Session 2.
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Motivation management
Course: Organization and Human Resource
Management
Daniela.isari@unicatt.it
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Critical people management issues (I)
Attraction
how to attract the best candidates
and talents to the company?
Performance
management
how to motivate to
excellent performance?
Retention
how to motivate best performers
and talents to stay with the
company?
Critical people management issues (II)
Both line managers and HR specialists
share the responsibility to attract &
keep people on board by continuously
sustaining their motivation ….
strategies to support
motivation to join &stay in the company strategies to support
(attraction, retention) motivation to good/excellent
performance
Motivation and the performance equation
Individual attributes
Capacity to perform:
Ability, Personality,
Values & attitudes
JOB
PERFORMANCE
Work effort Organizational support
Willingness to perform: Opportunity
motivation & engagement to perform
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Why is motivation important ?
Performance = Ability x Motivation
Performance
The result of a mental/physical effort.
Ability
Knowledge, skills, experience an individual can use in order to
carry on a task/reach a goal
Motivation
What moves a person to take action, mobilizing his/her abilities
in order to reach a goal
Motivation strategies: contingent approach
✓ All motivation strategies described can be equally effective
✓ There is no «One best» motivation strategy
✓ Every person has a different personality, different needs and
expectations
✓ Individual needs and expectations change in time, according to
different phases of career ad life cycle
✓ The ability required to a manager is to be flexible, using different
motivation strategies according to the person, time and
circumstance.
Research and theories on motivation
Content Theories Process Theories
Research question: Research question:
«What is within «What are the cognitive
individuals or their and decision processes,
environment that that take place within the
motivate minds of individuals, that
behavior?» motivate their behaviour?»
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The concept of «need» in motivation theories
UNSATISFIED NEED
EVALUATION ACTION
RESULT
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs -1
What motivates people? The desire to satisfy innate needs
Self-actualization
needs
Esteem needs
Social needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs
Satisfaction-progression mechanism
“….A satisfied need is not a motivator”
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Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 2
Some examples:
“I know Laura likes to have to do with people, thus I give her tasks which require
teamworking with colleagues”
In this case, Laura’s boss understands that she has strong social needs requiring
satisfaction, consequently she will be highly motivated by teamworking rather than
working alone.
“When John does a good job, I never forget to thank and praise him, in order to make
him feel how much I appreciate his work”
In this case, John’s boss understands that he has strong esteem needs requiring
satisfaction, consequently he can be motivated by having his contribution recognized
and appreciated.
Practical implications from Hierarchy of needs
✓ Know your people: observe and understand the different needs and
expectations of your team members
✓ Rewards must be personalized: what is valuable for someone might
be worthless for another person
✓ Consider the national/local culture of employees: some needs might
be particularly important according to employees’ background (for
example social needs, or status needs)
✓ Remember that a need, once satisfied, is no longer a motivator
(people’s need evolve in time)
McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (D. McClelland) -
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Achievement-Power-Affiliation
Acquired needs = needs acquired through the social process of individuals
interacting with the environment.
All people have these needs to some extent but there is a tendency for one
of them to be dominant at any point in time.
•Need for achievement (nAch)
•Need for power (nPower)
•Need for affiliation (nAff)
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McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (D. McClelland) -
2
Achievement-Power-Affiliation
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Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic Motivation
A person performs an action
because the action itself is
rewarding/satisfying , or consistent
with her values and beliefs Extrinsic Motivation
The person is motivated to perform
an action by rewards coming from
the external environment
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Herzberg’s two-factor theory
What motivates people?
Job content! Intrinsic motivation matters.
Hygiene Factors Motivating Factors
Hygiene factors, if absent, cause Motivate an individual to improve
dissatisfaction their work performance
• Base salary • Job content
• Working conditions (physical) • Sense of achievement
• Job security • Responsibility and autonomy
• Company policies, procedures • Growth, development
• Level and quality of supervision • Recognition of results
• Interpersonal relationships • Career Advancement
Herzberg two factor theory and job design
✓ Job enlargement ✓ Job rotation
Job enrichment ✓ Teamwork (enlargement+
enrichment+ rotation)
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Practical implications from Herzberg’s
two factor theory
✓ Keep in mind that job content can be an important source of intrinsic
motivation
✓ Try to reduce the repetition of the same things every day. Variety of tasks
and novel challenges will motivate employees by keeping them interested
and committed
✓ Offer opportunity to learn: most people like to learn something new,
particularly if they think it will turn out valuable to them
✓ Try to delegate decisions : many people like more autonomy
✓ Give people a job which is appropriate to them: variety, autonomy,
responsibility generally bring motivation but remember that not everyone
has an “entrepreneurial” nature
✓ Money is a very important hygiene factor, but there are many other factors
that motivate people at work
Locke’s goal setting theory- 1
What motivates people?
Goals! The process of goal setting
influences motivation
“I give employees clear, specific and achievable objectives, and I give constant
feedback on results”
This leader believes that people’s objectives influence their actions, so he
focuses on how to sets goals appropriately for the his team members…
Locke’s goal setting theory - 2
Intentions play a significant part in workers’ behavior. Performance is
the result of actions characterized by intentionality, i.e. by intentions
towards objectives
Requirements of an effective goal setting process :
• Specific objectives
• Difficult, challenging and achievable objectives
• Participated objectives
• Feedback
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Goal Setting-3
Relationship between difficulty of goals and performance
P
e
r
high
f
o
r
m medium
a
n
c
low
e
low challenging impossible
Difficulty of goals
Goal Setting theory
Practical implications
✓ Train your team members to think in terms of goals and
objectives instead of “tasks”
✓ Keep the buzz quotient high…challenge your team
members and raise the bar
✓ Involve workers in setting their own goals
✓ Plan deadlines and give useful feedback
✓ Remember: clear, specific, medium difficulty, measurable
objectives are engaging for people
General suggestions to managers
from motivation theories _1
✓ Each to their own: every person has a different personality, different
needs in different moments of their life and career (people change!)
✓ Pay attention to person-job fit: variety, autonomy, responsibility
generally bring motivation but remember that not everyone has an
“entreprenurial” nature
✓ Use goal setting. Remember: clear, specific, medium difficulty,
measurable and shared objectives are generally more engaging
✓ Be sure goals are perceived as reachable: people will reduce their
effort instead of increasing it if they think objectives are not realistic.
This means as well that people must have the appropriate skills to do
the job.
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General suggestions to managers
from motivation theories_2
✓ Raise the bar: try to reduce the repetition of the same things every day;
novel challenges will motivate employees by keeping their interest and
commitment
✓ Support your team members’ learning: most people enjoy learning
something new, particularly if they think it will turn out valuable to
them
✓ Recognition: acknowledge that people have made a contribution,
appreciate results, give positive feedback
✓ Rewards must be personalized: what is valuable for someone might be
worthless for another person
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General suggestions to managers
from motivation theories_3
✓ Connect rewards to performance (if you reward other factors, for
example age or sex, you will just reinforce those factors but you will
not motivate to performance)
✓ Check the equity of the system: differences between people regarding
performance, responsibility, experience, must correspond to differences
in wage, reward, career opportunities etc.
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