Determinants of Job

Performance
1. the capacity to perform -
the degree to which the
employee possesses skills,
abilities, knowledge, and
experiences relevant to his
job.
2. the opportunity to perform
- depend on the work
environment provided to
the employee. It is also
diminished by lack of
equipment, lack of funds, and
insufficient authority.
3. the willingness to perform
- the degree in which an
employee desires and is
willing to exert effort to
achieve the goals
assigned to him. It is
also
alternately called motivation.
Determinants of Job
Performance
1. the capacity to perform -
the degree to which the
employee possesses skills,
abilities, knowledge, and
experiences relevant to his
job.
2. the opportunity to perform
- depend on the work
environment provided to
the employee. It is also
diminished by lack of
equipment, lack of funds, and
insufficient authority.
3. the willingness to perform
- the degree in which an
employee desires and is
willing to exert effort to
achieve the goals
assigned to him. It is
also
alternately called motivatio PART 5
MOTIVATION
Determinants of Job Performance
1. the capacity to perform - the degree to which the employee possesses skills, abilities, knowledge, and
experiences relevant to his job.
2. the opportunity to perform - depend on the work environment provided to the employee. It is also
diminished by lack of equipment, lack of funds, and insufficient authority.
3. the willingness to perform - the degree in which an employee desires and is willing to exert effort
to achieve the goals assigned to him. It is also alternately called motivation.
What is Motivation?
-the process of activating behavior sustaining it, and directing it toward a particular goal. It
moves people to act and accomplish.
-In the workplace, motivation may be more specifically defined as the set of internal and external forces
that cause a worker or employee to choose a course of action and engage in a certain behavior.
KEY ELEMENTS OF MOTIVATION
Motivation consists of the following elements:
1. intensity- the level of effort provided by the employee in the attempt to achieve the goal
assigned to him
2. direction- relates to what an individual chooses to do when he is confronted with a number of possible
choices.
3. persistence - a dimension of motivation which measures how long a person can maintain effort to
achieve the organization's goals.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Content theories - those that focus on analyzing the wants and needs of an individual.
Four (4) content theories are the following:
1. Hierarchy of Needs Theory of Abraham Maslow
-Abraham Maslow forwarded the idea that human beings possess a hierarchy of five needs (physiological,
safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization) such that as each need is substantially satisfied, the next
need becomes dominant.
A brief description of the needs is provided as follows:

 Physiological needs - which include hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other
bodily needs.
 Safety needs - which include security and protection from physical and
emotional harm.
 Social needs - which include affection, belongingness, acceptance, and
friendship.
 Esteem needs- which include internal esteem factors such as self-respect,
autonomy, and achievement, and external esteem factors such as status,
recognition, and attention.
 Self-actualization-refers to the drive to become what one is capable of becoming,
which includes growth, achieving one's potential, and self-
fulfillment.
2. ERG Theory of Clayton Alderfer
- is a need hierarchy theory of motivation that was developed by Clayton Alderfer.
He believed that in motivating people, we are confronted by three sets of needs:
existence (E), relatedness (R), and growth (G).
These sets of needs may be briefly described as follows:

 Existence - this refers to needs satisfied by such factors as food, air, water, pay, and working
conditions;
 Relatedness-this refers to the needs satisfied by meaningful social and
 interpersonal relationships; and
 Growth- this refers to the needs satisfied by an individual making creative or
productive contributions.
3. Acquired Needs Theory of David L. McClelland
-was developed as a result of a research made by David McClelland and his associates.
They found out that managers are motivated by three fundamental needs which
may be briefly described as follows:

 need for achievement - this refers to the desire to do something better or more efficiently, to solve
problems, or to master complex tasks;
 need for affiliation-which refers to the desire to establish and maintain friendly and
warm relations with others; and
 need for power-which refers to the desire to control others. to influence their behavior, or to be
responsible for others.
McClelland believed that the foregoing needs are acquired over time as a result
of life experiences. His research findings consist of the following:

 People who have high achievement needs have the drive to advance and to
overcome challenging situations such as those faced by entrepreneurs in introducing
innovative new business;
 An affiliation motivated person prefers to work with friends.
 The need for power drives successful managers.
4. Two-factor Theory of Frederick Herzberg
-Frederick Hezberg developed his two-factor theory that identifies job context as
a source of job dissatisfaction and job content as the source of job satisfaction.
The factors associated with job context are called hygiene factors which include
the following:

 organizational policies
 quality of supervision
 working conditions
 base wage or salary
 relationship with peers
 relationship with subordinates
 status.
 security
The job content relates more to what people actually do in their work. Those that are related to job
content are called motivator factors and they consist of the following:

 achievement
 recognition
 work itself
 Responsibility
 advancement
 growth
Process theories- explain how people act in response to the wants and needs that they have.
Three (3) Process theories are the ff:
1. Expectancy Theory of Victor Vroom
- This theory sees people as choosing a course of action according to what they
 anticipate will give them the greatest rewards.
Vroom elaborated by explaining that motivation is a product of the following factors:

 valence - how much one wants a reward;

 expectancy - one's estimate of the probability that effort will result in
 successful performance; and
 instrumentality-one's estimate that performance will result in receiving the
reward.
The three factors are useful in deriving motivation. The formula is as follows:
Valence x Expectancy x Instrumentality = Motivation
2. Equity Theory of J. Stacey Adams
-a theory that individuals compare job inputs and outcomes with those of others
and then respond to eliminate inequities. It assumes that employees are
motivated by a desire to be equitably treated at work.
Two types of inequity:
1. over rewarded; or
2. under rewarded.
Employees who feel over rewarded will think there is an imbalance in their
relationship with their employer. They will seek to restore the balance through any of the following:

 they might work harder;

 they might discount the value of the rewards;
 they could try to convince other employees to ask for more rewards; and
 they might choose someone else for comparison purposes.
When employees feel under rewarded, they will seek to reduce their feelings of
inequity through any of the following:
 they might lower the quality or quantity of their productivity;
 they could inflate the perceived value of the rewards received;
 they could find someone else to compare themselves;
 they could bargain for more rewards; and
 they might quit.
3. Goal Setting Theory of Edwin A. Locke
-the theory that specific and difficult goals, with feedback lead to higher
performance.
- It is based on the premise that behavior is regulated by values and goals. A goal
is the specific target that an individual is trying to achieve.
Edwin A. Locke and his associates' findings about goals include the following:

 Specific goals lead to a higher performance than generalized goals. For example, a
specific goal like "increase sales by 10%" is more effective than a generalized goal like "increase
sales".
 Performance generally increases in direct proportion to goal difficulty. Goals
that are difficult to achieve is regarded as a challenge to the ability of the person. This pushes him
or her to perform. Exceptions, of course, are goals that are too difficult, and the person gets
frustrated rather than inspired.
 For goals to improve performance, they must be accepted by the workers. It is logical that when
goals are accepted, workers fee that they should achieve them. Acceptance and commitment
to goals happen when workers participate in the setting of goals. The workers will feel that
they are "part owner" of the goals, and they will have a sense of achieving them.
 Goals are more effective when they are used to evaluate performance. This is true especially if
performance is used to determine rewards.
 Goals should be linked to feedback. When workers receive feedback, they will know whether or
not they are moving towards the direction of high performance. Such knowledge is
important in maintaining the right
 motivation to work
MOTIVATIONAL METHODS AND PROGRAMS
Four motivational methods and programs:
1. Motivation Through Job Design;
-Job design may be defined as the way the elements in a job are organized.
Three concepts are important in designing jobs. They consist of the following:
Job enrichment - refers to the practice of building motivating factors like
responsibility, achievement and recognition into job content.
An enriched job has any or all of the following characteristics:

 Direct feedback - which means employees receive immediate evaluation of their work.
 Client relationships - which means an employee is given a chance to serve an external or internal
client.
 New learning - which means that the employee acquires new knowledge while doing his work.
 Control over method - which means that the employee has some control over which method to
choose to accomplish a task.
 Control over scheduling - which means the employee has the ability to schedule his
work.
 Unique experience - which means the job has unique qualities or features, like the opportunity to
see the world.
 Direct communication authority- which means the job provides the employee the opportunity to
communicate directly with people who use their output.
 Control over resources - which means the employee ha some control over
resources such as money, material, or
 Personal accountability - which means the employee is responsible for his or
her result. He accepts credits for doing a good job; and blame for a poor job.
Job characteristics model - refers to the method of job design that focuses on the
task and interpersonal demands of a job.
Five core job characteristics of special importance to job design:

 Skill variety - the degrees to which there are many skills to perform.
 Task identity - the degree to which one worker is able to do a complete job, from beginning to
end, with the tangible and possible. outcome. A
 Task significance - the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of
other people.
 Autonomy - the degree which the job gives the employee substantial freedom,
independence, and discretion in scheduling the work and determining the procedures
used in carrying it out.
 Feedback- the degree to which a job provides direct information about
performance.
Job crafting - refers to the physical and mental changes workers make in the task
or relationship aspect of their jobs.
The common types of job crafting are:
 changing the number and type of job tasks;
 changing the interaction with others on the job; and
 changing one's view of the job.
2. Organizational Behavior Modification;
-It is actually the application reinforcement theory in motivating people at work.
Reinforcement theory may be briefly defined as the contention that behavior is
determined by its consequences.
The typical OB Mod program consists of a five-step problem solving model. These
are as follows:
1. Identifying critical behaviors that make a significant impact on the employee's job performance;
2. Developing baseline data which is obtained by determining the number of times the identified
behavior is occurring under present conditions;
3. Identifying behavioral consequences of performance;
4. Developing and implementing an intervention strategy to strengthen desirable performance behaviors
and weaken undesirable behaviors; and
5. Evaluating performance improvement.
Benefits of OB Mod:

 improvement of employee productivity;

 reduction of errors, absenteeism, tardiness, and accident rates;
 improvement of friendliness toward customers.
3. Motivation Through Recognition and Pride;
-Recognition is a natural human need and it is a strong motivator.
Steps to make it an effective motivator:
 Identify a meritorious behavior (for example, the development of a scheme
that reduces the cost of providing service to customers);
 Recognize the behavior with an oral, written, or material reward.
For a better understanding and implementation of reward and recognition
programs, the following points must be considered:

 Feedback is an essential part of recognition;

 Praise is one of the most powerful forms of recognition;
 Reward and recognition programs should be limited to organizational goals;
 Identification of the type of rewards and recognition that the workers will value; and
 It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the reward and recognition program.
Pride is also a motivator, but one that is intrinsic
4. Motivation through Financial Incentives.
-monetary rewards paid to employees because of the output they produce, skills,
knowledge, and competencies or a combination of these factors.
Financial incentives take the form of any or a combination of the following:
Time rates -type of monetary reward use the number of hours worked as a means
of determining rewards.
Advantages of time rates:
 It is open to inspection and equitable because employees doing the same job will be on the same
grade level.
 It encourages the retention of human resources by stability and this is because of the
gradual increases in rewards within the given grades.
 It is relatively easy to administer and allows labor cost to be predicted.
  It does not emphasize quantity of output to the detriment of quality.
Main disadvantage - it does not motivate employees to become more productive.
Payment by results - links pay to the quantity of the individual's output.
Advantages of payment by results:
 The employee is motivated to put in extra effort because by doing so, he or she will receive
additional income;
 There is fairness because the level of reward is related to the level of output;
 There are likely to be cost advantages since wages are directly linked to production and
less supervision is required.

Disadvantages of payment by results:

 Outputs in certain jobs cannot be easily measured; 2. Safety standards may be compromised. For
instance, the high rate of accidents involving bus drivers who are paid commissions is sufficient
proof of the disadvantage of payment by results;
 Workers may view payment by results as a device to obtain greater effort from them without
commensurate rewards
Performance related pay - considers results or output plus actual behavior in the
job. Most often, rewards consist of a lump sum, or a bonus as a percentage of
basic salary, with quality of performance determining the magnitude of the percentage
increase, or alternatively accelerated movement up a pay scale
Advantages of performance related pay:
 It increases employee beliefs (instrumentality) that reward will follow high
performance;
 Those that perform better are rewarded more; and 3. It is comparatively objective and
verifiable.
Disadvantages:
 cost rises along with the rewards;
 the system is complex;
 employees with declining energy decrease in total pay;
 the union may resist the incentive idea;
 there is delay in the payment of incentives;
 the system is rigid;
 it is difficult to motivate higher performance across a broad range of employees
Profit related pay - an organization wide scheme where pay is linked to company
profits. Profit related pay takes the form of direct cash outlay, or allocation of
stock options.
Advantages of profit related pay:
 Employees identify more closely with the success of the organization;
 There is a breaking down or removal of the communication barrier between management and
employees;
 Cooperation and working together for mutual benefit is encouraged;
  Awareness of the link between performance and organizational profitability leads to a greater
awareness of costs and their impact on performance; 5.
 When profits fall, the decline in pay is a preferable alternative to laying off
employees;
 Group pressure could raise the performance levels of poor performers.
Disadvantages of profit related pay:
 Profits are not directly related to an employees effort on the job, and this is a negative factor on
motivation;
 Employees must wait for their reward, and the delay diminishes its impact;
 Since profits are unpredictable, total worker income may vary from year to year. As a result, some
workers may prefer the stability of a fixed wage or salary.

Skill/competency based pay - known as competency based or knowledge based

pay, this is a pay plan that sets pay levels on the basis of how many employees

have or how many jobs they can do.

Advantages of the skill-based pay:

 It provides strong motivation for employees to develop their work-related skills;

 It reinforces an employee's sense of self-esteem;
 It provides the organization with a highly flexible workforce that can fill in when someone is absent.
Disadvantages:
 Since most employees will voluntarily learn higher-level jobs, the average hourly pay rate will be
greater than normal;
 A substantial investment in employee training must be made especially in the time spent coaching by
supervisors and peers:
 Not all employees like skill based pay because it places pressure on them to move up the skill ladder;
 Some employees will qualify themselves for skill areas that they will unlikely use, causing the
organization to pay them higher rates than they deserve.
Cafeteria or flexible benefits system - a benefit plan that allows each employee to
put together a benefit package individually tailored to his or her own needs and
situation.
Advantages:
 It enables employees to choose options that best fit their own needs. Old
workers, for instance, may choose health and life insurance, while the younger ones may
choose membership to social clubs.
 Deciding among the various options makes employees more aware of the benefits, giving them a real
sense of the value of the benefits their employers provide.
 Flexible benefit plans can lower compensation costs because employers no longer have to pay for
unwanted benefits.
 Employers and employees can save on taxes.
Disadvantages:
  It creates an administrative burden.
 It can lead to the increased insurance premiums.

SUMMARY
Employee performance is a very important concern for people running organizations. One of the
requirements of performance is motivation.

Motivation may be defined as the process of activating behavior, sustaining it, and directing it toward a
particular goal.

The key elements of motivation are intensity, direction, and persistence. The various theories of
motivation may be categorized as either content or process theories. Content theories are those
that focus on analyzing the wants and needs of an individual. Process theories explain how people act in
response to the wants and needs that they have.

The better-known content theories are: hierarchy of needs theory, ERG theory, acquired needs theory, and
two-factor theory. The better-known process theories are: expectancy theory, equity theory, and goal
setting theory.

Workers may be motivated through any of the following methods and programs: job design,
organizational behavior modification, recognition and pride, and financial incentives.

Source

Medina, R. (2011). Human Behavior in Organization. Rex Book Store