"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 13

Motivation is the set of forces that initiates, directs, and makes people persist in their efforts to accomplish a goal. Initiation of effort is concerned with the choices that people make about how much effort to put forth in their jobs.

Direction of effort is concerned with the choices that people make in deciding where to put forth effort in their jobs.

In industrial psychology, job performance is frequently represented by this equation: Job Performance = Motivation x Ability x Situational Constraints

It just means that all the motivation in the world won’t translate into high performance when an employee has little ability and high situational constraints.

So, according to needs theories, people are motivated by unmet needs. But a need no longer motivates once it is met.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that people are motivated by physiological (food and water), safety (physical and economic), belongingness (friendship, love, social interaction), esteem (achievement and recognition), and self-actualization (realizing your full potential) needs.

Alderfer’s ERG Theory collapses Maslow’s five needs into three: existence (safety and physiological needs), relatedness (belongingness), and growth (esteem and self-actualization).

McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory suggests that people are motivated by the need for affiliation (to be liked and accepted), the need for achievement (to accomplish challenging goals), or the need for power (to influence others).

Extrinsic rewards are tangible and visible to others and are given to employees contingent on the performance of specific tasks or behaviors. External agents (managers, for example) determine and control the distribution, frequency, and amount of extrinsic rewards, such as pay, company stock, benefits, and promotions.

Examples of intrinsic rewards include a sense of accomplishment or achievement, a feeling of responsibility, the chance to learn something new or interact with others, or simply the fun that comes from performing an interesting, challenging, and engaging task.

Since higher-order needs will not motivate people as long as lower-order needs remain unsatisfied, companies should satisfy lower-order needs first.

Consistent with the idea of satisfying lower-order needs first, a survey of 12,000 employees found that inadequate compensation is the number-one reason employees leave organizations.

And, with the exception of influence (power), intrinsic rewards correspond very closely to higher-order needs that are concerned with relationships (belongingness, relatedness, and affiliation) and challenges and accomplishments (esteem, self-actualization, growth, and achievement).

Equity theory says that people will be motivated at work when they perceive that they are being treated fairly. In particular, equity theory stresses the importance of perceptions. So, regardless of the actual level of rewards people receive, they must also perceive that, relative to others, they are being treated fairly.

The basic components of equity theory are inputs, outcomes, and referents. Inputs are the contributions employees make to the organization. They include education and training, intelligence, experience, effort, number of hours worked, and ability.

Outcomes are what employees receive in exchange for their contributions to the organization. They include pay, fringe benefits, status symbols, and job titles and assignments.

And, since perceptions of equity depend on comparisons, referents are other people with whom people compare themselves to determine if they have been treated fairly. The referent can be a single person (comparing yourself with a coworker), a generalized other (comparing yourself with “students in general,” for example), or even yourself over time (“I was better off last year than I am this year”).

This comparison of outcomes with inputs is called the outcome/input (O/l) ratio. After an internal comparison in which they compare their outcomes with their inputs, employees then make an external comparison in which they compare their O/I ratio with the O/I ratio of a referent.

In the case of underreward, this usually translates into frustration or anger; with overreward, the reaction is guilt.

When people perceive that they have been treated unfairly, they may try to restore equity by reducing inputs, increasing outcomes, rationalizing inputs or outcomes, changing the referent, or simply leaving.

Among other things, equity theory makes us aware that an employee’s sense of fairness is based on subjective perceptions. What one employee considers grossly unfair may not affect another employee’s perceptions of equity at all.

Increasing outcomes is often the first and only strategy that companies use to restore equity, yet reducing employee inputs is just as viable a strategy.

Also, if employees perceive that their outcomes are unfair (that is, distributive injustice), but that the decisions and procedures leading to those outcomes were fair (that is, procedural justice), they are much more likely to seek constructive ways of restoring equity, such as discussing these matters with their manager.

Expectancy theory holds that people make conscious choices about their motivation.

Accordingly, when people are deciding how much effort to put forth, expectancy theory says that they will consider the valence of all possible rewards and outcomes that they can receive from their jobs. The greater the sum of those valences, each of which can be positive, negative, or neutral, the more effort people will choose to put forth on the job.

When instrumentality is strong, employees believe that improved performance will lead to better and more rewards, so they choose to work harder.

However, you’re not likely to actually exert effort unless you also believe that you can do the job (i.e., that your efforts will lead to successful performance).

Reinforcement theory says that behavior is a function of its consequences, that behaviors followed by positive consequences (i.e., reinforced) will occur more frequently, and that behaviors either followed by negative consequences or not followed by positive consequences will occur less frequently.

Reinforcement contingencies are the cause-and-effect relationships between the performance of specific behaviors and specific consequences.

A schedule of reinforcement is the set of rules regarding reinforcement contingencies such as which behaviors will be reinforced, which consequences will follow those behaviors, and the schedule by which those consequences will be delivered.

Positive reinforcement strengthens behavior (i.e., increases its frequency) by following behaviors with desirable consequences.

For example, the standard disciplinary or punishment process in most companies is an oral warning (“Don’t ever do that again”), followed by a written warning (“This letter is to discuss the serious problem you’re having with .. .”), followed by three days off without pay (“While you’re at home not being paid, we want you to think hard about...”), followed by being fired (“That was your last chance”).

Extinction is a reinforcement strategy in which a positive consequence is no longer allowed to follow a previously reinforced behavior. By removing the positive consequence, extinction weakens the behavior, making it less likely to occur.

With continuous reinforcement schedules, a consequence follows every instance of a behavior.

By contrast, with intermittent reinforcement schedules, consequences are delivered after a specified or average time has elapsed or after a specified or average number of behaviors has occurred.

With fixed interval reinforcement schedules, consequences follow a behavior only after a fixed time has elapsed.

To be effective, the punishment must be strong enough to stop the undesired behavior and must be administered objectively (same rules applied to everyone), impersonally (without emotion or anger), consistently and contingently (each time improper behavior occurs), and quickly (as soon as possible following the undesirable behavior).

A goal is a target, objective, or result that someone tries to accomplish. Goal-setting theory says that people will be motivated to the extent to which they accept specific, challenging goals and receive feedback that indicates their progress toward goal achievement.

Goals also energize behavior. When faced with unaccomplished goals, employees typically develop plans and strategies to reach those goals.

Participative goal setting, in which managers and employees generate goals together, can help increase trust and understanding and thus acceptance of goals. Furthermore, providing workers with training can help increase goal acceptance, particularly when workers don’t believe they are capable of reaching the organization’s goals.