Theories of Motivation PDF

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Summary

❖ Describe three key elements of motivation.
❖ Evaluate the applicability of early theories of motivation.
❖ Apply the key tenets of expectancy theory to motivating employees....

Description

❖ Describe three key elements of motivation. 1. Intensity: how hard a person tries 2. Direction: -

the effort put in the right direction + high intensity = favourable job performance

3. Persistence ❖ Evaluate the applicability of early theories of motivation. -

Needs theories describe the types of needs that must be met to motivate individuals. 1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. 2. Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory (two-factor theory). 3. McClelland’s theory of needs.

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Process theories describe the actual ways people can be motivated. 1. Expectancy theory: helps us understand the thought process behind how people choose to behave. 2. Goal-setting theory 3. Self-efficacy theory 4. Reinforcement theory

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: -

Lower-order needs are satisfied externally.

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Higher-order needs are satisfied internally.

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Lower-orders needs must be met first before moving to higher-order needs.

2. Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory (two-factor theory) -

Factors contributing to job dissatisfaction and satisfaction

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Hygiene factors, i.e. supervision, pay, company policies, working conditions, relationships with others and job security, when they are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied but neither will they be satisfied.

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If managers want to motivate people in their jobs, they should emphasize on the job itself or its outcomes like promotions, personal growth opportunities, recognition, responsibility and achievement. These are motivators.

3. McClelland’s theory of needs. -

Achievement, power and affiliation are three important needs that help explain motivation. How people are motivated and how well they perform at work are related to whether they have a need for achievement, power or affiliation.

→ Summary of needs: Individuals have needs and can be highly motivated to achieve those needs. When rewarding individuals, should consider their specific needs, however, in workplace it would be difficult to design a reward structure that could completely satisfy every specific needs of every employee.

❖ Apply the key tenets of expectancy theory to motivating employees. -

Effort → good performance → rewards → satisfy personal goals

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Effort - Performance relationship (expectancy): If I give a maximum effort, will it be recognized in my performance appraisal?

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Appraisal includes loyalty, initiative, courage

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People will only be motivated if they perceive a link between their effort and their performance.

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Performance - Rewards relationship (instrumentality): If I get a goal performance appraisal, will it lead to rewards?

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Rewards - Personal Goals relationship (valence): If I’m rewarded, are the rewards attractive to me? Employees put a lot of effort into something only to get the reward that did not meet their expectation.

❖ Describe goal-setting theory, self-efficacy theory, and reinforcement theory. -

An approach to goal-setting theory is management by objective (MBO): specific measurable goals set by managers and employees; progress on goals is reviewed and rewards are allocated on the basis of this progress.

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Self-efficacy theory: A person believes in their ability to complete and succeed in a task. With a low self-efficacy, people put little effort or give up the task. Managers set difficult goals for people to increase their confidence and self-efficacy, they set higher personal goals on their performance and has higher task performance.

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Reinforcement theory: an individual develops a behavior after performing certain actions. I.e. repeat actions having positive consequences and avoid those having negative outcomes. Reinforce desirable behaviours → better performance.

❖ Describe why equity and fairness matter in the workplace. -

Equity theory: people compare their job inputs and outcomes with others and then respond to eliminate any inequities. Employees compare outcomes such as pay, promotions, recognition, or having the corner office, to what they put into it (inputs such as effort, experience and education).

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NEVER use the term ‘demotivated’ when applying to the equity theory.

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What can you do if you think your salary is unfair? 1. Put less effort - motivated to work less hard, not necessary demotivated completely. 2. Lower quality 3. Change their perception about themselves 4. Change their perception about others 5. Choose a different referent (I may not make as much but I’m doing a lot better than my dad when he was my age.) 6. Quit the job

❖ Demonstrate how organizational justice is a refinement of equity theory. -

Organizational justice is an overall perception of what is fair in the workplace, composed of distributive, procedural, informational, and

interpersonal justice. -

Distributive justice: ‘Am I getting my fair of the salary?’

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Procedural justice: ‘What do I have to do to get the raise?’

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Informational justice: ‘

❖ Apply the predictions of self-determination theory to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. -

Self-determination theory: proposes that people prefer to feel they have control over their actions, a freely chosen activity and an obligated task will undermine motivation.

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Cognitive evaluation theory: extrinsic rewards will reduce intrinsic interest in a task. ● Extrinsic rewards: pay, promotions, feedback, working conditions ● Intrinsic rewards: individuals doing what they like, achievement, responsibility and competence - intrinsic interest of the work. When people are paid for work, it feels less like something they want to do, not more like something they have to do. Because once they believe that they are working due to the pay or other extrinsic reasons, they begin to lose motivation, especially if the extrinsic factors are controlled by others. ● How to increase intrinsic motivation? 1. Sense of choice: Provide opportunity for individual to make their own judgement, select what works best and carry out the task. So managers should empower employees and delegate tasks. 2. Sense of competence and accomplishment. Managers support and coach employees. 3. Sense of meaningfulness: Individuals feel good about what they do and believe what they do matters. Managers inspire employees and model desired behaviours. 4. Sense of progress. Managers monitor and reward employees.

❖ Discuss the ethics behind motivation theories. -

These motivation theories can be interpreted to help managers get more productivity out of employees rather than to help employees get what they want or need.

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Organizations should focus on the workplace conditions and improving those conditions, it is their moral obligation to make the workplace better for employees. The important thing is employers treat employees well, at the same time take into account the needs of employees.

❖ Summarize the essence of what we know about motivating employees. 1. Recognize individual differences: managers should spend time to understand what is important to each employee and then align goals and rewards. 2. Use goals and feedback: challenging and specific goals 3. Allow employees to participate in decisions that affect them, such as, setting work goals, choosing their own benefit packages, solving productivity and quality problems. Doing so can increase productivity, commitment, motivation and job satisfaction. 4. Give rewards correlated to the type of performance expected (reward performance relationship). 5. Employees should receive rewards equating with the inputs they bring to the job i.e. skills,experience, abilities, efforts. Similarities between the theories: 1. All theories agree all human behaviours can be influenced and changed. 2. All theories acknowledge all individuals with different needs, wants and values. 3. All theories seek to understand the individual differences as the key part of how we are motivated....