04. basic motivation concepts

8/4/2019 04. Basic Motivation Concepts

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CHAPTER IV

BASIC MOTIVATION CONCEPTS

What is motivation? Early theories of motivation Contemporary theories of

motivation.

The term motivation represents the forces acting on or within a person that cause the

person to behave in a specific goal directed manner. In organizational behavior, the term

motivation is defined as willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals.

In other words, motivation is the willingness to do something and is conditioned by this

actions ability to satisfy some need for the individual. A need means physiological or

psychological deficiency that makes certain outcomes appear attractive. The motivationprocess is shown below:

An unsatisfied need creates tension, which stimulates drives within the individual.

These drives generate a search to find particular goal that, if attained, will satisfy the need and

lead to the reduction of tension.

Motivated employees are in a state of tension. In order to relieve this tension, they

engage in activity. The greater the tension, the more activity will be needed to bring about

relief. Therefore, when we see employees working hard at some activity, we can conclude they

are driven by a desire to achieve some goal they value.

Essentials of Motivation

According to motivational principle, an individuals performance is a function of both

ability and motivation. Mathematically, we may state this principle as:

Performance = f (ability X motivation)

According to this principle, without ability a person cannot work successfully. Ability is

the persons talent for performing specific tasks. This talent might include intellectual

competencies, (such as verbal, abstract, and spatial skills) and manual competencies (such as


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physical strength and dexterity). How ever, ability alone does not ensure a high level of

performance. The person must also want to achieve that level.

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

EARLY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

During 1950s, three specific theories of motivation were formulated. These are the

hierarchy of needs theory, theory X and theory Y, and the two factor theory. These theories are

relevant at present because:

1. They represent a foundation from which contemporary theories have grown, and

2. Practicing managers regularly use these theories and their terminology in explaining

employee motivation.

Need Hierarchy theory

The most widely accepted theory of motivation is the needs hierarchy theory of

Abraham Maslow. Maslow hypothesized that within every human being there exists a

hierarchy of five needs. These needs are:

Physiological needs: Include hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily

needs.

Safety needs: Include security and protection from physical and emotional

harm.

Social needs: Include affection, a sense of belonging, acceptance, and

friendship.

Esteem Needs: Include internal factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and

achievement and external factors such as status, recognition, and attention.

Self-actualization need: The drive to become what one is capable of

becoming; includes growth, achieving ones potential, and self-fulfillment.

As each of these needs becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes

dominant. The theory says that a substantially satisfied need no longer motivates.

Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders. Physiological and safety

needs were described as lower order; social, esteem and self-actualization was categorized as

higher-order needs. The difference between these two category is that higher-order needs are

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satisfied internally, whereas lower-order needs are predominantly satisfied externally (wages,

union contracts, and tenure).

According to Maslow, if managers want to motivate employees, they need to

understand what level of the hierarchy that employees are currently on and focus on satisfying

those needs at or above that level.

Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)

Douglas McGregor proposed two different motivational theories. Managers tend to believe

one or the other and treat their employees accordingly. Theory X states that employees dislike

work, are lazy, dislike responsibility and try to avoid work, and they must be coerced to

perform. Most workers lack ambition and value job security more than anything else. The four

assumptions of this theory held by managers are:

1.Employees inherently dislike work and whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it.

2. Since employees dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled or threatened

with punishment to achieve goals.

3. Employees will avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction whenever

possible.

4. Most workers place security above, all other factors associated with work and

will display little ambition.

Theory Y is the assumption that employees like work, are creative, self-motivated, and

seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction. The four assumptions of theory Y are the

following.

1. Employees can view work as being as natural as rest or play.

2. People will exercise self-direction and self-control if they are committed to the

objectives.

3. The average person can learn to accept, even seek responsibility.

4. The ability to make innovative decisions is widely dispersed throughout the

population and is not necessarily the sole province of those in management positions.

The motivational implications of McGregors theory are best expressed in Maslows

theory. Theory X assumes that lower order needs dominate individuals. Theory Y assumes that

higher order needs dominate individuals. McGregor has the belief that the theory Y

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assumptions were more valid than theory X. Therefore, he proposed such ideas as

participation in decision making, responsible and challenging jobs, and good group relations

as approaches that would maximize an employees job motivation.

III. Two-factor Theory of Frederick Herzberg (Motivation-Hygiene Theory)

Herzberg states that there are two different categories of needs:

a. Motivators (Intrinsic Factors)and

b. Hygiene maintenance factors (Extrinsic Factors)

a) Motivators: The first set of factors includes the work itself, promotional opportunities,

opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility and achievement. These factors

are related to job satisfaction. These positive feelings, in turn reflect the individuals

experiences of achievement, recognition, and responsibility.

b) Hygiene Factors: Hygiene factors include quality of supervision, pay, company policies,

working conditions, interpersonal relationships, and job security. These extrinsic factors serve

as rewards for high performance only if the organization recognizes high performance.

According to Herzberg, job satisfaction and dissatisfaction do not exist on the same

continuum, but on dual scales. In other words, certain things, which Herzberg called hygiene

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factors, such as pay, supervision, company policies, working conditions, job security, and

physical work environment, could cause a person to become unhappy with their job.

Motivating factors, such as promotional opportunities, opportunities for personal growth,

recognition, responsibility, and achievement on the other hand, can increase job satisfaction.

CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

The contemporary theories that explain employee motivation are:

1. Mc Clellands theory of needs

2. Goal setting theory

3. Reinforcement theory

4. Job design theory

a. Job characteristics model

b. Social Information Processing model

5. Equity theory

6. Expectancy theory

I. McClellands Theory of Needs: According to McClelland, there are three motives or

needs in workplace: achievement, power, and affiliation.

a) Need for Achievement (nAch): The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of

standards, to strive to succeed.

b) Need for Power (nPow): The need to control or influence the behavior of others.

c) Need for Affiliation (nAff): The desire for friendly and close interpersonal

relationships.

Some people have a compelling drive to succeed, but they are striving for personal

achievement rather than the rewards of success. They have the desire to do something better

or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive is need for achievement.

McClelland found that high achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desire to

do things better. They seek situations in which they can attain personal responsibility for

finding solutions to problems, receive rapid and unambiguous feedback on their performance,

and set moderately challenging goals. They prefer working at a challenging problem and

accepting the personal responsibility for success or failure rater than leaving the outcome to

chance or the actions of others. They like to set realistic but difficult goals that require

stretching themselves a little. When there is an approximately equal chance of success or

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failure, there is a optimal opportunity to experience feelings of accomplishment and

satisfaction from their efforts.

The need for power is the desire to have an impact, to be influential, and to control

others. Individuals high in nPow enjoy being in charge, strive for influence over others, prefer

competitive and status-oriented situations, and tend to be more concerned with gaining

prestige and influence over others than with effective performance.

Individuals high in nAff strive for friendship, prefer cooperative situations rather than

competitive ones, and desire relationships involving a high degree of mutual understanding.

Studies based on the relationship between achievement need and job performance, the

following predictions can be made.

1. Individuals with a high need to achieve prefer job situations with personal

responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk.

2. A high need to achieve does not necessarily lead to being a good manager, especially in

large organizations. People with a high achievement need are interested in how well

they do personally and not in influencing others to do well. (High nAch sales people do

not necessarily make good sales managers, and the good general manager in a large

organization does not typically have a high need to achieve).

3. The needs for affiliation and power tend to be closely related to managerial success.

The best managers are high in their need for power and low in their need for affiliation.

Employees have been successfully trained to stimulate their achievement need. If the

job calls for a high achiever, management can select a person with a high nAch or develop its

own candidate through achievement training.

II. Goal Setting Theory: Edwin Locke proposed that intentions to work toward a goal are a

major source of work motivation. Specific goals lead to increased performance; that difficult

goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals; and that feedback leads

to higher performance than does no feedback.

When employees are given the opportunity to participate in the setting of their own

goals, there may be an increased acceptance of the goal itself as a desirable one to work

toward. People who participate in goal setting are more likely to accept even a difficult goal

than one that s arbitrarily assigned to them, because individuals are more committed to

choices in which they have a voice.

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In addition to these factors, two others factors have been found to influence the goal

performance relationship: goal commitment and adequate self-efficacy. Goal

setting theory presupposes that an individual is committed to the goal. This

occurs when goals are made public, when the individual has an internal locus

of control, and when the goals are self-set rather than assigned. Self efficacy

refers to an individuals belief that he is capable of performing a task. The

higher your self-efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to

succeed in a task.

III.Reinforcement Theory: According to this theory, reinforcement conditions behavior.

Reinforcement theorists see behavior as being environmentally caused. They believe that

behaviors that are followed by positive outcomes are likely to be repeated.

Researchers believe that the behaviors one engage in at work and the amount of effort

one allocate to each task are affected by the consequences that follow from ones behavior.

IV. Job Design Theory: According to this theory, the way the elements in a job are

organized can increase or decrease effort. These elements are explained below:

a. The job characteristics model, and

b. Social information-processing model.

a. Job characteristics model (JCM): The job characteristics model of Hackman and

Oldham proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions.

1. Skill variety: The degree to which the job requires a variety of different activities so

the worker can use different skills and talent.

2. Task Identity: The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and

identifiable piece of work.

3. Task significance: The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the

lives or work of other people.

4. Autonomy: The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,

independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in

determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

5. Feedback: The degree to which the individual obtaining direct and clear

information about the effectiveness of his performance.

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The core dimensions can be combined into a single predictive index, called the

motivating potential score (MPS). Its computation is as follows:

b. Social Information Processing Model (SIP Model): The SIP model argues that

employees adopt attitudes and behavior towards their job in response to the social cues

provided by others with whom they have contact. These others can be co-workers, supervisors,

friends, family members or customers.

The theory states that managers should give as more attention to employees

perceptions of their jobs as to the actual characteristics of those jobs.

5. Equity theory (Stacy Adams): According to this theory, individuals compare their job

inputs and outcomes with those of others and then respond so as to eliminate any inequities.

The theory says that employees weigh what they put into a job situation (input) against

what they get from it (outcome) and then compare their input-outcome ratio with the input-

outcome ratio of relevant others. If they perceive their ratio to be equal to that of the relevant

others with whom they compare themselves, a state of equity is said to exist. They feel that

their situation is fair, that justice prevails. If the ratios are unequal, inequity exists; that is, the

employees tend to view themselves as under rewarded or over rewarded. When inequities

occur, employees will attempt to correct them.

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The referent against which people choose to compare themselves is an important

variable in equity theory. The three referent categories have been classified as other, system,

and self. The other category includes other individuals with similar jobs in the same

organization and also includes friends, neighbors, or professional associates. On the basis of

information that employees receive through word of mouth, newspapers, and magazines, on

issues such as executive salaries or a recent union contract, employees can compare their pay

with that of others.

The system category considers organizational pay policies and procedures as well as

the administration of this system. It considers organization-wide pay policies, both implied

and explicit. Precedents set by the organization in terms of allocation of pay would be a major

determinant in this category.

The self category refers to input-outcome ratios that are unique to the individual. This

category is influenced by criteria such as past jobs or family commitments.

Equity theory purports that when employees envision an inequity, they may make one

or more of five choices.

1. Distort either their own or others inputs of outcomes.

2. Behave in some way so as to induce others to change their inputs or outcomes.

3. Behave in some way so as to change their own inputs or outcomes.

4. Choose a different comparison referent.

5. Quit their job.

Equity theory recognizes that individuals are not only concerned with the rewards that

they receive for their efforts, but also with the relationship of their rewards with the rewards

received by others. They make judgements of equity or inequity between their input and

outcomes and the inputs and outcomes of others. Based on ones inputs, such as effort,

experience, education and competence, one compares outcomes such as salary levels, raises,

recognition, and other factors. When people perceive an imbalance in their outcome input

ratio relative to others, tension is created. This tension provides the basis for motivation, as

people strive for what they perceive as equity and fairness.

The theory established four propositions relating to inequitable pay:

1. Given payment by time (e.g. salaried employees), over rewarded employees will

produce more than equitably paid employees.

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2. Given payment by quantity of production (e.g., employees working in piece rate

basis), over rewarded employees swill produce fewer but higher quality units

than equitably paid employees.

3. Given payment by time, under rewarded employees will produce less or a poorer

quality of output.

4. Given payment by quantity of production, under rewarded employees will a

produce a large number of low quality units in comparison with equitably paid

employees.

Employee motivation is influenced by relative reward as well as by absolute rewards.

When employees perceive inequity, they will act to correct the situation. The result might be

lower or higher productivity, improved or reduced quality of output, increased absenteeism, or

voluntary resignation.

VI. VICTOR VROOMs EXPECTANCYTHEORY

This theory explains motivation in terms of the expectations (expectancies) that people

have about their ability to perform effectively on the job and about the kinds of rewards they

expect to obtain, if they do perform effectively. It includes three variables or relationships.

1. Attractiveness: the importance the individual places on the

potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the job. This considers the unsatisfied

needs of the individual.

2. Performance-reward linkage: the degree to which the individual believes that

performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome.

3. Effort-performance linkage: the probability perceived by the individual that

exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance.

The simplified expectancy theory is given below:

According to this theory, the strength of a persons motivation to perform (effort)

depends on how strongly he believes that he can achieve attempted tasks.

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The key to expectancy theory is the understanding of an individuals goals and the

linkage between effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and finally,

between the rewards and individual goal satisfaction.

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04. basic motivation concepts

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