Motivation at work and its application

1. ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR
Dr Vibhav Singh
School of Business
Management

2. Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study
that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within
organizations for the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectiveness.

3. MOTIVATION
Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s intensity,
direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
The level of motivation varies both between individuals and within
individuals at different times.
The three key elements of motivation are:
1. Intensity: concerned with how hard a person tries.
2. Direction: the orientation that benefits the organization.
3. Persistence: a measure of how long a person can maintain
his/her effort.

4. MOTIVATION AND JOB
SATISFACTION
Employee motivation and job satisfaction are symbiotic concepts.
High job satisfaction is directly tied to high motivation and vice versa.
The more satisfied and content employees feel in a particular job role,
the more motivated employees are to manage job responsibilities
effectively.
Studies show that low motivation and job satisfaction adversely affect
morale, employee attitudes, and subsequently, the further desire or
motivation to be productive.

5. COMPARE THE EARLY THEORIES
OF MOTIVATION

6. MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
THEORY

7. TWO-FACTOR THEORY- HERZBERG
Two-factor theory- Developed by Frederick Herzberg.
It claims that intrinsic factors are related to job
satisfaction and motivation, whereas extrinsic factors
are associated with job dissatisfaction.

8. TWO-FACTOR THEORY- HERZBERG
 Hygiene factors:
 Elements of the job context.
 Sources of job dissatisfaction.
 Satisfier/ Motivators factors:
 Elements of the job content.
 Sources of job satisfaction and motivation.

9. TWO-FACTOR THEORY- HERZBERG

10. TWO-FACTOR THEORY- HERZBERG
Herzberg proposed that a dual continuum existed: The
opposite of “satisfaction” is “no satisfaction,” and the
opposite of “dissatisfaction” is “no dissatisfaction.”

11. MCCLELLAND’S THEORY OF NEEDS
McClelland’s Theory of Needs
 The theory focuses on three needs:
 Need for achievement (nAch): drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set
of standards, to strive to succeed.
 Need for power (nPow): need to make others behave in a way that they
would not have behaved otherwise.
 Need for affiliation (nAfl): desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships.
McClelland’s theory has had the best support.
 It has less practical effect than the others.
 Because McClelland argued that the three needs are subconscious—we may
rank high on them but not know it—measuring them is not easy.
 It is more common to find situations in which managers aware of these
motivational drivers label employees based on observations made over
time.

12. SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY
Self-Determination Theory
 People prefer to feel they have control over their actions.
 Focus on the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and harmful effects
of extrinsic motivation.
 Cognitive evaluation theory - When people are paid for work, it feels less
like something they want to do and more like something they have to do.
 Proposes that in addition to being driven by a need for autonomy, people
seek ways to achieve competence and positive connections to others.
When extrinsic rewards are used as payoffs for performance, employees feel
they are doing a good job.
 Eliminating extrinsic rewards can also shift an individual’s perception of
why he or she works on a task from an external to an internal explanation.
Self-determination theory acknowledges that extrinsic rewards can improve
even intrinsic motivation under specific circumstances.

13. SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY
What does self-determination theory suggest for providing rewards?
Self-concordance: considers how strongly people’s reasons for pursuing
goals are consistent with their interests and core values.
What does all of this mean?
 For individuals:
 Choose your job for reasons other than extrinsic rewards.
 For organizations:
 Provide intrinsic as well as extrinsic incentives.

14. GOAL SETTING THEORY
Goal-Setting Theory
 Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how much effort
is needed.
Evidence suggests:
 Specific goals increase performance.
 Difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do
easy goals.
 Feedback leads to higher performance than does non-feedback.
Three other factors influencing the goals-performance relationship:
 Goal commitment
 Task characteristics
 National culture

15. GOAL SETTING THEORY
People differ in the way they regulate their thoughts and
behaviors.
 Those with a promotion focus strive for advancement and
accomplishment and approach conditions that move them
closer toward desired goals.
 Those with a prevention focus strive to fulfill duties and
obligations and avoid conditions that pull them away from
desired goals.

16. DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS/ TOOLS
& TECHNIQUES/ JOB DESIGN THEORY
Job characteristics model (JCM) – a framework for analyzing and
designing jobs that identifies five primary core job dimensions, their
interrelationships, and their impact on outcomes.

17. Expectancy theory: a tendency to act in a certain way depends
on an expectation that the act will be followed by a given
outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the
individual.
Three relationships:
 Effort-performance relationship
 Performance-reward relationship
 Rewards-personal goals relationship

19. EQUITY THEORY
Equity theory – the theory that an employee
compares his or her job’s input-outcome ratio with that
of relevant others and then corrects any inequity.
• Referents – the persons, systems, or selves against
which individuals compare themselves to assess equity.
• Distributive justice – perceived fairness of the amount
and allocation of rewards among individuals.
• Procedural justice – perceived fairness of the process
used to determine the distribution of rewards

20. EXHIBIT 16-7
EQUITY THEORY

21. DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS/ TOOLS
& TECHNIQUES/ JOB DESIGN THEORY
1. Skill variety, the degree to which a job requires a variety of
activities so that an employee can use a number of different skills
and talents.
2. Task identity, the degree to which a job requires completion of a
whole and identifiable piece of work.
3. Task significance, the degree to which a job has a substantial
impact on the lives or work of other people.

22. DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS/ TOOLS
& TECHNIQUES/ JOB DESIGN THEORY
3. Autonomy, the degree to which a job provides substantial
freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in
scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be
used in carrying it out.
4. Feedback, the degree to which doing work activities required
by a job results in an individual obtaining direct and clear
information about the effectiveness of his or her
performance.

23. DESIGNING MOTIVATING JOBS/ TOOLS
& TECHNIQUES/ JOB DESIGN THEORY

24. Repetitive jobs provide little variety, autonomy, or motivation.
Job Rotation
 Referred to as cross-training.
 Periodic shifting from one task to another.
 Strengths: reduces boredom, increases motivation, and helps employees better understand their
work contributions.
 Weaknesses: creates disruptions, requires extra time for supervisors addressing questions and
training time, and reduced efficiencies.
Job Enrichment
 Increasing a job’s high-level responsibilities to increase intrinsic motivation.
 Involves adding another layer of responsibility and meaning.
 Can be effective at reducing turnover.
Relational Job Design
 To make jobs more prosocially motivating:
 Connect employees with the beneficiaries of their work.
 Meet beneficiaries firsthand.

25. HOW SPECIFIC ALTERNATIVE
WORK ARRANGEMENTS MOTIVATE
EMPLOYEES
Job Sharing
 Two or more people split a 40-hour-a-week job.
 Declining in use.
 Can be difficult to find compatible pairs of employees who can successfully coordinate
the intricacies of one job.
 Increases flexibility and can increase motivation and satisfaction when a 40-hour-a-
week job is just not practical.
Telecommuting
 Employees who do their work at home at least two days a week through virtual
devices linked to the employer’s office.
 Some well-known organizations actively discourage telecommuting, but for most
organizations it remains popular.
Telecommuting Advantages
 Positively related to objective performance and job satisfaction.
 Reduced work-family conflict.
 Reduced carbon emissions.

26. HOW SPECIFIC ALTERNATIVE
WORK ARRANGEMENTS MOTIVATE
EMPLOYEES
Telecommuting Disadvantages
 Employer
 Social loafing.
 Difficult to coordinate teamwork.
 Difficult to evaluate non-quantitative performance.
 Employee
 Increased feelings of isolation and reduced coworker
relationship quality.
 May not be noticed for his or her efforts.

27. EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT AND
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Employee Involvement: a participative process that uses employees’ input to increase their commitment to the
organization’s success.
Examples of Employee Involvement Programs
 Participative management
 Representative participation
Participative management
 Joint decision making.
 Acts as a panacea for poor morale and low productivity.
 Trust and confidence in leaders is essential.
 Studies of the participation-performance have yielded mixed results.
Representative participation
 Workers are represented by a small group of employees who actually participate in decision making.
– Almost every country in Western Europe requires representative participation.
– The two most common forms:
 Works councils
 Board representatives

28. VARIABLE-PAY PROGRAMS AND
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
How to Pay:
 Variable pay programs:
 Piece-rate plans
 Merit-based pay
 Bonuses
 Profit sharing
 Employee stock ownership plans
 Earnings therefore fluctuate up and down.
Evaluation of Variable Pay
 Do variable-pay programs increase motivation and productivity?
Generally, yes, but that doesn’t mean everyone is equally
motivated by them.

29. SHOW HOW FLEXIBLE BENEFITS
TURN BENEFITS INTO
MOTIVATORS
Developing a Benefits Package
 Flexible benefits individualize rewards.
– Allow each employee to choose the compensation package
that best satisfies his or her current needs and situation.
Today, almost all major corporations in the United States
offer flexible benefits.
However, it may be surprising that their usage is not yet
global.

30. IDENTIFY THE MOTIVATIONAL
BENEFITS OF INTRINSIC
REWARDS
Employee Recognition Programs
 Organizations are increasingly recognizing that important
work rewards can be both intrinsic and extrinsic.
 Rewards are intrinsic in the form of employee recognition
programs and extrinsic in the form of compensation
systems.

31. IMPLICATION FOR MANAGERS
Recognize individual differences.
 Spend the time necessary to understand what’s important to each employee.
 Design jobs to align with individual needs and maximize their motivation potential.
Use goals and feedback.
 You should give employees firm, specific goals, and they should get feedback on
how well they are faring in pursuit of those goals.
Allow employees to participate in decisions that affect them.
 Employees can contribute to setting work goals, choosing their own benefits
packages, and solving productivity and quality problems.
Link rewards to performance.
 Rewards should be contingent on performance, and employees must perceive the
link between the two.
Check the system for equity.
 Employees should perceive that individual effort and outcomes explain differences
in pay and other rewards.