What is Motivation?

Motivation
The processes that account for an individual’s
intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward
attaining a goal.

Key Elements
1. Intensity: how hard a person tries
2. Direction: toward beneficial goal
3. Persistence: how long a person tries
Motivation and Performance

Environment

Motivation Effort Performance

Ability
 3 Major Types of Motivation
Theories
• Content Theories of Motivation
– WHAT motivates us
• Process Theories of Motivation
– WHY and HOW motivation occurs
• Reinforcement Theory
– HOW outcomes influence behaviors
 1
Content Perspectives on Motivation
• Content Perspectives
– Approaches to motivation that try to answer the question,
“What factors in the workplace motivate people?”
• Content Perspectives of Motivation
– Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
– Aldefer’s ERG Theory
– McGregory’s Theory X and Theory Y
– Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
– McClelland’s Achievement,
Power, and Affiliation Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
NEEDS
General Examples Organizational Examples

Self-
Challenging job
Achievement actualization

Job
Status Esteem title
Friends
Friendship Belongingness at work
Pension
Stability Security plan
Base
Food Physiology salary
 Assumptions of Maslow’s
Hierarchy
Movement up the Pyramid
•Individuals cannot move to the next higher level until
all needs at the current (lower) level are satisfied.

•Individuals Maslow Application:

therefore must
move up the A homeless person
hierarchy in order will not be motivated to
meditate!
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
A Content Perspective
• What factor or factors motivate people
• Weakness of Theory
– Five levels of need are not always present
– Order is not always the same
– Cultural differences
• Need’s Hierarchy in China…an example:
– Belonging
– Physiological
– Safety
– Self actualizing in service to society
 Alderfer’s ERG Theory
A Content Perspective
• Existence needs
– Physiological
• Relatedness needs
– How one individual relates to his/her social
environment
• Growth needs
– Achievement and self actualization
 Alderfer’s ERG Theory
A Content Perspective

Satisfaction-Progression Frustration-Regression

Growth Needs

Relatedness
Needs

Existence Needs
 Content Theories
• McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
– Theory X
• Assumes that workers have little ambition, dislike
work, avoid responsibility, and require close
supervision.
– Theory Y
• Assumes that workers can exercise self-direction,
desire responsibility, and like to work.
– Motivation is maximized by participative
decision making, interesting jobs, and good
group relations.
 Content Theories
• Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory
– Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are
created by different factors.
• Hygiene factors: extrinsic (environmental) factors
that create job dissatisfaction.
• Motivators: intrinsic (psychological) factors that
create job satisfaction.
– Attempted to explain why job satisfaction does
not result in increased performance.
• The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but
rather no satisfaction.
Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene
Theory
Contrasting Views of Satisfaction-
Dissatisfaction
 McClelland’s Needs Theory
• Three-Needs Theory
– There are three major acquired needs that are
major motives in work.
– Need for achievement (nAch)
• The drive to excel and succeed
– Need for power (nPow)
• The need to influence the behavior of others
– Need of affiliation (nAff)
• The desire for interpersonal relationships
Pictures Used for Assessing Levels of
nAch, nAff, and nPow
 2
Process Perspectives of Motivation
• Why people choose certain behavioral
options to satisfy their needs and how they
evaluate their satisfaction after they have
attained their goals.
• Process perspectives of Motivation
– Goal Setting Theory
– Equity Theory
– Expectancy Theory
 Goal-Setting Theory
A Process Perspective
Basic Premise: That specific and difficult goals, with self-generated
feedback, lead to higher performance.

• Difficulty
– Extent to which a goal is challenging and requires effort.
• Specificity
– Clarity and precision of the goal.

Goal Achievement Depends on:

• Acceptance
– Extent to which persons accept a goal as their own.
• Commitment
– Extent to which an individual is personally interested in reaching a goal.
 Equity Theory: A Process Perspective
• Individuals equate value of rewards to effort and
compare it to other people.
outcomes(self) outcomes (other)
=
inputs (self) inputs (other)

Motivation to maintain
Equity current situation

Inputs/Outcomes Ways to reduce inequity

Comparison of • Change inputs
self with others • Change outcomes
• Alter perceptions of self
• Alter perceptions of other
Inequity
• Leave situation
• Change comparisons
Justice and Equity Theory
 Three types of Justice
Distributive Justice Procedural Justice
Perceived fairness of the The perceived fairness of
outcome (the final the process used to
distribution). determine the outcome
(the final distribution).
“Who got what?”
“How was who gets what
decided?”
Interactional Justice
The degree to which one
is treated with dignity
and respect.
“Was I treated well?”
 Expectancy Theory
The Basic Idea
• People tend to prefer certain goals, or
outcomes, over others.
• They anticipate experiencing feelings of
satisfaction should such a preferred
outcome be achieved.
• Basically, people are motivated to behave
in ways that produce valued outcomes.
 Expectancy Theory
A Process Perspective
• Motivation depends on how much we want
something and how likely we are to get it
– Elements
• Effort to Performance Expectancy (E) is the probability
that effort will lead to performance.
• Performance to Outcome Expectancy (I) is the
perception that performance leads to an outcome.
• Outcome is the consequence or reward for
performance.
• Valence (V) is how much a particular outcome is
valued.
 Expectancy Theory
A Process Perspective

M=ExIxV

• For motivated behavior to occur:

– Effort-to-performance must be greater than 0
– Performance-to-outcome must be greater
than 0
– Sum of valences must be greater than 0*
 The Expectancy Model of
Motivation
Outcome Valence

Environment Outcome Valence

Motivation Effort Performance Outcome Valence

Ability Outcome Valence

Outcome Valence
 A General Model of Vroom’s
Expectancy Theory
Outcome 1
Performance
High Effort Outcome 2
Goal

Expectancy Outcome 3
“What are my chances
of reaching my
performance goal
if I work hard?” Instrumentality
Decision to “What are my chances Valence
Exert Effort of getting various “How much do I value
Expectancy outcomes if I achieve these outcomes?”
“What are my chances my performance goal?”
of reaching my
performance goal
if I slack off?”
Outcome 1
Performance
Low Effort Outcome 2
Goal

Outcome 3
 3
Reinforcement Theory
Argues that behavior is a function of its
consequences.

Assumptions:
•Behavior is environmentally caused.
•Behavior can be modified (reinforced) by
providing (controlling) consequences.
•Reinforced behavior tends to be repeated.
Chapter SEVEN

Motivation: From
Concepts to
Applications
 Job Design Theory
Job Characteristics
Model Characteristics:
Identifies five job 1. Skill variety
characteristics and their 2. Task identity
relationship to personal
and work outcomes. 3. Task significance
4. Autonomy
5. Feedback
 Job Design Theory (cont’d)
• Job Characteristics Model
– Jobs with skill variety, task identity, task significance,
autonomy, and for which feedback of results is given,
directly affect three psychological states of
employees:
• Knowledge of results
• Meaningfulness of work
• Personal feelings of responsibility for results
– Increases in these psychological states result in
increased motivation, performance, and job
satisfaction.
The Job Characteristics Model

Source: J.R. Hackman and G.R. Oldham, Work Design (excerpted from pp. 78–80). © 1980 by E X H I B I T 7–1
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc. Reprinted by permission of Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc.
 Job Design Theory (cont’d)
Skill Variety
The degree to which a job requires a variety of
different activities (how may different skills are
used in a given day, week, month?).
Task Identity
The degree to which the job requires completion of
a whole and identifiable piece of work (from
beginning to end).
Task Significance
The degree to which the job has a substantial
impact on the lives or work of other people.
 Job Design Theory (cont’d)
Autonomy
The degree to which the job provides substantial
freedom and discretion to the individual in
scheduling the work and in determining the
procedures to be used in carrying it out.

Feedback
The degree to which carrying out the work activities
required by a job results in the individual obtaining
direct and clear information about the effectiveness
of his or her performance.
 Examples of High and Low Job Characteristics

Characteristics Examples
Skill Variety
• High variety The owner-operator of a garage who does electrical repair, rebuilds engines,
does body work, and interacts with customers
• Low variety A bodyshop worker who sprays paint eight hours a day
Task Identity
• High identity A cabinetmaker who designs a piece of furniture, selects the wood, builds the
object, and finishes it to perfection
• Low identity A worker in a furniture factory who operates a lathe to make table legs
Task Significance
• High significance Nursing the sick in a hospital intensive care unit
• Low significance Sweeping hospital floors
Autonomy
• High autonomy A telephone installer who schedules his or her own work for the day, and
decides on the best techniques for a particular installation
• Low autonomy A telephone operator who must handle calls as they come according to a
routine, highly specified procedure
Feedback
• High feedback An electronics factory worker who assembles a radio and then tests it to
determine if it operates properly
• Low feedback An electronics factory worker who assembles a radio and then routes it to a
quality control inspector who tests and adjusts it
Prentice Hall, 2003 34
 Computing a Motivating
Potential Score

People who work on jobs with high core dimensions are

generally more motivated, satisfied, and productive.
Job dimensions operate through the psychological states in
influencing personal and work outcome variables rather
than influencing them directly.