PROBLEM 1: WORK MOTIVATION
Learning goals
What is motivation?
Theories of motivation
Spector & Arnold
Motivation: person’s reason and internal state to behave in certain way, desire to acquire or achieve some goal
(learned vs drive is innate)
o Direction: (choice) what person is trying to do àeven avoid work and being lazy
o Effort: (intensity) how hard person is trying
o Persistence: (duration) how long person continues trying
Work performance depends on motivation, but also in factors like ability, quality of equipment and coordination of
team members’ efforts
Content theories: focus on what motivates human behavior at work (needs)
Process theories: how content of motivation influences behavior (justice, values)
àtheories not mutually exclusive, can coexist
NEED/CONTENT THEORIES
Behave to meet innate biological needs, motivation from desires
NEED HIERARCHY THEORY (Maslow)
Humans strive to progress up the hierarchy, once basic needs satisfied the next one becomes most important in driving
behavior
Criticism: could happen in different order, no clear relationship between needs and behavior (same behavior could
reflect different needs and different behaviors the same need), not culturally universal
TWO-FACTOR THEORY (Heinzberg)
Motivation comes from nature of job itself, not external rewards or job conditions à appropriate levels of motivator
factors (hygiene factors cannot lead to work motivation or satisfaction)
Motivator factors: relevant to growth needs (psychological growth) & include achievement, recognition, responsibility
and nature of work itself
Hygiene factors: relevant to animal needs (physiological needs) & include pay, supervision, coworkers and
organizational policies
Criticism: two-factor structure not supported by research but leads to job enrichment
REINFORCEMENT THEORY (non-motivational theory only explains effect of environment)
Motivation through environmental influences rather than internal states & behavior as result of
rewards/reinforcements
Law of effect: probability behavior increases if followed by reinforcement & probability behavior decreases if followed
by punishment
Rewards can be tangible (money=bigger impact) or intangible (praise), given by organization or by-product of task
Incentive systems: rewards (piece rates or commissions) depend on individual units of productivity à easy to apply in
jobs with countable output or measurable performance-relevant behaviors
o Influences by other employees, constraints in environment and indifference of individuals to particular
rewards can result in failure of incentive systems
Criticism: reward as manipulation to regulate behavior, does not explain whether person will want a reward, little
insight into motivational processes
EXPECTANCY/PROCESS THEORY
Relate how environmental rewards lead to behavior, concerned with internal cognitive processes that lead to
motivation àspecific activity at particular time
Reinforcement theory states reinforcement will lead to behavior, expectancy theory explains when and why this will
occur
Motivation when believe their behavior will lead to desired rewards or outcomes
1
, Vroom theory: motivation or force is mathematical function of types of cognitions
o Force = Expectancy x ∑(Valences x Instrumentalities)
o Force: amount of motivation persona has to engage in behavior relevant to job performance
àhigh score=motivated; low=not motivated
o Expectancy: subjective probability (people can vary in certainty of their beliefs) person has about own ability to
perform behavior ex will my performance lead to high grade?
o Valence: value of outcome or reward to a person, extent person wants or desires something
o Instrumentality: subjective probability that specific behavior will result in specific reward
àSingle E value but many I values
Criticism: force score related more to preference than actual choice, motivation alone does not lead to achievement,
ignores non-cognitive elements
SELF-EFFICACY THEORY (Bandura)
Beliefs own abilities can affect behavior àdoes not consider influence of rewards
Self-efficacy can develop through series of successes with increasingly difficult tasks
Motivation related to whether person believes is capable of successfully accomplishing the task
o High self-efficacy = believe capableàset harder goals and motivated to put effort
o Self-fulfilling prophecy: person behaves in manner that fulfills initial belief
Self-efficacy concerned with specific tasks and people have different levels according to the tasks
Galatea effect: people’s beliefs about own capabilities lead them to perform better, as in self-fulfilling prophecy (power
of self-expectations)
Ways to improve self-efficacy
o Mastery experiences (successful): outcome is good they get more self-efficacy
o Modeling experiences: role models
o Social persuasion: emphasizing someone’s knowledge, like cheerleading
o Physiological states: reducing stress unrelated to challenging task
Criticism: strong scientific evidence
JUSTICE THEORIES
Concerned with people’s values (rather than needs) for fairness (motivation) in social relations at work
EQUITY THEORY (Adams)
People motivated to achieve condition of fairness or equity in interaction with others and with organizationsàunfair
situations motivate employees to fix them, so reduce dissatisfaction and emotional tension
Inequity: psychological state that arises when comparing (ratios of outcomes to inputsàevaluate how much they
receive in relation to contributions) themselves with other employees (inequity can be rumours)
my rewards( minus my costs) your rewards(minus your costs)
o Equity Ratio: =
my efforts∧contributions your efforts∧contributions
o Outcomes: rewards or anything with personal value (pay, status, benefits) employee gets from working
o Inputs: contributions made by employee to the organization (work, experience, talents)
o Underpayment inequity: believe others get more outcomes for their inputs àinduces anger
o Overpayment inequity: believe you get more outcomes for own inputs than other people are getting àinduces
guilt
Reduce inequity through mechanisms
o Changing inputs: increase/decrease productivity depending on type of inequity
o Changing outcomes: seek additional rewards ex ask for higher salary
o Alter other’s input: let others do more difficult tasks
o Alter other’s outcome: pay them less
o Rationalize inequity: reason others actually work more
o Withdrawing from situation: can be permanent or temporary (ex lateness or absence, which can also reduce
inputs)
o Quitting job
Criticism: comparison between companies, many variables affect equity ratio so difficult to measure, difficult define
perception of fairness
FAIRNESS THEORY
How and by which procedures rewards are distributed between people
o Distributive justice: similar to equity; fairness rewards are found among people (more important for men) ex
people are paid equally for similar inputs
o Procedural justice: fairness of reward distribution process, as opposed to the results of that distribution (more
important for women) ex give underpaid people salary adjustment each year to make up for it àfor
acceptance of outcome
2
, o Interactional justice: how someone is treated
People perceive injustice when something negative happens and perceive it to have been done purposefully by another
person in an unfair way
GOALS-SETTING THEORY (Locke & Latham)
People’s behavior motivated by internal goals and intentions (but environmental influences can shape motivation and
behavior)
Goal: what person consciously wants to attain or achieve
o Specific ex get A on the exam
o General ex do well at school (often associated with specific goals)
Goal orientation: whether focus efforts on learning (learning orientation: concerned with enhancing knowledge and
skill) or achieving certain levels of job performance (performance orientation: focus efforts on enhancing performance
on specific job tasks)
Ways goals affect behavior:
o Direct attention and action to behaviors that person believes will achieve the goal ex study for exam
o Mobilize effort in that the person tries harder ex concentrate harder to learn material
o Increase persistence, resulting in more time spent on behaviors necessary for goal attainment ex more time
studying
o Motivate search for effective strategies to attain goals ex learn effective ways of studying
Factors for effective goal setting
o Goal commitment accept goal
o Feedback to know if behavior is moving towards or away from goal
o More difficult goal the better the performance is likely to be, at least to point in which person works at limit of
capacity
àDifficult goals work best in relatively simple situations (single goals and simple jobs) and with low stress
levels
o Specific hard goals are more effective than vague ‘do your best’ goals
o Self-set goals better than organizationally assigned goals
Criticism: group goals better than individual goals for increasing speed of production, difficult goals can lead to worse
performance when stress is high, short-term outcome, scientific support
JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL (Hackman & Oldham)
People are motivated by nature of job tasks when job is interesting and enjoyable àwill like their job and perform well
Provides specific hypotheses about exactly which job characteristics matter, how they affect people’s psychological
states, what outcomes they produce, and which individual differences affect the whole process
Core job characteristics:
o Skill variety: extent to which job requires a range of skills
o Task identity: extent job produces a whole, identifiable outcome
o Task significance: extent job has impact on other people, either inside or outside the organization
o Autonomy: extent job allows job holder to exercise choice and discretion in work
o Feedback from job: extent job itself (as opposed to other people) provides information on how well the job
holder is performing
Core job characteristics produce critical psychological states (which influence motivation, satisfaction and work
performance)
o First 3 influence experienced meaningfulness of work
o Autonomy affects experienced responsibility for outcome of work
o Feedback impacts knowledge of actual results of the work activities
Process is moderated by other factors like Growth-need strength: only people who want to grow will respond to
motivators
Motivation potential score
Criticism: job characteristics not clearly correlate with performance of individuals or organizations and have more effect
on attitudes towards work than work performance
3
Learning goals
What is motivation?
Theories of motivation
Spector & Arnold
Motivation: person’s reason and internal state to behave in certain way, desire to acquire or achieve some goal
(learned vs drive is innate)
o Direction: (choice) what person is trying to do àeven avoid work and being lazy
o Effort: (intensity) how hard person is trying
o Persistence: (duration) how long person continues trying
Work performance depends on motivation, but also in factors like ability, quality of equipment and coordination of
team members’ efforts
Content theories: focus on what motivates human behavior at work (needs)
Process theories: how content of motivation influences behavior (justice, values)
àtheories not mutually exclusive, can coexist
NEED/CONTENT THEORIES
Behave to meet innate biological needs, motivation from desires
NEED HIERARCHY THEORY (Maslow)
Humans strive to progress up the hierarchy, once basic needs satisfied the next one becomes most important in driving
behavior
Criticism: could happen in different order, no clear relationship between needs and behavior (same behavior could
reflect different needs and different behaviors the same need), not culturally universal
TWO-FACTOR THEORY (Heinzberg)
Motivation comes from nature of job itself, not external rewards or job conditions à appropriate levels of motivator
factors (hygiene factors cannot lead to work motivation or satisfaction)
Motivator factors: relevant to growth needs (psychological growth) & include achievement, recognition, responsibility
and nature of work itself
Hygiene factors: relevant to animal needs (physiological needs) & include pay, supervision, coworkers and
organizational policies
Criticism: two-factor structure not supported by research but leads to job enrichment
REINFORCEMENT THEORY (non-motivational theory only explains effect of environment)
Motivation through environmental influences rather than internal states & behavior as result of
rewards/reinforcements
Law of effect: probability behavior increases if followed by reinforcement & probability behavior decreases if followed
by punishment
Rewards can be tangible (money=bigger impact) or intangible (praise), given by organization or by-product of task
Incentive systems: rewards (piece rates or commissions) depend on individual units of productivity à easy to apply in
jobs with countable output or measurable performance-relevant behaviors
o Influences by other employees, constraints in environment and indifference of individuals to particular
rewards can result in failure of incentive systems
Criticism: reward as manipulation to regulate behavior, does not explain whether person will want a reward, little
insight into motivational processes
EXPECTANCY/PROCESS THEORY
Relate how environmental rewards lead to behavior, concerned with internal cognitive processes that lead to
motivation àspecific activity at particular time
Reinforcement theory states reinforcement will lead to behavior, expectancy theory explains when and why this will
occur
Motivation when believe their behavior will lead to desired rewards or outcomes
1
, Vroom theory: motivation or force is mathematical function of types of cognitions
o Force = Expectancy x ∑(Valences x Instrumentalities)
o Force: amount of motivation persona has to engage in behavior relevant to job performance
àhigh score=motivated; low=not motivated
o Expectancy: subjective probability (people can vary in certainty of their beliefs) person has about own ability to
perform behavior ex will my performance lead to high grade?
o Valence: value of outcome or reward to a person, extent person wants or desires something
o Instrumentality: subjective probability that specific behavior will result in specific reward
àSingle E value but many I values
Criticism: force score related more to preference than actual choice, motivation alone does not lead to achievement,
ignores non-cognitive elements
SELF-EFFICACY THEORY (Bandura)
Beliefs own abilities can affect behavior àdoes not consider influence of rewards
Self-efficacy can develop through series of successes with increasingly difficult tasks
Motivation related to whether person believes is capable of successfully accomplishing the task
o High self-efficacy = believe capableàset harder goals and motivated to put effort
o Self-fulfilling prophecy: person behaves in manner that fulfills initial belief
Self-efficacy concerned with specific tasks and people have different levels according to the tasks
Galatea effect: people’s beliefs about own capabilities lead them to perform better, as in self-fulfilling prophecy (power
of self-expectations)
Ways to improve self-efficacy
o Mastery experiences (successful): outcome is good they get more self-efficacy
o Modeling experiences: role models
o Social persuasion: emphasizing someone’s knowledge, like cheerleading
o Physiological states: reducing stress unrelated to challenging task
Criticism: strong scientific evidence
JUSTICE THEORIES
Concerned with people’s values (rather than needs) for fairness (motivation) in social relations at work
EQUITY THEORY (Adams)
People motivated to achieve condition of fairness or equity in interaction with others and with organizationsàunfair
situations motivate employees to fix them, so reduce dissatisfaction and emotional tension
Inequity: psychological state that arises when comparing (ratios of outcomes to inputsàevaluate how much they
receive in relation to contributions) themselves with other employees (inequity can be rumours)
my rewards( minus my costs) your rewards(minus your costs)
o Equity Ratio: =
my efforts∧contributions your efforts∧contributions
o Outcomes: rewards or anything with personal value (pay, status, benefits) employee gets from working
o Inputs: contributions made by employee to the organization (work, experience, talents)
o Underpayment inequity: believe others get more outcomes for their inputs àinduces anger
o Overpayment inequity: believe you get more outcomes for own inputs than other people are getting àinduces
guilt
Reduce inequity through mechanisms
o Changing inputs: increase/decrease productivity depending on type of inequity
o Changing outcomes: seek additional rewards ex ask for higher salary
o Alter other’s input: let others do more difficult tasks
o Alter other’s outcome: pay them less
o Rationalize inequity: reason others actually work more
o Withdrawing from situation: can be permanent or temporary (ex lateness or absence, which can also reduce
inputs)
o Quitting job
Criticism: comparison between companies, many variables affect equity ratio so difficult to measure, difficult define
perception of fairness
FAIRNESS THEORY
How and by which procedures rewards are distributed between people
o Distributive justice: similar to equity; fairness rewards are found among people (more important for men) ex
people are paid equally for similar inputs
o Procedural justice: fairness of reward distribution process, as opposed to the results of that distribution (more
important for women) ex give underpaid people salary adjustment each year to make up for it àfor
acceptance of outcome
2
, o Interactional justice: how someone is treated
People perceive injustice when something negative happens and perceive it to have been done purposefully by another
person in an unfair way
GOALS-SETTING THEORY (Locke & Latham)
People’s behavior motivated by internal goals and intentions (but environmental influences can shape motivation and
behavior)
Goal: what person consciously wants to attain or achieve
o Specific ex get A on the exam
o General ex do well at school (often associated with specific goals)
Goal orientation: whether focus efforts on learning (learning orientation: concerned with enhancing knowledge and
skill) or achieving certain levels of job performance (performance orientation: focus efforts on enhancing performance
on specific job tasks)
Ways goals affect behavior:
o Direct attention and action to behaviors that person believes will achieve the goal ex study for exam
o Mobilize effort in that the person tries harder ex concentrate harder to learn material
o Increase persistence, resulting in more time spent on behaviors necessary for goal attainment ex more time
studying
o Motivate search for effective strategies to attain goals ex learn effective ways of studying
Factors for effective goal setting
o Goal commitment accept goal
o Feedback to know if behavior is moving towards or away from goal
o More difficult goal the better the performance is likely to be, at least to point in which person works at limit of
capacity
àDifficult goals work best in relatively simple situations (single goals and simple jobs) and with low stress
levels
o Specific hard goals are more effective than vague ‘do your best’ goals
o Self-set goals better than organizationally assigned goals
Criticism: group goals better than individual goals for increasing speed of production, difficult goals can lead to worse
performance when stress is high, short-term outcome, scientific support
JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL (Hackman & Oldham)
People are motivated by nature of job tasks when job is interesting and enjoyable àwill like their job and perform well
Provides specific hypotheses about exactly which job characteristics matter, how they affect people’s psychological
states, what outcomes they produce, and which individual differences affect the whole process
Core job characteristics:
o Skill variety: extent to which job requires a range of skills
o Task identity: extent job produces a whole, identifiable outcome
o Task significance: extent job has impact on other people, either inside or outside the organization
o Autonomy: extent job allows job holder to exercise choice and discretion in work
o Feedback from job: extent job itself (as opposed to other people) provides information on how well the job
holder is performing
Core job characteristics produce critical psychological states (which influence motivation, satisfaction and work
performance)
o First 3 influence experienced meaningfulness of work
o Autonomy affects experienced responsibility for outcome of work
o Feedback impacts knowledge of actual results of the work activities
Process is moderated by other factors like Growth-need strength: only people who want to grow will respond to
motivators
Motivation potential score
Criticism: job characteristics not clearly correlate with performance of individuals or organizations and have more effect
on attitudes towards work than work performance
3
