Chapter 5

EMPLOYEE

MOTIVATION

Foundations of

Employee Motivation

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

McShane/Von Glinow OB

5eCopyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights

reserved.

Employee Motivation and Engagement at Rackspace

Rackspace hosting has a

highly motivated and engaged

workforce by rewarding

performance, fulfilling personal

needs, and providing

strengths-based feedback.

5-3

Motivation Defined

The forces within a person

that affect the direction,

intensity, and persistence of

voluntary behavior

Exerting particular effort level

(intensity), for a certain

amount of time (persistence),

toward a particular goal

(direction).

5-4

Employee Engagement

Emotional and cognitive

motivation, self-efficacy to

perform the job, a clear

understanding of one’s role

in the organization’s vision

and a belief that one has the

resources to perform the job

5-5

Drives and Needs

Drives (aka-primary needs, fundamental needs,

innate motives)

• Neural states that energize individuals to correct deficiencies

or maintain an internal equilibrium

• Prime movers of behavior by activating emotions

Self-concept, social norms,and past experience

Drives(primary needs)

NeedsDecisions and

Behavior

5-6

Drives and Needs

Needs

• Goal-directed forces that people experience.

• Drive-generated emotions directed toward goals

• Goals formed by self-concept, social norms, and experience

Self-concept, social norms,and past experience

Drives(primary needs)

NeedsDecisions and

Behavior

5-7

Self-

actual-

ization

Physiological

Safety

Belongingness

Esteem

Seven categories

capture most needs

Five categories placed

in a hierarchy

Need to

know

Need for

beauty

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory

5-8

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory

Lowest unmet need has

strongest effect

When lower need is

satisfied, next higher need

becomes the primary

motivator

Self-actualization -- a

growth need because

people desire more rather

than less of it when satisfied

Self-

actual-

ization

Physiological

Safety

Belongingness

Esteem

Need to

know

Need for

beauty

5-9

Evaluating Maslow’s Theory

Lack of support for theory

People have different

hierarchies – don’t progress

through needs in the same

order

Needs change more rapidly

than Maslow stated

Self-

actual-

ization

Physiological

Safety

Belongingness

Esteem

Need to

know

Need for

beauty

5-10

What Maslow Contributed to Motivation Theory

More holistic

• Integrative view of needs

More humanistic

• Influence of social

dynamics, not just instinct

More positivistic

• Pay attention to strengths,

not just deficiencies

5-11

What’s Wrong with Needs Hierarchy Models?

Wrongly assume that

everyone has the same

needs hierarchy (i.e.

universal)

Instead, likely that each

person has a unique needs

hierarchy

• Shaped by our self-concept --

values and social identity

5-12

Learned Needs Theory

Needs are amplified or suppressed through

self-concept, social norms, and past

experience

Therefore, needs can be “learned” (i.e.

strengthened or weakened through training)

5-13

Three Learned Needs

Need for achievement

• Need to reach goals, take responsibility

• Want reasonably challenging goals

Need for affiliation

• Desire to seek approval, conform to others wishes,

avoid conflict

• Effective executives have lower need for social approval

Need for power

• Desire to control one’s environment

• Personalized versus socialized power

5-14

Four-Drive Theory

Drive to Bond

Drive to Learn

• Drive to form relationships and

social commitments

• Basis of social identity

• Drive to satisfy curiosity and

resolve conflicting information

Drive to Defend• Need to protect ourselves

• Reactive (not proactive) drive

• Basis of fight or flight

Drive to Acquire• Drive to take/keep objects and

experiences

• Basis of hierarchy and status

5-15

Features of Four Drives

Innate and hardwired

• everyone has them

Independent of each other

• no hierarchy of drives

Complete set

• no drives are excluded from the model

5-16

How Four Drives Affect Motivation

1. Four drives determine which emotions are

automatically tagged to incoming information

2. Drives generate independent and often

competing emotions that demand our

attention

3. Mental skill set relies on social norms,

personal values, and experience to

transform drive-based emotions into goal-

directed choice and effort

5-17

Four Drive Theory of Motivation

Social norms, personal values, and

experience transform drive-based emotions

into goal-directed choice and effort

Drive to

Acquire

Social

norms

Drive to

Bond

Drive to

Learn

Drive to

Defend

Personal

values

Past

experience

Mental skill set resolves

competing drive demandsGoal-directed

choice and effort

5-18

Implications of Four Drive Theory

Provide a balanced opportunity for employees

to fulfil all four drives

• employees continually seek fulfilment of drives

• avoid having conditions support one drive more

than others

5-19

E-to-P

Expectancy

P-to-O

Expectancy

Outcomes

& Valences

Outcome 1+ or -

Effort Performance

Outcome 3+ or -

Outcome 2+ or -

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

5-20

Increasing E-to-P and P-to-O Expectancies

Increasing E-to-P Expectancies

• Assuring employees they have competencies

• Person-job matching

• Provide role clarification and sufficient resources

• Behavioral modeling

Increasing P-to-O Expectancies

• Measure performance accurately

• More rewards for good performance

• Explain how rewards are linked to performance

5-21

Increasing Outcome Valences

Ensure that rewards are valued

Individualize rewards

Minimize countervalent outcomes

5-22

Making Every Day Count in NYC

New York City mayor Michael

Bloomberg has challenging goals

to accomplish, and he doesn’t

want any of his remaining tenure

wasted. Bloomberg had special

clocks installed in a dozen city

government offices that count

down how many days remain in

his mayoral term.

5-23

Goal Setting

The process of motivating

employees and clarifying their role

perceptions by establishing

performance objectives

5-24

Effective Goal Setting Characteristics

Specific -- measureable change

within a time frame

Relevant – within employee’s control

and responsibilities

Challenging – raise level of effort

Accepted (commitment) – motivated

to accomplish the goal

Participative (sometimes) –

improves acceptance and goal

quality

Feedback – information available

about progress toward goal

5-25

Characteristics of Effective Feedback

1. Specific – connected to goal details

2. Relevant – Relates to person’s behavior

3. Timely – to improve link from behavior to

outcomes

4. Sufficiently frequent

• Employee’s knowledge/experience

• task cycle

5. Credible – trustworthy source

5-26

Feedback Through Strengths-Based Coaching

Maximizing the person’s potential by focusing

on their strengths rather than weaknesses

Motivational because:

• people inherently seek feedback about their

strengths, not their flaws

• person’s interests, preferences, and competencies

stabilize over time

5-27

Multisource Feedback

Received from a full circle of people around

the employee

Provides more complete and accurate

information

Several challenges

5-28

Evaluating Goal Setting and Feedback

Goal setting has high validity and

usefulness

Goal setting/feedback limitations:

• Focuses employees on measurable

performance

• Motivates employees to set easy

goals (when tied to pay)

• Goal setting interferes with learning

process in new, complex jobs

5-29

Keeping Pay Equitable at Costco

Costco Wholesale CEO Jim Sinegal

(shown in this photo) thinks the large

wage gap between many executives

and employees is blatantly unfair.

“Having an individual who is making

100 or 200 or 300 times more than the

average person working on the floor is

wrong,” says Sinegal, whose salary

and bonus are a much smaller

multiple of what his staff earn.

5-30

Organizational Justice

Distributive justice

• Perceived fairness in

outcomes we receive relative

to our contributions and the

outcomes and contributions of

others

Procedural justice

• Perceived fairness of the

procedures used to decide the

distribution of resources

5-31

• Emotions

• Attitudes

• Behaviors

DistributionPrinciples

Distributive

Justice

Perceptions

Procedural

Justice

Perceptions

StructuralRules

SocialRules

Organizational Justice Components

5-32

Elements of Equity Theory

Outcome/input ratio

• inputs -- what employee contributes (e.g., skill)

• outcomes -- what employee receives (e.g., pay)

Comparison other

• person/people against whom we compare our ratio

• not easily identifiable

Equity evaluation

• compare outcome/input ratio with the comparison

other

5-33

Correcting Inequity Feelings

Reduce our inputs Less organizational citizenship

Increase our outcomes Ask for pay increase

Increase other’s inputs Ask coworker to work harder

Reduce other’s outputsAsk boss to stop giving other preferred treatment

Change our perceptionsStart thinking that other’s perks aren’t really so valuable

Change comparison otherCompare self to someone closer to your situation

Leave the field Quit job

Actions to correct inequity Example

5-34

Equity Sensitivity

Outcome/input preferences and reaction to

various outcome/input ratios

Benevolents

• tolerant of being underrewarded

Equity Sensitives

• want ratio to be equal to the comparison other

Entitleds

• prefer proportionately more than others

5-35

Evaluating Equity Theory

Good at predicting situations unfair

distribution of pay/rewards

Difficult to put into practice

• doesn’t identify comparison other

• doesn’t indicate relevant inputs or outcomes

Equity theory explains only some feelings of

fairness

• procedural justice is as important as distributive

justice

5-36

Procedural Justice

Perceived fairness of procedures used to

decide the distribution of resources

Higher procedural fairness with:

• Voice

• Unbiased decision maker

• Decision based on all information

• Existing policies consistently

• Decision maker listened to all sides

• Those who complain are treated respectfully

• Those who complain are given full explanation

5-37

Foundations of

Employee Motivation

5-38

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

McShane/Von Glinow OB

5eCopyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights

reserved.