questions

Chapter 12 – Motivation

Learning outcomes

1 Explain the basics of motivation.

Motivation is the set of forces that initiates, directs and makes people persist in their efforts to accomplish a goal. In terms of this definition, initiation of effort is concerned with the choices that people make about how much effort to put into their jobs (‘Do I really knock myself out for these performance appraisals or just do a decent job?’). Direction of effort is concerned with the choices that people make in deciding where to put effort in their jobs (‘I should be spending time with my high-dollar accounts instead of learning this new computer system!’).

Need satisfaction

Needs are the physical or psychological requirements that must be met to ensure survival and wellbeing.

Motivating with the basics

2 Use equity theory to explain how employees’ perceptions of fairness affect motivation.

Components of equity theory

The basic components of equity theory are inputs, outcomes and referents. Inputs are the contributions employees make to the organisation. Inputs include education and training, intelligence, experience, effort, number of hours worked and ability. Outcomes are what employees receive in exchange for their contributions to the organisation. Outcomes include pay, fringe benefits, status symbols and job titles, and assignments.

Also, since perceptions of equity depend on comparisons, referents are others with whom people compare themselves to determine if they have been treated fairly.

How people react to perceived inequity

Managers should make sure decision-making processes are fair. Equity theory focuses on distributive justice, the degree to which outcomes and rewards are fairly distributed or allocated. However, procedural justice, the fairness of the procedures used to make reward allocation decisions, is just as important. Procedural justice matters because even when employees are unhappy with their outcomes (i.e. low pay), they’re much less likely to be unhappy with company management if they believe that the procedures used to allocate outcomes were fair. For example, employees who are made redundant tend to be hostile towards their employer when they perceive that the procedures leading to the redundancies were unfair. By contrast, employees who perceive layoff procedures to be fair tend to continue to support and trust their employers.38 Also, if employees perceive that their outcomes are unfair (i.e. distributive injustice), but that the decisions and procedures leading to those outcomes were fair (i.e. procedural justice), they are much more likely to seek constructive ways of restoring equity, such as discussing these matters with their manager. In contrast, if employees perceive both distributive and procedural injustices, they may resort to more destructive tactics, such as withholding effort, absenteeism, tardiness, or even sabotage and theft.

3 Use expectancy theory to describe how workers’ expectations about rewards influence motivation.

Components of expectancy theory

Expectancy theory holds that people make conscious choices about their motivation. The three factors that affect those choices are valence, expectancy and instrumentality.

Valence is simply the attractiveness or desirability of various rewards or outcomes. Expectancy theory recognises that the same reward or outcome, say, a promotion, will be highly attractive to some people, will be highly disliked by others and will not make much difference one way or the other to still others.

Motivating with expectancy theory

First, they can systematically gather information to find out what employees want from their jobs. Therefore, employers should routinely survey employees to identify not only the range of rewards that are valued by most employees but also to understand preferences of specific employees.

Second, managers can take specific steps to link rewards to individual performance in a way that is clear and understandable to employees. Unfortunately, most employees are extremely dissatisfied with the link between pay and performance in their organisations.

Finally, managers should empower employees to make decisions if management really wants them to believe that their hard work and effort will lead to good performance. If attractive rewards are linked to good performance, people should be energised to take action.

So, if managers want employees to have strong expectancies, they should empower them to make decisions. Doing so will motivate employees to take active rather than passive roles in their work.

4 Explain how reinforcement theory works and how it can be used to motivate.

Components of reinforcement

As just described, reinforcement contingencies are the cause-and-effect relationships between the performance of specific behaviours and specific consequences. There are four kinds of reinforcement contingencies: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction.

Schedules for delivering reinforcement

5 Describe the components of goal- setting theory and how managers can use them to motivate workers.

Components of goal-setting theory

Motivating with goal-setting theory

One of the simplest, most effective ways to motivate workers is to assign them specific, challenging goals. Second, managers should make sure workers truly accept organisational goals. Specific, challenging goals won’t motivate workers unless they really accept, understand and agree to the organisation’s goals. For this to occur, people must see the goals as fair and reasonable. Plus, they must trust management and believe that managers are using goals to clarify what is expected from them rather than to exploit or threaten them (‘If you don’t achieve these goals ...'). Participative goal setting, in which managers and employees generate goals together, can help increase trust and understanding and therefore acceptance of goals. Furthermore, providing workers with training can help increase goal acceptance, particularly when workers don’t believe they are capable of reaching the organisation’s goals. Finally, managers should provide frequent, specific, performance-related feedback. Once employees have accepted specific, challenging goals, they should receive frequent performance-related feedback so that they can track their progress toward goal completion. Feedback leads to stronger motivation and effort in three ways. Receiving specific feedback that indicates how well they’re performing can encourage employees who don’t have specific, challenging goals to set goals to improve their performance. Once people meet goals, performance feedback often encourages them to set higher, more difficult goals. Furthermore, feedback lets people know whether they need to increase their efforts or change strategies in order to accomplish their goals.

6 Discuss how the entire motivation model can be used to motivate workers.

Not on the textbook.