Motivation to Work

What Does It Mean to Be a Good Performer?

Task Performance (+)

Ø Job-specific, unique to one’s job Ø

Citizenship behavior (+)

Ø Job-general

Ø Directed towards individuals

Ø Directed towards the organization

Counterproductive behavior (-)

Ø Job-general

Ø Targeted to other individuals or the organization

Ø Can be minor or major

Where Does Job Performance Come From?

! Assuming people have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality to perform the job, what else….?

• Commitment (Next Lecture)

• Motivation

Motivation: a brief history

• First theories anchored motivation in notions of instincts (Freud)
• ‘instinct’ gradually replaced by terms like need, motive, and drive (Maslow)
• Field theory (Lewin) --> Group dynamics

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

tivation pertains to control

Human beings generally want to be effective – at exerting control and establishing what is true and real (Bandura, 1977; Higgins, 2011)

Motivation can be automatic and non-conscious (Chartrand & Bargh, 1996)

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

Motivation: A set of forces that originates both within and outside an employee, and determines the direction, intensity, and persistence of work effort.

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

Job performace = (motivation x ability) – situational constraints

Motivation theories

• 1. 1. 1. What motivates people?
        2. Why do they become motivated?
        3. How do they sustain their motivation?
• Content Theories Focus on the “what,” identifying factors that cause people to put effort into work (intuitively appealing; with some exceptions lack empirical support)

• Self-Determination Theory

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory

• McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory

• Process Theories Focus on the “how,” the steps an individual takes in putting forth effort (have some or strong empirical support)

• Social Justice Theories (e.g., Equity Theory)

• Reinforcement Theory and Behavior Modification

• Social Learning Theory

• Goal Setting Theory

• VIE (Expectancy) Theory

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

! Employer needs to know at what need level individual worker is operating

! Group of workers may all be functioning at different need levels

! Fits person-as-machine metaphor

Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory

Proposes that people acquire dominant needs through their life experiences (influenced by culture, society etc.)

Need for Achievement (nAch): The desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet one’s own high standards.

Need for Affiliation (nAff): The desire to establish and maintain good relations with others. Need for Power (nPow): The desire to exert emotional and behavioral control or influence over others.

Measuring McClelland’s Needs

Needs are measured with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• A person is shown a picture and asked to write a story about it
• People tend to write stories that reflect their dominant needs

Conclusions about Content Theories

! Restrict explanations of motivation to a particular set of factors and how these motivate people (-)

! Intuitively appealing but lack empirical support (i.e., research evidence) (-)

! Identify concepts useful for gaining a better understanding of motivation (+)

! Valuable starting point for examining cultural and individual differences in motivation (+)

Motivating with the Basic Needs

1. Ask employees what their needs are à McClelland says needs are different for different people.

2. Satisfy lower order needs first. à Maslow says higher order needs won’t motivate people as long as lower order needs stay unsatisfied.

3. Expect people’s needs to change. à Once lower order needs are satisfied, different motivators.

4. Create opportunities for employees to satisfy higher-order needs, as lower order needs are satisfied. Take-away? Your motivation strategy really depends on the workforce you are managing!

Process Theories

1. Social Justice Theories (e.g., Equity Theory)

2. Reinforcement Theory and Behavior Modification

3. Social Learning Theory

4. VIE Theory

5. Goal Setting Theory

            A goal = a desired outcome

Vroom’s VIE theory

! Valence: Strength of person’s preference for particular outcome.

! Instrumentality: Perceived relationship between performance & attainment of a certain outcome.

! Expectancy: Perceived relationship between effort and performance.

Motivating with the VIE Theory

Steps in Motivating Employees:

! Find out what employees want from their jobs

• So you understand whether the rewards you offer are attractive.

! Link rewards to individual performance in a clear way

• So that employees understand the relationship between the two.

! Make sure that there are no major obstacles between their effort and their performance

Goal Setting Theory

 [note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

Self-efficacy :

Belief in one’s capacity to perform a specific task or reach a specific goal

Developed and influenced by:

§ Mastery experiences (success)

§ Social persuasion

§ Physiological states

§ Modeling

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

Applications of Goal Setting Theory: SMART goals

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Result oriented

Time bound

Motivating with Goal-Setting Theory

1. Pay attention to goal-setting theory! Research suggests that it is among the most important and useful single approaches to motivating performance!

2. Assign them specific, challenging goals.

3. Make sure that workers truly accept organizational goals.

4. Provide frequent, specific, performance-related feedback

Managing motivation

Can managers/organizations, indeed shape employee motivation?

! Do implicit or unconscious influences affect work motivation?

! What about the motivation NOT to work?

! Procrastination

! Solution aversion

! Job (re-)design

Situational Influences: Conscious and nonconscious

Call Center Performance Nonconscious

Goal:

“Poster” condition: M = 18.68

(No Poster): M = 14.74

Conscious Goal

 “Do your best”: M = 14.48

Specific (difficult) goal: M = 18.94

Goal Commitment

! Higher persistence, overcoming obstacles

! After taking goal-directed action, there are opposite effects of interpreting it as reinforcing one’s commitment (+) vs. making progress (-)

! Implementation Intentions: Strong effects of simple plans

If situation X occurs, then I will perform behavior Y

Motivation to NOT work: Predicting Procrastination

Neuroticism (+) Agreeableness (-) Extraversion (-) Impulsiveness (++) Sensation seeking (++) Boredom proneness (++) Fear of failure (+) Self-efficacy (--) Self-esteem (-) Self-handicapping (++) Depression (+)

Solution Aversion

! Don’t like the solution? Deny a problem exists!

! “Motivated Disbelief”

[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht] 

How can you motivate employees ?

1. Ensure that workers’ abilities match the job (ability)

2. Make jobs attractive and consistent with worker’s motives and values (commitment)

3. Facilitate self-efficacy

4. Define clear, challenging goals (goal setting)

5. Provide necessary resources to do the job (opportunity)

6. Create social support system (recognition) • Know what kind of recognition makes a difference • Recognize others’ contributions often • Personalize recognition

7. Use rewards for good performance 8. Job characteristics model

9. Job (re-)design

The Job Characteristics Model

! A comprehensive approach to making work more interesting (i.e., motivating). ! Core job dimensions include: 1. skill variety 2. task identity 3. task significance 4. autonomy 5. feedback

Job (re)design

Scientific Management: A set of principles and practices designed to increase the performance of individual workers by stressing job simplification and specialization (p. 20). § Job simplification: The breaking up of the work that needs to be performed in an organization into the smallest identifiable tasks. § Job specialization: The assignment of workers to perform small, simple tasks.

Job enlargement: Increasing the number of tasks an employee performs but keeping all of the tasks at the same level of difficulty and responsibility; also called horizontal job loading.

Job enrichment: Increasing an employee’s responsibility and control over his or her work; also called vertical job loading.

Autonomous work group (p. 522) Specific kind of production team that has control over a variety of functions.

Cross-Cultural Issues in Motivation ! Hofstede’s cultural theory " Cultures differ on 5 dimensions • Collectivism/individualism • Uncertainty avoidance • Masculinity/femininity • Power dimensions • Long-term vs. short-term orientation " Application to motivation measurement

Generational Differences & Work Motivation ! Generation ! Defined by group members who share birth years & significant life events ! e.g., Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, Milliennials, Gen Z

Generational Differences (cont'd) ! Younger employees appear to be more “me” oriented ! Younger workers may be less about “pride in work” and more about ”meaning” and “purpose” ! Work becomes less idealized as workers age