What should we do about motivation

theory?
Six recommendations for twenty-first
century
-Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham
 CONTENTS

1. The extant Motivation theories

a. Industrial / Organizational psychology
b. O.B.
c. Social emphasis
d. Personality based approach

2. The Future of Motivation theories

- Six recommendations
 The extant of Motivation theories
a. Industrial / Organizational psychology
(1) Hawthorn(1939): effect of supervision, incentive, working
condition
(2) Vroom(1964): Valence-Instrumentality Expectancy model
(3) Argyris(1957): congruence between the individual’s needs and
organizational demands
(4) Herzberg(1959): source of work satisfaction, domain, ways in
which the job could be design to make the work itself enriching
and challenging
(5) Hackman & Oldham(1980): Herzberg’s work +work
characteristics+ psychological process

All these theory: the organization’s effect on the

individual employee’s “cognitive growth”
 The extant of Motivation theories

b. O.B.

(1) Skinner’s behavioristic philosophy stressed the

automatic role of reward and feedback , however
mediated by psychological processes such as goal and
self-efficacy.
(2) Goal-setting (Locke/ Latham, 1902), control theory:
The effect of conscious goals as motivators of task
performance
(3) Attribution theory (Weiner, 1986): The attributions
affect one’s subsequent choices and actions.
(4) Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986): Self-
efficacy has powerful motivational effects on task
performance
 The extant of Motivation theories

c. Social emphasis
(1) Bandura (1986) : the motivational effects of role
modeling
(2) Adams (1963) : The motivational effects of
distributive justice based on comparison between
inputs and outcomes versus those of comparison
others
(3) Greenberg (2000) : Procedural justice, stressing the
important effect on employee satisfaction of the
methods or processes by which organizational
decisions affecting employees are made.
 The extant of Motivation theories

d. Personality based approach

(1) McClelland (1969) : the effect of subconscious
motivation (need for achievement) on economy
growth
(2) Barrick & Mount (2000) : Self-reported traits has
become popular , which is fairly consistently related
to effective job performance.

“ All of the above theories have limitations.

Yet most provide some useful insight into employee
motivation.
Our knowledge of the subject of work motivation is far
from complete.”
 The Future of Motivation theories
Six recommendations
1. Use the result of existing meta-analyses to integrate
valid aspects of extant theories.
2. Create a boundaryless science of work motivation
3. Identify how general variables such as personality get
applied to and are mediated by task and situationally
specific variables, how they affect situational choice
and structuring.
4. Study subconscious as well as conscious motivation
and the relationship between them.
5. Use introspection explicitly as a method of studying
and understanding motivation
6. Acknowledge the role of volition on human action
when formulating theories
 The Future of Motivation theories

1. Meta-analyses to integrate valid aspects of extant

theories
☞ Mata-analysis: 실증연구 각각으로부터 관련된 변수들간의 효과의
크기를 구하고 어떤 기준에 의하여 분류한 일단의 연구들간에 평균효
과 크기의 차이가 유의한지를 살펴봄으로써 보다 정량적으로 과거의
실증 연구 결과들을 종합, 검증하는 방법
1) Locke (1997) : integrating theory
: 이론간의 연계 확인 (by meta-analyses), mediation effect와
moderator effect 고려
2) Schmit (1992) : mega-analysis
: empirical studies of relationship among job experience,
ability, knowledge and performance on work samples, as well
as in the workplace.
 An Integrated Model of Work Motivation

Job Characteristics
Goal Theory and Social-Cognitive Theory
Theory

Personality VIE Goal Moderators Work Job

Theory Theory -Feedback Characteristics Involvement
-Commitment
12
-Ability
-Task Complexity
Organizational
9 Commitment
14

3 Goal Choice Goal & Efficacy Performance

Value Mechanism
Satisfaction 15
Needs Coal Attribute &Outcomes 16a
1 Personality 3 (Mediator) Dis-
-Difficulty -Success
-Direction 8 211
satisfaction
-Specialty - Effort
- Rewards Actions
2 7 16
-Persistence 10 -Job & Work
-Task Strategies Avoidance
-Protest
4
Incentives 5 13 - Vengeance
-Leadership - Defiance
Organization -Adjustment
- Money, Policies&
Self-
Etc. Procedures
4
efficacy
6

Attribution Distributive&
Theory Procedural
Justice
Theory
 The Future of Motivation theories

2. Create a boundaryless science of work motivation

배경
(1) Be extended and further developed within area other than isolated task
performance settings
(2) Consider using concepts developed in fields outside OB/ IO psychology.

이론
(1)Social loafing : potent group motivation phenomenon
팀 수준의 동기부여에서 다루어질 수 있다.
(2) Decision making : goals affect the degree of risk people take when making
decision
(3) Personality issue : goal orientation is a relatively stable disposition
(4) Organization theory (macro-theories)
: Centralization vs decentralization – Firms that have subsidiaries in different
countries inevitably run into the issue of value differences.
: 목표설정이 의사결정과 성과보상 등에 적용될 때 다른 효과를 보일 것인가?
 The Future of Motivation theories

(5) strategic management : involving change vs resistance to change.

변화에 대한 저항은 조직개발 분야에서 자주 다루어지지만 동기부여적 이슈
가 있음에도 동기부여 분야에서는 다루지 않고 있다.

(6) Needs to draw on findings from social & educational psychology.

1. Dysfunctional thinking : overgeneralization, perfectionism, dependence on
others – clinical methods have practical utility in the realm of work
motivation.
2. Cognitive methods could be used to teach employees the principle of
reframing dysfunctional thoughts in work settings.
3. ASQ model : attribution style questionnaire
-Locus (개인의 행동과 경험한 결과 사이의 필연성을 자기자신이나 환경에 귀
속하는 범위)
-Stability (반응결과의 결여가 일시적인가 ,미래에 지속되는가)
-Globality (필연의 결과를 삶의 일부로 인식하느냐 전체로 인식하는가)
 The Future of Motivation theories

3. Identify how general variables such as personality get

applied to and are mediated by task and situationally
specific variables, how they affect situational choice
and structuring.

Q :How to integrate the general with the specific?

A : Every action is task and situationally specific.
General measures predict more widely than do specific one,
generally.

결론
The identification of personality trait mediators does not
preclude the study of person-situation interaction
We must not overlook the fact that people are not merely the
passive victims of situations.
 The Future of Motivation theories

4. Study subconscious as well as conscious motivation

and the relation between them.
개념
: We validate the concept of the subconscious by observing that
we can draw knowledge out of memory without any additional
learning.
: people can act without being aware of the motive and values underlying
their behavior.
연구
1) McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, Lowell (53)
: achievement motive was a subconscious motive.
measured with a projective test– TAT
TAT-measured achievement motivation may or may not be
assessing a concept different from self-reported
achievement motivation measures
 The Future of Motivation theories
2) Collins, Hanges, Locke
: Self- report measures of achievement motivation are typically
uncorrelated with projective measures

3) Howard
: conscious goals for promotion had no relationship with a set of
projective measures that had been designed by McClelland to
predict managerial progress

한계 : studying the subconscious is difficult precisely because people

cannot always directly provide the needed information stored there
: thus indirect measures such as TAT-test are require. : projective test
may be useful.
: The Big Five – projective measure, self-reporting 으로 측정가능
성실성, 정서적 안정성, 경험에 대한 개방성, 친화성, 외향적 성격
 The Future of Motivation theories

5. Use introspection explicitly as a method of studying

and understanding motivation
경향
controversial study –> introspection

연구
1. Freud : preconscious thus inaccessible to direct awareness of observation

2. Hull, Spence : strictly psychological

3. Watson, Skinner : consciousness was irrelevant to understanding human

behavior

반박
Motivation state exist in consciousness thus introspection must be used to study
 The Future of Motivation theories

six important benefits of 5th recommendation.

1) Understanding traits and motives
2) Increasing accuracy
3) Understanding the effect of attitudes
4) Learning how managers formulate and apply principle
5) Understanding self-motivation
6) Understanding the relationship between motivation and
knowledge
 The Future of Motivation theories

6. Acknowledge the role of volition on human action

when formulating theories
- psychological determinism is self-contradictory
- it’s not important that causes of action as fully determined by
circumstances or by predetermined ways of processing

-organization theory, it was initially hypothesized that technology

determines organizational structure. Programmatic research
testing this hypothesis was not very successful, because human
choice and imagination were not taken into account.

-violation does not destroy the possibility of a psychological

science, but it does mean that predictions must be conditional ,
the relevant conditions pertain to the individual’s psychology,
both conscious and subconscious.
 The Future of Motivation theories

Conclusion

-New perspectives : 6 recommendation

1) Time perspective
: how employee, manager and leaders consider and integrate short, long-
term consideration or outcomes
: how people balance short, long-term considerations when making
decisions.
: how people and organizational leaders prioritize their goals and values
and the consequences of different types of priorities.

2) Definitions
: key concepts are not defined
: the failure to define terms in a clear and valid way stifles cognitive clarity
and therefore progress in the field of work motivation.