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UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI

SECOND SEMESTER FALL


2019

MOTIVATION LANGUAGE INTENSITY AND LEARNING: ASSESSING THE


IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

GROUP MEMBERS:
KAINAT RASHEED
BATOOL ABBAS
LAIBAH IQBAL
MAHNOOR IMRAN
AIMAN MUBEEN

DATE: 8th NOVEMBER 2019 SUBMITTED TO: MS. SANA ARZ BHUTTO
Motivation Language
Intensity and Learning:
Assessing the Impact on
Employee Performance

Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


Letter of Memorandum

To: All readers


From: Kainat, Batool, Aiman, Mahnoor and Laibah
Date: 8th November 2019
Subject: Motivation Language Intensity and Learning: Assessing the Impact on Employee
Performance

Dear readers,
We are writing this report to give you an insight on motivation and its impact on employees’
performance. We have made this report as informative as possible and worked as per instructions
given.
The report talks about the motivation intensity theory and the effect it has on the level of tasks.
Moreover, applications of MIT have been discussed.
Recommendations for increasing employee motivation and performance (such as job rotation, job
enlargement and job enrichment) are given in the end of the report.
We hope the report is helpful and serve its purpose. As a group, we found the finding very
interesting and challenging.

Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


Table of Contents

Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


Executive Summary

The organization is facing lot of problems when their experienced and skilled employees are
poached by competitors. So understanding the aspect that human capital is unstable the
organizations must try to lay down such mechanism that could allow organizations to be prepared
for future. Organizational learning is an effective and flexible way to conduct training and
adaptation to new process in a team. Employee motivation has been topic of continuous research
and various studies have been conducted to study its impact on the organizational performance.
This study was conducted to investigate the impact of job motivation on organizational learning.
Today, in order to take advantage of the excellent opportunities provided by specific global
conditions, we need organizational flexibility, and for this purpose, managers usually try to
develop the organizational learning process in organizations. Organizational learning as a
competitive advantage is considered vital for organizations, and organizations that do not keep
pace with inclusive changes will quickly become obsolete; therefore, for survival and success,
organizations must abandon traditional practices and find knowledge, skills and strategies to
succeed them in the future. Empowerment is also one of the important strategies for adapting the
organization to external changes, and if it is used, it will not only increase employee commitment
to the organization but also create a sense of trust that will result in a positive working
environment.

Abstract

Organizational learning through motivation has the potential to improve organizational performance.
For any organization to sustain long term benefits it requires to establish a mechanism to tap the
knowledge and use this knowledge in taking future decisions. Employees can be a firm’s most
important resource. They can also be the most challenging resource to manage well. Employees who
are motivated and work hard to achieve personal and organizational goals can become a crucial
competitive advantage for a firm. The key then understands the process of motivation, what motivates
individuals, and how an organization can create a workplace that allows people to perform to the best of
their abilities. This study tries to capture the role of Organizational Learning and Employee Motivation
considering its impact on the Employees’ Performance. The study is exploratory and descriptive in
nature detailing motivational theories, both historically and contemporary, and applies that theory to the
business world, where motivation is a key to success. The analysis of the report shows that there is a
positive correlation between motivation and Organizational Performance. The motivation level of
employees in an organization has positive impact on the overall performance of any organization. This
study helps the organizations to understand the relationship between learning through motivation and
overall organization’s performance.

Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


MOTIVATION MATTERS IN ORGANIZATION:

In the context of the business, motivation can simply be referred to as, “The Will to Work”. motivation
is the driving force behind a person's actions and activity. If a person has low motivation towards his
work than he takes a longer time to complete it which results in the unsatisfactory output. On the other
hand, if a person is highly motivated, he gives his best performance, take lesser time and also enjoys his
work. Motivation for entrepreneurs and staff comes from a variety of sources.

Motivational Language and Its Impact on Employees


Words are critical to the success of a business, be it large or small. It’s important in business to select
your words wisely because they expose the number one ingredient to success: attitude. In the
workplace, a positive cooperative mind-set can mean the difference between landing a job and losing
out; winning a client or wasting a chance; developing coordination or destroying trust.
For example, consider the difference between an “expectation” and a “challenge”. When a team
expects a particular result, there are 2 possible outcomes - either they achieve it and probably feel a
sense of relief that they did not fail, or they do not achieve it and feel badly for falling short.
Contrast this with challenging your team to achieve a particular result. If they achieve it, there is a sense
that something significant has been accomplished. If they do not achieve it that simply means that the
challenge is still on-going. By talking about challenges instead of expectations, it de-stigmatizes failure
and changes it from something bad (“we failed to meet an expectation”) to something simply factual
(“we failed to achieve the challenge this time”).
Impact:
If the manager isn’t considerate about his employees then they won’t give their best performance. If
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they feel that their abilities are taken for granted or are not appreciated, then workers will show poor
performance levels. Motivational language helps them in decision making, less absentees, job
satisfaction and organizational commitments. An explaining research shows that people perform better
at physical strength tasks when they hear encouraging words than when they hear the same words in a
negative context.

Sources of Motivation:
1. Growth and Achievements:
The best source of motivation is growth and achievements. It can be a professional, financial and
career. As a businessman, the main focus is the success of the business and how to achieve it and he
takes this as his motivation and work hard for it. As an employee, the person needs to achieve his
personal goals. So, if an employee feels that a task or activity will help him to achieve his personal goal
than he is more likely to contribute.
2. Incentives and Rewards:
Incentives and rewards like bonuses, promotions, monthly sales goals, awards etc. are the drives to
motivate people to do their work efficiently. The best thing to motivate attached any kind of reward
with the task. The short-term rewards like bonuses are just as motivating as a long-term reward.
3. Social belongings:
Belonging means that the work environment where workers feel safe, supported, included and accepted.
The sense of belonging to the workplace not only result in good vibes and friendships but also has some
effect on performance and retention.
4. Power:
Empowerment is a strong form of motivation. Whether it’s through pursuing leadership or simply
wanting to have a control over one’s work environment. People like to have in a position where they
have power and control over their lives. Nobody likes being called to do something or told what or how
to work, they want to have choices and ways to do their work in their own way.
5. Fear:
The fear is a great way of motivation. If a person makes his fears the drive to motivate than he will
surely done his work effectively. The fears may be of failure or losing his personal goal.
In simple words, the behavior of the person is determined by the sources which motivates him. The
performance of person is simply the product of their skills and motivation. A fully motivated person
contributes with his best skills and gives his performance but the demotivated person is unlikely to
deliver his best performance.

Motivation and Organizational Learning:


Organizational learning involves creating, acquiring and integrating knowledge aimed for the
development of resources and capabilities that will contribute for enhanced organizational performance
Motivation helps the learning process. Without motivation learning doesn't occur. There must be
motivation or drive before there can be learning. Motivation stimulates interest and the attitude willing
to learn.
If a person does not want to learn, he will not learn, even though he understands clearly what is being
taught and has perfect capacity to respond in a way that would show the learning.
This implies the trainer needs to choose learners based on motivation and requirements to have
strategies and practices that will empower the development of motivation.

Approaches to Learning:
Motivation in the organization comes from both internal and external sources. Without
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motivating factors, the employee would have no reason to attend work and perform any daily
functions the motivating factors for employees are diverse based on factors of motivation that can be
said to be ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’. Adopting a surface approach of learning means learning by
memorizing and focusing on the essentials to meet examination requirements. Deep approaches of
learning on the other hand, are oriented towards a deeper understanding of the topic by critical thinking
and by relating the course content to other areas, experiencing or concepts. The link between
motivation and learning approaches are as follows:
Extrinsic motivation is associated with surface learning, while intrinsically motivated employees tend
to adopt a deep learning approach.
a) Intrinsic motivation:
Intrinsic motivation refers to the behavior that is driven by the personal interest of
the person, essentially, performing an action for own sake rather than the desire for some
external rewards. Basically, it’s about how employees feel about their jobs and what
drives them to do their best or simply bide their time.
For example:
 when you work in a low paying field but you are doing this because it is your passion.
 when a person takes more responsibility at work because he enjoys being challenged
to improve his skills rather than to get a promotion.
 the incentive to prove yourself, peers and management that you have what it takes to
handle challenging projects.
 the motivation from doing your best simply because you enjoy your work or to help
your company forge ahead.
b) Extrinsic motivation:
Extrinsic motivation refers to the behavior that is driven by external factors. In
other words, performing an action for some external rewards like money, fame, or grades.
For example:
 a person performs a number of routine tasks that are not the interest of him but he is
 doing because of a paycheck which is an external reward.
 recognition for a job well done; regular pats on the back and words of appreciation
are great but think Employee of the Month awards, pay raises and promotions.
 Annual appreciation days.
 year-end bonuses.
Work environment with a lack of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators often suffers from
low performance as no rewards are available for the work completed. Employees in these
situations often complete the minimum requirements to maintain their jobs. Combining the
extrinsic rewards-based approach with an internal philosophy around goal setting and personal
achievements will motivate on a variety of levels.
Whether intrinsic and extrinsic, setting motivational examples is key in many instances.
Although you can't force your team to feel inspired, the way you lead workers plays a sizable
role. As Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, explain,
“Once you know what your own motivation and aspiration are, you
should encourage your employees and colleagues to discover this”

Process of Motivation in Organization:

The process of motivation begins with the need which might be the view of insufficiency in a person.
For example, an employee in the organization thinks about the requirement for more significant salary,
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more challenging work, for time off and so on. These requirements impact the points of view of
employee that guides him to fulfill the needs by receiving a specific example of activity. In case the
selected strategy of an employee drives him towards expected outcomes as reward than he will be
inspired by the comparative reward to give a similar performance later on. Then again, if the foreseen
rewards are not come about by receiving a specific line of activity, at that point the employee would not
probably repeat his behavior. So, the reward of certain activity, go about as a feedback mechanism that
supports the employee to assess the results when he is thinking about his future activity.

 Need Identification:
In the first phase of the procedure of motivation is the employee feels certain need that is unsatisfied
and thus he recognizes that need. At that point the unfulfilled need stimulate the employee to look
through certain objective by making tension in him. This tension acts as driving force for the
accomplishment of the set goals which can satisfy the tension creating need.

 Exploring Ways to Fulfill the Need:


In this phase of the procedure of motivation, diverse alternatives ways are investigated that can fulfill
the unsatisfied need that is recognized in the primary stage. Indeed the unsatisfied need stimulate the
perspectives of the worker that immediate him to embrace a specific game-plan.

 Selecting Goals:
In the third phase of the process of motivation, the goals are selected on the basis of identifying needs
and alternative course of actions.

 Performance of Employee:
In the fourth phase of Motivation Process, the recognized need stimulates the employees perform with a
particular goal in mind that has just been considered by him. So the employee plays out certain game-
plan as per the satisfaction of unsatisfied need.

 Rewards/Punishments as Consequences of Performance:


If the consequences of the particular course of action followed by an employee are in the form of
rewards, then the employee would be motivated to perform the same level of effort for acquisition of
similar rewards in the future. Whereas when the anticipated results of the actions of an employee lack
the rewards, then he would not be willing to repeat his behavior in the future.

 Reassessment of Deficiencies of Need:


At the point when an employee feels fulfillment for his specific unsatisfied need through the reward of
a specific line of activity, then he again reassesses any further unsatisfied need and resultantly the entire
procedure is repeated again.
This is illustrated with the help of a diagram in the Appendix, Figure 1

Advantages of Motivation to Management Or Organization:

 High Efficiency:
One way the management of the firm can boost the efficiency and performance of their employees is to
use motivation as a tool.
Motivation changes the employee's talent and information into genuine execution and action.
Demotivated employees influence the general effectiveness of the firm and furthermore can make
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different employees to be demotivated.

 Utilization of Resources:
Subsequently they settle on the most ideal decisions, thus the best usage of the factors of production
and other resources. Motivated employees attempt to limit their wastages and expenses to better their
performances.
This will help with the firm boost their potential and utilize their limited resources.

 Reduction in Labor Turnover:


Higher motivation additionally means better work exhibitions which lead to work satisfaction among
employees. Thus, the representatives would prefer not to pass up circumstances and try to improve
work.
This will prompt responsibility and devotion among representatives which prompts lower absenteeism
and labor turnover among employees

 Readiness for Change:


Every organization function in a very dynamic business environment. And with the changes in the
environment, the organization also must change to adapt and keep up with the times.
When such technological, environmental etc. changes occur in the organization sometimes employees
are hesitant to accept and adapt to such changes.
But motivated employees are more likely to adapt to these changes. They are generally more ready to
accept the changes and get to work.

 Achieving Organizational Goals:


The best way to motivate employees is to line up their personal goals with those of the organization.
The motivated then work tirelessly to achieve not only their personal goals but also the goals of the
company. Demotivated employees will not be overly enthusiastic about achieving organizational goals.

 Helps with Attitude of Employees


Sometimes certain employees of an organization have a negative or indifferent attitude. But the
manager can use the tools of motivation to change their attitudes. A positive, optimistic employee who
is properly motivated is an asset to the organization. And motivation is the key to this change.

Advantages to Employees or Workers:


 Employees get various monetary and non-monetary facilities/benefits which provide better life
and welfare to them.
 Security of employment and other benefits due to cordial relations with the management.
 Job attraction and job satisfaction.
 Higher status and opportunities of participation in management.
 Positive approach and outlook of employees towards company, management and superiors.
 Reduction in the rate of labor turnover which is harmful to employees and management.
 Better scope for improvement in knowledge and skills of employees.

Motivation Theories:

Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


Successful managers are able to marshal the forces to motivate employees to achieve organizational
goals. And just as there are many types of gaps between where organizations are and where they want
to be, there are many motivational theories from which managers can draw to inspire employees to
bridge those gaps of needs and wants. We will first examine motivational theories that grew out of the
industrial revolution and early ideas of organizational psychology. Then we will examine needs-based
theories and more contemporary ideas about employee motivation like equity, expectancy, goals, and
reinforcement and motivational intensity theories. Finally, we will show you how managers are
applying these theories in real-world situations.
The theories of motivation maybe categorized according to their definitions and purpose but critical
analysis reveal that they are all linked, they lead to serving satisfaction in employees. The use of both
content and process theories must be put into practice to motivate employees effectively.
Motivation’s whole idea is to provide employees with sureties of job security, nice working condition,
loyalty and belonging to the enterprise, as well as the workforce given some challenges. How can
managers and organizations promote enthusiastic job performance, high productivity, and job
satisfaction? Many studies of human behavior in organizations have contributed to our current
understanding of these issues.

Maslow’s Theory:

Maslow’s theory relies on the fact that people want to increase what they want to achieve in life and
their needs are prioritized according to their importance. Deriving from the hierarchy of needs by
Maslow, content theories of job satisfaction revolve around employees’ needs and the factors that bring
them a reasonable degree of satisfaction (Based on the basic physical, biological, social and
psychological needs of human beings, Maslow came up with a five-stage theory that places the needs of
the individual in different categories and prioritizes their attainment. These categories, in order of
decreasing priority, are:
• physiological needs (food, shelter, clothing);
• safety and security needs (physical protection);
• social needs (association with others);
• esteem needs (receiving acknowledgement from others); and
• self-actualization needs (the desire for accomplishment or to leave behind a legacy).

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs forms the basis of theories that try to explain job satisfaction.
The theory is illustrated with a diagram in Appendix, Figure 2.
Example from The Business World:

Maslow’s hierarchy applies in the real business world, let’s look at a detailed example about Wegmans
supermarkets. When you think of your first-choice job, you probably aren’t thinking about working in a
supermarket. With grueling hours, low pay, and annual turnover often approaching 100 percent,
supermarkets are generally not considered the best places to work—unless you work at Wegmans,
which has been on Fortune’s “Best Company to Work For” every year since the list started, earning
Wegmans a spot on Fortune’s “Great Place to Work Legends” list.
Part of what makes Wegmans successful is the company’s attention to its employees’ needs at all levels
of Maslow’s hierarchy. The company pays above-market wages (the sous chef at a Pittsburgh store
used to work for Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Napa Valley, and talent like that doesn’t come
cheap), and until 2003, Wegmans paid 100 percent of its employees’ medical insurance premiums
(physiological needs). Wegmans’ most comparable competitor has a turnover rate of about 19 percent,

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which doesn’t even come close to Wegmans’ 5 percent. More than half of Wegmans’ store managers
began working there in their teens (safety needs).
Because employees stay so long, the Wegmans culture has become stronger and more ingrained over
time. Edward McLaughlin, director of Cornell’s Food Industry Management Program, says, “When
you’re a 16-year-old kid, the last thing you want to do is wear a geeky shirt and work for a supermarket.
But at Wegmans, it’s a badge of honor. You are not a geeky cashier. You are part of the social fabric,”
(social needs). Sara Goggins, a 19-year-old college student, was recently complimented on the display
she helped prepare for the store’s French-inspired patisserie—by Danny Wegman himself (esteem
needs). Sara keeps a photo of her and Danny Wegman behind the counter. Maria Benjamin used to
bake “chocolate meatball cookies” to celebrate coworkers’ birthdays. They were so popular that she
asked Danny Wegman if the store would sell them in the bakery department. He said yes, and it did.
Employees like Sara and Maria are routinely recognized for their contributions to the company (esteem
needs). Wegmans has spent over $54 million for college scholarships to more than 17,500 full- and
part-time employees over the past 20 years. Top management thinks nothing of sending store
department managers on training expeditions. A cheese manager might take a 10-day trip to visit and
study cheesemakers in London, Paris, and Italy; a wine manager might take a company-sponsored trip
through the Napa Valley (self-actualization needs)
As you can see from this extended example, Wegmans works hard to meet its employees’ needs at all
levels.
Another example is by Chip Conley, founder of the Joie de Vivre hotel chain and Head of Hospitality at
Airbnb, used the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid to transform his business. According to Chip, many
managers struggle with the abstract concept of self-actualization and so focus on lower levels of the
pyramid instead.
Conley found one way of helping with higher levels was to help his employees understand the meaning
of their roles during a staff retreat. Conley’s team were able to realize the importance of their job to the
company and to the people they were helping. By showing them the value of their roles, the team was
able to feel respected and motivated to work harder.
In order to get the most out of your team, you should also make sure you support them in
other aspects of their lives outside work. Perhaps you could offer flexible working hours to give
employees time to focus on their families and make sure they are paid fairly to help them feel
financially stable.

Theory X and Theory Y of Motivation by McGregor

The Theory X management style is based on a pessimistic view of human nature and assumes the
following:
The average person dislikes work and will avoid it if possible.
Because people don’t like to work, they must be controlled, directed, or threatened with punishment to
get them to make an effort.
The average person prefers to be directed, avoids responsibility, is relatively unambitious, and wants
security above all else.
This view of people suggests that managers must constantly prod workers to perform and must closely
control their on-the-job behavior. Theory X managers tell people what to do, are very directive, like to
be in control, and show little confidence in employees. They often foster dependent, passive, and
resentful subordinates.
In contrast, a Theory Y management style is based on a more optimistic view of human nature and
assumes the following:
Work is as natural as play or rest. People want to and can be self-directed and self-controlled and will
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try to achieve organizational goals they believe in.
Workers can be motivated using positive incentives and will try hard to accomplish organizational
goals if they believe they will be rewarded for doing so.
Under proper conditions, the average person not only accepts responsibility but seeks it out. Most
workers have a relatively high degree of imagination and creativity and are willing to help solve
problems.
Managers who operate on Theory Y assumptions recognize individual differences and encourage
workers to learn and develop their skills. An administrative assistant might be given the responsibility
for generating a monthly report. The reward for doing so might be recognition at a meeting, a special
training class to enhance computer skills, or a pay increase. In short, the Theory Y approach builds on
the idea that worker and organizational interests are the same.
The theory is illustrated with a diagram in Appendix, Figure 3

Example from the Business World:


It is not difficult to find companies that have created successful corporate cultures based on Theory Y
assumptions. In fact, Fortune’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” and the Society for Human
Resource Management’s list of “Great Places to Work” are full of companies that operate using a
Theory Y management style. Starbucks, J. M. Smucker, SAS Institute, Whole Foods Market, and
Wegmans are all examples of companies that encourage and support their workers. Genesco, a
biotechnology firm listed on America’s Best Places to Work five times, has a culture that celebrates
success in all aspects of its business. Employees can reward colleagues with on-the-spot awards for
extraordinary effort.
According to the company’s former CEO, Robert Mayer, “Genencor is truly unique among U.S.
companies of any size. It is a model for innovation, teamwork, and productivity—and a direct result of
our ‘work hard, play hard, change the world’ philosophy. Investing in our employees has always been
good business for Genencor.”
Theory X and Theory Y are often studied as a prelude to developing greater understanding of more
recent management concepts, such as job enrichment, the job-characteristics model, and self-managed
work teams. Although the terminology may have changed since the 1950s, McGregor's ideas have had
tremendous influence on the study of management.
In terms of the practice of management, the workplace of the early twenty-first century, with its
emphasis on self-managed work teams and other forms of worker involvement programs, is generally
consistent with the precepts of Theory Y. There is every indication that such programs will continue to
increase, at least to the extent that evidence of their success begins to accumulate.

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory:

Herzberg’s Two-factor theory, also known as Motivator-Hygiene, emanated from a study conducted
among accounts and engineers to determine what makes an individual feel good or bad about their job
Regarding ‘satisfiers’, Herzberg noted that there were five features of work that bring about
satisfaction, namely achievement, recognition, the job itself, responsibility and advancement. At the
other end of the spectrum, Herzberg identified institutional politics, the management approach,
supervision, pay, relationships at work and working conditions as factors that may demoralize
employees. Organizations are increasingly applying Herzberg’s theory to create opportunities for
“personal growth, enrichment and recognition” among their employees. Employees should be promoted
after completing certain stages of their career and should receive recognition for special achievements –
for example, when they produce exceptional results in their subject areas; on a more basic level, they
should also be given responsibility to determine how to handle tasks that relate to their jobs.
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According to Herzberg, a manager who wants to increase employee satisfaction needs to focus on the
motivating factors, or satisfiers. A job with many satisfiers will usually motivate workers, provide job
satisfaction, and prompt effective performance. But a lack of job satisfiers doesn’t always lead to
dissatisfaction and poor performance; instead, a lack of job satisfiers may merely lead to workers doing
an adequate job, rather than their best.
For true engagement to occur in a company you must first remove the issues that cause dissatisfaction –
the baseline benefits offered by the company that satisfy the hygiene needs of the employee. Then you
must focus on the individual and what they want out of their association with your enterprise.
This theory is illustrated in Appendix, Figure 4

Example from The Business World:

Flexibility has been a competitive advantage for ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft.
Companies’ flexible work hours have been appealing to many workers who appreciate the flexibility
that these jobs provide, either as a full-time job or a way to make supplemental income
The early management scholars laid a foundation that enabled managers to better understand their
workers and how best to motivate them. Since then, new theories have given us an even better
understanding of worker motivation. Six of these theories are explained in this section: the expectancy
theory, the hawthorne effect, the equity theory, the goal-setting theory, reinforcement theory and
mainly motivational intensity theory.

Expectancy Theory:

Expectancy Theory proposes that people will choose how to behave depending on the outcomes they
expect as a result of their behavior. In other words, we decide what to do based on what we expect the
outcome to be. At work, it might be that we work longer hours because we expect a pay rise.
However, Expectancy Theory also suggests that the process by which we decide our behaviors is also
influenced by how likely we perceive those rewards to be. In this instance, workers may be more likely
to work harder if they had been promised a pay rise (and thus perceived that outcome as very likely)
than if they had only assumed, they might get one (and perceived the outcome as possible but not
likely)
Expectancy Theory is based on three elements:

1. Expectancy – the belief that your effort will result in your desired goal. This is based on your past
experience, your self-confidence and how difficult you think the goal is to achieve.
2. Instrumentality – the belief that you will receive a reward if you meet performance expectations.
3. Valence – the value you place on the reward.
Therefore, according to Expectancy Theory, people are most motivated if they believe that they will
receive a desired reward if they hit an achievable target. They are least motivated if they don’t want the
reward or they don’t believe that their efforts will result in the reward.

Application to The Workplace:


The key here is to set achievable goals for your employees and provide rewards that they actually want.
Rewards don’t have to come in the form of pay rises, bonuses or all-expenses paid nights out (although
I find these are usually welcomed!) Praise, opportunities for progression and “employee of the month”
style rewards can all go a long way in motivating your employees.

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Hawthorne Effect:

The Hawthorne Effect was first described by Henry A. Landsberg in 1950 who noticed a tendency for
some people to work harder and perform better when they were being observed by researchers.
The researchers changed a number of physical conditions over the course of the experiments including
lighting, working hours and breaks. In all cases, employee productivity increased when a change was
made. The researchers concluded that employees became motivated to work harder as a response to the
attention being paid to them, rather than the actual physical changes themselves.

Application to The Workplace:


The Hawthorne Effect studies suggest that employees will work harder if they know they’re being
observed. While I don’t recommend hovering over your employees watching them all day, you could
try providing regular feedback, letting your team know that you know what they’re up to and how
they’re doing.
Showing your employees that you care about them and their working conditions may also motivate
them to work harder. Encourage your team to give you feedback and suggestions about their workspace
and development.

Equity Theory:

Equity theory is based on individuals’ perceptions about how fairly they are treated compared with their
coworkers. Equity means justice or fairness, and in the workplace, it refers to employees’ perceived
fairness of the way they are treated and the rewards they earn. For example, imagine that after
graduation you were offered a job that paid $55,000 a year and had great benefits. You’d probably be
ecstatic, even more so if you discovered that the coworker in the next cubicle was making $45,000 for
the same job. But what if that same colleague were making $59,000 for the same job? You’d probably
think it unfair, particularly if the coworker had the same qualifications and started at the same time as
you did. Your determination of the fairness of the situation would depend on how you felt you
compared to the other person, or referent. Employees evaluate their own outcomes (e.g., salary,
benefits) in relation to their inputs (e.g., number of hours worked, education, and training) and then
compare the outcomes-to-inputs ratio to one of the following: (1) the employee’s own past experience
in a different position in the current organization, (2) the employee’s own past experience in a different
organization, (3) another employee’s experience inside the current organization, or (4) another
employee’s experience outside the organization.
According to equity theory, if employees perceive that an inequity exists, they will make one of the
following choices:
Change their work habits (exert less effort on the job)
Change their job benefits and income (ask for a raise, steal from the employer)
Distort their perception of themselves (“I always thought I was smart, but now I realize I’m a lot
smarter than my coworkers.”)
Distort their perceptions of others (“Joe’s position is really much less flexible than mine.”)
Look at the situation from a different perspective (“I don’t make as much as the other department
heads, but I make a lot more than most graphic artists.”)
Leave the situation (quit the job).
Managers can use equity theory to improve worker satisfaction. Knowing that every employee seeks
equitable and fair treatment, managers can make an effort to understand an employee’s perceptions of
fairness and take steps to reduce concerns about inequity.

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Example from The Business World:

Ben & Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield firmly believe the maxim that companies “do
well by doing good.” This idealism led the founders to once famously swear that no Ben & Jerry’s
executive would ever make more than seven times the lowliest worker’s wage. But when growth
required attracting exceptional top-level management, the company eventually abandoned its self-
imposed ratio between its lowest and highest compensation rates.

Goal-Setting Theory:

Goal-setting theory is based on the premise that an individual’s intention to work toward a goal is a
primary source of motivation. Once set, the goal clarifies for the employee what needs to be
accomplished and how much effort will be required for completion. The theory has three main
components: (1) specific goals lead to a higher level of performance than do more generalized goals
(“do your best”); (2) more difficult goals lead to better performance than do easy goals (provided the
individual accepts the goal); and (3) feedback on progress toward the goal enhances performance.
Feedback is particularly important because it helps the individual identify the gap between the real (the
actual performance) and the ideal (the desired outcome defined by the goal). Given the trend toward
employee empowerment in the workplace, more and more employees are participating in the goal-
setting process.

Example from the business world:

To help employees during the peak 2017 holiday delivery season, UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal
Service paid additional overtime to help achieve their goals. UPS even deployed some office personnel
to help deliver packages and created team goals to ensure there was cooperation and shared reward with
employees from different departments within the organization. The strategy seems to have worked,
with UPS reporting an on-time delivery rate of 99.1% for the week before Christmas.

Reinforcement Theory:

Reinforcement theory says that behavior is a function of its consequences. In other words, people do
things because they know other things will follow. So, depending on what type of consequences
follows, people will either practice a behavior or refrain from it. There are three basic types of
consequences: positive, negative, and none. In general, we think of positive consequences as rewards,
but a reward is anything that increases the particular behavior. By contrast, punishment is anything that
decreases the behavior.
Motivating with the reinforcement theory can be tricky because the theory is functional. All of its
components are defined by their function rather than their structure. That is, consequences can operate
differently for different people and in different situations. What is considered a punishment by one
person may, in fact, be a reward for another. Nonetheless, managers can successfully use reinforcement
theory to motivate workers to practice certain behaviors and avoid others. Often, managers use both
rewards and punishment to achieve the desired results.

Example from the business world:

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Retailers have long needed additional help during peak selling days like Black Friday and Cyber
Monday. To help meet these needs, Urban Outfitters recruited salaried workers for a six-hour shift at its
new fulfillment facility to help out some of their colleagues and sold the idea to salaried employees as a
team-building activity. The workers were offered transportation and paid lunches and asked to wear
comfortable shoes. Although it was not mandatory, an Urban Outfitters spokesperson commented:
“After successfully opening our new fulfillment center in June, we asked salaried employees at our
home office to volunteer for shifts that would help support the new center through a busy month of
October. Unsurprisingly, we received a tremendous response, including many of our senior
management.”

MOTIVATIONAL INTENSITY THEORY:

Motivational Intensity Theory explains that effort is the only function of task difficulty if task success is
possible and if the requires task is justified by success importance. It aims to understand and predict
motivation to complete a task or achieve the required goal. It is the differentiation between what people
are willing to do and what they actually do. It uses the term potential motivation to refer the maximum
amount of effort is requires for task success.
Brehm defined effort as the investment of resources that enables the execution of behavior, arguing that
if functions to sustain activity that is needed for goal accomplishment. He suggested that effort
investment is governed by a resource (or energy) conservation principle: given that resources are
important for survival. Individuals are motivated to avoid wasting resources and aim at investing only
those that are required for successful task attainment. It means that people should only invest that is
required because this would waste resources.
Motivational Intensity Theory for effort and task difficulty is used in such situations:
1) Where task difficulty is known
2) Where task difficulty is unknown
3) Where it can be chosen by individual

EFFORTS IN TASK WITH KNOWN AND FIXED DIFFICULTY


Individuals should protect their resources and use the amount of resources that are required for task
execution. According to this theory task difficulty is defined as: the higher the amount of difficulty, the
higher the amount of resources are required. Therefore, we should have information about task
difficulty to estimate required resources.
By using this method resources are not wasted. If someone invests effort in a very difficult task where
success is not possible so his efforts are wasted and useless. In the same way if someone put effort in
task where the importance of task is not high to justify the requires task. Therefore, there is a resource
conservation principle which tells the relationship between task difficulty and effort.
This theory predicts that effort is the only function for task difficulty if success is possible.
The graph supporting the Motivational Intensity Theory is shown in appendix.
Fig 5:
1) Effort is directly related to task difficulty
2) Success importance has not had a direct effect on effort. It only defines the range of difficulty level
between effort and task difficulty.
Individuals can only use task when we required an effort and when difficulty information is known.
The described predictions only apply to effort investment when difficulty information is at hand. This
theory predictions for tasks where difficulty is unknown differ.

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Effort in Tasks with Unknown (Unclear) Difficulty

Task difficulty is known to be an element of effort as it allows workers to avoid wasting raw materials
by giving information about the resources needed for the task success. If the task difficulty is not
known to the employees, it will require another indicator to be introduced in order to abide by the
resource conservative principle.
According to motivational intensity theory, workers then use the factor of success importance to know
the right amount of resources to input in the task. The theory hence tells that success importance should
define the effort required by the employee if the task difficulty is not known. The higher the success
importance, the higher the effort put in by the worker.
Using a workforce ranking system as an example; people may be motivated only to be in the top 50%
of the workforce as this guarantees job security, but are not willing to exert the effort to achieve top
10% for the added benefit of prestige.
This is clearly illustrated in Appendix, Figure 6

Effort in Tasks Where the Individual Can Choose Task Difficulty (Unfixed Difficulty)

In the tasks mentioned above, task difficulty was supposed to be fixed at a particular level. Task
outcome is dichotomous here. If one accomplishes the task, he or she succeeds, irrespective of the
effort put in. For example, if two workers are given to achieve 50% of sales in a particular day. One
achieves 50% and the other generates 80% of sales. Both have achieved success irrespective of the
effort put by the other
There are tasks where individuals can select their task difficulty. This occurs when the difficulty is
unfixed. Employment test in the workforce constitute an example; it depends on the worker to achieve a
very good grade or just a good grade. Motivational intensity theory provides hypotheses for this kind of
task by extending its basic predictions through an additional assumption. Brehm assumed that
individuals aim in general at attaining their best performance if task difficulty is unfixed. However,
given that individuals also aim at avoiding the waste of resources, they should not go for the highest
performance level that is possible, but rather for the highest performance level that is both possible and
worthwhile (given the level of success importance). They should not set a performance goal for
themselves that requires more effort than is justified.
After setting a performance goal, individuals should invest the effort that is required to attain the
chosen goal. Task difficulty (i.e., the difficulty of attaining the chosen performance goal) is thus the
direct determinant of efforts under conditions of fixed and known task difficulty. However, given that
the performance goal is chosen by comparing required effort with success importance, motivational
intensity theory predicts that effort is a function of success importance: the higher success importance,
the higher the set performance goal (difficulty level) and the higher the effort. The final predictions for
tasks with unfixed difficulty are thus similar to the predictions for tasks with unknown difficulty but the
underlying mechanisms are different.
This is demonstrated through a graph in Appendix, Figure 6.

Extensions and Applications of Motivational Intensity Theory

The applications and extensions of motivational intensity theory can be categorized in two ways:
1) Extensions that emphasize on variables that leave an impact on effort by ways of influencing
subjective task difficulty. This includes research on capability and fatigue, in the influence of conscious
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and implicit affect and the link between dispositional dysphoria and effort.
2) Extensions that focus on variables that leaves an impact on effort which is arbitrated by success
importance. These include observation, ego-involvement, mood regulation, self-awareness, hedonic
incentive.

Extensions Related to Variables That Affect Task Difficulty

Ability and Fatigue Extensions


Researchers have suggested that perceived ability and fatigue have an impact on subjective task
difficulty. Individuals who believe they have a high ability in a behavioral area or who experience a low
level of fatigue will estimate a certain level of task difficulty as lower than individuals with a low
subjective ability or a high level of fatigue.
For instance, if an employee is an expert in assisting with minor technical support, he or she will feel
easier and require less effort to succeed. If the employee is tired, concentrating on the task will be more
difficult and will require more effort.
Wright suggested that ability and fatigue determine, together with objective task difficulty, how
demanding a task appears: the higher the objective task difficulty, the lower the ability, and the higher
the level of fatigue, the higher the subjective task difficulty. Following the predictions of motivational
intensity theory, putting effort for tasks with fixed and clear task difficulty should then be a function of
subjective task difficulty as long as the required effort is justified and task success is possible.
Figure 7 in Appendix demonstrates this elaboration.

Mood and Affect Knowledge Extensions


Similar to Wright’s ability and fatigue extensions, Gendolla elaborated on a variable that should exert
its impact on effort by affecting subjective task difficulty. He posited in his mood-behavior model that
moods can influence effort mobilization because of their informational impact on people use their mood
as a piece of information and integrate it with all other available information into their behavior-related
judgments.
He suggested that the use of mood as information to evaluate task difficulty leads to a mood
congruency effect: individuals in a negative mood judge task difficulty as higher than individuals who
are in a positive mood. Recently, Gendolla suggested in his implicit-affect-primes-effort model that the
mere activation of affect knowledge leads to similar effects.
The main difference between the two models is the type and origin of affect-related information that
influence subjective task demand. The mood-behavior model applies to experienced feelings and
predicts that mood is directly used as information for difficulty judgment.
More specifically, people should have learned that it feels relatively easy to work on a task if one is
happy or angry (high coping potential), while it feels relatively difficult to do so when one feels sad or
fearful (low coping potential). That way, ease becomes a feature of people’s mental representation of
happiness and anger, while difficulty should become a feature of the representations of sadness and
fear.
Independent of the type and origin of affect-related information, both models draw on motivational
intensity theory to predict effort put forth under conditions of clear and fixed difficulty. Effort should be
a direct function of subjective task difficulty-influenced by experienced mood or activated affect-related
knowledge-as long as success is possible and the required effort is justified
Figure 8 in Appendix illustrates these predictions.

Dysphoria Extension
Brinkmann and colleagues applied the reasoning of the mood-behavior model about
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the impact of experienced mood on effort to analyze the impact of depressive symptoms, especially
dysphoria, on effort mobilization. Given that a persistent negative mood is a core symptom of
depression, Brinkmann and colleagues hypothesized that the impact of depressive symptoms on effort
mobilization is mediated by mood-congruent appraisals of task demand. Dysphoric individuals should
in general evaluate task demand as higher than non-dysphoric individuals. This should lead dysphoric
individuals to mobilize more effort for easy tasks than non-dysphoric individuals (if the difficulty of a
task is known and fixed). However, due to the increased subjective difficulty, dysphoric individuals
should disengage at a lower objective difficulty level than non-dysphoric individuals. Consequently,
non-dysphoric individuals should mobilize more effort in difficult tasks than (disengaged) dysphoric
individuals.
Fig. 9 in Appendix shows these theoretical predictions.

Extensions Related to Variables That Affect Success Importance:


Researchers have observed the influence of observation, ego-involvement, affect regulation, self-
awareness and positive hedonic on effort. The common factor in this research was that the variables of
interest were supposed to apply their influence on effort by means of changing success importance -
which in turn should then influence effort put in either indirectly (under conditions of known and fixed
difficulty) or directly (under conditions of unclear and unfixed difficulty).
Gendolla and Richter showed that more effort is put in when performance has direct consequences for
individuals’ self-esteem. For example, if employees believe that their performance indicates an
important ability. Under such conditions, they put in high effort for difficult tasks and tasks without
fixed performance standard. The same effect occurred when individuals ’performance was merely
observed or explicitly socially evaluated.
Lastly, a series of studies examined effort given in under self-evaluation, that is, when people were
encouraged into states of objective self-awareness, which typically leads to comparisons of the self with
relevant behavioral standards. Individuals who were reminded of themselves by exposure to a picture of
themselves during task performance or who were dispositionally self-conscious were willing to invest
more effort under unfixed or difficult performance conditions than people who were not self-aware.
Recently, this effect was extended to implicit self-awareness. People who were exposed to their briefly
flashed name during performance showed the same effects as those who were explicitly self-aware.

Co-Relation Between Motivation and Organizational Performance:


Firms, irrespective of their size or nature always strive to establish a strong relation with their workers.
Workers have varying needs and that are driven by motivators. For instance, some are motivated by
incentives, security and achievements. Therefore, it is essential for managers to understand what
motivates their employees in order to maximize organizational performance.
According to Maslow’s theory, job security, good play, safe working conditions, satisfaction of lower
level needs act as motivators for employees. The more the workers are satisfied the higher the
organizational performance.
Motivational policy of Toyota Company based on Maslow’s need Hierarchy & Herzberg’s job
Enrichment Theory:
Toyota Company always tries to encourage their workers because they believe that employees are an
essential part of the business. A firm not be success without the workers good performance. Firstly
Toyota always try to understand employees motivation, it is seen that the individual performance has an
impact on any organization so it is important that every employees performance should be managed
Toyota aims to increase its employees’ motivation and optimize the value of its human resources. It
gives workers good training, annual rewards, a new car, giving a gift every day to increase their
performance.
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Another example is of Geo television which uses the following tools to motivate its employees and this
tool affected the employees performance and it is seen that employees performance become well after
this. These tools are such as performance base incentives and annual employees function increases the
overall organizational performance

From Motivation Theories to Application


How can managers redesign existing jobs to increase employee motivation and performance?
The material presented demonstrates the wide variety of theorists and research studies that have
contributed to our current understanding of employee motivation. Now we turn our attention to more
practical matters, to ways that these concepts can be applied in the workplace to meet organizational
goals and improve individual performance.

Motivational Job Design:


How might managers redesign or modify existing jobs to increase employee motivation and
performance? The following three options have been used extensively in the workplace:

Job enlargement:
The horizontal expansion of a job, increasing the number and variety of tasks that a person performs, is
called job enlargement. Increasing task diversity can enhance job satisfaction, particularly when the job
is mundane and repetitive in nature. A potential drawback to job enlargement is that employees may
perceive that they are being asked to work harder and do more with no change in their level of
responsibility or compensation. This can cause resentment and lead to dissatisfaction.

Job enrichment:
Job enrichment is the vertical expansion of an employee’s job. Whereas job enlargement addresses the
breadth or scope of a job, enrichment attempts to increase job depth by providing the employee with
more autonomy, responsibility, and decision-making authority.
In an enriched job, the employee can use a variety of talents and skills and has more control over the
planning, execution, and evaluation of the required tasks. In general, job enrichment has been found to
increase job satisfaction and reduce absenteeism and turnover.

Job rotation:
Also called cross-training, job rotation is the shifting of workers from one job to another. This may be
done to broaden an employee’s skill base or because an employee has ceased to be interested in or
challenged by a particular job. The organization may benefit from job rotation because it increases
flexibility in scheduling and production and because employees can be shifted to cover for absent
workers or changes in production or operations. It is also a valuable tool for training lower-level
managers in a variety of functional areas. Drawbacks of job rotation include an increase in training
costs and decreased productivity while employees are getting “up to speed” in new task areas.

Work-Scheduling Options:
As companies try to meet the needs of a diverse workforce and retain quality employees while
remaining competitive and financially prosperous, managers are challenged to find new ways to keep
workers motivated and satisfied. Increasingly popular are alternatives to the traditional work schedule,
such as flextime, compressed workweek, four-day workweek, telecommuting, and job sharing.
Flextime allows employees to decide what their work hours will be. Employees are generally expected
to work a certain number of hours per week but have some discretion as to when they arrive at work
and when they leave for the day.
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Another option for employees who want to maximize their leisure hours, indulge in three-day
weekends, and avoid commuting during morning and evening rush hours is the compressed workweek.
Telecommuting is a work-scheduling option that allows employees to work from home via a computer
that is linked with their office, headquarters, or colleagues. Often employers will use a mix of these
scheduling options depending on the situation
Job sharing is a scheduling option that allows two individuals to split the tasks, responsibilities, and
work hours of one 40-hour-per-week job. Though used less frequently than flextime and the
compressed workweek, this option can also provide employees with job flexibility. The primary benefit
to the company is that it gets “two for the price of one”—the company can draw on two sets of skills
and abilities to accomplish one set of job objectives.
Although each of these work-scheduling options may have some drawbacks for the sponsoring
organizations, the benefits far outweigh the problems. The number of companies offering flexible work
options has grown, and the trend is expected to continue.

Recognition and Empowerment:


All employees have unique needs that they seek to fulfill through their jobs. Organizations must devise
a wide array of incentives to ensure that a broad spectrum of employee needs can be addressed in the
work environment, thus increasing the likelihood of motivated employees. A sampling of these
motivational tools is discussed here.
Employee empowerment, sometimes called employee involvement or participative management,
involves delegating decision-making authority to employees at all levels of the organization, trusting
employees to make the right decision. Employees are given greater responsibility for planning,
implementing, and evaluating the results of decisions. Empowerment is based on the premise that
human resources, especially at lower levels in the firm, are an underutilized asset. Employees are
capable of contributing much more of their skills and abilities to organizational success if they are
allowed to participate in the decision-making process and are given access to the resources needed to
implement their decisions. Netflix removes obstacles from employees’ paths to success by eliminating
policies and procedures to show its trust in employee decision-making, including in decisions about
expenses and vacations. Netflix hires “fully formed adults” and tells them to use their best judgment to
act in the company’s best interest. The company believes employees will be more productive if not
bound by processes. As a result of following these practices, Netflix is noted among companies’ 40
percent more productive than others.

Economic Incentives:
Any discussion of motivation has to include the use of monetary incentives to enhance performance.
Currently, companies are using a variety of variable-pay programs such as piece-rate plans, profit
sharing, gain sharing, stock options, and bonuses to encourage employees to be more productive.
Unlike the standard salary or hourly wage, variable pay means that a portion of an employee’s pay is
directly linked to an individual or organizational performance measure. In piece-rate pay plans, for
example, employees are paid a given amount for each unit they produce, directly linking the amount
they earn to their productivity. Profit-sharing plans are based on overall company profitability. Using an
established formula, management distributes some portion of company profits to all employees. Gain-
sharing plans are incentive programs based on group productivity. Employees share in the financial
gains attributed to the increased productivity of their group. This encourages employees to increase
productivity within their specific work area regardless of the overall profit picture for the organization
as a whole.
One well-known approach to monetary incentives is the award of stock options, or giving employees
the right to purchase a given amount of stock at below-market prices. Stock can be a strong motivator
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because those who receive the options have the chance to make a lot of money. Government tax
incentive changes have affected how much equity (stock) companies offer each year, indicating that
stock options are declining in popularity.
One popular incentive is the bonus. A bonus is simply a one-time lump-sum monetary award. In many
cases, employees receive bonuses for achieving a particular performance level, such as meeting or
exceeding a sales quota, and it is not uncommon for bonuses to be substantial.
That’s not to say that small bonuses aren’t good motivators. Google discovered the large range in
values for the award created jealousy instead of fostering better teamwork. Based on employee input,
Google changed from monetary awards to experiential awards, such as gifts and trips, and everyone
was happier.
Regardless of their size, bonuses are replacing the raise as the way companies compensate employees
for a job well done and motivate them to perform at even higher levels. That is because bonuses can
vary according to outcomes. Financial incentives that allow variability in compensation to reflect an
individual employee’s contribution are generally known as pay-for-performance programs. One of the
many companies that use pay-for-performance programs is Allstate, which assigns employees’
individual performance one of five grades. The size of an employee’s bonus depends on his or her
grade.

Conclusion
The study shows that according to employee’s perception, organizational learning has positive impact
on
the performance of organization. That is if organization works on the learning aspects it simultaneously
improves the employees‟ performance

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‘No Limits’ Expense Policy,” Quartz, http://quartz.com, accessed January 15, 2018; Janko
Roettgers, “How Netflix Ticks: Five Key Insights from the Company’s New Corporate Culture
Manifesto,” Variety, http://variety.com, accessed January 15, 2018; Timothy Stenovec, “One
Reason for Netflix’s Success —It Treats Employees Like Grownups,” Huffington Post,
https://www.huffingtonpost.com, accessed January 15, 2018; “Netflix Culture,”
https://jobs.netflix.com/culture, accessed January 15, 2018.
o Alan Deutschman, “Can Google Stay Google?” Fast Company, https://www.fastcompany.com,
accessed January 14, 2018; Joseph Blasi, “Tech Companies Are Shutting Employees Out of the
Stock Market’s Boom,” Fortune, http://fortune.com, accessed January 14, 2018.
o Katie Hafner, “New Incentive for Google Employees: Awards Worth Millions,” The New York
Times, http://www.nytimes.com, accessed January 14, 2018; Paul Petrone, “Google Found Out
That Giving Its Employees Trips to Hawaii Is Better Than $1M Awards,” LinkedIn Talent Blog,
https://business.linkedin.com, accessed January 14, 2018; Quentin Hardy, “Close to the Vest,”
Forbes, http://members.forbes.com, accessed January 14, 2018; Greg Linden, “Google Cuts
Founders’ Awards,” Geeking with Greg, http://glinden.blogspot.com, accessed January 14, 2018;
James E. McWhinney, “Raise vs. Bonus for Your Small Business Employees?” Investopedia,
https://www.investopedia.com, accessed January 14, 2018; Jeff D. Opdyke, “Getting a Bonus
Instead of a Raise: More Companies Link Pay to Performance for Broad Range of Employees,”
The Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2004, p. D1, D2.
o Paul Davidson, “Got a Small Raise? The Rest May Be in Your Bonus,” USA Today,
https://www.usatoday.com, accessed January 14, 2018.
o Jena McGregor, “Elon Musk’s Pay Deal Could Be Worth $55.8 Billion—But He Could Also Get
Nothing,” The Washington Post, https://www.ndtv.com, January 28, 2018.
o “Despite Surge in Job Growth, Pay Raises and Bonuses for U.S. Workers Unlikely to Rise in
2018,” Aon Media Center, http://www.aon.mediaroom.com, accessed January 14, 2018; Jena
McGregor, “Your Chances of Getting a Bigger Raise or Bonus in 2018 Just Went Down,” The
Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com, accessed January 14, 2018.

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APPENDIX

Figure 1: Process of Motivation

Figure 2: Maslow’s Theory

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Figure 3:

McGregor’s Motivation Theory

Figure 4: Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory:

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Figure 5: Efforts In Task With Known And Fixed Difficulty

Figure 6: Effort in Tasks Where the Individual Can Choose Task Difficulty (Unfixed
Difficulty)

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Figure 7: Ability and Fatigue Extensions

Figure 8: Mood and Affect Knowledge Extensions

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Figure 9: Dysphoria Extension

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GLOSSARY

WORD MEANING
Acquisition The learning or developing of a skill, habit or
quality
Arbitrated Form a connecting link between
Aspiration A hope or ambition of achieving something
Autonomy The quality state of being self- governing

Ceased Come or bring at an end


Congruency In agreement or compatible
De-stigmatize To remove associations of shame or disgrace
from
Dichotomous Divided into two distinct parts
Disengaged Emotionally detached.
Dispositional The predominant or prevailing tendency of
one's spirits; natural mental and emotional
outlook or mood;
Driving force Power or energy behind any motion
Drives Urges and needs
Dysphoria The state of uneasiness
Emanating Of a ( feeling, quality or sensation) issue or
spread out from a source
Equity theory A theory of motivation that holds that worker
satisfaction is influenced by employees’
perceptions about how fairly they are treated

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compared with their coworkers.
Expectancy theory A theory of motivation that holds that the
probability of an individual acting in a
particular way depends on the strength of that
individual’s belief that the act will have a
particular outcome and on whether the
individual values that outcome.

Explicit Fully and clearly expressed or demonstrated


Goal-setting theory A theory of motivation based on the premise
that an individual’s intention to work toward a
goal is a primary source of motivation.

Hedonic Of, characterizing, or pertaining to pleasure


Hygiene factors Extrinsic elements of the work environment that
do not serve as a source of employee
satisfaction or motivation.

Implicit Not directly expressed


Jeopardize Put (someone or something) into a situation in
which there is a danger of loss, harm or failure.

Job enlargement The horizontal expansion of a job by increasing


the number and variety of tasks that a person
performs.
Job enrichment The vertical expansion of a job by increasing
the employee’s autonomy, responsibility, and
decision-making authority.

Job rotation The shifting of workers from one job to another;


also called cross-training.

Job sharing A scheduling option that allows two individuals


to split the tasks, responsibilities, and work
hours of one 40-hour-per-week job
Labor turnover Rate at which employees leave employment
Motivation Something that prompts a person to release his
or her energy in a certain direction
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs A theory of motivation developed by Abraham
Maslow; holds that humans have five levels of
needs and act to satisfy their unmet needs. At
the base of the hierarchy are fundamental
physiological needs, followed in order by
safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization
needs job satisfaction as “a sensation employees
have about their work environment and their
expectations toward work”
Motivating factors Intrinsic job elements that lead to worker
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Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


satisfaction
Reinforcement theory A theory of motivation that holds that people do
things because they know that certain
consequences will follow.
Scientific management A system of management developed by
Frederick W. Taylor and based on four
principles: developing a scientific approach for
each element of a job, scientifically selecting
and training workers, encouraging cooperation
between workers and managers, and dividing
work and responsibility between management
and workers according to who can better
perform a particular task.
Stimuli Something that excites an organism or part to
functional activity.
Tarnishing make or become less valuable or requested
Theory X A management style, formulated by Douglas
McGregor, that is based on a pessimistic view
of human nature and assumes that the average
person dislikes work, will avoid it if possible,
prefers to be directed, avoids responsibility, and
wants security above all.
Theory Y A management style, formulated by Douglas
McGregor, that is based on a relatively
optimistic view of human nature; assumes that
the average person wants to work, accepts
responsibility, is willing to help solve problems,
and can be self-directed and self-controlled.
Want The gap between what is and what is desired

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Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


INDEX

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Motivational Language Intensity and Learning


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HEADING
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