Lecture 3
Motivation Concepts
BBA 352 Organizational Behavior
Department of Business Administration
S.Chan
Charmaine@chuhai.edu.hk www.chuhai.edu.hk/charmaine
Definition of Motivation
The result of the interaction between the individual and the
situation.
The processes that account for an individual’s
intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward
attaining a goal – specifically, an organizational goal.
Three key elements:
– Intensity – how hard a person tries
– Direction – effort that is channeled toward, and consistent
with, organizational goals
– Persistence – how long a person can maintain effort
Early Theories of Motivation
These early theories may not be directly valid, but they do
form the basis for contemporary theories and are still used
by practicing managers.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
McClelland’s Theory of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
There is a hierarchy of five needs. As each need is substantially
satisfied, the next need becomes dominant.
Assumptions
Higher Order Self-Actualization
Internal
Esteem
Lower Order
External
Social
Safety
Physiological
– Individuals cannot
move to the next
higher level until
all needs at the
current (lower)
level are satisfied
– Must move in
hierarchical order
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Physiological Needs
needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs
because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's
search for satisfaction.
Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little
awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social
structure. Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love,
affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow assumes people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness,
involves giving / receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
Needs for Esteem
When the first three needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs
for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable,
firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the
person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the
person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
Needs for Self-Actualization
The needs for self-actualization is a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do."
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make
themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, restless.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
•A satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior. Therefore a person
who already receives a more than adequate level of salary,
additional payments may have no effect on motivation
•A motivator for one person may not be effective with another, so
different people will have different combinations of needs
•Effective motivation results from an accurate assessment of the
needs of the individual under the manager’s supervision
•E.g. - motivated by building their confidence.
- How to motivate a staff who’s great need for esteem but working
performance is not good?—By announcing his/her poor performance to
colleagues in a meeting
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
 Two distinct views of human beings: Theory X (basically
negative) and Theory Y (positive).
– Theory X, employees inherently have little motivation, dislike work,
avoid responsibility, self-centred and do not care about organizational
goal, resist change, they are assumed work for money and security.
– How to manage theory X staff: they must be directed or forced to
change, use implicit threats, close supervision, tight control
– Theory Y, workers are perceived as self directed, enjoy work and seek
responsibility. They will be committed to their objectives if the reward
are appropriate that higher level of fulfilment is motivated. Also
assume that creativity and ingenuity are common
– McGegor suggests that participative decision making, responsibility
can challenging job would help maximize employees’ job motivation
– Decentralization and delegation, job enlargement, participative
management, performance appraisals can be used.
 No empirical evidence to support this theory.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory/ Motivationhygiene theory
Key Point: Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites
but separate constructs
•This theory has substantially contributed to the understanding of
motivation at work, particularly extended Maslow’s theory to the work
situation and highly the importance of job content factors.`
•There are two types of motivators, one type which results in satisfaction
with the job (the motivators ), and the other which merely prevents
dissatisfaction (the hygienes).
Dissatisfaction hygiene includes:
•company policy/administration
•working conditions
•supervision
•interpersonal relations
•money
•status
•security
Job satisfaction motivator includes:
•achievement
•recognition
•work itself
•responsibility
•advancement
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory/ Motivationhygiene theory
Key Point: Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites
but separate constructs
-Herzberg: Factors to job satisfaction could be different from factors to
job dissatisfaction—they are two different constructs.
-Intrinsic factors (true motivators) such as advancement, recognition,
achievement, work itself, responsibility, growth are related to job
satisfaction
-Extrinsic factors (hygiene factors) such as supervision, pay, company
policies and working environment are major factors lead to job
dissatisfaction.
-Improving extrinsic factors not necessary lead to an increase in job
satisfaction, managers remove improve extrinsic factors may bring
peace at work but not necessarily motivation.
David McClelland’s Three Needs Theory
Need for Achievement (nAch)
– The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to
strive to succeed
– They want to have success and need to receive positive feedback
– Avoid low and high risk
– Like to work alone, or with high achiever
– McClelland believes they can be best leaders although they can be
too demanding and result driven
Need for Power (nPow)
– The need to make others behave in a way that they would not have
behaved otherwise
– High need for personal power, want to direct and influence others
– Enjoy competition and status-oriented position
– Lack flexibility and people centered skills
David McClelland’s Three Needs Theory
Need for Affiliation (nAff)
– The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships
– They want to be liked and accepted by others, focus on personal
interaction
– They tend to conform to the norms of their work group
– Prefer cooperation over competition
– They perform well in customer service and client interaction
– McClelland believed that strong nAff undermines objectivity of
and decision making capability of managers
Performance Predictions for High nAch
 People with a high need for achievement are likely to:
– Prefer to undertake activities with a 50/50 chance of success,
avoiding very low- or high-risk situations
– Be motivated in jobs that offer high degree of personal
responsibility, feedback, and moderate risk
– Not necessarily make good managers – too personal a focus.
Most good general managers do NOT have a high nAch
– Need high level of nPow and low nAff for managerial
success
 Good research support, but it is not a very practical
theory, difficult to measure the needs
6-11
Contemporary Theories of Motivation
 Goal-Setting Theory
– Management by Objectives (MBO)
 Self-Efficacy Theory
– Also known as Social Cognitive Theory or Social Learning
Theory
 Equity Theory
 Expectancy Theory
Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory (late 1960’s)
 Basic Premise:
– That specific and difficult goals, with self-generated
feedback, lead to higher performance
– Goal is a major source of work motivation. It tells
employees what needs to be done, and how much effort will
be needed.
 Difficult Goals:
–
–
–
–
Be focus and direct attention
Energize the person to work harder
Difficulty increases persistence
Force people to be more effective and efficient
 Relationship between goals and performance depends on:
– Goal commitment (the more public the better!)
– Task characteristics (simple, well-learned)
– Culture (best match is in North America)
Implementation: Management by Objectives
 MBO is a systematic way to utilize goal-setting.
 Goals must be:
– Tangible
– Verifiable
– Measurable
 Corporate goals are broken down into smaller, more
specific goals at each level of organization.
 Four common ingredients to MBO programs:
–
–
–
–
Goal specificity
Participative decision making
Explicit time period
Performance feedback
 MBO may fail in implementation when: lack of commitment by top managers,
unrealistic expectations inability or unwillingness of management to allocate
rewards cultural factors, e.g. Japan, low risk, long term goals.
Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory
 An individual’s belief that he or she is capable of
performing a task.
 One with higher self-efficacy has higher confidence in the
ability to success, more willing to master the challenge and
not be easy to give up in difficult situation
– Higher efficacy is related to:
• Greater confidence
• Greater persistence in the face of difficulties
• Better response to negative feedback (work harder)
– Self-Efficacy complements Goal-Setting Theory.
Increasing Self-Efficacy
 Enactive mastery
–
–
–
Most important source of efficacy
Gaining relevant experience with task or job
“Practice makes perfect”
 Vicarious modeling
–
–
Increasing confidence by watching others perform the task
Most effective when observer sees the model to be similar to himor herself
 Verbal persuasion
–
–
Motivation through verbal conviction
Pygmalion (畢馬龍效應) and Galatea effects - self-fulfilling
prophecies
 Arousal
–
–
Getting “psyched up” – emotionally aroused – to complete task
Can hurt performance if emotion is not a component of the task
Adams’ Equity Theory
 Employees compare their ratios of outcomes-to-inputs of
relevant others.
– When ratios are equal: state of equity exists – there is no tension
as the situation is considered fair
– Fairness between inputs: effort, experience, education,
competence and output: salary, raises, recognition) relative to
those of others.
– When ratios are unequal: tension exists due to unfairness
• Under-rewarded states cause anger
• Over-rewarded states cause guilt
– Tension motivates people to act to bring their situation into equity
Equity Theory’s “Relevant Others”
 Can be four different situations:
– Self-Inside
• The person’s experience in a different job in the same
organization
– Self-Outside
• The person’s experience in a different job in a different
organization
– Other-Inside
• Another individual or group within the organization
– Other-Outside
• Another individual or group outside of the organization
Reactions to Inequity
 Employee behaviors to create equity:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Change inputs (slack off)
Change outcomes (increase output)
Distort/change perceptions of self
Distort/change perceptions of others
Choose a different referent person
Leave the field (quit the job)
 Propositions relating to inequitable pay:
– Paid by time:
• Overrewarded employees produce more
• Underrewarded employees produce less with low quality
– Paid by quality:
• Overrewarded employees give higher quality
• Underrewarded employees make more of low quality
Justice and Equity Theory
Procedural
Justice
Distributive
Justice
• Fairness of
outcome process
• Fairness of
outcome
Interactional
Justice
• Being treated
with dignity and
respect
Organizational
Justice
Overall perception
of what is fair in the
workplace.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends
on the strength of an expectation that the act will be
followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of the
outcome to the individual.
Effort-performance relationship: perception about a given
amount of effort will lead to performance
– If I give a maximum effort, will it be recognized in my performance appraisal?
Performance-reward relationship: perception of the degree
of performing a particular level will lead to attainment of a
desired outcome
– If I get a good performance appraisal, will it lead to better rewards?
Rewards-personal goal relationship: The attractiveness of
the reward which satisfies an individual personal goal or needs
– If I ‘m rewarded, are the rewards that I find personally attractive?