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Chapter
9 Motivation, Satisfaction, and
Performance

“Polls estimate that if companies could get 3.7

percent more work out of each employee, the
equivalent of 18 more minutes of work for
each eight-hour shift, the gross domestic
product in the U.S. would swell by $355 billion,
twice the total GDP of Greece.”

~The Gallup Organization

9-2
Introduction

• The ability to motivate others is a fundamental

leadership skill and has strong connections to
building cohesive, goal-oriented teams and
getting results through others.
• Variation in work output varies significantly
across leaders and followers.
• Creating highly motivated and satisfied
followers depends mostly on understanding
others.

9-3
Defining Motivation, Satisfaction,
and Performance
• Motivation is anything that provides direction,
intensity, and persistence to behavior.
– Not observable; must be inferred from behavior.
• Performance concerns behaviors directed
toward the firm’s mission/goals or the products
or services resulting from those behaviors.
– Differs from effectiveness i.e., making judgments
about the adequacy of behavior based on criteria.
• Job satisfaction is how much one likes a
specific kind of job or work activity.
– Satisfied workers engage in organizational
citizenship behaviors.

9-4
Understanding and Influencing
Follower Motivation
• Motivational theories are useful in certain
situations but not as applicable in others.
• Leaders who know about different motivational
theories are more likely to choose the right
theory for a particular follower and situation.
– Choosing the best theory may result in higher-
performing and more satisfied employees.

• Most performance problems can be attributed

to unclear expectations, skill deficits, resource/
equipment shortages, or a lack of motivation.
• Leaders have the most difficulty recognizing
and correcting motivation problems.

9-5
Empowerment
• Empowerment has two key components:
– Leaders delegate leadership and decision making
down to the lowest level possible.
– Leaders equip followers with the resources, skills, and
knowledge necessary to make good decisions.
• Macro psychological components:
– Motivation
– Learning
– Stress
• Micro psychological components:
– Self-determination
– Meaning
– Competence
– Influence
9-6
Empowerment (continued)
• Many leaders assume it is easier to change an
individual than it is to change the situation, but
this is often not the case.
• Leaders can often see positive changes in
followers’ motivation levels by restructuring
work processes and procedures.
– This can increase their latitude to make decisions and
add more meaning to work.
• Leaders can help followers work through initial
resistance to new processes and procedures by
showing support, providing training and
coaching on new skills, and capitalizing on
opportunities to reward progress.

9-7
Motivation Summary

• A leader’s actions can and do affect followers’

motivation levels.
• Leaders should be flexible in the types of
interventions they use to motivate followers,
which requires familiarity with the pros and cons
of various motivational theories.
• Leadership practitioners should not overlook the
interplay between emotions and motivation.
• Success is more likely when leaders are able to
address and capitalize on emotions when
introducing change.

9-8
Understanding and Influencing
Follower Satisfaction
• Satisfied workers are more likely to continue
working for an organization and engage in
organizational citizenship behaviors.
• Dissatisfied workers are more likely to be
adversarial in their relations with leadership and
engage in diverse counterproductive behaviors.
• Employee turnover has the most immediate
impact on leadership practitioners.
– Functional turnover is healthy for an organization,
such as when followers retire, do not fit into the
organization, or are substandard workers.
– Dysfunctional turnover is unhealthy and occurs
when an organization’s best and brightest become
dissatisfied and leave.
9-9
Summary
• Although motivation is an important aspect of
performance, performance and motivation are
not the same thing.
• People often have varying levels of satisfaction
for different aspects of their jobs.
• Many of the approaches to understanding
motivation have distinct implications for
increasing performance and satisfaction.
• Followers and leaders are more likely to have
positive attitudes about work if they believe that
what they do is important and that the reward
and disciplinary systems are fair and just.

9-10