Organizational Behavior

Instructor: Courtney Marchant

Unit 4: Chapter 6

Motivational Needs, Processes, and

Applications
Objectives
• Define the motivation process
• Identify the primary and secondary needs
• Discuss the major theories of work motivation
• Present the motivational application of job design
• Describe the motivational application of goal
setting
Preview
• In this chapter, we will be looking at a variety of
theories about motivation and rewards.
• Each theory will have some ideas in common with
other theories.
• None of these theories completely explains
human behavior at work, but each one is useful
to take us towards that goal.
The basic motivation process

• Needs: a physiological or psychological imbalance

• Drives: the impulse to fulfill needs
• Incentives: the things that fulfill needs
Model 1: Hierarchies
Video: Maslows Hierachy of Needs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IETlvTN
WhPg
Primary Motives

• Primary needs: physiological needs: UNLEARNED AND

PHYSICAL
– Food and Water
– Warmth and Sleep
– avoidance of pain
– sex
– parental concern
Secondary motives

• Secondary motives: LEARNED

– need for power
– Need for achievement
– Need for affiliation
Issues with Maslow’s hierarchy

• Many theorists believe that each level must

be completely fulfilled before the next level
becomes important.
• Most physiological needs must be fulfilled,
but once they are, the rest of the hierarchy
is not necessarily sequential.
• Can you think of examples?
Usefulness of Maslow in OB
Model 2: Needs and Wants

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 Another model of human motivation
• We can look at Richard Long’s model of rewards: Extrinsic and Intrinsic

– Extrinsic: Motivation comes from outside the individual and can be

provided by management
• Safety
• Security
• Social needs
• Recognition

Long, R. (2014). Strategic Compensation in Canada. Nelson Education Ltd: Toronto

Richard Long’s Model Continued
– Intrinsic: Motivation comes from within the individual and can be
facilitated but not created by management
•Growth
•Development
•Achievement
•Self-esteem
Motivation and Rewards
• Motivation that could be intrinsic is not
necessarily enhanced by adding extrinsic
aspects:
• https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_the_
puzzle_of_motivation
Video Debrief
• He proposes that employers adopt a "new operating system" for
businesses that revolves "around three elements: autonomy, mastery
and purpose" (Pink, 2009).
• Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
• Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that
matters
• Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something
larger than ourselves
• Consider the three elements that Pink proposes above. Have you ever
had a job where all three were present? If yes, were you highly
motivated in your work?
Pay isn’t everything: Hygiene v. Motivation
• Herzberg’s two-factor theory:
– Hygiene factors: without an adequate amount
of these at an acceptable level, work is bad.
People are dissatisfied if these factors are not
provided.
– Motivators: work is acceptable without these,
but better with them. People are more
satisfied if these factors are provided.
Hygiene factors

• Company policy and administration

• Technical supervision
• Salary
• Interpersonal relations, including good
supervision
• Working conditions
Motivators

• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work itself
• Responsibility
• Advancement
Similarities between Theories

• What do you see in common between Maslow’s

hierarchy and Herzberg’s two-factor theory?
• What do you see in common between them and
Long’s discussion of external and internal
rewards?
The Human Factor

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 Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Image from https://www.info4mystery.com/2016/03/expectancy-theory-of-motivation.html retrieved on 12 Jan 2020

Contributions of Expectancy Theory
– Barriers to Overcome
1. Doubts about ability, skill, or knowledge
2.The physical or practical possibility of the job
3.The interdependence of the job with other
people or activities
4.Ambiguity surrounding the job requirements

.
Contributions of Expectancy Theory

Things to consider for Motivation

1.Determine what rewards each employee values
2.Define desired performance
3.Make desired performance attainable
4.Link valued rewards to performance
Equity Theory - Fairness
• Workers are generally willing to work if
they perceive that the rewards are fair.

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Video: Equal Pay for Monkey’s

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
dMoK48QGL8
Organizational Justice

• Organizational justice has three aspects:

– distributive justice
– procedural justice
– interactional justice
Equality: Distributive Justice

• Distributive justice
- everyone gets the same thing
Equity: Procedural Justice
<-
distributive
procedural ->

Images from https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/ retrieved on 12 Jan 2020

Respect: interactional justice
• Interactional justice generally looks at the
relationship between individuals, such as
between a manager and a subordinate.
– LMX
– transactional v. transformational leadership
• This may not be a direct predictor of
organizational performance.
Attribution theory
• Who’s responsible for my outcomes?
– Is it my efforts, skills, knowledge?
– Is it circumstances beyond my control?
• The individual’s beliefs about the locus of control
over outcomes will heavily influence the
individual’s behaviour.
Helping people to achieve

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Motivation Theories: job design

• Jobs can be designed to help motivate employees:

– job rotation
– job enlargement
– job enrichment
Common aspects of a “good” job

• skill variety
• task identity
• task significance
• autonomy
• feedback
Motivation Theory: Goal Setting

• Goals should be SMART:

– specific
– measurable
– achievable
– relevant
– time-bound
SMART goals
• Goals should be specific: if you want your employees to work well, they need
to know exactly what results are desired.
• Goals should be measurable: employees need to know when they’ve
achieved an acceptable level, and whether a higher level is worthwhile.
• Goals should be achievable: returning to expectancy theory, if employees
don’t believe that they can reach the target, they may not even try.
• Goals should be relevant: the goal should be meaningful to the employee’s
job and should contribute to the organization’s success.
• Goals should be time-bound: there should be a specific time by which the
goal should be reached.
Cautions about goal-setting

• Avoid setting overly specific goals - they may lead

to undesirable behaviour.
• Difficult goals may lead to stress,
discouragement, and failure in other areas.
Stretch goals and other ideas
• It is sometimes appropriate and useful to set a
stretch goal, one that the employee isn’t sure
that s/he can reach, if s/he is willing to try
anyway.
• Competition can be useful.
• Benchmarking - comparing performance over
time - can be useful.
• There is no single approach that will work for
everyone.
The importance of feedback
• It is very important that employees know
whether they have reached their goals.
• If they haven’t, figuring out why is important for
future performance.
• Feedback can be acquired through direct
observation, through reports, or through a variety
of other means depending on the job.
Summary
• People will generally act rationally. They will behave in
ways that lead to a desired outcome or reward, as long as
they believe that they can influence that desired outcome.
• Rewards can be intrinsic or extrinsic.
• Managers can influence employee behaviour through
providing appropriate rewards and enhancing employee
ability to achieve the behaviours that lead to the rewards.