Performance = Ability x Motivation ( Effort )

Where
Ability = Aptitude x Training x Resource
Motivation = Desire x Commitment

The first question must be asked by the supervisor of a poor performer is whether the
performer lack of ability or lack of motivation :

1. How difficult are the task being assigned to the individual ?

2. How capable is the individual ?
3. How hard is the individual trying to succeed at the job ?
4. How much improvement is the individual making ?

Managers tend to apply more pressure to a person if they feel that the person is
deliberately not performing up to expectations, rather than not performing effectively due
to external.

Three danger signals for management positions:

1. Taking refuge in a specialty : Tap trung qua nhieu vao chuyen mon.
2. Focusing on past performance
3. Exaggerating aspects of the leadership role : Cuong do hoa vai tro lanh dao cua
ban than

There are 5 principal tools available for over-coming poor performance problem due to
lack of ability : resupply; retrain; refit; reassign and release.
Once manager has ascertained that lack of ability is primary cause someone’s poor
performance, a performance review interview should be scheduled to explore these
options, beginning with resupply and retraining.
Resupply focus on the support needs of the job ( personnel; budget … ) – “ Do you have
what you need to perform this job satisfactorily ? “
Retrain – Training
Refitting poor performer to their task assignments
Reassign the poor performers – either to a position of less possibilities or one requires
less technical knowledge or interpersonal skills
Release – If retraining have not worked and if there are no opportunities for reassigning
in the organization, the manager should consider release the employer

Elements of an Effective Motivation Program.

Satisfaction …………> Motivation …………> Performance

It is now believed that :
Motivation …………..> Performance ………..> Satisfaction

High performance leads to high satisfaction if workers believe that their organization
reinforces high performance by linking it to valued rewards.
Motivation …………> Performance ……….. > Outcomes ………..> Satisfaction.

Establish a clear performance expectation

1. The foundation of an effective motivation program is proper goal setting. Goal setting
must be considered carefully. It must be both understood and accepted. Research shows
that the subordinates are more likely “ buy into “ goals if they feel that they are part of
the goal setting process.

2. Goal characteristics significantly affect the likelihood that the goal will be
accomplished. Effective goals are specific; consistent and appropriately challenging :
Specific – measurable. Instead of “ be dependable “ or “ work hard “ which is to general
and too difficult to measure. We can give such a specific task as : Reduce finished
products refection by 15%, increase sales to 20%.
Consistent – a VP in the bank complains that she can’t increase both of number of reports
she writes in a week and the amount of time she spend visiting customers.
Appropriately challenging : Hard goals are more motivating than easy goals.

3. Effective goal program must also include feedback. Feedback provides opportunities
to clarifying expectations; adjusting goal difficulty.

Remove obstacles to performance

One of the key ingredients of an effective goal program is supportive work environment.
Second factor that influences the appropriate degree of management involvement is the
expectations of subordinates. 3 distinct characteristics influence expectation : desire for
autonomy; experiences and ability.
Management must tailor their management style to specific conditions.

Use rewards as reinforces

This is the key to encourage high performance behavior. If an organization rewards all
people identically, or on some basic other than performance, then higher performer are
likely to feel they are receive fewer rewards than they deserve. Of course, high performer
are the key success of an organization, hence, motivational scheme should be geared to
keeping this employee satisfied.
A sample of creative methods firms are using establish closer connections between
individual performance and pay includes sales commissions that includes follow up
customer satisfaction ratings..

The role of manger’s actions as Reinforces

Refer to Do and Don’t table 6.4

Use Reward and Discipline appropriately

The disciplining approach involves responding negatively to an employee’s behavior

with the intention of discouraging future occurrences of that behavior.
The rewarding approach consists of linking desired behaviors with employee-value
outcomes.
Refer to table 6.3
Disciplining and rewarding are both viable and useful techniques and each has its place in
the effective manager’s motivational. We can see in table 6.3 that each technique is
associated with different behavior-shaping goals.

Strategies for Shaping behavior

Table 6.5 shows 9 steps for improving behavior.

An important principle to keep in mind when issuing a reprimand that discipline should
immediately follow the offensive behavior and focus exclusively on the specific problem.
The focus of the discussion should be on eliminating a problem behavior not on making
the subordinate to feeling bad.
Second, it is important to redirect inappropriate behavior into appropriate behavior
channel. It is important that people being reprimanded understand how they can receive
reward in the future.
The lingering negative effect of a reprimand will quickly wear off if the manager begins
using rewards to reinforce desirable behaviors shortly thereafter. This goal can be
achieved only if workers know how they can receive positive outcomes and perceive that
the available rewards are personal salient.

Foster Intrinsic Outcome

Effective managers understand that the person – job interface has strong impact on work
performance.

These are things like pay and promotions and praise that are controlled by someone other
than the individual performer. In addition, the motivating potential of a task is affected by
its associated intrinsic outcome.

No matter how externally controlled rewards manager use, if individuals find their jobs
uninteresting, performance will suffer.

Motivate worker by redesigning work

Work design in the process of matching job characteristics and worker’s skill and
interests.
Refer to table 6.4
The more variety in the skills a person can use in performing work, the more person
perceives the task as meaningful or worthwhile.
The more autonomy in the work ( freedom to choose how and when to do particular job ),
the more responsibilities workers feel for the success and failure. Increased
responsibilities results in increased commitment to one’s work. Autonomy can increased
by flexible work schedules, decentralizing decision maker ..
Finally, the more feedback individuals receive about how well their job being performed
the more knowledge of result they have. Knowledge of results permits workers to
understand of the job they perform. Employee’s knowledge of results may be enhanced
by increasing their contact with clients or by giving them feedback on how their job fit in
and contribute to the overall operation of the organization.

This discussion of work design suggests 5 managerial action guidelines that can help
increase desirable personal and work outcome. Refer to table 6.6
The first one is to combine tasks which is more challenging and complex work
assignment. It requires workers to use a wider variety of skills, which make the work
seem more challenging and meaningful.
A related managerial principle is to form identifiable work units so that task identity and
task significance can be increased
The third guideline for enhancing jobs is to establish client relationship. A client
relationship involves an ongoing personal relationship between an employee and the
clients.
The fourth suggestion, increase authority for making job- related decision to workers. As
supervisors delegate more authority and responsibility, their staff perceived autonomy,
task significance, and task identity increased.
The final managerial suggestion is to open feedback channels. Workers need to know
how well or how poorly they are performing their job and if there is any kind of
improvement is expected. Thus, it is very imperative that they receive timely and
consistent feedback, which allows them to make appropriate adjustments in their
behavior so they can receive desired rewards.
A different approach to job design focus on matching individuals “ deeply embedded life
interests “ with the task characteristics of their work. The proponents of this approach
argue that for too long people have been advised to select careers based on what they are
good at, rather than what they enjoy. The assumption behind this advice is that
individuals who excel at their work are satisfied with their jobs.
In summary, managers should recognize those both extrinsic and intrinsic outcomes are
necessary ingredients of effective motivational program.

Provide salient rewards

One of biggest mistake that can be made in implementing a reward program is assuming
that manager understand their subordinates’ preferences.

Personal needs and personal motivation

Until a lower level need has been satisfied, a higher level need won’t become activated.
Murray’s manifest needs model :
Murray proposed that individuals can be classified according to the strengths of their
various needs. Murray posited that people have divergent and often conflicting needs. He
proposed two dozen needs but later study have suggested that only three or four of them
are relevant to workplace; include the needs for achievement, affiliation and power.
The need for achievement is defined as behavior toward competition with a standard of
excellence. Individuals with a high need for achievement would be characterized by
- a tendency to set moderately difficult goal
- a strong desire to assume personal responsibilities for work activities
- a single minded focus on accomplishing a task
- a strong desire for detailed feedback on task performance.
Need for affiliation involves attraction to other individuals in order to feel reassured and
acceptable. People with a high need for affiliation would be characterized by
- a sincere interest in the feeling of others
- a tendency to conform to the expectations of other
- a strong desire for reassurance and approval from others
Need for power which represents a desire to influence others and control one’s
environment. Individual with a high need for power seek leadership positions and tend to
influence other in a fairly open, direct manner. These individuals are described as :
- they are organization minded, feeling personally for advancing the purposes of the
organization
- they enjoy work and accomplishing tasks
- they are often willing to sacrifice their own self-interests for the good of the
organization
- they have a strong scene of justice and equity
- they seek expert advice and are not defensive when their ideas are criticized.

Be fair and equitable

Once rewards have been determined for each employee, manager must then consider how
to distribute those rewards. This brings us to concern about equity. Equity refers to
worker’s perception of the fairness of reward. Evaluations of equity are based on a social
comparison process in which workers individually compare what they are getting out of
the work relationship ( outcomes ) to what they are putting into the work relationship
( inputs ). Outcome includes such item as pay, fringe benefits, increased responsibilities
where inputs may include hours worked and work quality, as well as education and
experience.
If worker experience feeling of inequity, they will behaviorally adjust their own or fellow
workers’ inputs and/or outputs. In some cases, it may lead to decrease in motivation and
performance.
The significance of this aspect of motivation underscores the need for managers to
monitor closely subordinates’ perceptions of equity.
The important thing to keep in mind about equity and fairness is that we are dealing with
perceptions. Consequently whether they are accurate or distorted, they are both accurate
in the mind of perceiver until proven otherwise. Therefore, effective managers should
constantly perform real check on their subordinates’ perception of equity, using questions
to find out.

Provide timely rewards and accurate feedback

We have emphasized that employee need to understand and accept performance

standards, they should feel that management is working hard to help them reach their
performance goals, they should feel that available internal and external rewards are
personal attractive..
All these elements are necessary for an effective motivational program, but they are not
sufficient. A common mistake is to assume that all rewards are reinforces. In fact, the
reinforcing potential of a reward depends on its being linked in the mind of reward
recipient to the specific behaviors the reward giver desires to strengthen. ( When I
perform X I receive outcome Y. And because I value Y, I am going to repeat X )
As a general rule, the longer delay in the administration of rewards the less reinforcement
value they have.
Effective manager should understand the importance of immediate, spontaneous rewards.
The implication for effective management is clear; effective rewards are spontaneous
reward.
There is a second critical aspect of reinforcement timing: the consistency of reward
administration.
- Continuous reinforcement : Reward every time a behavior occurs
- Partial/intermittent : Same reward is always used but is not given every time it is
warranted.
Neither approach is clearly superior; both approaches have trade-offs.

Secondly, given how difficult it is for one manager to reinforce consistently the desired
behaviors in a new employee, it is general a good idea to use team effort
IN addition, the timing of feedback, the content of feedback significantly affects its
reinforcement potential. To increase the motivational potential of performance feedback,
be very specific – including examples whenever possible. Keep in mind that feedback,
whether positive or negative, is itself outcomes. The main purpose of for giving people
feedback on their performance is to reinforce productivity, but this can only occur if the
feedback focuses on specific behavior.
It is especially important that managers provide accurate and honest feedback when a
person’s performance is marginal or substandard. It is unpleasant to deliver bad news of
any kind. It is especially painful to give negative feedback regarding a person’s
performance. If the feedback is general or if it contains mixed signals, improvement is
difficult.
It is sometimes easier to pass on an employee with a poor performance record or
unrealistic expectation to the next supervisor than it is confront the problem directly,
provide honest and constructive feedback.
Therefore, many people feel that supportive communication of negative performance
information is the management skill which is most difficult to master.