Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Session 11: Motivation

Session Objectives

• Understand the content theories of motivation

• Understand the process theories of motivation

Motivation

• The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort
towards attaining a goal.
• Intensity: How hard a person tries.

• Direction: Effort directed towards and consistent with goals.

• Persistence: How long a person can maintain effort.

Content Theories of Motivation

• Focuses on- What motivates the employees?

• Content theories of employee motivation

o They try to identify what our needs are and relate motivation to the fulfilling of these needs.

o Main content theories:

i. Hierarchy of Needs Theory

ii. Theory X and Theory Y

iii. Two Factor Theory

iv. McClelland’s Theory of Needs

(i) Hierarchy of Needs Theory

• Proposed by Abraham Maslow.

• Within every human being, there exists a hierarchy of five needs:

i. Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily needs.

ii. Safety: Security and protection from physical and emotional harm.

iii. Social: Affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.

iv. Esteem: Internal factors- self respect, autonomy, achievement, and External factors- status, recognition, and
attention.

v. Self-actualization: Drive to become what we are capable of becoming- growth, achieving our potential, and
self-fulfillment.
• Higher Order Needs
• Satisfied Internally (Within the
person)

• Lower Order Needs

• Satisfied Externally (by rewards, tenure,
etc.)
(ii) Theory X and Theory Y

• Proposed by Douglas McGregor.

• Two distinct views of human beings: Theory X (negative view) and Theory Y (positive view).

• Theory X: The assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike responsibility, and must
be coerced to perform.

• Theory Y: The assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can
exercise self-direction.
(iii) Two Factor Theory

• Proposed by Frederick Herzberg.

• Also called motivation-hygiene theory.

• Hygiene Factors: Factors, such as company policy, administration, supervision, salary, that, when
adequate in a job, placate workers.

o When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied.

• Motivation Factors: Factors, such as recognition, achievement, work itself, that, when adequate
in a job, motivate workers.

o When motivation factors are adequate, people will be satisfied.

(iv) McClelland’s Theory of Needs

• Developed by McClelland.

• The theory looks at three needs:

i. Need for achievement (nAch): The drive to excel, to achieve, in relationship to a set of standards, and to strive to
succeed.

ii. Need for power (nPow): The need to make others behave in a way they would not have behaved otherwise.

iii. Need for affiliation (nAff): The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.
Process Theories of Motivation

• Focuses on- why behaviors are initiated?

• Major process theories:
i. Equity Theory/Organizational Justice
ii. Expectancy Theory
iii. Reinforcement Theory
iv. Goal Setting Theory
v. Self-Efficacy Theory
vi. Self-Determination Theory
(i) Equity Theory

• The theory says that individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those of others and
respond to eliminate any inequities.
o Inputs: effort, experience, education, etc.
o Outputs: pay, promotion, recognition, etc.

• A negative state of tension provides the motivation to do something to correct it.

• Employees who perceive inequity may make one of the choices:

o Change inputs
o Change outcomes
o Distort perception of self
o Distort perception of others
o Choose a different referent
o Leave the field
• Equity theory is a precursor to the study of Organizational Justice.

• Organizational Justice- An overall perception of what is fair in the workplace.

✓ Distributive justice: Perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among individuals.

✓ Procedural justice: Perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards.

✓ Informational justice: The degree to which employees are provided truthful explanations for decisions.

✓ Interpersonal justice: The degree to which employees are treated with respect and dignity.
(ii) Expectancy Theory

• Proposed by Victor Vroom.

• The strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that
the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of the outcome to the
individual.

• Focuses on three relationships:

i. Effort-performance relationship

ii. Performance-reward relationship

iii. Rewards-personal goals relationship

(iii) Reinforcement Theory

• Proposed by B.F. Skinner.

• Theory suggests that behavior is a function of its consequences.

o Reinforcement conditions behaviors.

o Any consequences, when immediately following responses, increase the probability that the behavior will be
repeated.

• Operant conditioning theory: People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid
something they do not want.
• Social Learning Theory: The view that we can learn through both observation and direct
experience.
o It is an extension of operant conditioning, i.e., it assumes behavior is a function of consequences.

o Also acknowledges the effect of observational learning and perception.

o Four processes define their influence on an individual:

i. Attentional processes

ii. Retention processes

iii. Motor reproduction processes

iv. Reinforcement processes

(iv) Goal Setting Theory

• Proposed by Edwin Locke.

• The theory says that specific and difficult goals with feedback, lead to higher performance.
o Specific and difficult goals

o Specificity acts as an internal stimulus.

o Other factors being equal, an employee will outperform a counterpart with no goals or the generalized goal “do
your best”.

o Difficult goals motivate because:

✓ Get our attention and help us focus

✓ Energize us because we work harder to attain them

✓ People persist in trying to attain them

✓ Lead us to discover strategies that help us perform the job more effectively.
• Feedback helps because:

o It helps identify discrepancies between what employees have done and what they want to
do.

o Self generated feedback is more powerful than externally generated feedback.

• In addition to feedback, other factors influence the goals-performance relationship:

i. Goal commitment: goals are made public, internal locus of control, self-set goals, and individual’s ability.

ii. Task characteristics: Individual goals are more effective in well learned, simple, independent tasks. For
interdependent tasks, group goals are more effective.
• Implementing goal setting:
o Management by objective (MBO): Emphasizes on tangible, verifiable, measurable, and
specific goals, participatively set, for an explicit time period, with feedback on goal progress.
(v) Self-Efficacy Theory

• Proposed by Albert Bandura.

• Theory: An individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task.

• Four ways self-efficacy can be increased:

i. Enactive mastery: Gaining relevant experience with the task or job.

ii. Vicarious Modeling: Becoming more confident because you see someone else doing the task.

iii. Verbal persuasion: Becoming more confident because someone convinces you that you have the
skills necessary to be successful. (Pygmalion effect)

iv. Arousal: Leads to an energized state.

(vi) Self-Determination Theory

• Proposed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan.

• Self-determination: Each person's ability to make choices and manage their own life.

• Two key assumptions of the theory:

o The need for growth drives behavior.

✓ People are actively directed toward growth.

✓ Gaining mastery over challenges and taking in new experiences are essential for developing a cohesive sense of
self.

o Autonomous motivation is important.

✓ Focuses primarily on internal sources of motivation such as a need to gain knowledge or independence.
• People need to feel the following in order to achieve psychological growth:

o Autonomy: People need to feel in control of their own behaviors and goals.

o Competence: People need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills.

o Connection or relatedness: People need to experience a sense of belonging and attachment to other
people.

• Self determination theory: A theory of motivation concerned with the beneficial effects of intrinsic
motivation and the harmful effects of extrinsic motivation.

• Self determination theory draws from the cognitive evaluation theory.

o Allocating extrinsic rewards for behaviour that had been previously intrinsically rewarding tends to
decrease the overall level of motivation if the rewards are seen as controlling.

• A recent outgrowth of self-determination theory is self-concordance theory.

o The degree to which peoples’ reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core
values.
• How self-determination theory works?

o Extrinsic motivators can sometimes lower self-determination

o Positive feedback can boost self-determination.