chapter twelve
Motivation Across Cultures
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter 12 Outline (1)
• The nature of motivation
– Two assumptions about motivation
• Content theories of motivation
– Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
– Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
– Achievement Motivation Theory
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Chapter 12 Outline (2)
• Process theories of motivation
– Equity theory
– Goal-setting theory
– Expectancy theory
• Motivation applied
– Work centrality
– Rewarding employees
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The Nature of Motivation
• Motivation is a psychological process
through which unsatisfied wants or
needs lead to drives that are aimed at
goals or incentives.
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Two Assumptions
about Motivation
1. The Universalist Assumption:
– Motivation process is universal; all people
are motivated to pursue goals they value
• Process is universal
• Culture influences specific content and
goals pursued
• Motivation differs across cultures
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Two Assumptions
about Motivation (2)
2. The Assumption of Content and
Process
Content Theories of Motivation:
Theories that explain work motivation in
terms of what arouses, energizes, or
initiates employee behavior.
Process Theories of Motivation:
Theories that explain work motivation by
how employee behavior is initiated,
redirected, and halted
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Maslow’s
Hierarchy-of-Needs Theory
• Maslow’s Theory
• Maslow’s Theory and international
managers
• Adapting Maslow’s Theory to East Asia
• Maslow’s Theory and job categories
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Maslow’s
Hierarchy-of-Needs Theory
• Abraham Maslow - Every person has five
basic needs
• Physiological needs - food, clothing, shelter,
and other basic physical needs
• Safety needs - desire for security, stability, and
the absence of pain
• Social needs - need to interact and affiliate with
others and to feel wanted by others
• Esteem needs - needs for power and status
• Self-actualization needs – the desire to reach
one’s full potential by becoming everything one
is capable of becoming
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Maslow’s Theory (2)
•
•
Lower-level needs must be satisfied before higherlevel needs become motivators
A need that is satisfied no longer motivates
12-9
Maslow's Theory &
International Managers
• Each country or geographic region appears to
have its own need-satisfaction profile
• Managers in U.S., U.K., Nordic Europe and
Latin America report that autonomy and selfactualization are the most important and least
satisfied needs.
– Some East Asian managers report even more
difficulty in satisfying these needs
• Study was conducted by Haire and others.
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Adapting Maslow’s Theory
to East Asia
• Nevis suggested that the hierarchy of
needs is western-oriented and
focuses on the individual. Asian
societies focus on group concerns.
• Nevis suggested changing hierarchy
for China:
• Belonging (social)
• Physiological
• Safety
• Self-actualization (in the
service of society)
• There is no esteem need in Nevis'
hierarchy.
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Maslow's Theory and Job Categories
• Hofstede noted that the Haire study was
limited to managers
– Every culture has different sub-cultures
– Looked at job categories as sub-cultures
– Analyzed motivation by job categories
• Divided Maslow's hierarchy into 3 categories
– Low: physiological and safety needs
– Middle: social needs
– High: esteem and actualization needs
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Highest-ranked Needs by
Job Category
• Unskilled workers: low-level needs
• Technicians: mix of needs from different
categories – at least one high-order
need and one low-level need
• Clerical workers: middle (social) needs
• Managers: high and mid-level needs
• Professionals: high-order needs
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Goals Ranked by
Job Category
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Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
of Motivation
• A theory that identifies two sets of factors that
influence job satisfaction:
– Motivators: Job content factors such as
achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement, and the work itself. Only when
motivators are present will there be satisfaction.
– Hygiene Factors: Job-context factors such as
salary, interpersonal relations, technical supervision,
working conditions, and company policies and
administration. If hygiene factors aren’t taken care
of there will be dissatisfaction.
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Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory (2)
12-16
Herzberg and Maslow
12-17
Herzberg’s Theory in an
International Context
• Several cross-cultural studies show that
motivators are more important than satisfiers
in motivating all levels of employees
• Motivators and satisfiers are not always the
same in different cultures
• Managers should focus on understanding the
motivators and satisfiers in the country where
they are working
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Achievement Motivation Theory
• Theory holds that individuals can have a
need to get ahead, to attain success and to
reach objectives
• People who have strong a achievement need:
– Want personal responsibility for solving
problems
– Tend to be moderate risk takers
– Want concrete feedback about their
performance
– Often do not get along well with other
people or understand others’ concerns.
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How to Encourage
Achievement Motivation
• Train people to
– Obtain feedback on performance
– Use the feedback to make efforts in areas
where they are likely to succeed
– Emulate people who have been successful
achievers
– Develop an internal desire for success and
challenges
– Daydream in positive terms by picturing
themselves as being successful in the
pursuit of important objectives
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Country Comparisons
Achievement Motivation Theory
in an International Context
• Countries with high masculinity and low
uncertainty avoidance support achievement
motivation theory.
– These are primarily English-speaking countries and
some of their former colonies or territories (India,
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, the
Philippines)
– It is probably wise to use achievement motivation
theory in those countries.
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Motivating People when Achievement
Motivation is not Effective
• Low masculinity and low uncertainty
avoidance: use quality of life as a motivator
• Low masculinity and high uncertainty
avoidance: use quality of life and security as
motivators
• High masculinity and high uncertainty
avoidance: reward success and provide
security
– In collectivist cultures, use group rewards
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Process Theories of Motivation
• Equity theory
• Goal-setting theory
• Expectancy theory
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Equity Theory
• Focuses on how motivation is affected by
people’s perception of how fairly they are
being treated
• When people believe that they are being
treated equitably, it will have a positive effect
on their job satisfaction
• If they believe they are not being treated fairly
(especially in relation to others)
– They will be dissatisfied, which will have a
negative effect on their job performance.
– They will strive to restore equity.
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Equity Theory (2)
• Focuses on how motivation is affected by people’s
perception of how fairly they are being treated
• Research in western work groups supports the theory
• Limitations of the theory
– Perceptions of equity are not the same
everywhere.
– In collectivist cultures, people may accept unequal
treatment to preserve group harmony.
– Examples: Most countries in the Middle
East and Asia
– In some cultures, women may accept unequal
treatment (example: lower wages than men)
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Goal-Setting Theory
• People perform best when they have
challenging goals and have a role in setting
those goals (participative goal setting).
– In the United States and in Israel, participative
goal setting with individuals increases both
motivation and performance
• International research on goal setting theories
– Employees in Norway and the United Kingdom
prefer to have management work with union
officials in setting work goals
– Participative goal setting with individuals may not
work well in collectivist cultures
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Expectancy Theory
• Motivation is influenced by a person’s belief
that effort will lead to performance,
performance will lead to specific outcomes,
and that these outcomes are valued by the
individual
• Theory is likely to work best in cultures where
employees believe that they have control
over what happens to them
• Expectancy theory has been used
successfully in Japan.
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Summary of Motivation Theories
• Content theories
– Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs
– Herzberg’s two-factor
theory
– Achievement
motivation theory
• Process theories
– Equity theory
– Goal-setting theory
– Expectancy theory
12-29