Topic 4: Motivation Flashcards
(39 cards)
What is motivation?
Motivation is the extent to which persistent effort is directed towards a goal.
What are the three choices/components of motivation?
1) Choice to Expend Effort: This differs based on the job. A loading-dock worker may choose to carry heavier crates, while a researcher may show greater effort by searching out an article in some foreign technical journal.
2) Choice to Be Persistent: This refers to for how long the individual applies effort to their tasks, and in spite of challenges or boredom.
3) Direction/Choice of What Level of Effort to Expend: Once a person decides to act, what level of focus do they give a task.
-Effort and persistence refer to the quantity of work someone produces, while direction of a person’s work refers to the quality of their work.
What is instrinsic motivation? How does that differ from extrinsic motivation?
-Intrinsic motivation stems from the direct relationship between the worker and the task and is usually self-applied. Feelings of competence, acheivement, accomplishment, and challenge are all intrinsic motivators.
-Extrinsic motivation stems from the work environment external to the task and is usually applied by someone other than the person being motivated. Pay, fringe benefits, company policies and supervision are all examples of extrinsic motivators.
How do intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation influence performance?
-While extrinsic motivation is related to quantity of performance, intrinsic motivation is related to quality of performance.
-Intrinsic motivation is beneficial for performance on complex tasks, while extrinsic motivation is more beneficial for easy tasks.
What are the 5 levels of Maslows hierarchy of needs?
1) Physiological Needs: The basic needs that must be satisfied for a person to survive such as food, water, oxygen, and shelter.
2) Safety and Security: The need for security, stability, freedom from anxiety, and a structured and ordered environment. Organizational conditions that met these needs may include safe working conditions, fair rules, job security, a comfortable work environment, pension and insurance plans, and pay above the minimum needed for survival.
3) Belongingness: Includes the needs for social interaction, affection, love, companionship, and friendship.
4) Self-Esteem: This includes the needs for feelings of adequacy, competence, independence, strength, and confidence.
5) Self-actualization: This involves the desire to develop one’s true potential as an individual to the fullest extent, and express one’s skills, talents, and emotions in a personally fulfilling way.
What does Alderfer’s ERG theory suggest to be the three key needs?
1) Existence Needs: These are need that are satisfied by some material substance or condition. This corresponds closely to Maslow’s physiological needs, and safety needs that are satisfied by material conditions(and not by interpersonal relations).
2) Relatedness Needs: These are needs that are satisfied by open communication and the exchange of thoughts and feelings with other organization members. This corresponds closely to Maslow’s belongingness needs and to those esteem needs that involve feedback from others.
3) Growth Needs: These are needs that are fulfilled by strong personal involvement in the work setting, involving the full utilization of one’s skills and abilities, as well as the creation of new skills and abilities. Growth needs corresponds to Maslow’s need for self-actualization.
How does Maslow’s higherarchy of needs contrast with Alderfer’s ERG Theory?
-Alderfer agrees with Maslow that as lower level needs are satisfied, the desire to satisfy higher level needs will increase.
-However, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that a lower level need must be satisfied before a higher level need is desired, while Alderfer maintains that one may have multiple desired needs at once. Alderfer also doesn’t necessarily propose as much of a rigid hierarchy of needs.
-ERG theory assumes that if higher-level needs are ungratified, individuals will increase their desire for the gratification of lower-level needs.
What are two key motivational premises that follow from Alderfer’s ERG theory?
1) The more lower-level needs are gratified, the more higher-level need satisfaction is desired.
2) The less higher-level needs are gratified, the more lower-level need satisfaction is desired.
What does McClelland’s Theory of Needs suggest?
-McClelland’s theory of needs suggests that needs reflect stable personality traits that one acquires through early life experiences,
-McClelland did not concern himself with developing a hierarchical relationship amongst needs.
-Rather, McClelland was primarily concerned with the behavioural consequences of needs.
What are the three key managerial implications of need theories?
1) Employees have varying needs, so corresponding variety of incentives must be offered.
2) Intrinsic motivators and higher-order needs are substantial.
3) High-order needs cannot develop without resonably gratifying lower-level needs.
What do individuals with a high need for acheivement (n Ach) have?
1) A preference for situations where personal responsibility can be taken for one’s outcomes.
2) A tendency to set moderately difficult goals that provide for calculated risks.
3) A desire for performance feedback.
What do individuals with a high need for affiliation (n Aff) have?
-People who are high in need for affiliation have a strong desire to establish and maintain friendly, compatible interpersonal relationships.
-They can learn networking quickly.
-They prefer to avoid conflict and competition with others, and they can show conformity to the wishes of their friends.
-The n Aff motive is an example of a belongness or related need.
What do individuals who are high in need for power (n Pow) desire?
-People who are high in need for power strongly desire to have influence over others.
-They want to make a strong impression on others.
-People who are high in n Pow seek out social settings where they are influential.
-People who are high in n Pow show a strong concern for personal prestige.
Which jobs does McClelland predict that people will be motivated to perform well in?
-McClelland predicts that people will be motivated to seek out and perform well in jobs that match their needs.
-Those who have high n Ach should be strongly motivated by sales jobs or entrepreneurial positions; because those jobs offer feedback, personal responsibility, and opportunity to set goals.
-People with high n Aff will want jobs such as social work or customer service because they can establish good relations with others.
-Those with high n Pow will be motivated for jobs that have a strong impact on others–such as journalism and management.
-McClelland highlights that the most effective managers have a low need for affilitation, a high need for power, and a moderate need for achievement.
What do people with high n Ach desire?
-People with high n Ach are interested in bettering their own performance or that of others.
How does pay as a motivator serve physical rewards?
-On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, physiological and safety needs are most directly satisfied by pay as income supports food, shelter, and security.
-Pay satisfies people’s existence needs on Alderfer’s ERG theory.
How does pay serve as a motivator for social rewards?
-In terms of McClelland’s theory of needs, pay offers nAff(need for affiliation), and nPow(need for power).
-Pay serves people’s social needs, in terms of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs.
-Pay also satisfies people’s relatedness needs in terms of Alderfer’s ERG theory.
How does pay serve as a motivator for success and worth rewards?
-In terms of McClelland’s theory of needs, pay offers nAch(need for acheivement).
-In terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, pay satisfies the esteem needs.
What are the common pay systems in blue-collar jobs? What are the challenges with it?
-In blue collar jobs, piece-rate wage is paid, which corresponds to pay per unit produced.
-In blue collar jobs, there are also often wage incentive plans, where bonuses are tied to output.
-Some of the challenges include:
1) Lowered quality: Employees are incentivized to focus on quantity over quality, rushing to produce more units.
2) Differential opportunity: Not all workers have the same chance to earn more (e.g. better machines, and shifts).
3) Reduced cooperation: Workers may hoard knoweldge or avoid helping others to stay ahead.
4) Incompatible job design: Some jobs aren’t easily measured or incentivized by output, especially team oriented jobs.
5) Restriction of productivity: Workers may limit output to keep expectations manageable (“rate busting”).
What are the common pay systems in white-collar jobs?
-In white collar jobs, merit pay plans are implemented, and those are essentially bonuses or raises based on performance evaluations.
-The challenges with using pay as a motivator are as follows:
1) Low discrimination: It can be hard to distinguish top performers in performance evaluations, and that may result in everyone getting similar raises.
2) Small increases: Raises are often too minor to motivate effort.
3) Pay secrecy: Not knowing what others earn creates frustration, distrust, or disengagement.
What are the effects of pay secrecy?
The manager will often underestimate their boss’s pay, overestimate their peer’s pay, and overestimate their subordinates pay.
What does expectancy theory state?
-Expectancy theory states that motivation is determined by the outcomes that people expect to occur as a result of their actions on the job.
-When an individual has high expectancy theory, they believe that there is a high probability that effort will lead to performance, and rewards.
With expectancy theory, what are first-level outcomes and second-level outcomes?
-First-level outcomes are the immediate results of a work behaviour or effort such as high productivity or good attendance.
-Second-level outcomes are the consequences that follow from acheiving first-level outcomes.
-Second-level outcomes are most personally relevant to the individual worker and might involve amount of pay, sense of accomplishment, acceptance by peers, fatigue, and so on.
-Expectancy comes from effort and performance.
What is instrumentality?
-Instrumentality is the probability that a particular first-level outcome (such as high productivity) will be followed by a particular second-level outcome such as pay.
-Instrumentality comes from performance and rewards.
