Chapter 6 - THE NATURE OF WORK MOTIVATION

What is distributive justice?

The perceived fairness of the distribution of outcomes in an organization, such as pay, promotions, and desireable working conditions is an important contributor to more general perceptions of organizational justice.

What is interpersonal justice?

The perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment employees receive from the distributors of outcomes or their managers. It is important for managers to be courteous and polite to treat employees with dignity to promote interpersonal justice. Shouldn't make disparaging or belittling remarks.

What is level of persistence?

When faced with obstacles, roadblocks, and stone walls, how hard does a person keep trying to perform a chosen behavior successfully?

What is the lesson from Maslow's theory?

Employees differ in the needs they try to satisfy at work and that what motivates one employee may not motivate another.

What is the connection between extrinsically and intrinsically motivation?

Employees with strong intrinsic work values are likely to want to be intrinsically motivated at work and those with strong extrinsic work values are likely to want to be extrinsically motivated at work.

True/False: Maslow and Alderfer's theories tend to receive support from research.

False

True/False: Multiple levels of needs on Maslow's theory motivates behavior, and it's possible to skip levels.

False

True/False: Motivation is the only factor that can affect performance

False, there are a lot of different factors that can affect motivation , such as personability and ability, the difficulty of the task, availability of resources, working conditions, and chance or luck.

True/false: An employee cannot be both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated

False, they can be both

What is motivation?

Motivation is only one factor among many that contributes to an employee's job performance.

safety needs

Needs for security, stability, and a safe environment. Example: by receiving job security, adequate medical benefits, and safe working conditions.

self-actualization needs

Needs to realize one's full potential as a human being. Example: by using one's skills and abilities to the fullest and striving to achieve all that one can on a job.

When employees think that good performance goes unrecognized, their motivation to perform at a high level tends to be _____. (high or low)

low

Underpayment inequity

when a person perceives that his or her outcome/input ratio is less than that of a referent.

What are the three key elements of work motivation?

Direction of behavior, level of effort, and level of persistence

Unsatisifed needs are the prime motivators of behavior, according to __________ theory

Maslow's

What is intrinsically motivated work behavior?

behavior performed for it's own sake; the source of motivation actually comes from performing the behavior itself; in other words. The work gives them a sense of accomplishment and achievement.

How can organizations boost employees' expectancies?

by helping them improve their skills and abilities

Inequity

lack of fairness, exists when outcome/input ratios are not proportionally equal.

What is the expectancy theory?

***A theory about work motivation that focuses on how employees make choices among alternative behaviors and level of effort.*** Asks questions such as "does an individual believe that his or her inputs (such as effort on the job) will result in a given level of perofmrnace?" **Proposes regardless of which outcomes are available, employees will not be motivated to contribute their inputs to the organization unless they believe it will result in achieving a given level of performance. ** **If employees do not think they are capable of performing at an adequate level even with maximum effort, their motivation to perform at that level will be zero.*** Employees will be motivated to perform at a given level only if that level leads to their desired outcomes. Ex: think of a nurse who has just taken a job at a new hospital. Which behaviors could she choose to perform? Does she spend time causally chatting with patients, r does she limit her interactions to those directly pertaining to medical care? Does she discuss her patients' symptoms and complains with their physicians in detail, or must doctors rely on her written records? Does she readily help other nurses when they seem to have a heavy load, or does she provide assistance only when asked? She will also need to decide how much effort to exert on the job. Should she push herself as much as she can? **Expectancy theory seeks to explain how employees go about making these various decisions because their choices determine what employees do on the job and how hard they work, they have prfound effects on organizational effectiveness** The theory originally developed by victor Vroom in the 1960s assumes that employees are essentially pleasure seeking-- that is, they are motivated to receive positive outcomes (such as a weekly paycheck, a bonus, or award) Employees are ration, carefully processors of info and use info about their jobs and abilites to decide whoat they will do on the job and how hard they do it. *** identifies three major factors that determine an employee's motivation; valence, instrumentailty, and expectancy. ***

How can equity be restored?

1. Employees can change their inputs or outcomes. ex: reducing their inputs. By coming to work late, taking longer breaks, and working less conscientiously. 2. Employees try to change their referents' inputs or outcomes. Edx: steve complaining to his supervisor about Mike's coming to work late and not doing a very good job in the hope that the supervios will alter Mike's inputs or his outcomes. Mike might also encourage Steve to relax and take it easy on the job. 3. Employees change their perceptions of inputs and outcomes (either their own or the referents') Ex: Mike could restore equity by changing his perceptions about his inputs. He could start to think that his area is larger or harder to clean than Steve's or that he works faster. Employees who perceive overpayment inequity are especially likely to change their perceptions to restore equity. 4. Employees change the referent. An employee may decide that the original referent does not allow for an appropriate comparison and this select another one. 5. Employees leave the job or organization or force the referent to leave. The most common example of this approach is employee turnover and leaving the organization is most prevalent in situations of underpayment inequity.

What are the difficulties of these two need theories?

1. It may be unreasonable to expect a relatively small set of needs ordered in a particular fashion to apply to all human beings. 2. It may be unrealistic to expect that all people become motivated by different types of needs in a set order

What is a need?

A need is a requirement for survival or well-being.

What is Clayton Alderfer's ERG Theory?

A need theory of work motivation. Build's on Maslow's thinking, however, it reduces the number of universal needs from five to three and is more flexible in terms of movement between levels. A higher level need can be a motivator even if a lower-level need is not fully satisfied, and needs at more than one level can be motivators at any time. When an inividual is motivated to satisfy a high-level need but has difficulty doing so, the person's motivation to satisfy lower-level needs will increase 1. Existence needs- Basic needs for human survival such as the need for food, water, clothing, shelter, and a secure and safe work environment. Ex: By receiving enough pay to provide for the basic necessities of life and by having safe working conditions 2. Relatedness needs- have good interpersonal relations, to share thoughts and feelings and to have open two-way communication. Ex: By having good relations with coworkers, superiors, and subordinated and by obaining accurate feedback from others 3. Growth needs- needs for self-development and creative and productive work. Ex: by continually imporiving skills and abilities and engaging in meaningful work.

What is an example of being intrinsically motivated?

A professional violinist who relishes playing in an orchestra regardless of relatively low pay and a millionaire CEO who repeatedly puts in 12-hour days because she enjoys her work.

What is the equity theory?

A theory by Stacy Adams about work motivation that focuses on employees' perceptions of the fairness of their work outcomes and inputs. . What is important to motivation is the way an employee perceives his or her outcome/input ration compared to the outcome/input ratio of another person focuses primarily on the relationship between inputs and outcomes propose that from past experience or the observation of others, employees will have a sense of the input levels that should result in certain outcomes. To motivate employees, managers need to administer outcomes based on those inputs. Need to ensure that different employees' outcome-input ratios are approximately equal so that employees who contribute more inputs receive more outcomes and vice versa.

What is expectancy?

An employee's perception about the extent to which his or her effort will result in a certain level of job performance. Expectancy varies from 0 to 1 and results the chances that putting forth a certain amount of effort will result in a certain level of performance. An expectancy of zero means that an employee believes there is no chance that his or her effort will result in a certain level of performance. An expectancy of 1 signifies that an employee is absolutely certain that his or her effort will lead to a certain level of performance. Employees are going to be motivated to perform desire behaviors at a high level only if they think they can do so.

What is instrumentality?

An employee's perception about the extent to which performing certain behaiors or performing at a certain level will lead to the attainment of a particular outcome. Can be positive or negative and vaires in size or magnitude An instrumentality of -1 means that an employee perceives that performing a certain behavior, pr performing it at a certain level, definitely will not result in obtaining the outcome. An instrumentality of +1 means that the employee perceives the performance definitely will result in obtaining the outcome. An instrumentality of zero means that an employee perceives no relations between performance and outcome. Instrumentalities that are high and that employees believe are high are effective motivators.

What is organizational justice?

An employee's perception of overall fairness in his or her organization. Proposes that employees will not be motivated to contribute their inputs unless they perceive fair procedures will be used to distribute outcomes in the organization and that they will be treated fairly by managers.

What are examples that involve the level of effort?

An engineer decides to try to convince skeptical superiors of the need for design changes, the engineer's level of motivation determines the lengths to which he or she will go to convince them.

What is performance?

An evaluation of the results of a person's behavior. It involves determining how well or poorly a person has accomplished a task or done a job.

1. Physiological needs

Basic needs for things such as food, water, and shelter that must be met in order for a human to survive. Example: receiving a minimum level of pay that enables a worker to buy food and clothing and have adequate housing.

What is extrinsically motivated work behavior?

Behavior that is performed to acquire material or social rewards or to avoid punishment. The behavior is performed not for its own sake, but rather for its consequences.

What are counterproductive work behaviors?

Behaviors by an employee that violate organizational values and norms and that can potentially harm individuals and the organization.

What are the effects of ineqity and the research evidence?

Both underpayment inequity and overpayment inequity are dysfunction for organizations. Research supports the main ideas of the inequity theory

How does maslow's theory help managers detemrine what will motvate any given employee?

By specifying the needs that contribute to motivation.

What is informational justice?

Captures employee perceptions of the extent to which managers explain their decisions, and the procedures used to arrive at them, to employees. Managers can explain to employees how they assess inputs, including time, effort, education, and previous work experience When managers describe the procedures they use to distribute outcomes in an honest, forthright, and timely manager, when their explanations are thorough and when subordinates perceive these explanations to be well-reasoned, perceptions of informational justice are likely to be high.

What is an example of an organization helping an employee at different levels in Maslow's hierarchy?

Help satisfy employees' esteem needs by providing special recognition for their outstanding accomplishments and achievements.

What is level of effort?

How hard a person works to perform a chosen behavior. It is not enough for an organization to motivate employees to perform desired functional behaviors; the organization must also motivate them to work hard at these behaviors.

What key challenge faces managers in terms of motivation?

How to encourage employees to contribute inputs to their jobs and the organization.

What is valence?

In expectancy theory, the desireability of an outcome to an individual. Refers to the desireability of an outcome to an indivudal employee, (outcomes such as pay, job security, benefits, feelings of accomplishments). Can be positive or negative If an outcome has a positiv valence, an employee prefers having the outcome to not having it. If an outcome has NEGATIVE VALENCE, an employee perfers not having the outcome. + = getting a raise - = being fired Some motivation problems occur because highly valent outcomes are unavilable to employees. Mangers must determine what outcomes an emplyee desire or the valence of different outcomes for the employee. Receiving highly valent outcomes may also lead employees to be less likely to quit their jobs.

What are examples of the direction of behavior?

Note: Direction of behavior can be appropriate or innappropriate. Example: If a stockbroker in an investment banking firm illegally manipulates stock prices, if managers advance their own careers at the expense of their subordinates, if an engineer convinces skeptical superiors to change the design specifications of a new product in order to lower production costs

What are the consequences of organizational justice?

Organizational justice has been found to be positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, and organizational citizenship behavior and negatively associated with absenteeism and turnover intentions. When perceptions of organization justice are low, there might be increased potential for the occurrence of the counterproductive work behaviors.

What are examples of rewards for extrinsically motivated employees?

Pay, praise, and status

What is a referent?

Simply another employee or group of employees perceived to be similar to oneself. Could also be oneself at another time or place

What are examples that involve the level of persistence?

The engineer's supervisor indicates that a change in specifications is a waste of time. Does the engineer persist in trying to get the change implemented or give up even though he or she strongly believes it's necessary?

What is procedural justice?

The perceived fairness of the procedures used to make decisions about the distribution of outcomes in an organization. Pertain to how performance levels are evaluated, how grievances or disputes are handed, and how outcomes are distributed. employees are going to be more motivated to perform at a high level when they perceive that the procedures used to make decisions about the distribution of outcomes are fair.

What is the outcome/input ratio?

The relationship between what an employee gets from a job (outcomes) and what the employee contributes to the job (inputs).

Why do theories about work motivation provide answers to questions such as "what motivates people", "why do they become motivated" and "how they sustain their motivation?"

Theories explain why employees behave as they do in organizations.

True or False: Employees can be motivated in functional ways that help an organization achieve its goals or in dysfunctional ways that hinder an organization from achieving it's goals.

True

True/False: Because of its profound organizational implications, expectancy theory is among the most popular theories of work motivation.

True

True/False: If just one of these three factors- valence, instrumentality, or expectancy, is zero, motivation will be zero

True

True/False: Need theory is actually a group of theories about work motivation. Collectively, these theories explain what motivates employees to behave in certain ways by focusing on employees' needs as the source of motivation

True

True/False: Studies of American employees generally do not support the main tenets of Maslow's and Alderfer's theories.

True

True/False: When an employee perceives that the employee's and the referent's outcome/input ratios are proportionally equal, the employee is motivated either to maintain the status quo or to increase his or her inputs to receive more outcomes

True

True/false: A high level of motivation does not always result in a high level of performance

True

What is the relationship between motivation and performance?

When all is equal, one would epect a highly motivated screenwriter to write better scripts than those written by a poorly motivated screenwriter. When it's not always equal it's because so many other factors affect performance- factors such as personality and ability, the difficulty of the task, the availablilty of resouces, working conditions, and chance or luck.

Overpayment inequity

When an individual perceives that his or her outcome/input ratio is greater than that of a referent.

When does equity exist?

When an individual's outcome/input ratio equals the outcome/input ratio of the referent

To determine what will satisfy an employee, a manager must first _______________________________. The manager must then ______________________.

determine what needs an employee is trying to satisfy on the job because needs will change from person to person. The manager must then ensure that the employee can satisfy his or her needs by engaging in behavior that contribute to the organization's effectiveness.

What are the four forms of organizational justice?

distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice

What are inputs in work motivation?

effort, specific job behaviors, skills, knowledge, time, and experience.

What does the need theory propose?

employees seek to satisfy many of their needs at work and that their behavior at work is, therefore, oriented toward need satisfaction.

What is the need theory?

focuses on the outcome side of the equation. Employees have needs that they are motivated to satisfy in the work place. Once an employee's needs are determined, the manager must make sure that she or he can control the outcomes satisfying those needs. The manager should make it clear to the employee that receiving the outcomes depends of the desired behaviors being performed. **Need theory is atually a group of theories about work motivation)

What is Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of needs?

human beings have five universal needs they seek to satisfy: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Maslow proposed that these needs cab be arranged in a hierarchy of importance, with the most basic or compelling needs-physiological and safety needs- at the base. These basic needs must be satisfied before an individual seeks to satisfy needs higher up in the hierarchy. Maslow argued that once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a source of motivation.

Motivation Sequence

input (effort, time, education, experience, skills, knowledge, job behaviors) -----> performance (quantity of work, quality of work, level of customer service) -----> outcomes (pay, job security, benefits, vacation, job satisfaction, feeling of accomplishment, pleasure of interesting work)

Need theory tries to explain what ______ employees, while expectancy theory focuses on how employees decide _________________.

motivates; which specific behaviors to perform and how much effort to exert.

belongingness needs

needs for social interaction, friendship, affection, and love. Example: having super good relations with co-workers and supervisors, being a member of a cohesive work group, and participating in social functions such as company picnics and holiday parties

What is the direction of behavior?

the behavior employees choose to perform from the many potential behaviors they could perform

esteem needs

the needs to feel good about oneself and one's capabilities, to be respected by others, and to receive recognition and appreciation. Example: promotions at work and being recognized for accomplishments.

What is work motivation?

the psychological forces within a person that determine the direction of that person's behavior in an organization, effort level, and persistence in the face of obstacles.

Sometimes employees are not motivated to perform at a high level because _____________.

thy do not perceive that high performance will ead to highly valent outcomes (such as pay raises, time off, and promotions) .

Why do managers want employees to be motivated?

to contribute inputs, because inputs influence job performance and ultimately, organizational performance.