Employee Motivation

MPW AY1617T1 Week 6

Went low, went high

Still waters run dry
Gotta get back in the groove

Recap

Last week
Inputs: Values, attitudes
Output: Job attitudes and other behaviors
Processes: theories, emotions, moods

The OB model as it unfolds

A roadmap / an overview
IQ, traits, values, attitudes

Inputs
e.g Personality,
group structure,
and organizational
culture ,
national culture

Processes
e.g. emotions &
moods, motivation,
perception, and
decision making,
communication,
leadership, power &
politics, conflict &
negotiation,
human resource
management and
change practices

Outcomes
Attitudes &
stress, task
performance,
citizenship,
withdrawal,
group cohesion,
group
functioning,
productivity,
survival
(How we know a
manager is good)

Today
Motivation! Process that accounts for individuals
goal attainment Three components:
1) Intensity how hard
2) Direction benefit (or harms) organization
3) Persistence how long effort/behaviors are
maintained

If all we want to know is whether performance

will increase, why even bother with motivation?

OB as an empirical science
1. Empirical research = basing conclusions on
observable data and careful study
2. Science = Must translate observations and
intuitions into hypotheses that can be tested
scientifically
3. Careful attention to the mechanism behind
behaviour
Why is paying attention to the mechanism important?
E.g. Time for leisure reduces fatigue, so give more
vacation days? What is the mechanism here, what
else can you do?

Mediators
Mediator = variable or construct that facilitates the
relationship between two other variables. One
variable explains the relationship between the
other variables
Why care?
Norms?
.??

.??
.??

Mood?

.??
Task
Performance

Feedback
.??

Learning?

.??

Last week
Values are important
When peoples reasons for pursuing goals are
consistent with their interests and core values
They are happier even if they dont achieve goal
More likely to achieve goal anyway

A name for this: Self-concordance theory

Early Theories: Need Theories

These early theories are problematic:
Theory X & Theory Y (see textbook)
Two factor theory (see textbook)
Maslows hierarchy of needs
McClelland's Achievement Theory

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

SELFACTUALIZATON
Pursue inner talent
Creativity Fulfilment

internal

SELF-ESTEEM
Achievement Mastery
Recognition Respect
BELONGING LOVE
Friends Family Spouse Lover
SAFETY
Security Safety Freedom from Fear
Physiological
Food Water Shelter Warmth

WIFI
BATTERY

external

McClellands Achievement Theory

Motivation is a function of the desire for
fulfillment of 3 needs:
Need for Achievement: The need to succeed.
Need for Power: The need to exert control over
others.
Need for Affiliation: The need to be liked and
accepted by others.

Role of individual differences:

Individuals differ in the extent to which they possess
each of the 3 needs.

McClellands Achievement Theory

Measurement of needs:
Uses a variety of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
Projective test; uses respondents interpretation of
ambiguous pictures to assess needs.
Standardized scoring system.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Tell a story What

is happening here?

Problems with approach:

Low inter-reliability of
TAT scores.
Low construct validity
of TAT (how do we
know it measures
needs?)

Early theories
Have not held up under close examination
Fallen out of favor
See textbook

Contemporary Theories

Self-determination theory
Reinforcement theory (see textbook)
Organizational justice
Goal setting theory
Self-efficacy theory (see textbook)
Job engagement
Expectancy theory

A degree of valid supporting documentation.

Not unquestionably right

Self-determination theory (SDT)

Self-determination theory proposes that
people prefer to feel they have control over
their actions, so
Extrinsic motivation - Intrinsic motivation
tradeoff
E.g.s of extrinsic motivation: $, titles, offices,
resources, praise, feedback, deadlines, work
standards, etc

Trivia!!
Trivia for candy

 The proponents of reinforcement theory view

behavior as ________.
A) the result of a cognitive process
B) environmentally caused
C) a reflection of the inner state of the
individual
D) a function of one's power need
E) a product of heredity

 To get the best results while using reinforcement

theory, rewards should be ________.
A) small and given only once
B) large and given at irregular intervals
C) given prior to the desired behavior response
D) given immediately following the desired
behavior
E) presented publicly with a large number of
witnesses

 Helen, a high school teacher, wants her students to actively

participate more in class. She has decided to use
reinforcement theory to get the required results. Which of
the following methods is she most likely to use?
A) She is going to call on students who never participate.
B) She is going to yell at students, telling them that they are
not making good grades.
C) She is going to ask the students that always participate
to allow the others to have a chance.
D) She is going to model what active participation should
look like at the beginning of class.
E) She is going to give students an extra mark each time
that they contribute.

Trivia!! Part 2
Trivia for participation points
People who get the answers correct will get
bonus participation points
Green = 0.5 point
Blue = 2 points

 Goal-setting theory takes a behavioristic

approach, whereas reinforcement theory
takes a cognitive approach.
True or False?

 Interpersonal justice refers to an individual's

perception of the degree to which he or she is
treated with dignity, concern, and respect.
True or False?

 ________ argues that people learn to behave

to get something they want or to avoid
something they don't want.
A) Theory Y
B) Theory X
C) Social cognitive theory
D) Operant conditioning theory
E) McClelland's theory of needs

 What is the limitation of reinforcement theory in

explaining changes in behavior?
A) It does not adequately describe the original
behavior.
B) It places too much emphasis on feelings and
attitudes.
C) Most behavior is, in fact, environmentally caused.
D) It ignores the effect of rewards and punishments on
behavior.
E) It does not recognize the effect of cognitive
variables.

 Which level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs

deals with satisfying one's hunger, thirst, and
other bodily needs?
A) safety
B) physiological
C) social
D) esteem
E) psychological

 The concept of operant conditioning is a part of

the broader concept of ________, which argues
that behavior follows stimuli in a relatively
unthinking manner.
A) equity theory
B) expectancy theory
C) cognitive behavioral therapy
D) behaviorism
E) humanism

Trivia!!

Candy game was motivating but

Points game?
Was that fair?
How did that feel?
Did you still want to play?

Taking Offense
Why are humans so sensitive to
unfairness?
Why are we always checking to see whether
we are getting proper respect, procedures
and our share of rewards?

Origins of Morality and Fairness

Since 1900s studying the origin and expression of
moral emotionsour instinctive feelings of right
and wrong
did not invent morality; instead, we come equipped with
it.

Fairness in babies
Hamlin et al (2007)
6 and 10 month old babies (preverbal)
Prefer helpers over hinderers
We have to teach our children accepted rules of conduct and
proper character. But they are readily able to learn because a
moral template is already there. (Hauser, 2006).

Fairness in adults
Ultimatum and Dictator Games
Behavior is not always rational
Understanding the importance of fairness
makes it more clear.

Ultimatum Game
You're standing on the sidewalk with a friend, minding
your own business, when a man approaches with a
proposition. He offers you $20 in one-dollar coins and
says you can keep the money, under one condition:
You have to share some of it with your friend. You can
offer your friend as much or as little as you like, but if
your friend rejects your offer, neither of you get to
keep any of the money. What do you do?
You've got the $20 in your hand and your friend watches you
expectantly. Will you low ball your friend? Will you split the money
evenly? Will you be generous?

The rational choice

Under a strictly utilitarian view of
economics, you would give your friend the
lowest possible amount. In this case you've
got 20 dollars, so you would give your
friend a dollar.
Since it's found money, your friend should
accept the dollars.

Ultimatum Game
In the years the game has been played:
Almost half the A's immediately offer to split the moneyan
offer B's accept.
When A offers $9 or even $8, B usually says yes.
But when A's offer drops to $7, about half the B's walk away.

The lower A's offer, the more likely the B's are to turn
their backs on a few free dollars in favor of a more
satisfying outcome:
punishing the person who offended their sense of fairness.

Logical?
Is this impulse logical or illogical?
Why should we do this?
Humans who behave purely rationally are
brain-damaged
Patients who have suffered injury to the areas
in the brain that control emotion, but who
retain their intellectual abilities, end up acting
in socially aberrant ways (Descartes Error:
Damasio, 1994)

Dictator Game
The giver gets to keep the money, regardless of
whether the receiver rejects the offer.
Two choices: The giver could either split the $20
evenly or offer the receiver $2 and keep $18.
Either way, the giver gets to keep the money,
regardless of the receiver's acceptance or refusal of
the offer.
What would you do?
76% of givers chose to split the money evenly

Dictator Game Variations

Another variation of the dictator game created a
test in which the recipient in one round would be
the dictator in the next round.
What the former-recipient-turned-dictator
doled out in the second round "strongly
correlated with the amount received" in the
first round
In other words, if the receiver was given a low
amount, as dictator he or she would take
revenge.

Logical?
What's going on here?
Why wouldn't humans rationally maximize across
the board in the ultimatum or dictator games?
While fear of rejection certainly is a reasonable
explanation for a giver's behavior, it doesn't
explain why a receiver would ever reject an offer
or why someone would give more than necessary.
Our concept of fairness, however, would satisfy as
an explanation in this case.

Babies and Monkeys?

Monkey Fairness

Philosophically speaking

De Waal writes that we are descended from,

long line of monkeys and apeswe have been
group-living forever. Free and equal people
never existed. Humans started outif a starting
point is discernible at allas interdependent,
bonded, and unequal.

Notice that the worst punishment in prison is

isolation (solitary confinement)

Like monkeys, we
Are social animals; we have always been
forming groups and depending on others
Groups satisfy psychological/social needs
Attention
Sense of belonging
Groups satisfy need for security
Groups help to achieve goals
Group membership contributes to social identity

Groups provide information

Social Emotions, Morality and Fairness

The emotions are functional!
The paired emotions of gratitude and
anger/vengeance helped us become the
ultrasocial, ultrasuccessful species that we are.
Gratitude allows us to expand our social network
and recruit new allies
Vengeance makes sure our new friends don't take
advantage of us. (Haidt, 2006)

So the point then

We seem to be born with some predisposition
towards fairness
We certainly are social animals that have to
manage our relationships with others
How does this play out in an organization?

Justice Matters!!
When employees perceive fairness:

they show higher job performance

more effective citizenship behaviors
are more committed
Are more satisfied

When employees perceive unfairness:

they are more likely to steal

are more aggressive
have stronger turnover intentions
are more likely to engage in counterproductive work
behaviors

Back to Theories: Equity Theory

One is motivated to restore equity.
How can equity be restored?
(Oemployee / Iemployee) vs. (Ocomparison other / Icomparison other)

Not very good at estimating others pay

either

Lawler, 1972

Theories: Equity Theory

Research:
most based on economic outcomes
more strongly supportive of underpayment compared
to overpayment

Implications?
Focus on perceptions and social comparisons.
Provide explanations to improve perceptions.

Organizational Justice

Organizational Justice
4 aspects of fairness

Organizational
Justice

Distributive

Procedural

Interpersonal

Informational

Distributive Justice
Earliest research about fairness focuses on this
type of justice
Perceptions that the outcomes of the allocation
of resources are fair
Equity rule (Adams, 1965; Leventhal, 1976)
Not absolute outcome but stable outcome/input ratio

Other rules:
Equality rule
Need-based rule

Resources can refer to money, time, etc.

Distributive Justice: Violated or not?

Andy puts in 5 hours of work and gets $50
Ben puts in 3 hours of work and gets $30

Paul puts in 4 hours of work and gets $40

James puts in 3 hours of work and gets $40

Procedural Justice
Next type of justice that researchers examined
Perceptions that the decision-making
processes are fair
Decision-making follows rules such as:
consistency, accuracy, unbiasedness, and
avenue for feedback/voice (Leventhal, 1980;
Thibaut & Walker, 1975)

Interpersonal Justice
Besides distributive and procedural justice,
other things affected perceptions of fairness
Perceptions of being treated with politeness,
respect and dignity
Effects
Prosocial outcomes: trust, engagement
(responsibility, motivation), and creativity, and
stimulate voluntary cooperation with others (Tyler
and Blader 2003)

My research
People were treated with respect or without
People observed others in their group being
treated with respect or without
Thank you for your recommendations. I went
through them and made my decisions based on
them vs What you recommended is stupid.
Anyway, Im ignoring it, Your input is useless.
Great., Seriously? Your suggestion is stupid. I
cant believe this.
Results?

 Respectful treatments received by the self in

general has good outcomes (team cohesion,
neutrality, satisfaction with supervisor, predicted
work performance)
But when others are disrespected, satisfaction
with supervisor and predicted work performance
drops
When others are disrespected, being respected
ourselves reduces outcomes we care about how
others are treated
Similar results when we reject and disrespect

Informational Justice
Perceptions that reasonable explanations for
decisions are provided, candour in
communication, communication was timely
Effects
Job sat, org comm, trust, OCB, perf, withdrawal (ve), negative reaction (-ve)

Improving Fairness
What improves perceptions of fairness?

People are given Voice in the process

The decision is made fairly, (equity)
The decision is applied consistently,
The decision was justified based on
information,
Decision-makers communicated the
information honestly,
People influenced by decision were treated
with respect.

Beyond Equity
Fairness and Employee Theft
(Greenberg, 1990)

Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment

inequity: The hidden costs of pay cuts.
Study:
Field experiment
Naturally occurring temporary pay decreases
Lost 2 large contracts which required a 15% pay cut
across the board

Data were collected for 30 weeks:

10 weeks before, during, and after pay cuts

Beyond Equity
Fairness and Employee Theft
Theft: How would you measure theft?

measured as shrinkage (inventory unaccounted for,

e.g., tools, supplies).

Manipulation

Adequate explanations, inadequate explanations,

control.

Results:
Theft

57% inadequate justification

37% adequate justification
0% Control

Turnover:

23.1% inadequate justification

5% in other conditions

Job engagement
Job engagement: the investment of an
employees physical, cognitive, and emotional
energies into job performance
something deeper than liking a job or finding it
interesting

Job engagement research

Job engagement levels of multiple business
units had a positive relationship with a variety
of practical outcomes (e.g.
Meta-analysis of 91 studies found levels of
engagement positively related with task
performance and citizenship behavior

Job engagement comes from

Meaningfulness of work
Job characteristics and resource access
Value fit, particularly P-O fit
Leadership behaviors, e.g. authentic
leadership

Significance of Task Significance

Dark side of job engagement

Positive correlation between engagement and
work-family conflict
You only have 24 hours and that much energy and
attention. When people are overly motivated and
absorbed in their job

Goal-Setting Theory
Goals tell an employee what needs to be done
and how much effort is needed
Aspects of goals are motivating

Goal-setting Theory
Aspects of goals that are motivating
Specific VS general
Difficult but achievable vs easy
Accompanied with specific feedback
Participative vs Assigned

Specific vs General goals

Our motivation varies depending on how close
we are to goal completion (the closer we are,
the more motivated we become)
Break up a large task into several smaller tasks,
and set goals for completion of each of these tasks

Difficult vs easy goals

Focus attention
Energizes
Persistence
Discover new ways of improved performance

Goals accompanied with Feedback

Feedback tells people how well they are progressing
toward their goals
Self-generated feedback is more powerful a motivator than
externally generated feedback

But for goals to work, people also need:

Ability and knowledge (otherwise make it a learning goal)

Feedback lets you improve on those relevant abilities and
knowledge!

It works

Goalsetting in Loggers (increased productivity and attendance)

Goalsetting in R&D teams (after defining performance, doing a
job analysis)

Giving feedback

Giving feedback

Giving feedback

Participative vs assigned goals

Participative increases acceptance
BUT if not possible, clearly explain purpose
and importance of goals

Individual differences and Goal-setting

Promotion focused strive for advancement
and accomplishment and approach conditions
that move them closer toward desired goals.
Prevention focused strive to fulfill duties and
obligations and avoid conditions that pull
them away from desired goals.
Differences in the way people regulate their
thoughts and behaviors during goal pursuit

Expectancy Theory
Vroom (1964)
Most popular and prominent theory
Cognitive theory
V = Valence
I = Instrumentality
E = Expectancy
Assumes that employees are rational and that their
behavior is guided by a cost-benefit analysis of a
particular course of action.

Valence: Whether
an outcome is
valued or not (+/-)

Expectancy: Will my effort

lead to performance

Instrumentality:
Will performance
lead to a reward

Expectancy Theory
Research:
Difficult to test, but generally supportive.

Managers if they want to control behavior must:

1. structure the system to provide valued outcomes that
are contingent upon desired acts, or...
2. convince employees that those outcomes that are
contingent on acts are valued by the employees
3. Contingencies between acts and outcomes must be
established and communicated by managers and
believed and learned by employees; neither easy nor
automatic.

Anything else will result in a non-functional motivation

system

Recap
Different theories speak towards different
processes and outcomes
For example:
Goal-setting theory does not cover absenteeism,
turnover, or job satisfaction
Reinforcement theory doesnt tell us about employee
satisfaction or turnover intentions/turnover
Expectancy theory assumes employees have few
constraints on decision making, such as bias or
incomplete information, and this limits its
applicability.

Next week

Motivation theories applied at work, Chapter 8

No class ticket
Round 1 Group presentations
Brief presentation and receive informal feedback from
myself and one other team about your research idea to
improve on your research proposal.
Very brief and take only 7 minutes with 4 minutes for
questions from the class.
Brief lit review, what are your hypotheses, why you expect
these hypotheses (that is how has what youve read helped
you build these hypotheses)
Each group will be assigned a counter group who will
critically evaluate your research idea