Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter Overview
identify what things motivate people. Maslows hierarchy of needs, McClellands theory of achievement, power, and affiliation needs, and Herzbergs two-factor theory of motivation are explained.
Process theories look at the process of motivation rather than specific motivators.
All of the theories depend on the individuals perception of what is a valued motivator.
Some supervisors and other managers assume that the main thing employees want out of a job is money.
While money can be a motivator, it is not the only motivator, and for some people it is not the most important motivator. For money to motivate, it must meet employee needs, and employees must believe they are able to achieve the financial rewards the organization offers.
piecework systems, production bonus systems, commissions, suggestion plans, group incentive plans, profit-sharing, and gainsharing.
Supervisors will likely have limits on the types of motivators they can use.
having high expectations of employees, providing rewards that are valued, relating rewards to performance, treating employees as individuals, encouraging employee participation, and providing feedback, including praise.
Motivation: Giving people incentives that cause them to act in desired ways. The objective of motivating employees is to lead them to perform in ways that meet the goals of the department and the organization. Because supervisors are largely evaluated on the basis of how well their group as a whole performs, motivation is an important skill for supervisors to acquire.
Employees ultimately decide how they are going to perform or not perform.
behavior through the use of rewards and other incentives. Supervisors are a significant factor in creating the environment in which employees work.
Flextime: a policy that grants employees some leeway in choosing which eight hours a day or which 40 hours a week to work. Job sharing: an arrangement in which two part-time employees share the duties of one full-time job.
Content theories of motivation focus on the content of the motivator. Three researchers whose content theories of motivation are widely used are
Maslow assumes that what motivates people is unmet needs. According to Maslow, the needs that motivate people fall into five basic categories:
physiological needs (the most basic need), security needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (the highest-level need).
Physiological needs are the ones required for survival. Security needs involve keeping oneself free from harm. Social needs are the desire for love, friendship, and
companionship. Esteem needs are the need for self-esteem and the respect of others. Self-actualization needs describe the desire to live up to ones full potential. People may be seeking to meet more than one category of needs at a time.
This motivation theory is based on the assumption that through life experiences, people develop various needs.
(1)
(2) (3)
People have all of these needs to some extent. The relative strength of the needs influences what will motivate a person.
Dissatisfaction
Another way to explain motivation is to look at it as a process. Two major process theories are expectancy-valence theory and reinforcement theory.
Victor Vroom assumes that people act as they do to satisfy needs they feel. He sets out to explain what determines the intensity of peoples motivation.
(1) (2)
Valence
Expectancy
The strength of motivation equals the perceived value of the outcome times the perceived probability of the behavior resulting in the outcome.
This theory is based on employees perceptions of rewards and whether they are able to achieve those rewards.
It is important to note that employees may place different values on rewards and their ability to achieve the outcome than does the supervisor. Supervisors need to determine from the employees what is rewarding and what is possible to achieve.
B. F. Skinner says that people behave as they do because of the kind of consequences they experience as a result of their behavior.
that lead to consequences they like, and avoid doing things that have undesirable consequences.
do things that get them praised.
Supervisors can encourage or discourage a particular kind of behavior by the way they respond to the behavior.
the desired consequence for behavior. This term is used to indicate positive
consequences for desired behavior. This is also used to indicate the outcome for ceasing negative behavior.
(2)
Punishment
Behavior Modification: The use of reinforcement and punishment to motivate people to behave in certain way.
is more effective than punishment. Punishment can lead to what is called learned helplessness.
Likewise, not all rewards are under the control of the supervisor.
Financial Incentives
Some supervisors and other managers assume that the main thing employees want out of a job is money.
Based on the content theories of motivation, it makes sense to say that money motivates people when it meets their needs.
relatively low income, money may be a motivator. If an individual is financially comfortable, nonfinancial rewards, such as a sense of accomplishment, are increasingly important.
Laffer Curver
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Time at Work
There are a variety of pay systems that include additional incentives for productivity of employees.
Included are:
Piecework system. Production bonus system Commissions Payments for suggestions Group incentive plans Gainsharing
Piecework system
Piecework System: Payment according to the amount produced. This system pays people according to how much they produce.
Employees in a production department may receive a basic wage or salary plus a bonus that consists of a payment for units produced.
Commissions
In companies with suggestion programs, employees are paid for suggestions for improvements.
payment, the suggestion must be adopted or save some minimum amount of money. A common practice is for payment to be linked to the saving realized.
The group incentive plan pays a bonus when the group as a whole exceeds some objective.
Gainsharing
participate in making suggestions and decisions on how to improve the way the company or work group operates. As performance improves, employees receive a share of the greater earnings.
psychological rewards.
Pay Information
In our society money is considered a private matter, and most people dont talk about what they earn. Does secrecy help or hurt?
let them know what they hope to earn.
Making work interesting increases the likelihood of employees giving work their full attention and enthusiasm. Some ways to make work more interesting are
Job rotation
Job rotation involves moving employees from job to job so as to give them more variety.
Job enlargement
Job enrichment
When jobs are modified to make them more interesting, it is important for the organization and supervisor to remember that not all employees are motivated by the same things or at the same time.
Some employees will see job modification as a way to get them to do more for the same amount of money.
Another way to make work meaningful is to give employees some contact with the people who receive and use their products or services.
For example, when a user of manufactured products is having trouble, a visit from employees may serve two purposes.
of the product. Second, employees will learn and understand more about the product from the users point of view.
The Pygmalion effect is the direct relationship between expectations and performance.
does not expect employees to be able to accomplish a task, it is likely they wont. However, if the supervisor conveys high expectations, employees are likely to succeed.
Providing rewards that are valued is very important. The content theories of motivation indicate that a variety of rewards may motivate and that not all employees will value the same rewards at the same time.
The supervisors challenge is to determine what rewards will work for particular employees at particular times.
Although supervisors may not be able to control some rewards such as wages or benefits,
praise and recognition. Supervisors may have discretion in job assignments and additional training opportunities.
Whatever rewards the supervisor uses, they should be recognized by the employee as linked to performance.
aware of it and understand it. Linking rewards to the achievement of realistic objectives is a way to help employees believe they can attain desired rewards.
If a supervisor is to succeed at motivating, he or she has to remember that employees will respond in varying ways. As much as possible the supervisor should respond to individual differences.
ingredient in learning about employees. Encouraging employees to participate will help the supervisor learn more about the employee. People also want to know how they are doing.
Feedback will provide the employee with information to help them move closer to accomplishing personal, department, and company goals. This will also provide the supervisor with an opportunity to praise an employee. The attention of the supervisor may also be motivating to the employee whether the feedback is positive or a corrective action.
Commissions:Payment linked to the amount of sales completed. Commissions may be the only source of pay, such as for sales personnel who sell real estate, or it may be a portion of an employees pay, such as in a department store where a small commission is added to wages.