Running Head: ANALYZING CONCEPTS 1

Employee Performance & Motivation in the Workplace

Organizational Psychology

LDR 621

Professor Loughran

April 28, 2017

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Introduction

Employee Performance Reviews and Employee Motivation are two important factors

leaders need to complete and understand for their organization to grow successfully over time.

Motivated and valued employees have a much higher satisfaction level with their jobs and in

return the performance level of each employee continues to grow, creating higher production

levels and an increase in profit month to month. Creating the overall organizational structure

around the satisfaction of its employees and putting them first increases employee satisfaction,

and performing employee performance reviews once a quarter or every couple months to

motivate employees to do better, keep doing what they are doing. Also creating ways to

incentivize good results from the review is a great way to motivate and push employees to do

great work, achieve great results each quarter to be rewarded and continue to help build the

organization. Disengaged employees show minimal improvement on reviews and do not help an

organization to grow to their full potential. Understanding the importance of an employee review

and what motivates employees is necessary in becoming a successful organization, creating

growth and innovation and overall being successful.

Predisposed to being Motivated

Employees are predisposed to being motivated by their own personality and self-esteem.

A persons personality shows and defines the characteristics they carry and forms their self-

esteem or self image. Self-esteem is an important part of building positive personal

characteristics and improving the way others see you and you see yourself. Self-esteem is the

extent in which a person views himself as valuable and worthy (Aamodt, 2013, p.323).

Employees with a higher self-esteem typically perform better and are more motivated than those

with a lower self-esteem. Leaders should strive to improve and understand employees self-
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esteem in the workplace to help build employees confidence and passion in their daily work.

Higher self-esteem increases employee confidence in the ability to do work in their organization

which improved their self-image.

There are three types of self-esteem: chronic, situational, and socially influences self-

esteem. Chronic self-esteem is a persons overall feeling about themselves (Aamodt, 2013, p.

324). Situational self-esteem is a persons feelings about how they do different activities on a

daily basis, such as talking to people. Socially influences self-esteem is how a person believes

they meet the expectations others want. All three types of self-esteem relate to a persons job

performance. All play a huge role in a persons daily life weather at work or at home, self-esteem

is very important although some people might be low in chronic selfesteem but very high in

situational self-esteem. Someone who spends a lot of time on the computer rather than talking to

people daily might believe he is terrible at talking to people and no one likes him (low chronic

self-esteem), but he feels he can do data entry better than anyone else (high situational self-

esteem). People act in ways that are consistent with their own personal opinion of their self-

image and employee performance is directly affected by this. This is known as the Galatea effect.

The opposite effect is the Golem effect this is where negative self-esteem leads to poor

performance. There is the Pygmalion effect which says that if people believe that something is

true, they will act in a manner that is consistent with this belief (Aamodt, 2013, p. 325). This

shows the importance of motivating employees and keeping employees engaged in techniques

because in the end the employees are the people making or breaking an organization.

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation

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There are several things that come in the way of motivation regardless if you are the

receptionist in a frontline position or in a management role in the leader role of an organization.

There is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the drive and things you do to

achieve success. For example, this is the type of motivation great leaders express daily in their

personalities. Extrinsic motivation is outside motivation to engage and motivate employees to do

daily tasks. Learning to communicate well with employees and reward employees when

necessary is what keeps employees engaged in their daily tasks and helps them stay motivated

creating a high job satisfaction and performance. This is extrinsic motivation. Whereas, people

who are intrinsically motivated maybe insulted getting outside rewards and reduce their job

satisfaction. Aamodt writes that when people are intrinsically motivated, they will seek to

perform well because they either enjoy performing the actual tasks or enjoy the challenge of

successfully completing the task (p. 326, 2013).

Needs for Achievement & Power

A theory I think most organizations tend to struggle with, especially organizations like

the one I work for that several family members are involved with. Each member of the family

has a different answer and opinion on most subjects and finding a solution to a problem is tough

when each person has a different outlook on it. This theory was developed by McClelland in

1961, suggesting employees differ in the extent to which they are motivated by the need for

achievement, affiliation, and power (Aamondt, 2013, p. 327). Employees who have a strong need

for achievement are motivated by challenging jobs that they have some control over. Employees

who have need for affiliation are motivated by jobs in which they get to help other people, for

example a teacher. Employees who have the need for power are motivated by the desire to

influence others this is something I think my organization struggles with the most. With so many
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family members working for the organization it is hard to say who has the final say and who to

go with in certain instances since everyone believes they have the higher power.

Job Expectations & Characteristic Theory

A job an employee expects one to be compared to what it really is can effect employee

motivation and job satisfaction tremendously. When an employee promises to do one thing like

upgrade their work space and does not do it this can create an employee to feel unmotivated and

not want to do more for the company than what they are doing for them. When interviewing for

new positions in an organization, applicants need to be given a realistic job preview or RJP. This

is where applicants are given both the positive and negative aspects of the job they are applying

for.

The job characteristics theory is the desire of employees jobs to be meaningful by

providing them with opportunity to be responsible for their work, and provided feedback on the

efforts (Aamodt, 2013, p328). This is something many organizations today fail to do, more

feedback about personal work creates motivation to fix it or strive to keep doing well. According

to this theory jobs that have these five core characteristic: skill variety, task identity, task

significance, autonomy, and feedback in order to have employees that are more engaged and

satisfied with their jobs. However, it is part of the leaders work to make jobs more meaningful

for their employees, provide autonomy and responsibility for their work, give feedback as

needed to help employees strive to continue good work or make their work better, all while

creating an organization that makes the employees want to be there and stay motivated to help

the organization hit its goals. This helps the organization become better at what they do, continue

to grow and make a profit.

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Goal Setting

Goal setting is a method of increasing performance in which employees are given

specific performance goals to aim for (Aamodt, 2013, p. 334). This is a great way for employees

in all different organizations to increase overall performance and motivation. Goals should be

Specific, Measurable, Difficult but Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. SMART goals not

only help the organization grow but also the employee. This helps employees strive to reach

success which in the end helps an organization hit their goals. I personally think that the

measureable portion of SMART goals is the most relevant. I have been one to not set

measureable goals. If there is no end date to when you are trying to accomplish a said goal for

example, losing ten pounds you will never keep track if you accomplished the goal or not. At my

organization I have recently started making daily goals for every salesperson and myself this

helps us to have something to strive for each day to try and achieve that way if we do not hit the

daily goal, every day we have that goal in the back of our heads to try and hit.

Rewarding Goals

An essential part of motivating employees to show up to work on time every day, set and

achieve goals, and strive to be successful is to provide an incentive to employees to want to

accomplish these goals for an organization. A great way to do so is for an organization to offer a

variety of incentives for a wide variety of things such as, behavior, referring new employees,

length of time with the company, attendance, etc. The basis for this is operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning is when employees push to do things better than what they would if they

did not receive an incentive for doing well and to avoid being a bad employee. This pushes

employees to produce high-quality work. More organizations need to focus on the recognition
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portion of rewards rather than just incentives. More employees that get recognized for their work

along would continue to try to continually do better than those that just do the amount of work to

get a certain incentive such as a gift card, a day off, travel, etc.

Equity Theory

Another factor related to motivation and performance of an employee in an organization

is based on their outlook of being treated fairly. The equity theory is based on the premise that

our levels of motivation and job satisfaction are related to how fairly we believe we are treated in

comparison to others (Aamodt, 2013, p. 350). This is a very big issue in organizations that I feel

has been on an up rise in the past few years, this issue is one that is certainly relevant especially

since everyone is always comparing oneself to someone else. In my current organization, being

that people have been here several years it seems as if some people play the system and get away

with a lot more than people who still abide by the rules. If a manager agrees to something for one

employee but not the other there is one employee being treated wrong creating job dissatisfaction

and motivation. If employees believe they are treated unfairly, they will attempt to change beliefs

or behaviors until the situation seems fair in their eyes. For example, if a manager agrees that one

employee can leave work early today to go to a baseball game but the following week another

employee asks the same thing and the manager says no, this creates employee dissatisfaction. In

the long run this can create problems between employees, poor team work, less productivity, and

less performance overall from employees. This goes hand in hand with the organizational justice

theory that states employees being treated fairly will be more satisfied with their job and

motivated for continued success in the organization. The equity theory is more in line with

incentives for great work whereas organizational justice is more focused on the fairness of

several aspects of an organization.

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Reason behind Employee Performance Reviews

The employee performance review is a huge motivator for employees. According to

Griffin & Moorhead (1981), Performance is generally discussed within the contexts of

motivation, leader behavior, task design, goal setting, and most other primary areas of

organizational research (p.656). Several companies do different things to motivate employees to

do well on these reviews as mentioned above in the rewarding goals section. Performance

evaluations usually serve multiple goals, but two of the most important are pro- vision of

incentives and performance(Zbojnk, 2014, p.341). Organizations can choose to give away

rewards, travel, money, days off, etc for completing and passing an employee performance

review. However, determining the reason why an organization wants to evaluate employees

performance is the first step. That is, does the review want to use results to improve performance

or give raises based off performance?

This determination is important to establish within the organization when completing

reviews because of the various performance appraisal techniques. One appraisal method is the

Forced-choice rating scale. This technique is used in which a supervisor is given several

behaviors and is forced to choose which of them is most typical of the employee (Aamodt,

2013, p. 235). This is not necessarily a bad idea when it comes to determining compensation;

however this certainly is not the best technique to use for training purposes. However the most

common uses and goals for performance reviews was employee training, salary increases,

promotional decisions, and termination decisions.

Identify Environmental and Cultural Limitations

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The second step in conducting employee performance reviews is identifying

environmental and cultural limitations. This is conducting and using the right technique in

employee performance reviews for different organizations so they are taken seriously. For

example, an organization that overworks or underpays their employees the system will not work.

The performance review has to be taken seriously for any technique to work and every

organization is different. One technique that might work well in one organization will not

necessarily work the same as it does in another.

Who Evaluates Performance?

The supervisors or managers for an organization for each department are typically the

ones giving an employee the performance review. According to Posthuma and Campion (2008),

reviewers are managers or customers in a customer service position, the key is to use frequent

observations that are linked directly to the employee whose performance is being reviewed

(p.52). However, most supervisors or managers are not working side by side with an employee,

so they are only seeing certain aspects of the employees behavior. For example, in the

automotive dealership I work for currently I am not seen by customers nor do I sit by my

manager for him to see my constant move and/or behavior. Customers and peers do the

remaining portion of the observing. This is the 360-degree feedback technique. This is a widely

used source for training and development purposes in organizations and rarely ever used for

employee increases, promotions or and termination decisions. However, several organizations

use a multiple-source feedback which corresponds with a 360-degree feedback getting feedback

from sources other than just his or her supervisor.

Best Appraisal Methods

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Every organization has a different way of doing things and every organization is not the

same. For example, one organization may be an automotive dealership whereas another may be a

retail furniture store. An automotive dealership would not necessarily use the same appraisal

methods as a furniture retail store would. Determining the criteria (describing employees

success) is crucial in the beginning steps of deciding what goals to accomplish when deciding on

outcomes of the performance review. For example, attendance, quality of work, safety, or

attendance may be the most important criteria for a successful employee in an organization.

There are five dimensions organizations have to decide between when giving

performance reviews. The first is trait-focused performance dimensions; this is more focused on

the dependability, honesty and courtesy of the employee. This is not the best option to use when

giving reviews because of the truthfulness and less effective growth results.

The second is competency-focused. This is focused on the traits such as skills, knowledge

and abilities in the workplace. This is a more commonly used dimension in that it gives detailed

feedback and an easy way to suggest further training in certain areas. This is used as an easy way

to provide feedback and suggest steps to improve daily deficiencies to achieve organizational and

personal goals.

The third dimension is task-focused. Task-focused is reviewing the tasks performed each

day. Typically this included several competencies, combining for example how someone builds

rapport with customers based off the phone and email. A disadvantage to this dimension is the

difficulty to suggesting further training or how to correct something.

Goal-focused performance dimension is based around the goals set to be accomplished.

For example, each day an employee may have a goal to hit 80 calls out to customers per day.
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This was how reviews were given at a previous job I worked for and were analyzed by the

manager where as the second portion of the review was a peer review based off how they thought

we sounded and kept on task each day. This leads to the final dimension, contextual

performance.

Contextual Performance is a review based on an all around task completion per day and

the aspects of performing a job. This is the most commonly seen review I have experienced in

my current organizations. This includes rating scales for different categories such as behavior

and staying on task throughout the day and is reviewed by managers and peers.

In the previous automotive dealership I worked for we had reviews every quarter which

was ever 3 months. We all were given a piece of paper with another employees name on it from

within the same department. This was the easiest way to review an employee since we worked so

closely together all goals and daily tasks were the same and we all knew the objective behind the

position. There were several components that made up the review that each employee had to go

through and rate how well they believed their peer was doing in those three months. Once the

reviews were all turned in our manager reviewed each piece of paper for every employee

individually and wrote comments based off her ratings of each employee. Once every employees

review had been gone through and reviewed the manager arranged meeting times for each

employee to have a sit down meeting to go over what was on the review and what they would

have rated themselves and how they can improve for the next three months before the next

evaluation. The rating was on a scale to 1 to 10 for each question with an explanation area at the

bottom to explain why you chose the ratings for the employee. Once you received a pass or fail

rating on the review you were given the opportunity to pick out of several incentive options

including, extra days off, gift cards, sporting event tickets, etc. If you failed the review the
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employee was required to write an explanation as to why they failed, things to change, and goals

set for the next quarter to get a pass rating. Employees typically stayed motivated to pass their

review to get the incentives at the conclusion of the meeting each quarter.

Training Reviewers

A step that you would not think would need to be recognized is training the reviewers of

employees. This is something most organizations do not spend the time and money to do this

properly. However according to Aamodt (2013) the lack of training is surprising given that

research has indicated that training supervisors to become aware of the various rating errors and

how to avoid them often increases accuracy and reduces rating errors, and increases the validity

of tests validated against the ratings (p. 254). The training format when training supervisors is

another function that proves its effectiveness. The frame-of-reference training provides job-

related information, practice in rating, and examples of ratings made by experts (p. 254). The

goal behind frame-of-reference training is to be effective in showing employees behaviors when

completing a performance evaluation.

Observation and Documentation of Results

This is the focus of employee behavior and incidents that may have occurred. During the

evaluation the reviewer has the opportunity to see what the actual behavior of the employee is by

observing and documenting. This is a great way for supervisors to show an employee a

documented history of the fluctuation in their behavior. After an employee performance review if

it comes down to termination this is also a great way for organization to have a written

background so the employee cannot go after them for something that is untrue, the

documentation will prove their reasoning behind the termination or suspension. This is
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something that many organizations should do when completing a review and even have a copy

for the organization and the individual to continue to see improvement to be later discussed in

other evaluations when discussing performance. This is also a motivator for the employee to

continue to do well.

Evaluating Performance & Communicating Results

The final step in the employee performance review is the evaluation of the review. This is

something that I have seen several organizations struggle to do and really this is ultimately what

all the steps and the review have been leading up to help benefit the employee and the

organization. This is a way for upper management and supervisors to review the documented

information combine the information in poor and excellent rating and then are able to overall rate

the employee. For example, absentees, goals accomplished, and number of outbound calls each

day to be able to see what is considered poor or excellent and rate the employee overall based off

this information.

Communicating the results to employees, supervisors should know exactly what they

want to talk about and how to address any issues that have been documented for a particular

employee. Allocating time, scheduling the review, and preparing for the meeting is a professional

way to approach a performance review. During the interview supervisors need to make sure all

information on the review is discussed and nothing is left out, although negative feedback is not

something that people want to talk about. Discussing why an evaluation is not perfect and what

changes can be made to be perfect the next times are the things that are discussed in the meeting.

However, when reviewing the information this is also the time that a supervisor decides if the

employee needs to be terminated or not.

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Conclusion

Employee motivation and employee performance reviews are critical to organizational

growth and development. Financial incentives improve task performance moderately too

significantly, but their effectiveness is dependent on organizational conditions (Perry, Mesch,

Paarlberg, 2006, p. 506). Previous experience with employee performance reviews and the

incentives it brings creates employees to stay focused and motivated to achieve goals. For

example, a passing score on an employee performance review has earned me time off, so from

then on knowing each day is a day tracked on my review this has motivated me to continue to do

well at work to get another passing score. This explains the reasoning behind keeping employees

engaged in the workplace. Engaged employees are motivated employees who continue to do well

on reviews and get incentivized. There are always things to overcome and when organizations

have processes and guidelines in place to work past these challenges it helps in handling different

organizational situations.
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References

Aamodt, M. G. (2013). Industrial/organizational psychology: An applied approach (7th Ed.).

Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Bowman, J. (1994). At Last, an Alternative to Performance Appraisal: Total Quality

Management. Public Administration Review, 54(2), 129-136. doi:10.2307/976521

Griffin, R., Welsh, A., & Moorhead, G. (1981). Perceived Task Characteristics and Employee

Performance: A Literature Review. The Academy of Management Review, 6(4), 655-664.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/257645

Perry, J., Mesch, D., & Paarlberg, L. (2006). Motivating Employees in a New Governance Era:

The Performance Paradigm Revisited. Public Administration Review, 66(4), 505-514.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3843936

Posthuma, R. A., & Campion, M. A. (2008). Twenty Best Practices for Just Employee

Performance Reviews: Employers can use a model to achieve performance reviews that

increase employee satisfaction, reduce the likelihood of litigation and boost

motivation. Compensation & Benefits Review, 40(1), 47-55.

Zbojnk, J. (2014). Subjective evaluations with performance feedback. The RAND Journal of

Economics, 45(2), 341-369. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43186460