Chapter 6: Motivational Needs, Processes, and Applications

Question 1

Motivation

Answer 1

• From the Latin word “movere”, which means “to move.”
• is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive
• key to understanding the process of motivation lies in the meaning of, and relationships among, needs, drives, and incentives

Question 2

The Motivation Process

Answer 2

Needs > Drives > Incentives

Question 3

Needs

Answer 3

• created whenever there is a physiological or psychological imbalance.
• Although psychological needs may be based on a deficiency, sometimes they are not.

Question 4

Drives

Answer 4

• With a few exceptions, drives, or motives are set up to alleviate needs.
• A physiological drive can be simply defined as a deficiency with direction
• Physiological and psychological drives are action-oriented and provide an energizing thrust toward reaching an incentive

Question 5

Incentives

Answer 5

• anything that will alleviate a need and reduce a drive
• attaining an incentive will tend to restore physiological or psychological balance and will reduce or cut off the drive

Question 6

Primary Motives

Answer 6

Two Criteria to be included in Primary:

1. It must be unlearned
2. it must be physiologically based

• hunger, thirst, sleep, avoidance of pain, sex, and maternal concern.
• are vital for survival

Question 7

Secondary Motives

Answer 7

• Are learned behaviors
• the most important to the study of organizational behavior
• Major secondary Motives include: power, achievement, and affiliation, or, as they are commonly referred to, n Pow, n Ach, and n Aff.

Question 8

Need for Achievement

Answer 8

• Doing better than competitors
• Attaining or surpassing a difficult goal
• Solving a complex problem
• Carrying out a challenging assignment successfully
• Developing a better way to do something

Question 9

Need for Power

Answer 9

• Influencing people to change their attitudes or behavior
• Controlling people and activities
• Being in a position of authority over others
• Gaining control over information and resources
• Defeating an opponent or enemy

Question 10

Need for Affiliation

Answer 10

• Being liked by many people
• Being accepted as part of a group or team
• Working with people who are friendly and cooperative
• Maintaining harmonious relationships and avoiding conflicts
• Participating in pleasant social activities

Question 11

Need for Security

Answer 11

• Having a secure job
• Being protected against loss of income or economic disaster
• Having protection against illness and disability
• Being protected against physical harm or hazardous conditions
• Avoiding tasks or decisions with a risk of failure and blame

Question 12

Need for Status

Answer 12

• Having the right car and wearing the right clothes
• Working for the right company in the right job
• Having a degree from the right university
• Living in the right neighborhood and belonging to the country club
• Having executive privileges

Question 13

Extrinsic motives

Answer 13

• are tangible and visible to others
• distributed by other people (agents)
• the drive to avoid punishment, such as termination or being transferred
• is contingent on improved performance or performance that is superior to others in the same workplace
• explain every motivated effort made by an individual employee
• Many motivators have both intrinsic and extrinsic components

Question 14

Intrinsic Motives

Answer 14

• are internally generated
• include feelings of responsibility, achievement, accomplishment, that something was learned from an experience
• feelings of being challenged or competitive, or that something was an engaging task or goal
• Many motivators have both intrinsic and extrinsic components

Question 15

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Answer 15

• proposes that a task may be intrinsically motivating, but that when an extrinsic motivator becomes associated with that task, the actual level of motivation may decrease
• extrinsic motivators may actually undermine intrinsic motivation
• there is considerable research evidence that extrinsic rewards may not detract from intrinsic motivation, and at least for interesting, challenging tasks, extrinsic rewards may even increase the level of intrinsic motivation
• Criticisms: it was built on studies largely using students as subjects rather than workers in the workplace setting and that actual decrements in intrinsic motivation were relatively small when extrinsic rewards were introduced

Question 16

Negative Extrinsic Motivations

Answer 16

• threats, deadlines, directives, pressures, and imposed goals are likely to be key factors that diminish intrinsic motivation
• example: the difference between writing a book for fun versus writing a book that must be completed by a certain deadline in order to receive payment

Question 17

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 17

• An important historical contribution
• thought that a person’s motivational needs could be arranged in a hierarchical manner.
• that once a given level of need is satisfied, it no longer serves to motivate

Question 18

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 5 Levels

Page 137

Answer 18

1. Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex)
2. Safety needs
3. Love needs (loosely corresponds to the affection and affiliation needs); belongingness or social needs
4. Esteem needs (power, achievement, and status)
5. Needs for self-actualization (person’s motivation to transform perception of self into reality)

Question 19

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation

Answer 19

Two questions:

1. When did you feel particularly good about your job—what turned you on?
2. When did you feel exceptionally bad about your job—what turned you off?
   - job satisfiers are related to job content and that job dissatisfiers are allied to job context
   - labeled satisfiers as motivators and dissatisfiers labeled hygiene factors
   - the hygiene factors are those that prevent dissatisfaction

Question 20

Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors (page 140)

Answer 20

1. Company policy and administration
2. Supervision, technical
3. Salary
4. Interpersonal relations, supervisor
5. Working conditions

Question 21

Herzberg’s Motivators

Answer 21

1. Achievement
2. Recognition
3. Work itself
4. Responsibility
5. Advancement

Question 22

Herzberg’s Criticisms

Answer 22

• oversimplifies the complexities of work motivation
• sample and setting may affect preferences for motivators and hygiene factors
• it does not adequately describe the complex motivation process of organizational participants that will now be given attention in the more complex theories of work motivation

Question 23

The Porter-Lawler Expectancy Theory of Work Motivation (page 142)

Answer 23

• the relationship between satisfaction and performance was dealt with directly by a motivation theory
• Motivation (effort or force) does not equal satisfaction or performance
• Motivation, satisfaction, and performance are all separate variables and relate in ways different from what was traditionally assumed
• performance leads to satisfaction

Question 24

Motivation - Performance Relationship Barriers

Answer 24

1. Doubts about ability, skill, or knowledge
2. The physical or practical possibility of the job
3. The interdependence of the job with other people or activities
4. Ambiguity surrounding the job requirements

Question 25

Motivation - Performance Relationship Guidelines

Answer 25

1. Determine what rewards each employee values 2. Define desired performance 3. Make desired performance attainable 4. Link valued rewards to performance

Question 26

Equity Theory of Work Motivation | Stacy Adams page 144

Answer 26

- Equity theory supports a perception of distributive justice, which is an individual’s cognitive evaluation regarding whether or not the amounts and allocations of rewards in a social setting are fair - major input into job performance and satisfaction is the degree of equity (or inequity) that people perceive in their work situation - Inequity occurs when a person perceives that the ratio of his or her outcomes to inputs and the ratio of a relevant other’s outcomes to inputs are unequal - Inputs and outputs are based on perception - Age, sex, education, social status, organizational position, qualifications, and how hard the person works are examples of perceived input variables - If imbalanced in their perception, people will strive to restore equity - This “striving” to restore equity is used as the explanation of work motivation

Question 27

Procedural justice

Answer 27

- the fairness of the procedure used to make a decision - the exchange between the employee and the employing organization - procedural justice was found to be a better predictor of job performance than was distributive justice - procedural justice seems to be particularly important to successfully implementing organizational changes.

Question 28

Equality vs. equity

Answer 28

- Equality means that in a promotion situation, males and females and all races would have equal opportunities to be selected and that the criteria used would not discriminate. - Equity would mean that the actual choice was fair, and that the criteria were correctly applied and therefore the most-qualified individual was promoted. - Procedural justice can raise issues of equality as opposed to equity

Question 29

Interactional Justice

Answer 29

- the exchange between individuals (i.e. the employee and the supervisor)

Question 30

Organizational justice

Answer 30

Refers to employee perceptions of fairness in the workplace. These perceptions can be classified into four categories: 1. Distributive Justice 2. Procedural Justice 3. Informational Justice 4. Interactional Justice - Organizational justice can help explain why employees retaliate against both inequitable outcomes and inappropriate processes - Employees’ perceptions of fairness not only positively affect their attitudes and performance, but also influence their fair treatment behaviors toward customers, which in turn cause the customers to react positively to both the employee and the organization

Question 31

Informational justice

Answer 31

Informational justice relates to the accounts provided for justice-related events

Question 32

Attribution Theory Definition and Types

Answer 32

- is concerned with the relationship between personal social perception and interpersonal behavior - refers to how people explain the cause of another’s or their own behavior - Two general types 1. dispositional attributions (internal factors such as personality traits, motivation, or ability) 2. situational attributions (external factors such as equipment or social influence from others)

Question 33

Attribution Theory Three Assumptions

Answer 33

1. We seek to make sense of our world. 2. We often attribute people’s actions either to internal or external causes. 3. We do so in fairly logical ways.

Question 34

Locus of Control Attributions | page 148

Answer 34

- The perceived outcome is controlled internally or externally? - Employees who perceive internal control feel that they personally can influence their outcomes through their own ability, skills, or effort. - Employees who perceive external control feel that their outcomes are beyond their own control; they feel that external forces such as luck or task difficulty control their outcomes.

Question 35

Organizational Symbolism

Answer 35

- those aspects of an organization that its members use to reveal or make comprehendable the unconscious feelings, images, and values that are inherent in that organization - in order to understand organizations, one must recognize their symbolic nature

Question 36

Stability Dimension (Bernard Weiner)

Answer 36

- Stability can be fixed or variable - Experienced employees will probably have a stable internal attribution about their abilities but an unstable internal attribution concerning effort. - these employees may have a stable external attribution about task difficulty but an unstable external attribution about luck

Question 37

Consensus Dimension (Kelley)

Answer 37

- do others act this way in this situation | - relates to other people

Question 38

Consistency Dimension (Kelley)

Answer 38

- does this person act this way in this situation at other times - relates to time

Question 39

Distinctiveness Dimension (Kelley)

Answer 39

- does this person act differently in other situations | - relates to other tasks

Question 40

Kelley’s Model of Attribution | figure 6.6 on page 150

Answer 40

- if there is high consensus, low consistency, and high distinctiveness, then attribution to external or situational/environmental causes will probably be made - The external attribution may be that the task is too difficult or that outside pressures from home or coworkers are hindering performance - If there is low consensus, high consistency, and low distinctiveness, then attributions to internal or personal causes for the behavior will probably be made - The supervisor making an internal attribution may conclude that the associate just doesn’t have the ability, or is not giving the necessary effort, or does not have the motivation to perform well

Question 41

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 41

- people tend to ignore powerful situational forces when explaining others’ behavior - People tend to attribute others’ behavior to personal factors (for example, intelligence, ability, motivation, attitudes or personality), even when it is very clear that the situation or circumstances caused the person to behave the way he or she did

Question 42

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 42

- people tend to present themselves favorably - people readily accept credit when told they have succeeded (attributing the success to their ability and effort), yet often attribute failure to such external, situational factors as bad luck or the problem’s inherent “impossibility".

Question 43

Control Theory

Answer 43

- a cognitive phenomenon relating to the degree that individuals perceive they are in control of their own lives or are in control of their jobs - Recent studies have shown that those who believe they have such personal control tolerate unpleasant events and experience less stress on the job than those who do not perceive such control - perceived control will affect job satisfaction and absenteeism

Question 44

Agency Theory

Answer 44

- an agency relationship involves one or more individuals (the principal) engaging another person or persons (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf - the assumption that the interests of principals and agents diverge or may be in conflict with one another - The implications for organizational behavior involve how the principals (owners, board members, or top management) can limit divergence from their interests or objectives by establishing appropriate rewards or incentives for the agents (subordinates, middle management, or operating employees) for appropriate outcomes. - agency theory is often used to explain some of the excesses and ethical meltdowns that have occurred in organizations in recent years - One primary criticism of agency theory that has emerged is that, agency theory strongly emphasizes the roles that various forms of extrinsic motives play in shaping behaviors. - intrinsic motives, which may be quite powerful, are not accounted for in agency models

Question 45

Job Design

Answer 45

- the methods that management uses to develop the content of a job, including all relevant tasks, as well as the processes by which jobs are constructed and revised - the nature of work is changing because of advanced information technology and globalization.

Question 46

Two challenges for job design

Answer 46

- Technology: people are "on call" all the time | - Telecommuting: rising number of telecommuting jobs where the employee performs substantial amounts of work at home

Question 47

Job Rotation

Answer 47

- The simplest form of job design - move people from one simple job to another - Advantages include: reduction of injury, increased flexibility, ability to gain knowledge over entire operation. - Disadvantages: each task becomes as boring as the last, job satisfaction and/or performance may decline

Question 48

Job Enlargement

Answer 48

- increasing the number of tasks each employee performs - Use of more skills - May hinder efficiency - enlargement of jobs due to downsizing to people who remain is viewed negatively

Question 49

Job Enrichment

Answer 49

- designing jobs that include a greater variety of work content; require a higher level of knowledge and skill; give workers more autonomy and responsibility in terms of planning, directing, and controlling their own performance; and provide the opportunity for personal growth and a meaningful work experience. - As opposed to job rotation and job enlargement, which horizontally loads the job, job enrichment vertically loads the job; there are not necessarily more tasks to perform, but more responsibility and accountability

Question 50

Potential Disadvantages to Job Enrichment

Answer 50

Potential disadvantages: 1. job enrichment is difficult to truly implement 2. that many employees simply prefer an old familiar job to an enriched job 3. employees in general and unions, in particular, are resistant to the change. 4. Some employees have expressed preferences for higher pay rather than enriched jobs, and others enjoy their current patterns of on-the-job socialization and friendships more than they do increased responsibility and autonomy

Question 51

5 Core Job Characteristics

Answer 51

1. Skill variety 2. Task identity 3. Task significance 4. Autonomy 5. Feedback

Question 52

Skill Variety

Answer 52

- refers to the extent to which the job requires the employee to draw from different skills, abilities and knowledge

Question 53

Task Identity

Answer 53

- refers to whether the job has an identifiable beginning and end. - How complete a module of work does the employee perform?

Question 54

Task significance

Answer 54

- Involves the importance of the task. - internal significance— how important is the task to the organization? - external significance— how proud are employees to tell relatives, friends, and neighbors what they do and where they work?

Question 55

Autonomy

Answer 55

- refers to job independence. - How much freedom and control do employees have, for example, to schedule their own work, make decisions, or determine the means to accomplish objectives?

Question 56

Feedback

Answer 56

- refers to objective information about progress and performance and can come from the job itself or from supervisors or an information system.

Question 57

3 Critical Psychological States

Answer 57

1. Meaningfulness. This cognitive state involves the degree to which employees perceive their work as making a valued contribution, as being important and worthwhile. 2. Responsibility. This state is concerned with the extent to which employees feel a sense of being personally responsible or accountable for the work being done. 3. Knowledge of results. Coming directly from the feedback, this psychological state involves the degree to which employees understand how they are performing in the job.

Question 58

Hackman-Oldham characteristics model

Answer 58

- this model says that certain job characteristics lead to critical psychological states - skill variety, task identity, and task significance lead to experienced meaningfulness; autonomy leads to the feeling of responsibility, and feedback leads to knowledge of results. - The model postulates that internal rewards are obtained by an individual when he learns (knowledge of results) that he personally (experienced responsibility) has performed well on a task that he cares about (experienced meaningfulness).

Question 59

Specific Guidelines for Redesigning Jobs | see figure 6.8 page 157

Answer 59

1. Skill variety: Provide cross-training and Expand duties requiring more skills 2. Task Identity: Give projects a deadline for completion and Form self-contained work modules 3. Task Significance: Communicate the importance of the job and Enhance the image of the organization 4. Autonomy: Empower to make decisions and Give more responsibility and accountability 5. Feedback: Implement information systems and Supervisors give objective, immediate information on how the employee is doing

Question 60

Specific Goals

Answer 60

- Commitment tends to run higher when goals are specific as opposed to general or broad - Specific goals result in higher levels of performance - SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely).

Question 61

Stretch Goals

Answer 61

- objectives or goals that force organizations to significantly alter their processes in ways that involve a whole new paradigm of operations

Question 62

3 Rules for Creating Stretch Goals

Answer 62

(1) do not set goals that overly stress people (2) if goals require people to stretch, do not punish them if they fail (3) if they are being asked to do things that they have never done before, give them whatever tools and help are available.

Question 63

Process Feedback vs. Outcome Feedback

Answer 63

- Process feedback is related to information as to how the individual or unit is proceeding in attempting to reach the goal, whereas outcome feedback is information related to and stated in terms of the actual goal itself

Question 64

Self-Efficacy

Answer 64

- is the perception or belief of the individual that he or she can successfully accomplish a specific task, and it is associated with goal commitment - People exhibiting higher levels of self-efficacy tend to set more challenging personal goals and are more likely to achieve them

Question 65

Goal Orientation | Carol Dweck

Answer 65

(1) learning goal orientation (those who want to develop competence by mastering challenging situations) (2) performance goal orientation (those who want to demonstrate and validate competence by seeking favorable judgments).

Question 66

Benchmarking

Answer 66

- the process of comparing work and service methods against the best practices and outcomes for the purpose of identifying changes stated as specific goals that will result in higher-quality output - incorporates the use of goal setting to set targets that are pursued, identified, and then used as the basis for future action.