Influence of Individual Needs on Motivation: Theories and Implications

1. Planning Ahead — Topic 10 Study Questions • How do individual needs influence motivation? • What are the process theories of motivation? • What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • What are the alternative approaches to job design?

2. Study Question 1: How do individual needs influence motivation? • Types of content theories: • Hierarchy of needs theory • ERG theory • Two-factor theory • Acquired needs theory

3. Study Question 1: How do individual needs influence motivation? • Motivation and individual needs • Motivation—the forces within the individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended at work. • Needs • Unfulfilled physiological and psychological desires of an individual. • Explain workplace behavior and attitudes. • Create tensions that influence attitudes and behavior. • Good managers and leaders facilitate employee need satisfaction.

4. Figure 13.1Opportunities for satisfaction in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.

5. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Hierarchy of needs theory • Developed by Abraham Maslow. • Lower-order and higher-order needs affect workplace behavior and attitudes. • Lower-order needs: • Physiological, safety, and social needs. • Desires for physical and social well being. • Higher-order needs: • Esteem and self-actualization needs. • Desire for psychological growth and development.

6. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • ERG theory • Developed by Clayton Alderfer. • Three need levels: • Existence needs — desires for physiological and material well-being. • Relatedness needs — desires for satisfying interpersonal relationships. • Growth needs — desires for continued psychological growth and development.

7. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • ERG theory • Any/all needs can influence behavior at one time. • Frustration-regression principle. • An already satisfied lower-level need becomes reactivated when a higher-level need is frustrated.

8. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Two-factor theory • Developed by Frederick Herzberg. • Hygiene factors: • Elements of the job context. • Sources of job dissatisfaction. • Satisfier factors: • Elements of the job content. • Sources of job satisfaction and motivation.

9. Figure 13.2Herzberg’s two-factor theory.

10. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Acquired needs theory • Developed by David McClelland. • People acquire needs through their life experiences. • Needs that are acquired: • Need for Achievement(nAch) • Need for Power(nPower) • Need for Affiliation(nAff)

11. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Acquired needs theory • Need for Achievement(nAch) • Desire to do something better or more efficiently, to solve problems, or to master complex tasks. • People high in (nAch) prefer work that: • Involves individual responsibility for results. • Involves achievable but challenging goals. • Provides feedback on performance.

12. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Acquired needs theory • Need for Power (nPower) • Desire to control other persons, to influence their behavior, or to be responsible for other people. • Personal power versus social power. • People high in (nPower) prefer work that: • Involves control over other persons. • Has an impact on people and events. • Brings public recognition and attention.

13. Study Question 2: What are the different types of individual needs? • Acquired needs theory • Need for Affiliation (nAff) • Desire to establish and maintain friendly and warm relations with other persons. • People high in (nAff) prefer work that: • Involves interpersonal relationships. • Provides for companionship • Brings social approval.

14. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Process theories of motivation… • How people make choices to work hard or not. • Choices are based on: • Individual preferences. • Available rewards. • Possible work outcomes. • Types of process theories: • Equity theory. • Expectancy theory. • Goal-setting theory.

15. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Equity theory • Developed by J. Stacy Adams. • When people believe that they have been treated unfairly in comparison to others, they try to eliminate the discomfort and restore a perceived sense of equity to the situation. • Perceived inequity. • Perceived equity.

16. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Equity theory • People respond to perceived negative inequity by changing … • Work inputs. • Rewards received. • Comparison points. • Situation.

17. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Managerial implications of equity theory— • Underpaid people experience anger. • Overpaid people experience guilt. • Perceptions of rewards determine motivational outcomes. • Negative consequences of equity comparisons should be minimized, if not eliminated. • Do not underestimate the impact of pay as a source of equity controversies in the workplace. • Gender equity. • Comparable worth.

18. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Expectancy theory • Developed by Victor Vroom. • Key expectancy theory variables: • Expectancy — belief that working hard will result in desired level of performance. • Instrumentality — belief that successful performance will be followed by rewards. • Valence —value a person assigns to rewards and other work related outcomes.

19. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Expectancy theory • Motivation (M), expectancy (E), instrumentality (I), and valence (V) are related to one another in a multiplicative fashion: M = E x I x V • If either E, I, or V is low, motivation will be low.

20. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Managerial implications of expectancy theory— • To maximize expectancy, managers should: • Select workers with ability. • Train workers to use ability. • Support work efforts. • Clarify performance goals.

21. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Managerial implications of expectancy theory— • To maximize instrumentality, managers should: • Clarify psychological contracts. • Communicate performance-outcome possibilities. • Identify rewards that are contingent on performance.

22. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Managerial implications of expectancy theory— • To maximize valence in a positive direction, managers should: • Identify individual needs. • Adjust rewards to match individual needs.

23. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Goal-setting theory • Developed by Edwin Locke. • Properly set and well-managed task goals can be highly motivating. • Motivational effects of task goals: • Provide direction to people in their work. • Clarify performance expectations. • Establish a frame of reference for feedback. • Provide a foundation for behavioral self-management.

24. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Key issues and principles in the goal-setting process: • Set specific goals. • Set challenging goals. • Build goal acceptance and commitment. • Clarify goal priorities. • Provide feedback on goal accomplishment. • Reward goal accomplishment.

25. Study Question 2: What are the process theories of motivation? • Goal-setting theory • Participation in goal setting • unlocks the motivational potential of goal setting. • management by objectives (MBO) promotes participation. • when participation is not possible, workers will respond positively if supervisory trust and support exist.

26. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Fundamentals of reinforcement theory Reinforcement theory focuses on the impact of external environmental consequences on behavior. • Law of effect — impact of type of consequence on future behavior. • Operant conditioning: • Developed by B.F. Skinner. • Applies law of effect to control behavior by manipulating its consequences.

27. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Operant conditioning strategies: • Positive reinforcement • Increases the frequency of a behavior through the contingent presentation of a pleasant consequence. • Negative reinforcement • Increases the frequency of a behavior through the contingent removal of an unpleasant consequence.

28. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Operant conditioning strategies: • Punishment • Decreases the frequency of a behavior through the contingent presentation of an unpleasant consequence. • Extinction • Decreases the frequency of a behavior through the contingent removal of an pleasant consequence.

29. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Successful implementation of positive reinforcement is based on • Law of contingent reinforcement— • Reward delivered only if desired behavior is exhibited. • Law of immediate reinforcement— • More immediate the delivery of a reward, the more reinforcement value it has.

30. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Guidelines for using positive reinforcement: • Clearly identify desired work behaviors. • Maintain a diverse inventory of rewards. • Inform everyone about what must be done to get rewards. • Recognize individual differences when allocating rewards. • Follow the laws of immediate and contingent reinforcement.

31. Study Question 3: What role does reinforcement play in motivation? • Guidelines for using punishment: • Tell the person what is being done wrong. • Tell the person what is being done right. • Match the punishment to the behavior. • Administer punishment in private. • Follow laws of immediate and contingent reinforcement.

32. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Job • A collection of tasks performed in support of organizational objectives. • Job design • The process of creating or defining jobs by assigning specific work tasks to individuals and groups. • Jobs should be designed so that both performance and satisfaction result.

33. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Job rotation and job enlargement: • Expands job scope. • Job rotation. • Increases task variety by periodically shifting workers among jobs involving different task assignments. • Job enlargement. • Increases task variety by combining two or more tasks previously assigned to separate workers. • Horizontal loading.

34. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Job enrichment. • Building more opportunities for satisfaction into a job by expanding its content. • Expands both job scope and job depth. • Frequently accomplished through vertical loading.

35. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Core job characteristics: • Skill variety. • Task identity. • Task significance. • Autonomy. • Feedback.

36. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Checklist for enriching jobs: • Remove controls that limit people’s discretion in their work. • Grant people authority to make decisions about their work. • Make people understand their accountability for results. • Allow people to do “whole” tasks or complete units of work. • Make performance feedback available.

37. Figure 13.7Job design and individual work outcomes using the core characteristics model.

38. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Compressed workweek. • Any work schedule that allows a full-time job to be completed in less than the standard 5 days of 8-hour shifts. • Benefits — more leisure time, lower commuting costs, lower absenteeism, and potentially improved performance. • Disadvantages — increased fatigue, family adjustment problems, increased scheduling problems, possible customer complaints, and union opposition.

39. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Flexible working hours. • Any work schedule that gives employees some choice in the pattern of their daily work hours. • Core time — all employees must be at work. • Flextime — allows employees to schedule around personal and family responsibilities.

40. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Potential benefits of flexible working hours: • People have greater autonomy in work scheduling while ensuring maintenance of work responsibilities. • Organizations can attract and retain employees who have special non-work responsibilities. • Worker morale may be improved.

41. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Job sharing. • One full-time job is split between two or more persons. • Work sharing. • An agreement between employees to cut back their work hours to avoid layoffs or termination.

42. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Potential advantages of work sharing • Trained and loyal workers can be retained while temporarily cutting labor costs. • Continued work  but with reduced earnings  for those who would otherwise be laid off. • Potential disadvantages of work sharing • Employees who might otherwise be protected by seniority may suffer an income loss.

43. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Telecommuting. • A work arrangement that allows a portion of scheduled work hours to be completed outside of the office. • Virtual offices.

44. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Potential advantages of telecommuting: • Freedom from • Constraints of commuting. • Fixed hours. • Special work attire. • Direct contact with supervisors. • Increased productivity. • Fewer distractions. • Being one’s own boss. • Having more personal time.

45. Study Question 4: What are the alternative approaches to job design? • Potential disadvantages of telecommuting: • Working too much. • Having less personal time. • Difficulty in separating work and personal life. • Less time for family. • Feelings of isolation. • Loss of visibility for promotion. • Difficulties supervising work-at-home employees from a distance.