Influences on Employee Behavior

Umm e Kalsoom
Sadia Alam
Farwa Sakhawat
 Session Objectives

• Identify the major factors influencing

behavior.
• Define motivation.
• Describe main approaches to
understanding motivation.
 A Major Purpose of Human
Resource Development

• To change employee behavior through

training and other incentives
 Model of Employee Behavior

• Forces that influence behavior:

– External to the employee:
• External environment (economic conditions, laws
and regulations, etc.)
• Work environment (supervision, organization,
coworkers, outcomes of performance)
– Within the employee:
• Motivation, attitudes, knowledge/skills/abilities
(KSAs)
Factors in the Work Environment

• Outcomes
• Supervision and leadership
• Organization
• Coworkers
Factors in the External
Environment
• Economic conditions
• Technological changes
• Labor market conditions
• Laws and regulations
• Labor unions
The External Environment
Influences on Employee Behavior

Outcomes Types
  Effect on Motivation
Supervision  Leadership
  Performance Expectations
Organization  Reward Structure
  Organizational Culture
  Job Design
Coworkers  Norms
  Group Dynamics
  Teamwork
 Outcomes Can Influence
Employee Behavior

• Personal outcomes
• Organizational outcomes

– Both expectancy theory and equity theory

predict that employee perceptions of the
outcomes they receive (or hope to receive)
influences their performance of that behavior.
 Supervisor Characteristics

• Leadership
• Performance expectations (Pygmalion
effect)
• Evaluation of efforts
Organizational Influences

• Reward structure
• Organizational culture
• Job design
 Coworker Influence

• Norms
• Group dynamics
• Teamwork
• Control over outcomes
 Motivation

• Psychological processes that cause the

arousal, direction, and persistence of
voluntary actions that are goal-directed
Motivation Characteristics

• Pertains to voluntary behavior

• Focuses on processes affecting behavior
such as:
– Energizing of effort
– Direction of effort
– Persistence of effort
• An individual phenomenon
 Energizing Effort

• The generation or mobilization of effort

 Direction of Effort

• Applying effort to one behavior over

another
 Persistence

• Continuing (or ceasing) to perform a

behavior
 Explanations of Work Motivation

• Need-based
• Cognitive-based
• Noncognitive-based
 Need-Based Theories

• Underlying needs, Theories:

such as needs for • Maslow’s hierarchy
survival, safety, of needs theory
power, etc., are • Alderfer’s
what drives existence,
motivation relatedness, and
growth (ERG)
theory
• Herzberg’s two-
Need Activation-Need Satisfaction Process
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self-Actualization
Needs
Esteem Needs
Belonging & Love Needs
Safety Needs
Survival Needs
 Cognitive Theories

• Expectancy theory
• Goal-setting theory
• Social learning theory
• Equity theory
 Expectancy Theory

• Motivation is viewed as a conscious choice

• People put their efforts into actions they can
perform to achieve desired outcomes
• Three key elements:
– Expectancy – expect effort to result in success
– Instrumentality – performance results in reward
– Valence – value individual puts on outcome
Expectancy Theory
 In Other Words…
• You believe you can do it
• You believe your performance is linked to
the results
• You believe that the results are worth the
effort
• You won’t do it if you don’t believe it’s worth
the effort
 Goal Setting Theory

• Specific, difficult, and understood goals

generally lead to higher performance
• Keys to success are the level of difficulty and
the clearness of goals
 Social Learning Theory

• Self-efficacy – judgment of what you think

you can do with the skills you have
• Major prediction of the theory is that
expectations determine:
– Whether a behavior will be performed
– How much effort will be expended
– How long you will perform the behavior
Self-Efficacy and Effort
Equity Theory
A Noncognitive Theory

• Reinforcement theory
– e.g., behavior modification
Complexity of Behavior
 Behavior Modification

Principles for controlling employee behavior:

• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
• Extinction – decrease occurrences by eliminating
reinforcement that causes the behavior
• Punishment – introduce an adverse consequence
immediately after behavior
 A Specific Example

• Sleeping in Class:
• 1. Warning
• 2. Leave class and explain to the Assistant Dean
why you were asked to leave
• Too often – you are dropped from the class
• Question: Is this positive or negative
reinforcement, and why?
 Other Internal Factors That
Influence Employee Behavior

• Motivation
• Attitudes
• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)
Wagner-Hollenbeck Model of
Motivation and Performance
 Attitudes

• A person’s general feelings of favor or

disfavor towards something
• Feelings towards a person, place, thing,
event, or idea
• Tend to be VERY stable and hard to change
• Attitudes are important in training – e.g.,
does the trainee intend to use the training
or ignore it?
 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
(KSAs)
• Abilities – general capacities related to the
performance of specific tasks
• Skills – combines abilities and capacities, generally
the result of training
• Knowledge – understanding of the factors or
principles related to a specific subject
• HRD programs mostly focus on changing skills and
knowledge
 Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom HRD
• Cognitive • Knowledge
• Psychomotor • Skills/Abilities
• Affective • Attitudes
 Summary

• HRD generally seeks to change human behavior

(some efforts to change attitudes)
• Behavior is influenced by both external and
internal factors
• Worker motivation is the key
• We can work on knowledge, skills and abilities
• Attitudes are often where the problem lies