Human Behavior in Organizations

Session 7
 Motivation

• Motivation is the processes that account for an

individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort
toward attaining a goal.

• The level of motivation varies both between individuals

and within individuals at different times.

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• The three key elements of motivation are:

1. Intensity: concerned with how hard a person

tries.
2. Direction: the orientation that benefits the
organization.
3. Persistence: a measure of how long a person
can maintain his/her effort.

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 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

• Internal
– Focus on variables within individual that
lead to motivation and behavior.
• Process
– Emphasize nature of interaction between
individual and environment.
• External
– Focus on elements in the environment to
explain motivation and behavior.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Theory X and Theory Y

A set of A set of
assumptions of assumptions of
how to manage how to manage
individuals who individuals who
are motivated by are motivated by
lower order higher order
needs needs
McGregor’s Assumptions About People Based on
Theory X

• Naturally indolent
• Lack ambition, dislike responsibility, and prefer to be led
• Inherently self-centered and indifferent to
organizational needs
• Naturally resistant to change
• Gullible, not bright, ready dupes
McGregor’s Assumptions About People Based on Theory Y

• Passive and resistant behaviors not inherent; result of

organizational experience
• People possess
– Motivation
– Development potential
– Capacity for assuming responsibility
– Readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals

Adapted from Table 5.1 which is from “The Human Side of Enterprise” by Douglas M. McGregor,
reprinted from Management Review, November 1957. Copyright 1957 American Management
Association International. Reprinted by permission of American Management Association
International, New York, NY. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org.
Alderfer’s ERG Theory

Growth

Relatedness

Existence
 McClelland’s Theory of Needs

– The theory focuses on three needs:

• Need for achievement (nAch): drive to excel, to

achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to
succeed.
• Need for power (nPow): need to make others behave
in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise.
• Need for affiliation (nAfl): desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships.
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Need Theories of Motivation
 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory

• Company policy and Motivation factors

administration increase job satisfaction
• Supervision
• Interpersonal relations
• Working conditions • Achievement
• Salary • Achievement recognition
• Status • Work itself
• Security • Responsibility
• Advancement
• Growth
Hygiene factors avoid job
dissatisfaction • Salary?
SOURCE: Adapted from Frederick Herzberg, The Managerial Choice: To be Efficient or to Be Human. (Salt Lake City: Olympus, 1982). Reprinted by permission.
 Critique of Herzberg

• A factor may not be exclusively motivation or hygiene

(e.g., salary).
• Does not account for individual differences (age,
gender, social status, education).
• Supporting data comes from peculiar critical-incident
technique.
 Self-Determination Theory

• Self-Determination Theory
– People prefer to feel they have control over their actions.
• People paid for work feel less like they want to do it
and more like they have to it.
– Proposes that in addition to being driven by a need for
autonomy, people seek ways to achieve competence and

positive connections to others.

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• When extrinsic rewards are used as payoffs for performance,
employees feel they are doing a good job.
– Eliminating extrinsic rewards can also shift an individual’s
perception of why he or she works on a task from an
external to an internal explanation.
• Self-determination theory acknowledges that extrinsic
rewards can improve even intrinsic motivation under specific
circumstances.

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 Goal-Setting Theory

– Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how

much effort is needed.
• Evidence suggests:

– Specific goals increase performance.

– Difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher
performance than do easy goals.
– Feedback leads to higher performance than does non-
feedback.

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Management by objectives

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 Reinforcement Theory
• Reinforcement theory: behavior is a function of its
consequences.
– Reinforcement conditions behavior.

– Behavior is environmentally caused.

• Operant conditioning theory: people learn to behave to get
something they want or to avoid something they don’t want.
– B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism.

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Equity Theory

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• When employees perceive an inequity, they can be
predicted to make one of six choices:
– Change their inputs.
– Change their outcomes.
– Distort perceptions of self.
– Distort perceptions of others.
– Choose a different referent.
– Leave the field.
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 Expectancy Theory

• Expectancy theory: a tendency to act in a certain way depends

on an expectation that the act will be followed by a given
outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the
individual.
• Three relationships:
– Effort-performance relationship
– Performance-reward relationship
– Rewards-personal goals relationship

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 Key Constructs of Expectancy Theory

Valence – value or importance placed on a particular reward

Expectancy – belief that effort leads to performance

Instrumentality – belief that performance is related to

rewards
Expectancy Model of Motivation
• Expectancy theory helps explain why a lot of workers aren’t
motivated and do only the minimum.
• Three questions employees need to answer in the affirmative
if their motivation is to be maximized:
– If I give maximum effort, will it be recognized in my
performance appraisal?
– If I get a good performance appraisal, will it lead to
organizational rewards?
– If I’m rewarded, are the rewards attractive to me?

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Motivating by Job Design
The Job Characteristics Model

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 Ways to Redesign Jobs
• Repetitive jobs provide little variety, autonomy, or motivation.

• Job Rotation

– Referred to as cross-training.

– Periodic shifting from one task to another.

– Strengths: reduces boredom, increases motivation, and helps

employees better understand their work contributions.

– Weaknesses: creates disruptions, requires extra time for supervisors

addressing questions and training time, and reduced efficiencies.

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• Relational Job Design

– To make jobs more prosocially motivating:

• Connect employees with the beneficiaries of

their work.
• Meet beneficiaries firsthand.

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Alternative Work Arrangements

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• Telecommuting
– Employees who do their work at home at least two
days a week on a computer that is linked to their office.

• Telecommuting Advantages
– Larger labor pool
– Higher productivity
– Improved morale
– Reduced office-space costs

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• Telecommuting Disadvantages
– Employer
• Less direct supervision of employees.
• Difficult to coordinate teamwork.
• Difficult to evaluate non-quantitative performance.
– Employee
• May not be noticed for his or her efforts.

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 Employee Involvement and Employee
Motivation

• Employee Involvement: a participative process that uses

employees’ input to increase their commitment to the
organization’s success.
• Examples of Employee Involvement Programs
– Participative management
– Representative participation

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 Variable-Pay Programs and Employee
Motivation

• What to Pay:

– Complex process that entails balancing internal equity

and external equity.
– Some organizations prefer to pay leaders by paying
above market.
– Paying more may net better-qualified and more highly
motivated employees who may stay with the firm longer.

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LO 5 Variable-Pay Programs and Employee
Motivation

• How to Pay:
– Variable pay programs:
• Piece-rate plans
• Merit-based pay
• Bonuses
• Profit sharing
• Employee stock ownership plans
– Earnings therefore fluctuate up and down.
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• Evaluation of Variable Pay

– Do variable-pay programs increase motivation and

productivity?
 Generally, yes, but that doesn’t mean everyone
is equally motivated by them.

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 Implications for Managers

• Recognize individual differences.

– Spend the time necessary to understand what’s important to
each employee.
– Design jobs to align with individual needs and maximize their
motivation potential.
• Use goals and feedback.
– You should give employees firm, specific goals, and they
should get feedback on how well they are faring in pursuit of
those goals.
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 Implications for Managers

• Allow employees to participate in decisions that affect

them.
– Employees can contribute to setting work goals, choosing
their own benefits packages, and solving productivity and
quality problems.
• Link rewards to performance.
– Rewards should be contingent on performance, and
employees must perceive the link between the two.

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 Implications for Managers

• Check the system for equity.

– Employees should perceive that experience, skills,
abilities, effort, and other obvious inputs explain
differences in performance and hence in pay, job
assignments, and other obvious rewards.

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