Motivation:

From Concept to
Applications
 Job Design
• It is essential to design jobs so that stress can be
reduced, motivation can be enhanced and satisfaction
of employees and their performance can be improved
that organisations can effectively compete in the
global marketplace.
• Started with the scientific management movement.
• Evolved into job engineering
 Job Design
The process by which managers plan and specify job
tasks and the work arrangements through which they
are accomplished.

The best job design is the one that:

Meets organizational requirements for high

performance.

Offers a good fit with individual skills and needs.

Provides opportunities for job satisfaction.

 Job Engineering
Scientific management,
Industrial engineering
approach

Job Enrichment Quality of work Life

Vertically loading the job Overall climate, socio-
to provide more responsibility Technical design and teams

JOB
DESIGN

Job Characteristics Social Information

Building skill variety, task identity Processing
task significance autonomy, and Social information or cues
feedback into the job. affecting jobholders
 Job Enrichment
The vertical expansion of jobs.

It is an extension of job rotation and job enlargement

techniques of job design.

A direct outgrowth of Herzberg’s two factor theory of

work motivation (opportunities for achievement, recognition,
responsibility, advancement and growth).
 Job Enrichment

• Concerned with designing the jobs that include a

greater variety of work content, require higher level
of knowledge and skill, more autonomy and
responsibility, opportunity for personal growth and
a meaningful work experience
The Job Characteristic
Approach to Job Design
J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham

Core job characteristics Critical psychological states

Skill variety -Meaningfulness

Task identity -Responsibility

Task significance -Knowledge of results

Autonomy

Feedback
 CORE JOB CRITICAL PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND WORK
STATES OUTCOMES

Variety of skill High internal

Identity of the task Experienced meaningfulness
of the work
Significance of the task
Autonomy Experienced responsibility
for work outcomes
Feedback Knowledge of results
from work outcomes
work motivation
High quality
work performance
High satisfaction
with the work
Low turnover and
absenteeism

Moderated by employee
Growth-need strength
 The Job Characteristic Approach to
Job Design
Combined together, the core job characteristics create a
motivating potential score (MPS).
MPS indicates the degree to which the job is capable of
motivating people.
A job’s MPS can be raised by enriching the core
characteristics.
Motivating Potential Score

Skill Task Task

Variety + Identity + Significance
MPS = X Autonomy X Feedback
3
Practical guideline to redesign jobs
Core job characteristics Guideline for practice
- Skill variety -Provide cross training
-Expand duties requiring more skills

- Task identity - Deadline to project for completion

- Form self-contained work module

- Task significance - Communicate importance of the job

- Enhance image of the organisation

- Autonomy - Implement information system

- Give more responsibility and Accountability

- Feedback - Implement information system

- Supervisors give objective,

immediate information on

how the employee is doing

 Social information
processing approach (SIPA)
Social information in organizations influences
the way people perceive their jobs and
respond to them.

Research evidence shows that both social

information and the core job characteristics
are important determinants of how people
perceive their jobs.
 Social information processing
approach (SIPA)
Salancik and Pfeffer- 3 major causes
Cognitive evaluation of real task environment
Past actions (reinforcement and learning).
Information from immediate social context
Moorhead and Griffin-Process
Choice : The freedom to choose different behaviours
Revocability : The ability to change behaviours
Publicness : The degree of visibility to others
Explicitness : The ability to be clear and obvious
Social norms and expectations: The knowledge of what others expect from
someone
External priming: The receiving of cues from others
 Quality of work life (QWL)
programs designed to create a workplace that
enhances employee well-being
organizations differ drastically in their attention to
QWL
Psychological contracts
a set of perceptions of what employees owe their
employers, and what their employers owe them
has important implications for employee
satisfaction/motivation
Benefits provided by Contributions provided
the organization by the employee
Benefits promised by
versus Contributions promised
the organization by the employee
Categories Of Quality Of Life
Safe and
Adequate and fair
healthy
compensation
environment

Jobs develop
Socially responsible human
organizational Quality capacities
actions
of Work
Minimum infringe- Life
Chance for personal
ments on personal
growth and security
and family needs

Supportive
Constitutionalism social
environment
 Job Engineering
Scientific Management

Industrial engineering approach

 Goal Setting
 Goals are an important aspects of any job design.

 Goals are needed to give proper direction to

workers.
 Goal setting is the process of developing,
negotiating, and formalizing the targets or
objectives that a person is responsible for
accomplishing.
 Importance of Goal Setting
 Goals guide and direct behavior
 Goals provide challenges and standards against which
performance can be assessed
 Goals justify tasks and the use of resources
 Goals define the basis for the organization’s design
 Goals serve an organizing function
 Goals provide a framework for planning and control
activities
 Model of Goal Setting
Challenge Mediators
Goal difficulty Direction
Goal clarity Effort Performance Rewards Satisfaction
Self-efficacy Persistence
Task strategy

Moderators Conse-quences
Ability
Goal commitment
Feedback
Task complexity

Source: Adapted from Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. A Theory of Goal Setting
And Task Performance. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1990, 253.
Impact of Goals on Performance
WHEN GOALS ARE PERFORMANCE
WILL TEND TO BE
 Specific and clear Higher
 Vague Lower
 Difficult and challenging Higher
 Easy and boring Lower
 Set participatively Higher
 Set by management (top down) Lower
 Accepted by employees Higher
 Rejected by employees Lower
 Accompanied by rewards Higher
 Unrelated to rewards Lower
 Moderators in the Goal-Setting
Model
Ability
Limits capacity to respond to challenge
Goal Commitment
Determination to reach a goal
Feedback
Provides information on outcomes and performance
Complexity
Simple versus complex tasks
 Goal Setting
 Goal setting guidelines — cont.
– Task feedback, or knowledge of results, is
likely to motivate people toward higher
performance by encouraging the setting of
higher performance goals.
– Goals are most likely to lead to higher
performance when the people have the
abilities and the feeling of self-efficacy
required to accomplish them.
 Goal Setting

 Goal setting guidelines — cont.

– Goals are most likely to motivate people
toward higher performance when they are
accepted and there is commitment to them.
 Limitations to Goal Setting
Lack of skills and abilities prevents goal setting
from leading to high performance

When a considerable amount of learning is

needed, successful goal setting takes longer

When the goal-setting system rewards the wrong

behavior, major problems can result
 Organizational Reward System

― The system concerned with the selection of the

types of rewards to be used by the organization.‖
 Types of Rewards

• Organizational Rewards - intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

from employment with the organization.

• Intrinsic Rewards - rewards internal to the individual

normally derived from involvement in certain activities or
tasks.

• Extrinsic Rewards - tangible rewards controlled and

distributed by the organization.
 Reward Factors Involved in
Motivating High Performance
 Availability

 Timeliness

 Performance contingency

 Durability

 Equity

 Visibility
 Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Rewards

• Intrinsic Rewards • Extrinsic Rewards

– Achievement – Formal recognition
– Feelings of – Fringe benefits
accomplishment – Incentive payments
– informal recognition – Pay
– Job satisfaction – Promotion
– Personal growth – Social relationships
– Status – Work environment
 Reward Systems in High-
Performance Work Settings
REWARD SYSTEM STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS
Gain-sharing programs Rewards employees who Formula can be complex;
reach specified production employees must trust
levels and control costs. management.
Profit-sharing programs Rewards organizational Difficult for individuals
performance. and teams to impact overall
organizational
performance.
Skill-based pay Rewards employee with Labor costs increase as
higher pay for acquiring employees master more
new skills. skills. Employees can ―top
out‖ at the highest wage
rate.
Flexible benefits Tailored to fit employee Administrative costs high
needs. and difficult to use with
teams.
 Conditions Favoring
Gain-Sharing Plans
Organizational Favorable
Characteristic Condition
 Size of organization  Less than 500 employees
 Product costs  Controllable by employees
 Organizational climate  Open, trusting
 Style of management  Participative
 Union status  No union or supportive one
 Communication policy  Financials shared
 Plant manager  Trusted, committed, articulate
 Management
 Competent, participative
 Workforce
 Knowledgeable, participative
 Flexible Benefit Plans:
Advantages and Limitations
Advantages Limitations
 Permits employees’  Record keeping becomes
discretion in matching more complicated
needs with benefit plans  Difficulty in accurately
 Helps organizations predicting employees’
control costs benefit choices
 Highlights economic value
of benefits
 Deciding Among Alternative
Reward Systems
Are there accurate indicators of individual performance?
Is the performance of one person independent from others?
Are individual performance goals constant?
Is the firm unionized?
Is pay secrecy important?

Team Plans Individual Plans

Is the cost accounting system sophisticated? Can managers measure performance
Are employees accustomed to participating objectively?
in decision making? Is employee turnover high?
Will employees accept deferred payments? Is there a consensus on work goals?

* Profit-sharing programs * Skill-based pay

* Flexible benefit plans * Gain-sharing programs