OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER 12 (MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES)

12.1 Motivating for Performance

Motivation is defined as the psychological processes that arouse and direct people’s
goal-directed behavior. There are four major perspectives that offer different
explanations for how to motivate employees. They are content theories, process
theories, job design, and reinforcement theory.
Section 12.1 Key Concepts:
Motivation
● Motivation can be defined as psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-
related behavior.
● People are mainly motivated to fulfill their wants and their needs.
● Motivation must be inferred from one’s behavior; it can’t be seen.
● Figure 12.1 presents an integrated model of motivation.
o Motivation is the result of multiple personal and contextual factors.
o The individual personal factors that employees bring to the workplace include
personality, ability, emotions, and attitudes.
o The contextual factors include organizational culture, cross-cultural values,
and the physical environment.
Four Major Perspectives on Motivation: An Overview
 Content theories emphasize needs as motivators.
 Process theories focus on the thoughts and perceptions that motivate behavior.
 Job design theories focus on designing jobs that lead to employee satisfaction and
performance.
 Reinforcement theory is based on the notion that motivation is a function of
behavioral consequences and not unmet needs.

12.2 Content Perspectives on Employee Motivation

Content perspectives are theories emphasizing the needs that motivate people. Needs
are defined as physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouse behavior. The
content perspective includes four theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,
McClelland’s acquired needs theory, Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory,
and Herzberg’s two-factor theory.
Section 12.2 Key Concepts:
Content Perspectives of Motivation
● Content perspectives, also known as need-based perspectives, are theories that
emphasize the needs that motivate people.
● Needs are defined as physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouse behavior.
● Needs are influenced by environmental factors; they can vary over time and from
place to place.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

● Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory proposes that people are motivated by five levels
of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
● In order of ascendance, from bottom to top, the five levels of needs are:
o Physiological needs: basic human needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, and
comfort, as well as self-preservation.
o Safety needs: are concerned with physical safety and emotional security, such
as avoiding violence and threats.
o Love needs: love, friendship, and affection.
o Esteem needs: self-respect, status, reputation, recognition, and self-confidence.
o Self-actualization needs: self-fulfillment, the need to develop one’s fullest
potential.
● Maslow suggested that needs are never completely satisfied.
● Our actions are aimed at fulfilling the “deprived” needs, those that remain unsatisfied
at any point in time.
● Research does not clearly support Maslow’s theory, although it remains popular
among managers.
● Maslow showed that workers have needs beyond that of just earning a paycheck.

McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory

● The acquired needs theory states that three needs—achievement, affiliation, and
power—are major motives determining people’s behavior in the workplace.
o Need for achievement: the desire to excel, to do something better or more
efficiently, to solve problems, to achieve excellence in challenging tasks.
o Need for affiliation: the desire for friendly and warm relations with other
people.
o Need for power: the desire to be responsible for other people, to influence
their behavior, or to control them.
● Managers should recognize these needs in themselves and others and attempt to create
work environments that are responsive to them.
● McClelland identifies two forms of the need for power:
 o The negative kind is the need for personal power, which is the desire to
dominate others, and it involves manipulating people for one’s own
gratification.
o The positive kind is the need for institutional power, which is the desire to
solve problems and further organizational goals.
● Individuals with a high need for achievement:
o Prefer working on challenging, but not impossible, tasks or projects.
o They like situations in which good performance relies on effort and ability
rather than luck.
o They like to be rewarded for their efforts and to receive a fair and balanced
amount of positive and negative feedback.
● Individuals with a high need for power:
o Enjoy being in control of people and events, and being recognized for this
responsibility.
o Prefer work that allows them to control or have an effect on people, and to be
recognized for their accomplishments.
● Individuals with a high need for affiliation:
o Seek social approval and satisfying personal relationships.
o May not be the most efficient managers because they will have to make
decisions that will make people resent them.
o They prefer work, such as sales, that provides for personal relationships and
social approval.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
● Herzberg’s two-factor theory proposes that work satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise
from two different factors—work satisfaction from motivating factors and work
dissatisfaction from hygiene factors.
● Hygiene factors are factors associated with job dissatisfaction, such as salary,
working conditions, interpersonal relationships, and company policy—all of which
affect the job context in which people work.
● Motivating factors, or simply motivators, are factors associated with job satisfaction,
such as achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement—all of which
affect the job content or the rewards of work performance.
● According to this theory, motivating factors must be instituted to spur superior work
performance.
● To apply this theory, managers should first eliminate dissatisfaction by addressing
hygiene factors, making sure that working conditions, pay levels, and company
policies are reasonable.
● Then they should concentrate on spurring motivation by providing opportunities for
achievement, recognition, responsibility, and personal growth through motivating
factors.
12.3 Process Perspectives on Employee Motivation
Process perspectives, which are concerned with the thought processes by which
people decide how to act, have three viewpoints: equity/justice theory, expectancy
theory, and goal-setting theory.
Section 12.3 Key Concepts:
Process Perspectives
● Process perspectives are concerned with the thought processes by which people
decide how to act.
● Process perspectives try to understand why employees have different needs, what
behaviors they select to satisfy them, and how they decide if their choices were
successful.
Equity Theory
● Equity theory is a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness
and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships.
● According to this theory, employees are motivated to see fairness in the rewards they
expect for task performance and to resolve feelings of injustice.
● Equity theory is based on how cognitive dissonance motivates people to take action to
maintain consistency between their beliefs and their behavior.
● The key elements in equity theory are inputs, outputs, and comparisons.
o Inputs that people perceive they give to an organization are their time, effort,
training, experience, status, and so on.
o Outputs or rewards are the rewards that people receive from an organization,
including pay, benefits, praise, recognition, promotions, perquisites, and so on.
o Equity theory suggests that people compare the ratio of their outcomes to
inputs against the ratio of someone else’s outcomes to inputs.
▪ If they perceive there is equity when they compare their ratio to that of
another, they are satisfied with the ratio and don’t change their
behavior.
▪ If they perceive there is inequity when they make this comparison, they
feel resentful and act to change the inequity.
▪ Employees who feel they are under-rewarded could react to the
inequity by reducing their inputs, trying to change the outputs or
rewards they receive, distorting the inequity, changing the object of
comparison, or leaving the situation.
▪ Employees who think they are treated fairly are more likely to support
organizational change and are more apt to cooperate in group settings.
● Justice Theory
o Organizational justice is concerned with the extent to which people perceive
they are treated fairly at work.
 o Three different components of organizational justice have been identified:
distributive, procedural, and interactional.
▪ Distributive justice reflects the perceived fairness of how resources
and rewards are distributed or allocated.
▪ Procedural justice is defined as the perceived fairness of the process
and procedures used to make allocation decisions.
▪ Interactional justice relates to the quality of the interpersonal
treatment people receive when procedures are implemented.
Expectancy Theory
● Expectancy theory suggests that people are motivated by two things: how much they
want something, and how likely they think they are to get it.
● Figure 12.8 presents the major elements of expectancy theory.
● According to the theory, motivation involves the relationship between effort,
performance, and the desirability of the outcomes.
● These relationships are affected by the three elements of expectancy, instrumentality,
and valence.
o Expectancy is the belief that a particular level of effort will lead to a particular
level of performance.
o Instrumentality is the expectation that successful performance of the task will
lead to the outcome desired.
o Valence is value, the importance a worker assigns to the possible outcome or
reward.
● For your motivation to be high, all three elements—expectancy, instrumentality, and
valence—must be high.
● When attempting to motivate employees using expectancy theory, managers should
ask the following questions:
o What rewards do the employees value?
o What are the job objectives and the performance level you desire?
o Are the rewards linked to performance?
o Do employees believe you will deliver the right rewards for the right
performance?
Goal-Setting Theory
● Goal-setting theory suggests that employees can be motivated by goals that are
specific and challenging, but achievable.
● It is natural for people to set and strive for goals, but the goal-setting process is useful
only if people understand and accept the goals.
● Goal setting helps motivate by directing attention, by regulating effort expended, by
increasing persistence, and by fostering the use of strategies and action plans.
● A goal is defined as an objective that a person is trying to accomplish through his or
her efforts.
 ● A stretch goal is a goal beyond what a company actually expects to achieve.
● To result in high motivation and performance, goals must have a number of
characteristics:
o Goals should be specific, usually meaning quantitative.
o People must have the ability and resources needed to achieve the goal, and
they need to be committed to the goal.
o Goals should be linked to action plans which outline the activities that need to
be accomplished in order to obtain the goal.
o Feedback and participation enhance performance only when they lead
employees to set and commit to a specific, difficult goal.

12.4 Job Design Perspectives on Motivation

Job design, the division of an organization’s work among employees, applies
motivational theories to jobs to increase performance and satisfaction. The traditional
approach to job design is to fit people to the jobs; the modern way is to fit the jobs to
the people, using job enrichment and approaches that are based on Herzberg’s
landmark two-factor theory, discussed earlier in this chapter. The job characteristics
model offers five job attributes for better work outcomes.

Section 12.4 Key Concepts:

Job Design
● Job design is the division of an organization’s work among its employees and the
application of motivational theories to jobs to increase satisfaction and performance.
● There are two approaches to job design: fitting people to jobs and fitting jobs to
people.
● The traditional way approach to job design is fitting people to jobs, while the modern
way is to fit the jobs to the people.
Fitting People to Jobs
● Fitting people to jobs is based on the assumption that people will gradually adapt to
any work situation.
● Jobs must still be tailored so that nearly anyone can do them.
● One technique of this approach is scientific management, the process of reducing the
number of tasks a worker performs.
● When a job is stripped down to its simplest elements, it enables a worker to focus on
doing more of the same task, thus increasing employee efficiency and productivity.
● A disadvantage of this approach is that simplified, repetitive jobs lead to job
dissatisfaction, poor mental health, and a low sense of accomplishment and personal
growth.
Fitting Jobs to People
● Fitting jobs to people is based on the assumption that people are underutilized at work
and that they want more variety, challenges, and responsibility.
● Two techniques for this type of job design are job enlargement and job enrichment.
o Job enlargement consists of increasing the number of tasks in a job to
increase variety and motivation.
▪ Research suggests job enlargement by itself won’t have a significant
positive impact on job performance.
▪ Job enlargement is just one tool that should be used in job design.
o Job enrichment consists of building into a job such motivating factors as
responsibility, achievement, recognition, stimulating work, and advancement.
▪ Instead of the job-enlargement technique (known as horizontal
loading), employees are given more responsibility (known as vertical
loading).
▪ Employees take on chores that would normally be performed by their
supervisors.
The Job Characteristics Model
● The job characteristics model presented in Figure 12.9 consists of (a) five core job
characteristics that affect (b) three critical psychological states of an employee that in
turn affect (c) work outcomes—the employee’s motivation, performance, and
satisfaction.
● The core job characteristics of this model are:
o Skill variety: the extent to which a job requires a person to use a wide range of
different skills and abilities.
o Task identity: the extent to which a job requires a worker to perform all the
tasks needed to complete the job from beginning to end.
o Task significance: the extent to which a job affects the lives of other people.
o Autonomy: the extent to which a job allows an employee to make choices
about scheduling different tasks and deciding how to perform them.
o Feedback: the extent to which workers receive clear, direct information about
how well they are performing the job.
● These core characteristics affect the three critical psychological states of
meaningfulness of work, responsibility for results, and knowledge of results, states
which in turn fuel higher motivation, performance, and satisfaction and reduce
absenteeism and turnover.
● Contingency factors refer to the degree to which a person wants personal and
psychological development.
● To be motivated by enriched jobs, employees must have the necessary knowledge and
skill, a desire for personal growth, and context satisfactions (the right physical
working conditions, pay, and supervision).
● There are three major steps to follow when applying the job characteristics model:
 o Diagnose the work environment by using the job diagnostic survey to see
whether a problem exists with a low motivating potential score (MPS).
o Determine whether job design is appropriate by assessing if a core job
characteristic is causing a low MPS.
o Consider how to redesign the job by increasing core job characteristic(s) that
are low.

12.5 Reinforcement Perspectives on Motivation

Reinforcement theory suggests behavior will be repeated if it has positive
consequences and won’t be if it has negative consequences. There are four types of
reinforcement: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and
punishment. This section also describes how to use some reinforcement techniques to
modify employee behavior.
Section 12.5 Key Concepts:
Reinforcement Perspective on Motivation
● The reinforcement perspective focuses on how the consequences of a certain behavior
affect that behavior in the future.
● The law of effect says behavior with favorable consequences tends to be repeated,
while behavior with unfavorable consequences tends to disappear.
● Reinforcement theory attempts to explain behavior change by suggesting that
behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, whereas behavior with
negative consequences tends not to be repeated.
● Behavior modification is using reinforcement theory to change human behavior.
● Reinforcement is anything that causes a given behavior to be repeated or inhibited.
● There are four types of reinforcement described in Figure 12.10: positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and punishment.
o Positive reinforcement is the use of positive consequences to encourage
desirable behavior.
o Negative reinforcement is the process of strengthening a behavior by
withdrawing something negative.
o Extinction is the weakening of behavior by ignoring it or making sure it is not
reinforced.
o Punishment is the process of weakening behavior by presenting something
negative or withdrawing something positive.

Using Reinforcement to Motivate Employees

● To effectively use positive reinforcement:
o Reward only desirable behavior.
o Give rewards as soon as possible after the desirable behavior appears.
 o Be clear about what behavior is desired.
o Have different rewards, and recognize individual differences.
● To effectively use punishment:
o Punish only undesirable behavior.
o Give reprimands or disciplinary actions as soon as possible.
o Be clear about what behavior is undesirable.
o Administer punishment in private.
o Combine punishment and positive reinforcement.

12.6 Using Compensation, Nonmonetary Incentives, & Other Rewards: In Search of

the Positive Work Environment
Compensation, the main motivator of performance, includes pay for performance,
bonuses, profit sharing, gainsharing, stock options, and pay for knowledge. Other,
nonmonetary incentives address needs that aren’t being met, such as work–life
balance, growth in skills, positive work environment, and meaning in work.
Section 12.6 Key Concepts:
Motivation and Money
● Motivating isn’t just about money.
● Surveys have found that most workers rate having a caring boss higher than they
value monetary benefits.
● The Great Place to Work Institute has determined that great employers have three
traits in common: pride in the company, camaraderie with colleagues, and employee
trust in management.
● Most people are paid an hourly wage or a weekly or monthly salary, methods that are
easy for an organization to administer but give employees little incentive to work
hard.
● For incentive plans to work, certain criteria are advisable:
o Rewards must be linked to performance and be measurable.
o The rewards must satisfy individual needs.
o The rewards must be agreed on by managers and employees.
o The rewards must be believable and achievable by employees.
Popular Incentive Compensation Plans
● Popular incentive compensation plans include pay for performance, bonuses, profit
sharing, gainsharing, stock options, and pay for knowledge.
● Pay for performance, also known as merit pay, bases pay on one’s results.
o With a piece rate approach, employees are paid according to how much output
they produce.
 o With sales commission, sales representatives are paid a percentage of the
earnings the company made from their sales.
● Bonuses are cash awards given to employees who achieve specific performance
objectives.
● Profit sharing is the distribution to employees of a percentage of the company’s
profits.
● Gainsharing is the distribution of savings or “gains” to groups of employees who
reduced costs and increased measurable productivity.
o One popular gainsharing plan is the Scanlon plan, in which a portion of any
cost savings (usually 75 percent) is distributed to employees.
● With stock options, certain employees are given the right to buy stock at a future date
for a discounted price.
o Employees holding stock options will supposedly work harder to make the
company’s stock rise.
● Pay for knowledge, also known as skill-based pay, ties employee pay to the number
of job relevant skills or academic degrees they earn.
Nonmonetary Ways of Motivating Employees
● Nonmonetary ways of motivating employees include addressing employees’ needs for
work-life balance, their needs to expand their skills, their needs for a positive work
environment, and their needs to find meaning in their work.
● The Need for Work-Life Balance
o For many employees, work-life balance is the key determinant of career
success.
o Work-life benefits are employer-sponsored benefit programs or initiatives
designed to help all employees balance work life with home life.
o The purpose of such benefits is to remove barriers that make it hard for people
to strike a balance between their work and personal lives.
o Bad bosses are often an obstacle to work-life balance.
o Flexible approaches to work, such as part-time work, flextime, compressed
workweek, job sharing, and telecommuting provide for greater work-life
balance.
o Generous vacation policies or paid sabbaticals can enable employees to
reenergize themselves.
● The Need to Expand Skills
o Training programs can keep employees engaged with their work since they
may view a job as a way of gaining skills that will enable them to earn a
decent living in the future.
o Learning opportunities can include studying with or “shadowing” co-workers,
tuition reimbursement, and corporate training.
● The Need for a Positive Work Environment
o Well-being is the combined impact of five elements—positive emotions,
engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (PERMA).
o Flourishing represents the extent to which our lives contain PERMA.
o Employers can foster a positive work environment through surroundings and
an understanding boss.