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MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

Needs-Based Perspectives

Motivation
• This is the forces acting on or within a person that causes the person to behave in a specific, goal-
directed manner.
• This is a set of energetic forces that originates both within and outside an employee, initiates
work-related effort, and determines its direction, intensity, and persistence.
• This is the set of forces that leads people to behave in particular ways.
• This is a psychological process that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary
actions that are goal-directed.

Responsibilities of Organizations Related to Motivation

• Attract individuals to the organization and encourage them to remain with it;
• Allow individuals to perform the tasks for which they were hired; and
• Stimulate individuals to go beyond routine performance and become creative and innovative in
their work.

Needs-based theories on motivation assume that need deficiencies cause behavior.

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – In this model, Abraham H. Maslow suggested that individuals have
a complex set of exceptionally strong needs, and that these needs can be placed in a hierarchy of
importance. Some basic assumptions on this theory are:
o Once a need has been satisfied, its impact on motivation declines. However, after the
satisfaction of a need, another need gradually emerges to take its place, so individuals are
always striving to satisfy some need.
o In general, lower levels must be satisfied before higher level needs can drive behavior.
o There are more ways of satisfying higher level than lower level needs.
The three (3) sets of needs at the bottom of the hierarchy are called deficiency needs because
they must be satisfied for the individual to be fundamentally comfortable. The five (5)
classifications of needs are:
o Physiological needs – These needs focus on the basic requirements of the human body
such as food, water, and sleep.
o Safety needs – These emphasize the desires of a person to be protected from physical or
economic harm. Examples of needs under this category are adequate housing, clothing,
and freedom from worry and anxiety.
o Social needs – These needs include the desires of a person to give and receive affection
and to be in the company of others. The need for love and affection are classified as social
needs.
o Esteem needs – These needs deal with a person’s self-confidence and sense of self-worth.
Esteem needs can be divided into two (2) slightly different kinds of needs: the need for a
positive self-image and self-respect and the need to be respected by others.

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o Self-actualization needs – These needs describe the need for self-fulfillment. Stated more
specifically, it refers to a person’s need to realize his/her full potential and become all
that he or she can be.

• ERG Theory – Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory extends and refines Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It
is different from the Hierarchy of Needs in three (3) important ways:
o ERG theory collapses the Hierarchy of Needs into three (3) categories – existence,
relatedness, and growth. Existence pertains to the needs related to the person’s
physiological and material well-being; relatedness to satisfying interpersonal
relationships, and growth needs to a desire for continual personal growth and
development. Existence needs to correspond to physiological and security needs of
individuals. Relatedness corresponds to social and esteem needs. Growth corresponds to
self-actualization.
o ERG theory emphasizes a unique frustration-regression component. This means that if a
higher need remains unfulfilled, the person may regress to lower level needs that may be
easier to satisfy.
o Unlike the Hierarchy of Needs, ERG Theory states that more than one (1) need may be
activated at the same time.

• Dual Structure Theory – This theory was a result of Frederick Herzberg’s study of job satisfaction
on workers. He discovered that there is a different set of factors that will lead to a worker being
satisfied with his/her job, and another set of factors that would merely keep the employee from
being dissatisfied.
o Hygiene factors are those factors which prevent an employee from being dissatisfied.
They relate more to the environment in which people work with rather than the job itself.
Examples of these are pay, job security, supervisors, and working conditions. When these
factors were considered acceptable, the person was not necessarily satisfied, they were
only not dissatisfied.
o Motivation factors cause job satisfaction. They are intrinsic to the job itself and include
factors such as achievement and recognition. They are also related to the individual’s
positive feelings about the job and the content of the job itself. Examples of these factors
include achievement, recognition, advancement, and growth.

• McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory – It proposes that an individual’s specific needs are acquired
over time and are shaped by one’s own experiences. There are three (3) classifications of these
needs:
o Need for achievement (nAch) – This is the drive to excel, to do better, to solve problems,
or to master complex tasks. Individuals who have a high need for achievement tend to set
moderately difficult tasks and make moderately risky decisions. They also want
immediate, specific feedback on their performance. They are frequently preoccupied with
their jobs and tend to assume personal responsibility for getting things done.
o Need for affiliation (nAff) - This is the desire for friendly and warm relations with others.
Individuals with a high need for affiliation tend to want reassurance and approval from
others and are usually genuinely concerned with others’ feelings. They are likely to act
and think as they believe others want them to.

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o Need for power (nPow) – This is the desire to control others and influence their behavior.
People with a high need for power actively searches for the means of influence.

Process-Based Perspectives

• Equity Theory – This theory by J. Stacy Adams proposes that people are motivated to behave in
ways that restore or maintain equity in situations. It defines equity as the belief that we are being
treated fairly in relation to others. Perceived inequity occurs when someone believes that the
rewards/compensations received for his/her contributions compare unfavorably to the rewards
other people appear to have received for their work. The basic equity comparison can be
summarized as follows:

Inequity occurs when:


 
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• Expectancy Theory – This theory states that individuals are motivated to work when they believe
that they can achieve things they want from their jobs. In other words, people are motivated by
how much they want something and the likelihood they perceive of getting it. It can be
summarized in this equation:

          

o Expectancy is the probability that work effort will be followed by the desired
performance. If we believe that our effort will lead to higher performance, expectancy is
strong. This is the belief that if an individual works harder than everyone, he/she will
produce more.
o Valence is the degree of attractiveness or unattractiveness a particular outcome has on a
person. This may also refer to the value the individual places on the rewards.
o Instrumentality is the belief that if one meets performance expectations, he/she will
receive a greater reward. For example, if the individual produces more than anyone else,
he/she will get a bigger raise or faster promotion.

• Goal-setting Theory – This theory emphasizes the effects of setting goals on subsequent
performance. Edwin Locke found that individuals who set specific, difficult goals performed better
than those who set general, easy goals. He proposed five (5) basic principles of goal-setting.
o Clarity – A clear, measureable goal is more achievable than one that is poorly defined.
o Challenge – The goal must have a decent level of difficulty in order to motivate you to
strive towards the goal.
o Commitment – The individual must put deliberate effort towards achieving this goal.
o Feedback – The individual must also set up a method to receive information on his/her
progress towards the goal. If the goal turns out to be too hard, it is better to adjust the
difficulty of the task than give up entirely.

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o Task complexity – It is important to make sure that the person has enough time to reach
the goal and can understand the goal being set. Unreasonable time expectation may
overwhelm a person and become less effective as a result of stress.
Learning-Based Perspectives
• Classical Conditioning – This is a form of learning through association that involves the
manipulation of stimuli to influence behavior. Stimuli refer to something that incites action and
draws forth a response. Individuals learn when they associate a stimulus with another stimulus
that can affect behavior. For example, students can learn to stand up when a teacher enters the
room.
• Operant Conditioning - This is the control of behavior by manipulating the consequences. For
example, students learn to stand up when a teacher enters the classroom because the teacher
thanks them.
• Organizational Behavior Modification – The use of rewards to systematically reinforce desirable
work behavior and discourage undesirable behavior.
o Forms of Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement – This occurs when a positive outcome follows a desired
behavior.

Negative reinforcement / avoidance – This is the opportunity to avoid or escape from
an unpleasant circumstance after exhibiting behavior. It may also occur when an
unwanted outcome is removed following a desired behavior.

Punishment – This occurs when an unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior.
It applies a negative event or outcome to decrease the frequency of undesirable
behavior.

Extinction – This happens when the organization withdraws something the employee
values to decrease the frequency of an undesirable behavior.
o Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement – This schedule rewards or punishes behavior every time it
occurs.

Fixed-interval reinforcement – This schedule is provided on a pre-determined,
constant schedule.

Variable-interval reinforcement – This schedule varies the amount of time between
reinforcements.

Fixed-ratio reinforcement – This schedule is provided after a fixed number of
behaviors.

Variable-ratio reinforcement – This schedule varies the number of behaviors between
reinforcements. What is important is that, the intervals between the reinforcements
do not become so long that the worker gets discouraged and stops trying.

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REFERENCES
Champoux, J. E. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups and Organizations, Fourth Edition.
New York : Routledge.
Colquitt, J. A., Lepine, J. A., & Wesson , M. J. (2015). Organizational Behavior: Immproving Performance and
Commitment in the Workplace, Fourth Edition. New York : McGraw HIll Education .
Expectancy Theory . (2010). Retrieved from Quick MBA: http://www.quickmba.com/mgmt/expectancy-theory/
Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2014). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, Eleventh
Edition . Mason : South-Western Cengage Learning .
Hellreigel, D., & Slocum, J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior, Thirteenth Edition . Mason : South-Western
Cengage Learning .
Neutrino. (2012, March 27). What is Goal-Setting Theory? . Retrieved from Go Strengths:
http://www.gostrengths.com/what-is-goal-setting-theory/
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2014). Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Fourth Edition. New Jearsey: Pearson .
Saylor. (2012). Theories of Motivation. Retrieved from saylordotorg:
https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_organizational-behavior-v1.1/s09-theories-of-motivation.html
Schermerhorn, J. R., Hunt, J. G., Osborn, R. N., & Uhi-BIen, M. (2009). Organizational Behavior, Eleventh Edition .
New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
The 5 golden principles of goal-setting . (2012, May 4). Retrieved from book boon blog :
http://bookboon.com/blog/2012/05/the-5-golden-principles-of-goal-setting/

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