CH 7

MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
 INTRODUCTION

Motivation techniques help the managers in applying the concepts

of motivation. These help to link theories to practice.
After studying the various theories of motivation , the next
important point is how a manager should make use of these
theories.
There are a number of motivation techniques and programmes that
have gained acceptance in practice.
A few of these techniques are :
 (i) Management by objectives
 (ii) Job satisfaction
 (iii) Job enlargement
 (iv) Job rotation
 (v) Job enrichment
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES
 The concept of MBO was introduced by Peter Drucker in 1954 as a means
of using goals to motivate people rather than to control them Schleh, and
Douglas McGregor.. This concept was later on developed by various
writers like John Humble, Dale McConkey, George Ordorne, Edward
 MBO is also known as goal management. It is based upon the
assumption that involvement leads to commitment and when an
employee participates in goal setting as well as setting standards for
measurements of performance towards that goal then the employee will
be motivated to perform better and in a manner that directly contributes
to the achievement of organisational objectives.
 Simply stated, “MBO is a process whereby both managers and
subordinates work together in identifying goals and setting up
objectives and make plans together in order to achieve these objectives.
Their objectives and goals should be consistent with the organisational
goals.”
Elements in the MBO Process

 Central goal setting


 Departmental and individual goal setting

 Revision of job descriptions

 Matching goals and resource allocation

 Freedom of implementation

 Establishing check points

 Appraisal of performance

 Counselling

 Advantages of MBO
 The concept of MBO is very important in terms of its managerial
implications. Besides being a philosophy of management, it is a system
which helps in synchronising the objectives of the individuals with the
objectives of the organisation. When implemented properly,
systematically and consciously, the MBO has the following advantages :
 1.Improved performance
 2.Greater sense of identification
 3.Maximum utilization of human resources
 4.No role ambiguity
 5.Improved communication
 6.Improved organizational structure
 7.Device of organizational control
 8.Career development of employees
 9.Result based performance evaluation
 10. Stimulating the motivation of employees
Limitations of MBO
 A system of MBO has certain weaknesses and limitations. Some of these are
inherent in the system while some arise when introducing and implementing it.
 Some of the problems and limitations associated with MBO are as explained
below :
 1.Lack of support of top management
 2.Resentful attitude of subordinates
 3.Difficulty in quantifying the goals and objectives
 4.Costly and time consuming process
 5.Emphasis on short term goals
 6.Lack of adequate skills and training
 7.Poor integration
 8.Lack of follow up
 9.Difficulty in achievement of group goals
 10.Inflexibility
 11.Limited application
 12.Long gestation period
Suggestions For Effective Implementation of MBO

 Despite various difficulties and limitations in the process of MBO, it is

an efficient motivating technique used by the managers in practice. In
order to achieve all the advantages of MBO, the following suggestions
should be implemented :

 1.Top management support and commitment

 2.Clear goal setting
 3.Participative goal setting
 4.Overall philosophy of management
 5.Decentralization of authority
 6.Revision and modification goals
 7.Orientation and training of executives
 8.Integration of MBO programme
 JOB SATISFACTION
In simple words, job satisfaction can be defined as the
extent of positive feelings or attitudes that
individuals have towards their jobs. When a person
says that he has high job satisfaction, it means that he
really likes his job, feels good about it and values his
job highly.
Job satisfaction is a result of employee’s perception of
how well their job provides those things which are
viewed as important. In the field of organisational
field, job satisfaction is considered the most important
and frequently studied attitude.
Dimensions of Job Satisfaction
There are three important dimensions to job satisfaction :
 Job satisfaction cannot be seen, it can only be inferred. It relates to one’s
feelings towards one’s job.
 Job satisfaction is often determined by how will outcome meet the
expectations or exceed the expectations. If the employees working in the
organisation feel that they are working much harder than others in the
department but are receiving lower rewards, they will be dissatisfied and
have a negative attitude towards the job, the boss and the co-workers. On
the other hand, if they feel that they are being paid fairly and treated well
by the organisation, they will be satisfied with their jobs and will have
positive attitudes.
 Job satisfaction and job attitudes are typically used inter changeably.
Positive attitudes towards the jobs are conceptually equivalent to job
satisfaction and negative attitudes towards the job indicate job
dissatisfaction
Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction
The factors influencing job satisfaction are as follows:

Organisational factors
Work environmental factors
Work itself
Personal factors
 Organisational Factors
 Salaries and wages
 Promotional chances
 Company policies

Work environment factors

• Supervision
• Work groups
• Working conditions
Work itself
• Job scope
• Variety
• Autonomy and freedom
• Role ambiguity and role conflict
• Interesting work
Personal factors
• Age and seniority
• Personality
• Tenure
Consequences of Job Satisfaction
 Research has concluded that there is a relationship between job satisfaction
and performance of the employees.
 Thus, job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction is an important concern of the
management.
 High job satisfaction may lead to improved productivity, decreased turnover,
improved attendance, reduced accidents, less job stress and less unionisation.
 Job dissatisfaction produces low morale among workers and low morale at
work is highly undesirable. In examining the outcomes of job satisfaction, it is
important to break down the analysis into a series of specific subtopics.
 1. Job satisfaction and productivity
 2.Job satisfaction and employee turnover
 3.Job satisfaction and absenteeism
 4.Job satisfaction and union activities
 5.Job satisfaction and safety
 6.Other effects of job satisfaction
 JOB DISSATISFACTION
Job dissatisfaction is frequently caused by the following
factors.
— Low pay and/or promotion chances
— Monotonous and boring work
— Feeling of inequity
— Unfavourable working environment
— Personal attributes of the employees.
Satisfaction surveys if administered properly can prove
to be of immense help to assess the degree of
satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the employees.
Expression of Job Dissatisfaction
Different employees have different ways of expressing job dissatisfaction. Basically,
there are four responses which can result from dissatisfaction.
(i)Exit. An employee may simply leave or resign from the organisation and look
for a new position in some other organisation.
(ii)Voice. An employee can complain and/or discuss the problems with his
superiors. This is an active and constructive attempt to improve the conditions.
(iii)Neglect. An employee can become indifferent. He may passively allow
conditions to worsen. He will, however, express his dissatisfaction through
absenteeism, late arrival or reduced efforts.
(iv) Loyalty. The employee can passively but optimistically wait for the conditions
to improve. Such employees trust the management to do the right things.
 These four responses differ from one another along two dimensions-
constructive/Destructive, and active//passive.
 Exit and voice are active whereas Neglect and loyalty are passive.
 Exit and neglect are destructive whereas voice and loyalty are constructive in
nature.
 JOB ENRICHMENT
According to Beatty and Schneider, “Job enrichment is a
motivational technique which emphasises the need for
challenging and interesting and interesting work. It suggests
that jobs be redesigned so that intrinsic satisfaction is
derived from doing the job. In its best applications, it leads
to a vertically enhanced job by adding functions from other
organisational levels, making it contain more variety and
challenge and offer autonomy and pride to the employee.”
Job enrichment is an important practice in meeting “whole
man” needs. It represents a new and popular non-monetary
motivational technique. It applies to improvement of job in
such a way that it has more motivators than before and at the
same time maintaining the degree of maintenance factors.
Characteristics of Enriched Jobs
According to Herzberg, an enriched job has eight
characteristics. These characteristics are as explained
below :
1. Direct feedback
2.Client relationships
3.New learning
4.Scheduling own work
5.Unique experience
6.Control over resources
7.Direct communication authority
8.Personal accountability
Advantages of Job Enrichment
Job enrichment is a very useful technique to motivate employees. The advantages of
job enrichment are as follows :
 (i)In the routine jobs, the employees find their jobs very boring and monotonous.
The number of such employees is generally considerable. The frustration of these
employees can be removed by making the job interesting with the job enrichment.
 (ii)Job enrichment helps in reducing the rates of employee turnover and
absenteeism.
 (iii)Job enrichment motivates the employees intrinsically by giving them
opportunities for growth advancement and self realisation.
 (iv)Task enforcement is made easy with the help of job enrichment and the skills of
workers are increased.
 (v)The enriched jobs give more job satisfaction to the employees.
 (vi)Job enrichment is advantageous to the organisation as there is qualitative as
well as quantitative improvement in output and there is higher satisfaction of the
workers.
 (vii)Employees tend to be more creative when they work in an enriching context of
complex and challenging jobs.
Limitations of Job Enrichment
 1.The first basic problem is that majority of workers do not want the type of changes which are
introduced by job enrichment. They do not really want challenging jobs, as the basic human tendency
is to shirk responsibility. Workers put wages and job security above all.
 2Job enrichment is basically limited to the unskilled and semiskilled jobs. Jobs of highly skilled
professionals already contain many challenging elements. As such there is no scope of applying job
enrichment in their cases.
 3.Technology may not permit the enrichment of all the jobs. With specialised machinery, tasks and
processes, it may not be possible to make the jobs very meaningful.
 4.Job enrichment is a highly costly affair. In most of the cases, the cost involved is more than the
gains in productivity.
 5.Sometimes, the employees may prefer to have job enrichment but may not have the necessary
capabilities and qualifications to meet the new challenges.
 6.In the short run, job enrichment may have negative effects. After an increase in job responsibility, it
is not unusual for organisations to experience a drop in productivity, as workers become accustomed
to the new systems. In the long run, however, there will be increased productivity.
 7.People being bored in their jobs, it is likely, therefore, that after a period of time they will become
bored in their enriched jobs also. Thus, enrichment may become static after some time and
additional enrichment will be required.
 8.There is, generally, a tendency on the part of the management to impose job enrichment on
workers rather than applying it with their consent ; it will have a negative impact on the employees.
 9.The top managers and personnel, generally apply, their own scale of values of challenge and
accomplishment to other people’s personalities. This evokes more resistance from workers.
 JOB ENLARGEMENT
“Job enlargement refers to adding a few more task
elements horizontally.”
“Job enlargement involves performing a variety of jobs
or operations at the same time. Thus it involves
horizontal job loading as compared to vertical one in
job enrichment.”
“Job enlargement focuses on enlarging jobs by
increasing tasks and responsibilities. It involves
expansion of the scope and width of the job by means
of a horizontal loading of certain closely related
operations.”
 JOB ENLARGEMENT VS. JOB ENRICHMENT
JOB ENLARGEMENT
ure Job enlargement involves a horizontal
loading or expansion of job. In other
words, it involves addition to tasks of
the same nature.
pose The purpose of job enlargement is to
reduce the monotony in performing
certain repetitive jobs by lengthening
the cycle of operations.
d for skills Job enlargement may not necessarily
call for the acquisition of higher level or
new skills on the part of the job holders
rnal direction and control In job enlargement, the job holder
may need more external direction and
control in view of enlargement of the
scope of his responsibilities.
JOB ENRICHMENT
Job enrichment involves vertical
loading of functions and
responsibilities of the employee. It is an
improvement in the quality of job in
terms of its intrinsic worth.
The purpose of job enrichment is to
make the job more lively, challenging
and satisfying. It satisfies Maslow’s high
level needs.
Job enrichment requires the
development and utilisation of higher
skills, initiative and innovation on the
part of the job holders.
In job enrichment, the employee uses
his own capabilities of self direction
and control. He needs less of external
direction and control.
Advantages of Job Enlargement
Variety of tasks
Enlarged and meaningful work modules
Optimum utilization of abilities
Worker paced control
Meaningful feedback
Disadvantages of Job Enlargement
Job enlargement tends to be a costly affair. Workers may
require additional training for their enlarged jobs. Moreover,
if job enlargement involves breaking up of existing
production line of work system and redesigning a new
system and training employees for it, the costs will be very
substantial.
Productivity may fall in the short run, due to the
introduction of the new system.
Employee-unions often argue for increased pay because of
the increased work load.
Some jobs may still be routine and boring even after
enlargement.
 JOB ROTATION
Job rotation will be used in a situation where an organisation
has a series of routine jobs that cannot be combined or
enriched.
 In such a case, the employees may be shifted from one job
to another in order to provide some variety so as to minimise
monotony and boredom.
Thus, in job rotation, a person is required to perform on job
at a time but he is rotated at different jobs after certain
period of time.
When an activity is no longer challenging, the employee
could be rotated to another job, at the same level, with the
same skill requirements. It has the same effect as the job
enlargement.
Advantages of Job Rotation

Job rotation reduces the boredom and monotony

through diversifying the employees activities.
Employees with a wider range of skills give
management more flexibility in scheduling work,
adapting to changes and filling vacancies.
It broadens the range of experience of employees and
is an effective training technique.
Disadvantages of Job Rotation
Work is disrupted as rotated employees take time to
adjust to a new set up.
Training costs are increased.
It can demotivate intelligent and ambitious trainees
who seek specific responsibilities in their chosen
speciality.
Few people have the technical knowledge and skills to
move from one job to another job.
There is no appreciable change in employee
satisfaction, unless the jobs are such that the person is
really interested in them.