness of the
amount and allocation of rewards among individuals.
However, equity should also consider procedural justice or
the perceived fairness of the process used to determine the
distribution of rewards.
 Expectancy Theory

➢ The strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends

on the strength of an expectation that the act will be
followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of
that outcome to the individual. The theory focuses on three
relationships:
➢ Effort-performance relationship or the probability perceived
by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will
lead to performance.
➢ Performance-reward relationship or the degree to which the
individual believes that performing at a particular level will
lead to the attainment of a desired outcome.
➢ Rewards-personal goals relationship or the degree to which
organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal
goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential
rewards for the individual.
Expectancy Theory
Job Characteristics Model
A model that proposes that any job can be described in
terms of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task
identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.
1. Skill variety: The degree to which a job requires a
variety of different activities so the worker can use a
number of different skills and talent.
2. Task identity: The degree to which a job requires
completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.
3. Task significance: The degree to which a job affects
the lives or work of other people.
Job Characteristics Model
4. Autonomy: The degree to which a job provides the
worker freedom, independence, and discretion in
scheduling work and determining the procedures
in carrying it out.
5. Feedback: The degree to which carrying out work
activities generates direct and clear information about
your own performance.
How Can Jobs Be Redesigned?
➢ Job Rotation: The periodic shifting of an employee
from one task to another.
➢ Job Enrichment :The vertical expansion of jobs,
which increases the degree to which the worker
controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of
the work.
➢ Flextime: Flexible work hours.
➢ Job Sharing: An arrangement that allows two or
more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week
job.
Employee Involvement
➢ A participative process that uses the input of
employees and is intended to increase employee
commitment to an organization’s success.
➢ Participative Management: A process in which
subordinates share a significant degree of decision-
making power with their immediate superiors.
➢ Representative Participation: A system in which
workers participate in organizational decision making
through a small group of representative employees.
Variable-Pay Programs
➢ A pay plan that bases a portion of an employee’s pay
on some individual and/or organizational measure of
performance.
➢ Piece-rate Pay Plan: A pay plan in which workers
are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production
completed.
➢ Merit-based Pay Plan: A pay plan based on
performance appraisal ratings.
➢ Bonus: A pay plan that rewards employees for recent
performance rather than historical performance.
➢ Skill-based Pay: A pay plan that sets pay levels on
the basis of how many skills employees have or how
many jobs they can do.
Variable-Pay Programs
➢ Profit-sharing Plan: An organization wide program
that distributes compensation based on some
established formula designed around a company’s
profitability.
➢ Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP): A
company-established benefits plan in which
employees acquire stock, often at below-market
prices, as part of their benefits.
➢ Gainsharing: A formula-based group incentive plan.
➢ Flexible Benefits: A benefits plan that allows each
employee to put together a benefits package
individually tailored to his or her own needs and
situation.