CHAPTER 5
CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Content theories identify internal factors such as needs and satisfaction that energize employee motivation. Content theories include: McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. Maslow's need hierarchy theory. Acquired needs theory. Self-determination theory. Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory.
Expectancy Theory
Expectancy theory holds that people are motivated to behave in ways that produce desired combinations of expected outcomes. Generally, expectancy theory can predict behavior in any situation in which a choice between two or more alternatives must be made. For instance, it can predict whether we should quit or stay at a job, exert substantial or minimal effort at a task, and major in management, computer science, accounting, marketing, psychology, or communication.
Job Enrichment
job enrichment modifies a job such that an employee has the opportunity to experience achievement, recognition, stimulating work, responsibility, and advancement. These characteristics are incorporated into a job through vertical loading. Rather than giving employees additional tasks of similar difficulty (horizontal loading), vertical loading gives them more autonomy and responsibility.
Moderators
Moderators. A moderator is a variable that changes the relationship between two other variables. Hackman and Oldham proposed that there are moderators that affect the success of job design. Knowledge and skill (representing whether or not the person has the knowledge and skills to perform the enriched job). Growth need strength (representing the desire to grow and develop as an individual). Context satisfactions (representing the extent to which employees are satisfied with various aspects of their job, such as pay, coworkers, and supervision).
Models of Job Design
Top-down. Managers changed employees' tasks with the intent of increasing motivation and productivity. In other words, job design was management led. Bottom-up. In the last 10 years, the top-down perspective gave way to bottom-up processes, based on the idea that employees can change or redesign their own jobs and boost their own motivation and engagement. Job design is then driven by employees rather than managers. I-deals. The latest approach to job design, idiosyncratic deals, attempts to merge the two historical perspectives. It envisions job design as a process in which employees and individual managers jointly negotiate the types of tasks employees complete at work.
Equity theory
is a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships. According to this theory, people are motivated to maintain consistency between their beliefs and their behavior. Perceived inconsistencies create cognitive dissonance (or psychological discomfort), which in turn motivates corrective action. When we feel victimized by unfair social exchanges, the resulting cognitive dissonance prompts us to correct the situation
Maslows Need Hierarchy
The need hierarchy theory states that motivation is a function of five basic needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION
results from the potential or actual receipt of external rewards. Extrinsic rewards such as recognition, money, or a promotion represent a payoff we receive from others for performing a particular task
Benefits of Job Rotation
Increased engagement and motivation because employees have a broader perspective on the organization. Increased worker flexibility and easier scheduling because employees are cross-trained to perform different jobs. Increased employee knowledge and abilities, which improves employees' promotability and builds a pipeline of internal talent.
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Intrinsic motivation occurs when an individual is inspired by "the positive internal feelings that are generated by doing well, rather than being dependent on external factors (such as incentive pay or compliments from the boss) for the motivation to work effectively." We create our own intrinsic motivation by giving ourselves intrinsic rewards such as positive emotions, satisfaction, and self-praise
Job enlargement
Involves putting more variety into a workerʼs job by combining specialized tasks of comparable difficulty, 187 puts more variety into a worker's job by combining specialized tasks of comparable difficulty. Some call this strategy horizontally loading the job.
Scientific management
Management that conducts a business or affairs by standards established by facts or truths gained through systematic observation, experiment, or reasoning, 186-187, 187 is "that kind of management which conducts a business or affairs by standards established by facts or truths gained through systematic observation, experiment, or reasoning."76
Power and Mccellands acquired needs theory
McClelland identified a positive and negative form of the power need. The positive side is called the need for institutional power. It manifests in the desire to organize people in the pursuit of organizational goals and help people obtain the feeling of competence. The negative face of power is called the need for personal power. People with this need want to control others, and they often manipulate people for their own gratification.
MCGREGORS THEORY X AND THEORY Y
McGregor formulated two sharply contrasting sets of assumptions about human nature. Theory X is a pessimistic view of employees: They dislike work, must be monitored, and can be motivated only with rewards and punishment ("carrots and sticks"). McGregor felt this was the typical perspective held by managers. To help them break with this negative tradition, McGregor formulated his own Theory Y. Theory Y is a modern and positive set of assumptions about people at work: They are self-engaged, committed, responsible, and creative.
Outputs inputs and comparison of equity theory
Outputs—"What do I perceive that I'm getting out of my job?" Organizations provide a variety of outcomes for our work, including pay/bonuses, medical benefits, challenging assignments, job security, promotions, status symbols, Page recognition, and participation in important decisions. Outcomes vary widely, depending on the organization and our rank in it. Inputs—"What do I perceive that I'm putting into my job?" An employee's inputs, for which he or she expects a just return, include education/training, skills, creativity, seniority, age, personality traits, effort expended, experience, and personal appearance. Comparison—"How does my ratio of outputs to inputs compare with those of relevant others?" Your feelings of equity come from your evaluation of whether you are receiving adequate rewards to compensate for your collective inputs. In practice people perform these evaluations by comparing the perceived fairness of their output-to-input ratio to that of relevant others. They divide outputs by inputs, and the larger the ratio, the greater the expected benefit. This comparative process was found to generalize across personalities and countries.
PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Process theories explain the process by which internal factors and situational factors influence employee motivation
Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory focuses on the needs that drive intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is longer lasting and has a more positive impact on task performance than extrinsic motivation.23 The theory proposes that our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness produce intrinsic motivation, which in turn enhances our task performance
Process theories of motivation
describe how various person factors and situation factors in the Organizing Framework affect motivation. They go beyond content theories by helping you understand why people with different needs and levels of satisfaction behave the way they do at work.
Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory
based on a landmark study in which he interviewed 203 accountants and engineers. These interviews, meant to determine the factors responsible for job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, uncovered separate and distinct clusters of factors associated with each. This pattern led to the motivator-hygiene theory, which proposes that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise from two different sets of factors—satisfaction comes from motivating factors and dissatisfaction from hygiene factors. hygiene factors - including company policy and administration, technical supervision, salary, interpersonal relationships with supervisors, and working conditions—cause a person to move from a state of no dissatisfaction to dissatisfaction. He did not believe their removal created an immediate impact on satisfaction or motivation (for that, see motivating factors following). At best, Herzberg proposed that individuals will experience the absence of job dissatisfaction when they have no grievances about hygiene factors. motivating factors -achievement, recognition, characteristics of the work, responsibility, and advancement—cause a person to move from a state of no satisfaction to satisfaction For Herzberg, the groups of hygiene and motivating factors did not interact. "The opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction, but rather no job satisfaction; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no dissatisfaction Research does not support the two-factor aspect of Herzberg's theory, nor the proposition that hygiene factors are unrelated to job satisfaction. However, three practical applications of the theory help explain why it remains important in OB. Hygiene first. There are practical reasons to eliminate dissatisfaction before trying to use motivators to increase motivation and performance. You will have a harder time motivating someone who is experiencing pay dissatisfaction or otherwise struggling with Herzberg's hygiene factors. Motivation next. Once you remove dissatisfaction, you can hardly go wrong by building motivators into someone's job. This suggestion represents the core idea behind the technique of job design that is discussed in the final section of this chapter. A few well-chosen words. Finally, don't underestimate the power of verbal recognition to reinforce good performance. Savvy managers supplement Herzberg's motivators with communication. Positive recognition can fuel intrinsic motivation, particularly for people who are engaged in their work.
Mcclellands acquired needs theory
which states that three needs—for achievement, affiliation, and power—are the key drivers of employee behavior
Hackman and Oldhams Job Characteristics Model
The goal of the job characteristics model is to promote high intrinsic motivation by designing jobs that possess the five core job characteristics. The five characteristics are as follows: Skill variety. The extent to which the job requires an individual to perform a variety of tasks that require him or her to use different skills and abilities. Task identity. The extent to which the job requires an individual to perform a whole or completely identifiable piece of work. Task identity is high when a person works on a product or project from beginning to end and sees a tangible result. Task significance. The extent to which the job affects the lives of other people within or outside the organization. Autonomy. The extent to which the job enables an individual to experience freedom, independence, and discretion in both scheduling and determining the procedures used in completing the job. Feedback. The extent to which an individual receives direct and clear information about how effectively he or she is performing the job.
Vrooms Expectancy Theory
Expectancy—"Can I achieve my desired level of performance? An expectancy represents an individual's belief that a particular degree of effort will be followed by a particular level of performance. Expectancies take the form of subjective probabilities. As you may recall from a course in statistics, probabilities range from zero to one. An expectancy of zero indicates that effort has no anticipated impact on performance, while an expectancy of one suggests performance is totally dependent on effort. Instrumentality—"What intrinsic and extrinsic rewards will I receive if I achieve my desired level of performance?" Instrumentality is the perceived relationship between performance and outcomes. It reflects a person's belief that a particular outcome is contingent on accomplishing a specific level of performance. Passing exams, for instance, is instrumental in graduating from college, or put another way, graduation is contingent on passing exams. Valence—"How much do I value the rewards I receive?" Valence describes the positive or negative value people place on outcomes. Valence mirrors our personal preferences. For example, most employees have a positive valence for receiving additional money or recognition. In contrast, being laid off or being ridiculed for making a suggestion would likely be negative valence for most individuals. In Vroom's expectancy model, outcomes are consequences that are contingent on performance, such as pay, promotions, recognition, or celebratory events. For example, Aflac hosted a six-day appreciation week for employees that included theme park visits, movie screenings, and daily gifts.Would you value these rewards? Your answer will depend on your individual needs.
Edwin Locke and Gary Latham's Theory of Goal Setting
Goals need to be specific. People must have the ability and resources needed to achieve the goal and need to be committed to the goal. Performance feedback. Goals that are specific and difficult lead to higher performance than general goals like "Do your best" or "Improve performance." This is why it is essential to set specific, challenging goals. Goal specificity means whether a goal has been quantified. For example, a goal of increasing the score on your next OB test by 10 percent is more specific than the goal of trying to improve your grade on the next test. Certain conditions are necessary for goal setting to work. People must have the ability and resources needed to achieve the goal, and they need to be committed to the goal. If these conditions are not met, goal setting does not lead to higher performance. Be sure these conditions are in place as you pursue your goals. Performance feedback and participation in deciding how to achieve goals are necessary but not sufficient for goal setting to work. Feedback and participation enhance performance only when they lead employees to set and commit to a specific, difficult goal. Take Jim's Formal Wear, a tuxedo wholesaler in Illinois. "Once a week, employees meet with their teams to discuss their efforts and what changes should be made the next week. Employees frequently suggest ways to improve efficiency or save money, such as reusing shipping boxes and hangers."Goals lead to higher performance when you use feedback and participation to stay focused and committed to a specific goal. Goal achievement leads to job satisfaction, which in turn motivates employees to set and commit to even higher levels of performance. Goal setting puts in motion a positive cycle of upward performance.
Organizational Justice
Organizational justice reflects the extent to which people perceive they are treated fairly at work. This, in turn, led to the identification of three different components of organizational justice: distributive, procedural, and interactional. Distributive justice reflects the perceived fairness of the way resources and rewards are distributed or allocated. Procedural justice is the perceived fairness of the process and procedures used to make allocation decisions. Interactional justice describes the "quality of the interpersonal treatment people receive when procedures are implemented."Interactional justice does not pertain to the outcomes or procedures associated with decision making. Instead it focuses on whether people believe they are treated fairly when decisions are being implemented. By and large, distributive and procedural justice have consistently stronger relationships with outcomes. This suggests that managers would be better off paying attention to these two forms of justice. In contrast, interactional justice is not a leading indicator in any instance.
