[Chapter 9: EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION] at work than employees who do not feel

that they are valuable and worthy people

Once an organization has selected and trained its - employees try to perform at levels
employees, it is important that employees be both consistent with their self-esteem level
motivated by and satisfied with their jobs. - employees with high self-esteem actually
desire to perform at high levels and
Motivation - internal force that drives a worker to action as employees with low self-esteem desire to
well as the external factors that encourage that action perform at low levels
- drives an employee to perform well ● Three types of self-esteem:
- person’s overall level of work motivation might 1. Chronic self-esteem is a person’s overall feeling
not change, but the effort spent on various tasks at about himself.
work might change 2. Situational self-esteem (also called self-efficacy) is
- increased worker motivation results in increased a person’s feeling about himself in a particular
job performance situation such as operating a machine or talking to
other people.
[IS AN EMPLOYEE PREDISPOSED TO BEING 3. Socially influenced self-esteem is how a person
MOTIVATED?] feels about himself on the basis of the expectations
- some employees come to most jobs with a of others.
tendency to be motivated, whereas others come
with the tendency to be unmotivated Organizations can theoretically increase self-esteem in
Four individual differences that are most related to work three ways: self-esteem workshops, experience with
motivation: success, and supervisor behavior.

PERSONALITY ● Self-esteem Workshops - employees can attend

- five main personality dimensions: Openness To workshops in which they are given insights into
Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, their strengths to increase self-esteem
Agreeableness, and Stability. ➔ Outdoor experiential training (challenge
➔ Conscientiousness - best personality predictor of courses) is another approach to increasing
work performance, organizational citizenship self-esteem.
behavior (OCB), and academic performance ➔ Outward Bound or the “ropes course” -
➔ Stability - associated with salary and setting high participants learn that they are emotionally
goals and physically strong enough to be
➔ Extraversion - highly correlated with the number successful and to meet challenges
of promotions received ● Experience with Success
➔ Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) - ➔ Experience-with-success Approach - an
behaviors that are not part of an employee’s job employee is given a task so easy that he
but which make the organization a better place to will almost certainly succeed
work (e.g., helping others, staying late) ➔ Self-fulfilling prophecy - an individual
will perform as well or as poorly as he
SELF-ESTEEM expects to perform
- extent to which a person views himself as valuable ■ behave in ways consistent with
and worthy their self-image
- employees high in self-esteem are more motivated ■ if an individual believes he is
and will perform better than employees low in intelligent, he should do well on
self-esteem tests. If he thinks he is dumb, he
➔ Consistency theory (Korman’s) - there is a positive should do poorly
correlation between self-esteem and performance ➔ Galatea effect - when high
- employees who feel good about self-expectations result in higher levels of
themselves are motivated to perform better performance
■ relationship between self NEEDS FOR ACHIEVEMENT AND POWER
expectations and performance - employees differ in the extent to which they are
● Supervisor behavior - train supervisors to motivated by the need for achievement, affiliation,
communicate a feeling of confidence in an and power
employee to increase employee self-esteem ➔ Need for achievement - employees who
➔ Pygmalion effect - idea that if people have a strong need for achievement are
believe that something is true, they will motivated by jobs that are challenging and
act in a manner consistent with that belief. over which they have some control,
■ if an employee feels that a whereas employees who have minimal
manager has confidence in him, achievement needs are more satisfied
his self-esteem will increase, as when jobs involve little challenge and
will his performance have a high probability of success
➔ Golem effect - occurs when negative ■ person desires to be successful
expectations of an individual cause a ➔ Need for affiliation - motivated by jobs in
decrease in that individual’s actual which they can work with and help other
performance people
○ If employees do indeed respond to their ■ person desires to be around other
managers’ expectations, then it becomes people
reasonable to predict that managers who ➔ Need for power - motivated by a desire to
communicate positive and optimistic influence others rather than simply to be
feelings to their employees will lead successful
employees to perform at higher levels. ■ person desires to be in control of
○ positive interview increased self-efficacy other people
levels, motivation, and job performance,
although the effect on performance went [ARE EMPLOYEES EFFECTIVELY INVOLVED IN
away after three months SELF-REGULATING BEHAVIOR?]
➔ Self-regulation - person’s ability to select, set, and
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION TENDENCY modify goals to adapt to changing conditions
● Intrinsic motivation - they will seek to perform - employees can be motivated by
well because they either enjoy performing the monitoring their own progress toward the
actual tasks or enjoy the challenge of successfully goals they set and adjusting their behavior
completing the task to reach those goals
○ they don’t need external rewards such as Self-regulation is a four-step process in which people:
pay or praise 1. Choose their goals and set levels for each goal
➔ Extrinsic motivation - they may not 2. Plan how they will accomplish those goals
necessarily enjoy the tasks but are 3. Take action toward accomplishing the goals
motivated to perform well to receive some (goal striving)
type of reward or to avoid negative 4. Evaluate progress toward goal attainment and
consequences either maintain, revise, or abandon a goal
○ Individual orientations toward intrinsic - extent to which an employee will be successful
and extrinsic motivation can be measured depends on the employee’s ability to wisely select
by the Work Preference Inventory (WPI) and set goals as well as his or her ability to
➔ Work Preference Inventory (WPI) - yields monitor and adjust goals
scores on two dimensions of intrinsic
motivation (enjoyment, challenge) and [HAVE THE EMPLOYEE'S VALUES AND
two dimensions of extrinsic motivation EXPECTATIONS BEEN MET?]
(compensation, outward orientation) - extent to which we might select a work goal and
■ measure of an individual’s apply energy toward that goal is influenced by the
orientation toward intrinsic versus discrepancy between what we want, value, and
extrinsic motivation expect and what the job actually provides
- Potential discrepancies between what employees - Safety needs have been expanded to
want and what the job gives them affect how include psychological as well as physical
motivated and satisfied employees will be with safety.
their jobs - Psychological safety - referred to as job
security that can certainly affect job
JOB EXPECTATIONS - discrepancy between what an motivation
employee expected a job to be like and the reality of the (3) Social needs - involve working with others,
job can affect motivation and satisfaction developing friendships, and feeling needed
- if expectations have not been met, the employee - need to interact with other people
will probably feel unmotivated
- It is important that applicants be given a realistic (4) Ego needs - needs for recognition and success,
job preview (RJP) and an organization can help to satisfy them
- applicants are told both the positive and through praise, awards, promotions, salary
the negative aspects of a job increases, publicity, and many other ways
- Though being honest about the negative (5) Self-actualization needs - employee wants to
aspects of a job may reduce the applicant reach her potential in every task
pool, it decreases the chances of hiring a - need to realize one’s potential
person who will later lose motivation or
become dissatisfied. 2. ERG Theory (existence, relatedness, and growth)
- higher-level need sometimes does not become
JOB CHARACTERISTICS - employees desire jobs that more important once a lower-level needs has been
are meaningful, provide them with the opportunity to be satisfied
personally responsible for the outcome of their work
(autonomy), and provide them with feedback of the results 3. Two-factor Theory - job-related factors could be divided
of their efforts into two categories—hygiene factors and motivators
- jobs will have motivation potential if they allow ➔ Hygiene factors - job-related elements that result
employees to use a variety of skills (skill variety) from but do not involve the job itself (ex. pay and
and to connect their efforts to an outcome (task benefits)
identification) that has meaning, is useful, or is - necessary but not sufficient for job
appreciated by coworkers as well as by others in satisfaction and motivation
society (task significance) ➔ Motivators - job elements that do concern actual
- jobs with a high motivating potential score result tasks and duties (ex. level of responsibility, the
in higher levels of employee satisfaction and amount of job control, and the interest that the
performance, and lower levels of absenteeism work holds for the employee)
- Only the presence of both motivators and hygiene
NEEDS, VALUES, AND WANTS factors can bring job satis-faction and motivation.
- discrepancy between an employee’s needs, values,
and wants and what a job offers can also lead to [DO EMPLOYEES HAVE ACHIEVABLE GOALS?]
low levels of motivation and satisfaction - To increase motivation, goal setting should be
Three (3) theories focus on employees’ needs and values: used
- Goal setting - employees are given specific
1. Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy performance goals to aim for
- employees would be motivated by and satisfied - given a goal such as increasing attendance,
with their jobs at any given point in time if certain selling more products, or reducing the
needs were met number of grammar errors in reports
- Five major types of needs: For goal setting to be most successful, the goals
(1) Basic biological needs - individual first seeks themselves should possess certain qualities represented by
to satisfy needs for food, air, water, and shelter the acronym SMART: specific, measurable, attainable,
(2) Safety needs - concerning the need for security, relevant, and time-bound
stability, and physical safety
SPECIFIC - properly set goals are concrete and specific ➔ Feedback - increases performance when it is
- the more specific the goal, the greater the positive and informational rather than negative and
productivity controlling
- it was difficult to set specific goals because the - include verbally telling employees how
goals would need constant adjustment they are doing, placing a chart on a wall,
MEASURABLE - properly set goals are measurable or using non-verbal communication such
- if one’s goal is to improve performance or increase as smiles, glares, and pats on the back
customer service, can performance or customer - is constructive when it is given positively
service be measured? with the goal of encouraging and
DIFFICULT BUT ATTAINABLE - if employee will reinforcing positive behavior
quickly realize that he cannot meet the goal, he will quit - must be given when employees do things
trying properly, not just when they make
- Though setting higher goals generally leads to mistakes
better performance than does set-ting lower goals,
the level of goal difficulty will most affect the [ARE EMPLOYEES REWARDED FOR ACHIEVING
performance when employees are committed to GOALS?]
reaching the goal. - to motivate: provide an incentive for employees to
- setting goals that are too difficult to be accomplish the goals set by an organization (e.g.
accomplished can result not only in decreased working overtime on weekends, making
performance, but in an increase in unethical suggestions, referring applicants, staying with the
behavior as well (attempts to reach the goal or to company (length-of-service awards), coming to
“cook the books” to make it look as if the goals work (attendance bonuses), not getting into
have been met) accidents, and performing at a high level)
- people scoring high in conscientiousness, - Operant conditioning - employees will engage in
extraversion, and openness and low in behaviors for which they are rewarded and avoid
agreeableness and neuroticism also tend to set high behaviors for which they are pun-ished
goals Six Factors must be considered in determining the
RELEVANT - setting goals should be relevant to the work effectiveness of incentive programs:
TIME-BOUND - Goals work best when there is a time
frame for their completion. 1. Timing of the Incentive - a reinforcer or a punisher is
most effective if it occurs soon after the performance of
Employee Participation the behavior (ex. Tip)
- goal would lead to the greatest increase in 2. Contingency of Consequences - If it is not possible to
productivity if it was set at least in part by the immediately reward or punish a behavior, it should at least
employee be made clear that the employee understands the behaviors
- performance would increase if the supervisor set that brought reward or pun-ishment.
the employee’s goal, itwould increase even more if - reward and punishment must be made contingent
the employee participated upon performance, and this contingency of
- employee participation in goal setting increases consequence must be clear to employees if we
the commitment to reaching a goal want them to be motivated
- If the reward or punishment cannot be
[ARE EMPLOYEES RECEIVING FEEDBACK ON administered immediately, the employee must be
THEIR GOAL PROGRESS?] told the purpose of the consequence so that the
- To increase the effectiveness of goal setting, link between behavior and outcome is clear.
feedback should be provided to employees on their 3. Type of Incentive Used - some employees can be
progress in reaching their goals. rewarded with praise, others with awards, others with
- effective feedback would make them less likely to interesting work, and still others with money
leave their organization - financial, nonfinancial, and social rewards all
resulted in increased levels of performance
- The need for variety in rewards is also true of - employees are most satisfied with merit
punishment. pay if they help develop the system
- Premack Principle - reinforcement is relative and - (biggest problems) increases are based on
that a supervisor can reinforce an employee with subjective performance appraisals; its
something that on the surface does not appear to availability or amount often changes with
be a reinforcer each fiscal year
- rewarding performance of a very boring ● Group Incentive Plans (organization-based) - get
task by allowing us to perform a less employees to participate in the success or failure
boring task of the organization
- Reinforcement hierarchy - employee lists his - reward employees for reaching group
preferences for a variety of reinforcers goals
- Financial Rewards - Financial incentives can be - The problems with group incentive plans
used to motivate better worker performance either are that they can encourage social loafing
by making variable pay an integral part of an and can get so complicated that they
employee’s compensation package or by using become difficult to explain to employees.
financial rewards as a “bonus” for accomplishing - result in better performance (d=1.40) than
certain goals. do individual-based programs (d=.55)
- bonuses or prizes are also used to motivate - Profit sharing - provide employees with a
employees percentage of profits above a certain amount
- Recognition - rather than providing financial - will motivate employees only if they
incentives, many organizations reward employee understand the link between performance
behavior through recognition programs. and profits and believe that the company
- are given by peers has a reasonable chance of making a profit
- Social recognition - Informal recognition - results in greater employee commitment
programs; can prove to be tremendous sources of - Gainsharing - ties groupwide financial incentives
employee motivation (personal attention, signs of to improvements (gains) in organizational
approval, and expressions of appreciation) performance
- Travel - Many organizations are offering travel - Gainsharing programs consist of three
awards rather than financial rewards. important elements: a cooperative/
4. Individual Versus Group Incentives participative management philosophy,
● Individual Incentive Plans - designed to make high incentives based on improvement, and a
levels of individual performance financially group-based bonus formula
worthwhile, and monetary incentives increase - first, the company monitors performance
performance over the use of a guaranteed hourly measures over some period of time to
salary derive a baseline
- Two most common individual incentive plans are - then, productivity goals above the baseline
pay for performance and merit pay. are set, and the employees are told that
(1) Pay for performance (earnings-at-risk) - pay they will receive bonuses for each period
employees according to how much they that the goal is reached
individually produce; objective performance - most effective when employees are
measures as sales and productivity formally involved in the design and
- 1st step: determine the average or standard operation and when there is not a long
amount of production delay between performance and the
- 2nd step: determine the desired average financial payoff
amount of pay - Stock options - employees are given the
(2) Merit Pay - base their incentives on opportunity to purchase stock in the future,
performance appraisal scores rather than on such typically at the market price on the day the options
objective performance measures as sales and were granted
productivity - allow employees to share in the long-term
success of an organization
5. Expectancy Theory - influential theory of worker Three components are involved in this perception of
motivation that integrates many of the factors fairness: inputs, outputs, and input/output ratio.
This theory has three components: ● Inputs are those personal elements that we put into
➔ Expectancy (E): The perceived relationship our jobs.
between the amount of effort an employee puts in ○ Obvious elements: time, effort, education,
and the resulting outcome. andexperience.
- an employee believes that no matter how ○ Less obvious elements: money spent on
hard he works he will never reach the child care and distance driven to work.
necessary level of performance, then his ● Outputs - elements that we receive from our jobs.
motivation will probably be low ○ Obvious outputs: pay, benefits, challenge,
➔ Instrumentality (I): The extent to which the and responsibility.
outcome of a worker’s perfor-mance, if noticed, ○ Less obvious outputs: benefits such as
results in a particular consequence. friends and office furnishings.
- employee will be motivated only if his ● Input/output ratio - how much employees believe
behavior results in some specific they put into their jobs to how much they believe
consequence they get from their jobs
➔ Valence (V): The extent to which an employee ○ dividing output value by input value
values a particular consequence. - First, employees can seek greater outputs by such
- if an employee is rewarded, the reward means as asking for a raise or for more
must be something he values responsibility. Second, employees can make the
- Formula: Motivation = E (I x V) ratio more equal by reducing their inputs. Thus
- can also be used to suggest ways to change they might not work as hard or might reduce their
employee motiva-tion attendance.
➔ Internal locus of control - people believe that they ➔ Organizational justice - if employees are treated
are responsible for and in control of their success fairly, they will be more satisfied and motivated
or failure in life. - focused on the fair-ness of many aspects
6. Reward Versus Punishment - Rather than rewarding of work such as the process of how
desired behaviors, we can change employee performance decisions are made (procedural justice),
by punishing undesired behaviors. the outcomes of the decisions (distributive
- punishment not only reduces undesired behaviors justice), and the ways in which decisions
in a particular employee but also sets an example and other information are communicated
for other employees to employees (interactional justice)
- For punishment to be effective, an employee must
understand why he is being punished and be [ARE OTHER EMPLOYEES MOTIVATED?]
shown alternative ways of behaving that will result - Employees observe the levels of motivation and
in some type of desired reinforcement. satisfaction of other employees and then model
- The punishment must also “fit the crime” in that those levels.
too severe a punishment will cause resentment and - if an organization’s older employees work hard
too lenient a punishment will not motivate a and talk positively about their jobs and their
change in behavior. employer; new employees will model this
behavior and be both productive and satisfied
[ARE REWARDS AND RESOURCES GIVEN
EQUITABLY?]
- Another factor related to motivation and job
satisfaction is the extent to which employ-ees
perceive that they are being treated fairly
➔ Equity theory - our levels of motivation and job
satisfaction are related to how fairly we believe we
are treated in comparison with others