Organisational
Behaviour
Chapter 4
Motivation
Objectives:
• Discuss the meaning of the word motivation
• Evaluate content and process theories of
motivation
• Develop a view about the role of financial and
other rewards as motivating factors
• Discuss the motivational aspects of job design
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Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Motivation – a descriptive definition
Psychologists define motivation as:
• the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented
behaviours. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is
getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to
gain knowledge.
• It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive
forces that activate behaviour. In everyday usage, the term
motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does
something.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Motivation – a prescriptive definition
• Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy
in people to be continually interested and committed to a
job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.
• Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and
unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need,
(2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations
of the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the
reasons one has for behaving a certain way. An example is a
student that spends extra time studying for a test because he
or she wants a better grade in the class
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Content theories of motivation
Content theories of motivation focus on the
satisfaction of needs as key motivating factors.
Deciding on what those needs might be is central to
this group of theories
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Content theories of motivation – Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Content theories of motivation – Alderfer’s ERG
theory
In contrast to Maslow, Alderfer identifies three broad categories
of need. He suggested that these needs had a variable strength
for each individual, as well as varying over time.
Existence
Food, water, shelter,
safety, physical wellbeing, confidence that
these needs will
continue to be met.
Relatedness
Growth
Good relations
with others, feeling
part of a group or
community, sense
of identity, concern
to be seen as
valued member of
group.
Need for sense of
achievement,
emotional and
psychological growth,
positive sense of self.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Content theories of motivation – Herzberg’s
two-factor theory
Herzberg categorised needs as being of two types:
1.
Hygiene factors or dissatisfiers – the absence of these factors led to
dissatisfaction. If these needs were satisfied, however, this did not lead to
greater satisfaction, but to the absence of dissatisfaction. Hygiene Factors are
those aspects of working conditions which are extrinsic to the individual worker.
They are part of the working environment set up by management.
2.
Motivating factors – however if other needs were met, this produced motivation.
These motivating factors were usually intrinsic to the individual, such as fulfilling
work, or the ability to achieve personal goals.
Herzberg found that pay was usually a hygiene factor in that it had more potential to
bring about dissatisfaction than motivation.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation
Whilst content theories of motivation looked at aspects of
organisational life to discover how well they met workers’ needs,
process theories are concerned with how people become
motivated. Content theories of motivation are difficult to
implement since they require the manager to have an intimate
knowledge of the needs of any individual. They then need to
have access to the resources which can satisfy those needs.
Process theories, on the other hand are of interest to managers
since they appear to be theories managers can use to direct
workers to fulfill the needs of the organisation.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – expectancy
theories
The underlying concept of expectancy is that an individual will strive to
achieve a goal that they value. This basic concept was further
developed by Victor Vroom. It is often set out as:
Motivational Force (MF) = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valency
Expectancy – the belief that the effort input will lead to successful
completion of a task.
Instrumentality – the likelihood that the valued rewards will be
forthcoming when the task is successfully completed;
Valency – how valuable the outcome is to the person carrying out the
task;
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – expectancy
theories
Three key relationships in expectancy theory. These
relationships must be present for motivation to ensue:
1. Value to the individual of the reward for achieving the task,
which determines how much effort someone will put in to
achieve it. (Valency)
2. The confidence that making the effort will result in successful
completion of the task. (Expectancy)
3. The belief that successful completion of the task will deliver
the reward. (Instrumentality).
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – expectancy
theories
These three relationships can be viewed as cyclical:
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – equity theory
Like expectancy theory, Equity is calculative. According to Adam we weigh up
the effort we put into a task and the reward we receive on its completion,
similar to expectancy theory. Where equity theory develops this idea
however, is that we not only calculate reward/effort relationship, but we also
make a comparison about how well or badly we do after completing the task
compared to other people. We do not see the performance of the task as
carried out in isolation from other people carrying out similar tasks, but we
almost try to establish a kind of a ‘going rate’ which we calculate by
comparison with what rewards others receive.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – equity theory
Adam suggests that we make our comparison by looking at
inputs to the task and comparing the outcomes we achieve.
• Examples of inputs: Time, effort, skill, imagination,
experience, conscientiousness, personal qualities.
• Examples of outcomes: Money, status, position, satisfaction,
praise, challenge, reputation, enhancement of your CV.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – equity theory
If equity is felt to be absent, a person can take steps to restore an equitable
balance:
•
Change inputs. You can do this by increasing or decreasing personal effort, or other
inputs to the task.
•
Change outcomes/expectations. You can do this by raising or lowering what you expect
to receive as a reward.
•
Change comparison. You may conclude that the person you are comparing your efforts
with is not the right person for a comparison. In this case you need to change who you
are comparing yourself to.
•
Influencing the inputs and outcomes of your comparator. If for example, you find that
someone else is carrying out the same task for a lesser reward, you may try to influence
them to demand an increase in their reward. You may do this from a sense of fairness,
or you may do it so that your own reward does not appear to be excessive – you are
trying to change the ‘marketplace’.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Process theories of motivation – equity theory
Individuals will respond to a sense of inequity in different ways.
According to Husman there are three broad response categories:
• Sensitives: These are people who are very concerned that there should be
an equilibrium between inputs and outcomes
• Benevolents: These individuals tend to be tolerant of perceived under
reward, for example because they find intrinsic reward in other aspects of
work rather than in the task they are engaged in.
• Entitleds: These people tend to prefer situations in which they are overrewarded, in other words, the outcomes for their inputs are better than
those of their comparators.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Goal theories of motivation
Goal setting is based on the premise that human activity is
purposeful and can be directed towards achieving a desired
outcome. The theory can be seen as having three dimensions:
1. The nature of the goals
2. The processes at work which help to achieve those goals
3. The contribution of the goal achievement
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Goal theories of motivation – the nature of the
goals
Goals need to be:
• Clear. They need to say exactly what is to be achieved, using what
resources and in what timescale. In particular, the outcome needs
to be unambiguously measurable.
• Challenging. Goals which are easy to attain will not motivate. They
need to challenge the capability of the person tasked with carrying
them out,.
• Realistic. Goals need to be credible and they need to relate to the
overall aims of the organisation.
• Reasonably complex. Simple tasks appear to be less motivating
than complex tasks, although the complexity must not be such as to
overwhelm the person carrying it out.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Goal theories of motivation – the processes at
work
Factors which facilitate the achievement of goals:
• Commitment to the goal – this is the key motivational factor
in goal-setting. It has two dimensions:
1.
2.
•
The goal must be important enough to be worthwhile
The person carrying out the task must have the belief that the task is
within their capability
Feedback – to understand how well the task is going and to
make any changes to improve the situation or even to
change the goals.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Goal theories of motivation – the contribution
of the goal achievement
The contribution of the goal achievement: If a
manager and subordinate have spent time and effort
on defining clear, measurable goals, then have
expended skill and diligence on achieving that goal,
only to find that it is not valued, or that it makes little
difference to overall departmental or organisational
performance, then it is much less likely that there will
be a similar level of commitment to achieving future
goals.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Goal theories of motivation potential problems
Goal conflict – if goals are not aligned to overall organisational
needs there will be no significant contribution when they are
achieved.
Employee capability – Those setting goals must be confident
that the staff working to achieve the goals set have the personal
capability and the resources to complete the task successfully.
Designing goal parameters – in many contexts this can be
difficult. Where goal achievement is difficult to measure
objectively, then it may be difficult to ascertain how effectively
the goal has been achieved. Moreover, the outcomes of some
tasks are only discernable some way into the future.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Job Design
The ability of the way a job is designed to motivate those
carrying it out is premised on the idea that people are motivated
by work which is interesting, challenging and valued.
Hackman and Oldham developed a model which attempts to
measure the motivational properties of jobs by measuring the
five core job dimensions.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Job Design – Core job dimensions
•
Skill Variety: The range of skills needed to carry out the job. The assumption is that
worker prefer to utilize a range of skills, especially challenging skills, than the single,
simplified skill set required in work broken down according to Scientific Management
principles.
•
Task Identity: Seeing the job as a whole entity, rather than as a single, insignificant
contribution to a larger whole.
•
Task Significance: This refers to how important and meaningful the job is for others,
either inside or outside the organisation.
•
Autonomy: The degree of decision making the worker has about the way the job is to
be done, the sequencing of activities, the quality of process and output.
•
Feedback: Feedback is the key to understanding how well you are doing in the job –or
how well you are perceived to be doing. It enables you to modify how you are working
to achieve improvements. The key feature of feedback, especially critical feedback, is
that it needs to be constructive and concrete, with suggestions on what needs to be
done to improve.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Job Design – Core job dimensions
Psychological states arising from job dimensions:
• The experienced meaningfulness of work: In other words the job that is
done has meaning for both the worker and the organisation. It is
important that it is done well. This critical state is mostly influenced by
the dimensions of Skill variety, Task identity and Task Significance.
• The experienced responsibility for the outcomes of the job: This refers to
the notion of ‘ownership’ of the job. That is the job holder has to take
responsibility for the process of carrying out the work as well as for the
outcomes of the work. This critical state is influenced by the degree of
autonomy in the work.
• Knowledge of the results of the work: This is psychologically important
since it tells the job holder whether the purposes of the job are being
achieved and what needs to be done to make any changes. The main
influence on this psychological state is the dimension of feedback
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Job Design – Core job dimensions
A good fit of job dimensions can lead to four personal outcomes:
• High internal work motivation: Provided that the core dimensions lead to appropriate
psychological states for the individual, then the result is likely to be a self-motivated
worker.
•
High quality work performance: We have seen in other aspects of motivation theory
that effort and enthusiasm are not necessarily predictors of effective performance.
However, Hackman and Oldman suggest that if the job dimensions fit the individual and
the appropriate psychological state is achieved, then high quality work can be achieved.
•
High work satisfaction: As above, if the individual’s needs are met by the design of the
job, then they will find the work satisfying.
•
Low absenteeism and labour turnover: Work that is motivating and high quality will
tend to be attractive in itself. Consequently, staff will not be constantly seeking other
opportunities. Moreover, as long as pay is seen as equitable, staff will not leave for
purely financial reasons.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Job Design – Core job dimensions
Diagram of the model:
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Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)