MODULE CODE: BUS020C430Y

MODULE TITLE: People and Organisations

Week 7 – w/c 4 November 2013
Motivation – An Introduction
 MODULE CODE: BUS020C430Y

 MODULE TITLE: People and Organisations

 CORE TEXTBOOK: Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2007) Organizational

Behaviour, 6th edition. Essex: Pearson Education.
 MODULE TUTORS:
Name Email
Miral Metawie [email protected]
Diane Garside [email protected]
Joyce Jiang [email protected]
 Learning outcomes
In this lecture you will learn about:
• what we mean by ‘motivation’ in the context of
organizational behaviour
• The theories of motivation:
• Content theories
• Process theories
• The use & relevance of these theories
 Is motivation & incentives important?

“Over 22 million people are currently in employment and we cannot

afford to underestimate the extent to which our economy depends on
maintaining the motivation and improving the ability of the workforce”
Sir Brian Wolfson, Chairman of Investors in People, UK, 1998
Is motivation & incentives important?

• Increase in customer satisfaction

• Better employee retention
• Increase in productivity
• Higher profit
Meaning of Motivation

Why do people do what they do?

The driving force within individuals by which they attempt to achieve some
goal in order to fulfil some need or expectation.
The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and
persistence of effort toward attaining a goal – specifically, an organizational
goal.
 Three key elements:
• Intensity: how hard a person tries
• Direction: effort toward, and consistent with, organizational goals
• Persistence: how long a person can maintain effort
 Your motivation

• Why did you get out of bed this morning?

• Why did you chose to study an this programme?
• Why, if someone asks you to do something, do you do it?
What influences that decision?
• Why do you study? How hard do you study?
 Approaches to understanding
motivation
• Content theories:
What are people’s needs?
What goals do they pursue?
WHAT
What do they value as rewards?
• Process theories:
Cognitive theories
Dynamic relationship between HOW
influencing factors
Motivation theories
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Motivation Theory

There is a hierarchy of five needs. As each need is substantially

satisfied, the next need becomes dominant.
Assumptions:
Self- – Individuals cannot
move to the next
actualization
higher level until all
Esteem needs at the current
(lower) level are
Social/love/belongingness satisfied
– Must move in
Safety
hierarchical order
Physiological/basic
Not as simple as this!
 Maslow’s theory is a social philosophy reflecting white American middle-
class values.
 Individuals may put them in different order and may have different
motivators
 Needs satisfied by different activities in life (work, social, family)

 One event can satisfy more than one need (e.g. salary rise)

 Empirical studies show that needs change for many reasons, not just
because a lower one has been fulfilled
 Was not designed for the workplace
Linking Maslow’s theory to organisational factors
 Alderfer’s modified approach (ERG)

Existence needs – concerned with sustaining human existence & survival and covers
physiological & safety needs of a material nature

Relatedness needs – concerned with relationships to the social environment and

covers love or belonging, affiliation, and meaningful interpersonal relationships

Growth needs – concerned with the development of potential and covers self-esteem
& self-actualisation
 Herzberg – two factor theory
Key Point: Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites
but separate constructs

Extrinsic - Related to Intrinsic - Related

Dissatisfaction to Satisfaction

The Dissatisfiers The Satisfiers

 Herzberg’s two factor theory
• Motivators = satisfaction • Hygiene factors =
• Achievement dissatisfaction
• Responsibility • Salary
• Growth • Job security
• Recognition • Working conditions
• Advancement • Level & quality of
• The work itself supervision
• Company policy &
administration
 Herzberg: summary
• Herzberg’s work, although subject to
criticism is an empirical attempt to the
study of motivation at work.
• Also, this has drawn attention to the
importance of job design in order to bring
about job enrichment, self-development
and self-managed learning.
• “quality of work life” emphasised
 Process theories: Expectancy theory
• “Our willingness to act is governed by our
perception of the value of any potential reward and
our expectation that the action will lead to the
reward” (Victor Vroom, 1964)
 Implications of expectancy
Managers must find ways to:
• Clarify the link between effort and performance:
– Improve efficiency through training so more effort covert into
performance
– Respond to suggestions about improving work process
• Improve confidence that good performance will lead
to rewards:
– Make it clear exactly what behaviours will lead to rewards
– Clarify what the rewards are and how they will be gained
• Ensure rewards are positively valued:
– Consult employees about rewards
– Allow flexibility of choice
 Equity theory of motivation
(Adams, 1965)
• Focuses on people’s perceptions
about how fairly they have been
treated in comparison with others
• We seek an equitable balance between inputs and outcomes
• If we think our ratio of inputs:outcomes is greater or less than
another person’s then we feel tension (either anger or guilt)
• We then try and bring feelings of equity into balance by:
• Reducing our input or seeking higher levels of outcome
• Increasing input to try and justify differential
 Goal setting theory
(Locke, 1990)

• People aim to satisfy needs & strive to attain goals

• When people are assigned challenging goals their
belief about their ability to achieve it is affected
positively
• If we believe in our capacity to reach the goal
 How does it all fit together?
• Many more theories than reported here:
• You need to read!
• No theory has a monopoly on the truth
• They all throw some light on the complicated
relationships between individuals,
organizations, motivation and performance
• All individuals are different = theorising
becomes a tricky task
 The practical use of theories
• The various theories are not conclusive, but provide
a useful framework in which to direct study
• A manager must judge the relevance of different
theories, how best to draw upon them, and how
they might effectively be applied in particular work
situations. The manager should be aware of at least
the main theories of motivation.
 References
 Adams, J.S. (1963) Toward an understanding of inequity. Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 422-36.
 Alderfer, C. (1972). Human needs in organisational settings. New
York: Free Press.
 Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2007). Organizational Behaviour, 6th
edition. Essex: Pearson Education.
 Fineman, S., Sims, D. and Gabriel, Y. (2005). Organizing and
Organizations, 3rd edition. London: Sage Publications.
 Herzberg, F. (1968). One more time: how do you motivate
employees? Harvard Business Review, 46(1), 53-62.
 Locke, E.A. and Latham, G.P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task
performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 References
 Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological
Review, 50(4), 370-96.
 Mullins, L. J. (2007). Management and Organisational Behaviour.
Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
 Vroom, V.H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley.
Discussion and Questions