Motivation in Organization

Motivation in Organization : Its Basic Nature

Motivation : the set of processes that arouse, direct and maintain human behavior toward
attaining some goal.

Components of motivation

The first part of our definition deals with arousal. This has to do with the drive or energy
behind our actions. For example, people may be guided by their interest in making a good
impression on others, doing interesting work, being successful at what they do and so on.
This motivates people to do what it takes to accomplish theese objectives.

Three Key Points About Motivation

Now that we have defined motivation, we should note three important points you should keep
in mind as you think about motivation on the job.

Motivation and job performance are not synonymous

Just because someone performas a task well does not mean that he or she highly motivated.
Motivation is just one of several possible determinants of job performance. The person who
performs well may be very skillfuls but not put forth much effort at all. If you are a
mathematical genius. For example you may breeze through your calculus class whitout
trying. By contrast, someone who performs poorly may put forth a great deal of effort but fall
short of a desired goal because he or she lacks the skills needed to succeed.

Motivation is multifaceted

People are likely to have several different motives operating at once. Sometimes, these
conflict with one another. For example, a word processing operator might be motivated to
please her boss by being as productive as possible. However, being too productive may
antagonize her coworkers, who fear that they are being made to look bad. The result is that
the two motives may pull the individual in different directions and the one that wins is the
one thats stronger in that situation.

Peaople are motivated by more than just money

Suppose you struck it big in the lottery. Would you keep your current job ? interestingly,
although some make it clear that they would pack up and move to a tropical island where
they would relax in the sun for the rest of their lives, most insist that they would continue to
work. They might take a different job, but theyd continue to work even if they didnt need
the money.

Motivating by enchancing fit with an organization

The framework stipulating that motivation is enchanced by a good fit between the traits and
skill of individuals and the requirements of the jobs they perform in their organization.

Motivational traits and skills

1. Achievement : a persons interests in excelling at what he or she does and in

accomplishing desired objectives.
2. Anxiety : a persons tendecy to be excessively apprehensive or nervous about things
in everday life.
Because achievement and anxiety are considered traits, they are assumed to be
relatively stable differences between people, making some individuals more succesful
than others. Two particular motivational skills are important :
1. Emotion control : a persons capacity to control his or her own emotions and to stay
focused on the task at hand without allowing emotions to interfere.
2. Motivation control : a persons capacity to push himself or herself by directing
attention to the job to continue exerting effort even when his or her interest begins to
wane.

Organizational factors : enchancing motivational fit

Recognizing that people do not operate in a vacuum, the motivational fit approach specifies
that it is important for peoples motivational traits and skills to match the requirement of their
work environment. Although this idea is admittedly abstract, we already provided a good
illustration.

Fortunately, however theres hope for you yet. Fit can be enchanced in two ways. First, the
dealership can prescreen job applicants in a manner that keeps individuals with you particular
profile out of such positions. This would save you, the company and some unsuspecting
customers a lot of grief. Indeed, research has shown that motivational fit is enchanced when
peoples characteristics match the unique requirements of the positions they seek.

Motivating by setting goals

Goal setting : the process of determining specific levels of performance for workers to attain
and then striving to attain them.

Goal setting theory

A popular theory specifying that people are motivated to attain goals because doing so makes
them feel succesful. The basic idea behind goal setting theory is that a goal serves as a
motivator for three key reasons. First, when goal are set, people direct their attention to them
and gauge how well they are doing. In other words, they compare their current capacity to
perform with that required to succeed at the goal.

Guidelines for setting effective performance goals

Because researchers have been involved actively in studying the goal setting process for
many years, it is possible to summarize their findings in the form of principle. These may be
taken as practical suggestions for managers to consider when attempting to enchance
motivation.

Assign specific goals. Probably the best established finding of research on goal setting is that
people perform at higher levels when asked to meet a specific high performance goal than
when simply asked to do your best, or when no goal at all is assigned. Generally, people
find specific goals quite challenging and are motivated to meet them not only to fulfill others
expectations but also to convince themselve that they have performed well.

Assign difficult, but acceptable, performance goals. The goal set at the logging camp was
successful not only because it was specific, but also because it pushed crew members to a
higher standard. Obviously, a goal that is too easily attained will not bring about the desired
increments in performance.

Motivating by being equitable

Earlier in this chapter, we explained that although money isnt the top motivator for workers,
its still extremely important to them. It would be overly simplistic and misleading to suggest
that people only want to earn as much money as possible. Even the highest paid executives,
sports figures and celebrities sometimes complain about their pay despite receiving
multimillion-dollar salaries.

Equity theory : balancing outcomes and inputs

Equity theory, the theory stating that people strive to maintain rations of their own outcomes
(reward) to their own inputs (contributions) that are equal to the outcome/inputs rations of
others with whom they compare themselves. In judging equity, people compare themselves to
others by focusing on two variables : outcomes ( the rewards employees receive from their
jobs, such as salary and recognition ) and inputs ( peoples contributions to their job, such as
their experience, qualifications of the amount of time worked ). It is important to note that
equity theory deals with outcomes and inputs as they are perceived by people, not necessarily
objective standards.

Managerial implications of equity theory

Equity theory has important implications for ways of motivating people. We highlight three
key ones here.

1. Avoid Underpayment : companies that attempt to save money by reducing employees

salaries may find that employees respond in many different ways so as to even the
score.
2. Avoid Overpayment : you may think that because overpaid employees work hard to
deserve their pay, it would be a userful motivational technique to pay people more
than they merit. However, there are two key reasons why this would be problematic.
Any increases in performance in response to overpayment inequity are only
temporary. As time goes on, people begin to believe that they actually deserve the
higher pay they are getting and drop their work level down to normal.
3. Be Transparent : the practice of making information about pay available openly
instead of keeping it secret.

Motivating by altering Expectations

Basic Element of Expectancy Theory

The theory that asserts that motivation is based on peoples beliefs about the probability that
effort will lead to performance (expectancy), multiplied by the probability that performance
will lead to reward (intrumentality) multiplied by the perceived value of the reward (valence).
 1. Expatancy : the belief that ones efforts will positively influence ones performance.
2. Intrumentality : an individuals beliefs regarding the likehood of being rewarded in
accord with his or her own level of performance.
3. Valence : the value a person places on the rewards he or she expects to receive from
an organization.

Putting expectancy theory to work : key managerial implications

Expectancy theory is a very practical approach to motivation. It identifies several important

things that can be done to motivate employees.

Make it clear that effort will lead to performance. Motivation may be enchanced by training
employees to do their jobs more efficiently, thereby achieving higher levels of performance.
It also may be possible to enhance effort performance expectancies by following employees
suggestions about ways to change their jobs.

Administer Rewards that provide positive valence to employees. The carrot at the end of the
stick must be tasty for it to have potential as a motivator. These days, with a demographically
diverse workforce, it would be misleading to assume that all employees care about having the
same rewards. Some might recognize the incentive value of a pay raise, whereas others might
prefer additional vacation days, improved insurance benefits, day care, or elder care facilities.

Clearly link valued rewards and performance. There are several ways companies can link
reward to performance. Whatever the particulars may be, the key is to make it absolutely
clear what has to be done in order be rewarded.

Motivating by structuring jobs to make them interesting

The final approach to motivation we consider, job design. Is the broadest in scope because it
is directed at improving the essential nature of the work performed. The idea behind job
desaign is that motivation can be enchanced by making jobs more appealing to people.

Job enlargement and job encrichment

Job enlargement : The practice of expanding the content of a job to include more variety and
a greater number of tasks at the same level.

Job Encrichment : The practice of giving employees a high degree of control over their work,
from planning and organization, through implementing the jobs and evaluating the result.
The job characteristics model

An approach to job enrichment specifying that five core job dimensions (skill variety, task
identity, task significance, autonomy and job feedback) produce critical psychological states
that lead to beneficial outcomes for individuals (e.g., high job satisfaction) and the
organization (e.g., reduced turnover).

Component of the model

The five critical job dimensions are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy
and feedback.

Putting it all together. Based on the proposed relationship between the core job dimensions
and their associated psychological reactions, the model claims that job motivation will be
highest when the job performed rate high on the various dimensions.

Evidence for the model. The job characteristics model has been the focus of many empirical
test, most of which are supportive of many of its aspects. One study conducted among a
group of south african clerical workers found particularly strong support. The job of
employees in some of the offices in this company were enriched in accordance with
technique specified by the job characteristics model.

Designing job that motivate : managerial guildelines

The job characteristics model specifies several ways in which job can be designed to enhance
their motivating potential.

Combine tasks. Instead of having several workers each perform a separate part a of whole
job, it would be better to have each person perform the entire job. Doing so helps provide
greater skill variety and task identity.

Open feedback channels. Job should be designed to give employees as much feedback as
possible. The more people know how well they are doing (be it from customers, supervisors,
or coworkers) the better equipped they are to take approriate corrective action and plan for
the future sometimes, cues about job performance can be clerly identified as people perform
their jobs.
Establish client relationships. The job charactistics model suggests that job should be set up
so that the person performing a service. Job designed in this manner will not only help the
employee by providing feedback, but also provide skill variety And enchance autonomy.

Load jobs vertically. As we described earlier, loading a job vertically involves giving people
greater responsibility for their jobs. Taking responsibility and control over performance away
from managers and giving it to their subordinates increases the level of autonomy the jobs
offer these lower-level employees and according to a recent poll, autonomy is among the
most important things people look for in their jobs even more important that high pay.