MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Unit V

MOTIVATION

On completion of this unit, participants should be able to:

1. define motivation

2. describe the motivation process on the job

3. identify some key motivational theories e.g. Maslow-Hierarchy of Needs, Mc Gregor-

Theory X & Theory Y and Herzberg-Motivation Hygiene Factor Theory.

4. identify the three relationships in Expectancy Theory that determine an individual’s

level of effort.

5. list the actions a supervisor can take to maximize employee motivation.

1
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Motivation may be defined as some driving force within individuals by which they attempt to
achieve a goal in order to fulfill a need or expectation. Individuals are not the same; therefore,
it is important for a business to find out what satisfies the needs of its employees’ because if
an individual’s needs are not satisfied, then that worker will not be MOTIVATED to work.

People have needs—such as for recognition, achievement, or monetary gain—that translate

into an internal tension that encourages specific behaviours with which to fulfill the need.
To the extent that the behaviour is successful, the person is rewarded in the sense that the need
is satisfied. The reward also informs the person that the behaviour was appropriate and can be
used again in the future.

Rewards are of two types: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards are the satisfactions that a
person receives in the process of performing a particular action. The completion of a complex
task may bestow a pleasant feeling of accomplishment, or solving a problem that benefits others
may fulfill a personal mission. Extrinsic rewards are given by another person, typically a
manager, and include promotions, pay increases, and bonuses.

2
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Motivation is important as it can lead to behaviours that reflect high performance within
organizations. Studies have found that high employee motivation goes hand-in-hand with high
organizational performance and profits. It is the responsibility of managers to find the right
combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy employees’ needs and
simultaneously encourage high work performance.

Ideas about motivation are referred to theories.

3
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

DESCRIBE MASLOW’S ‘HIERARCHY OF NEEDS’

Maslow put forward a theory that there are five levels of human needs which employees need
to have fulfilled at work. All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy (see below) and only
once a lower level of need has been fully met, would a worker be motivated by the opportunity
of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied.

4
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

MC GREGOR’S THEORY X WITH THEORY Y

Douglas McGregor developed two theories of human behaviour at work: Theory and X and
Theory Y.
McGregor's ideas suggest that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people.
Many managers tend towards theory X, and generally get poor results. Enlightened managers
use theory Y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and
develop.

'Authoritarian management' style - Theory X workers could be described as follows:

 The average person dislikes work and will avoid it he/she can.
 Therefore most people must be forced with the threat of punishment to work towards
organisational objectives.

5
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

 The average person prefers to be directed; to avoid responsibility; is relatively unambitious,

and wants security above all else.
The management implications for Theory X workers were that, to achieve organisational
objectives, a business would need to impose a management system of coercion, control and
punishment.
'Participative management' style- Theory Y workers were characterised by McGregor
as:
 Effort in work is as natural as work and play.
 People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organisational objectives,
without external control or the threat of punishment.
 Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.
 People usually accept and often seek responsibility.
 The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving
organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.
 In industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only partly utilised.

DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN MOTIVATORS AND HYGIENE FACTORS

Frederick Herzberg developed the two factor Theory based on interviews with hundreds of
workers about times when they were highly motivated to work and other times when they were
dissatisfied and
unmotivated. His findings suggested that the work characteristics associated with
dissatisfaction were different from those pertaining to satisfaction, which prompted the notion
that two factors influence work motivation.

Herzberg believed that two separate concepts contribute to an employee’s behavior at work.
The first, called hygiene factors, involves the presence or absence of job dissatisfiers, such as
working conditions, pay, company policies, and interpersonal relationships.
When hygiene factors are poor, work is dissatisfying. However, good hygiene factors simply
remove the dissatisfaction; they do not in themselves cause people to become highly satisfied
and motivated in their work.

6
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

The second set of factors influence job satisfaction. Motivators focus on high-level needs and
include achievement, recognition, responsibility, and opportunity for growth. Herzberg
believed that when motivators are absent, workers are neutral toward work, but when
motivators are present, workers are highly motivated and satisfied.

Herzberg suggested a two-step approach to understanding employee motivation and

satisfaction:

Hygiene Factors - based on the need to for a business to avoid unpleasantness at work. If these
factors are considered inadequate by employees, then they can cause dissatisfaction with work,
e.g. company policy and administration, wages, quality of supervision, quality of inter-personal
relations, working conditions.

Motivator Factors - Motivator factors are based on an individual's need for personal growth.
When they exist, motivator factors actively create job satisfaction. If they are effective, then
they can motivate an individual to achieve above-average performance and effort, e.g. Status,
opportunity for advancement, gaining recognition, responsibility, challenging / stimulating
work, sense of personal achievement & personal growth in a job.

7
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

5
Leading
The implication of the two-factor theory for managers is clear. Providing
hygiene factors will eliminate employee dissatisfaction but will not motivate workers
to high achievement levels while, recognition, challenge, and opportunities
for personal growth are powerful motivators and will promote high satisfaction and
performance. The manager’s role is to remove dissatisfiers—by providing hygiene
factors sufficient enough to meet basic needs—and then to use motivators to meet higher-level
needs and drive employees toward greater achievement and satisfaction.

8
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

According to Herzberg, management should focus on rearranging work so that motivator

factors can take effect. He suggested ways in which this could be done:
Job enlargement – workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily
more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.
Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over
areas of their working life.
Job enrichment - involves workers being given a wider range of more complex, interesting
and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of
achievement. He suggested that, for a job to be considered enriched, it would have to contain:
 A complete unit of work – not just a small repetitive fragment of a job, but a full challenging
task; Herzberg heaped scorn upon the ‘idiot jobs’ that resulted from Taylor’s views on the
merits of high division of labour.
 Direct feedback – wherever possible, a job should enable the worker to judge immediately
the quality of what they have done; direct feedback gives the satisfaction of knowing
exactly how well they have performed. Herzberg disliked systems which pass quality
inspection off onto a supervisor: ‘a man must always be held responsible for his own
quality’. Worst of all, he felt, was annual appraisal – in which feedback is too long delayed.
 Direct communication – for people to feel committed, in control and to gain direct
feedback, they should communicate directly – avoiding the delays of communicating via a
supervisor or a ‘contact person’.

9
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

EXPECTANCY THEORY AND PERFORMANCE-BASED COMPENSATIONS

Expectancy Theory
Vroom's expectancy theory, published in 1964, suggests that people are not necessarily
motivated by internal needs, but more by the expectation that certain actions will achieve an
outcome seen that they see as desirable. He argues that employees perform well when they
can see a connection between effort, performance and reward. In theory, extra effort will lead
to better performance, and improved job performance will lead to outcomes such as promotion,
extra responsibility and more pay.

The details of this connection involve a complex interplay of the concepts of :

 "VALENCE",
 "INSTRUMENTALITY" AND
 "EXPECTANCY".
In brief, in Vroom's terms, these are as follows:
 Valence is the strength of preference for a particular outcome; it ranges from a negative
valence, where the individual strongly prefers not to attain the outcome, to positive valence
where the individual strongly prefers to attain the outcome, through "zero" valence where
the individual is indifferent to the outcome.
 Instrumentality is the extent to which one outcome will lead to another –for example,
improved performance in the present job will lead to promotion.
 Expectancy is the extent of the probability that a particular effort or action will lead to a
particular outcome.
"This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance
and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the
recipients." Victor H. Vroom (1964) defines motivation as a process governing choices among
alternative forms of voluntary activities, a process controlled by the individual. The individual
makes choices based on estimates of how well the expected results of a given behavior are
going to match up with or eventually lead to the desired results. Motivation is a product of the

10
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

individual’s expectancy that a certain effort will lead to the intended performance, the
instrumentality of this performance to achieving a certain result, and the desirability of this
result for the individual, known as valence.

11
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

MOTIVATION IN PRACTICE – Non-financial rewards

JOB ENLARGEMENT
Job enlargement consists of increasing the number of tasks and possibly responsibilities
involved in a job. This may succeed but it depends largely on how different the tasks are and
the amount of responsibility given. It could result in ‘more of the same’ type of work in which
case it will soon become as repetitive and boring as the original single task.

In job enlargement, the job itself remains essentially unchanged. However, by widening the
range of tasks that need to be performed, it is intended that the employee will experience less
repetition and monotony that are common on production lines which rely upon the division of
labour. One important negative aspect is that job enlargement is sometimes viewed by
employees as a requirement to carry out more work for the same amount of pay.

Job enlargement is a general term for anything that increases the scope of a job.
 Job rotation – increasing a worker’s activities by switching between tasks of a similar
level of difficulty. This does not increase the challenge, but may reduce the boredom
of a job.

 Job loading – increasing workload, often as a result of redundancies. It may mean

having to do more of the same, but often entails one or two extra activities that have-
to be taken on.

What is Job Rotation?

Job rotation – job rotation involves an employee changing jobs or tasks from time to time, e.g.
a move to a different part of the production line to carry put a different task. From an
employee’s point of view, this should reduce boredom and enable a variety of skills and
experience to be gained. An employer might also benefit from a more widely trained
workforce. Although job rotation may motivate a worker, it is possible that any gains in
productivity may be offset by a fall in output as workers learn new jobs and take time to ‘settle
in’. Worker motivation is not guaranteed if the employee is simply switched from one boring
job to another.

Why is Job Rotation Important?

12
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Job rotation is seen as a possible solution to two significant challenges faced by business:

(1) Skills shortages and skills gaps, and

(2) Employee motivation

Skills shortages occur when there is a lack of skilled individuals in the workforce.

Skills gaps occur when there is a lack of skills in a company’s existing workforce which may
still be found in the labour force as a whole.

JOB ENRICHMENT
Job enrichment, however, takes job enlargement a stage further and is largely based on the
work of Herzberg. He suggested that an enriched job should ideally contain several tasks at
different ability levels, some of which were beyond the worker’s experience to date. This would
provide some progression. Herzberg also felt that a worker should be involved in a complete
unit of work in order to generate a sense of achievement. This may be a better method of
motivating workers on an assembly line especially if the scheme involved a team of workers.
Herzberg defines job enrichment as ‘giving people the opportunity to use their ability’ and
implies giving people ‘a range of responsibilities and activities. It is not cheap, quick or easy
to enrich the job of the production line worker or the supermarket operator. The first thought
might be to provide more variety to the work. The supermarket worker might switch between
the checkout, shelf stacking and working in the warehouse. Known as job rotation, this
approach reduces repetition but still provides the employee with little challenge.

Job enrichment is connected to the concept of job enlargement.

Job enrichment is the process of "improving work processes and environments so they are more
satisfying for employees".

Many jobs are monotonous and unrewarding - particularly in the primary and secondary
production industries. Workers can feel dissatisfied in their position due to a lack of a
challenge, repetitive procedures, or an over-controlled authority structure. Job enrichment tries
to eliminate these problems, and bring better performance to the workplace.

13
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment is granting employees’ greater control over their working lives- giving
employees more authority to organize their own work and to take decisions without reference
to managers. It has the potential to produce more motivated workers with improved
productivity and lower labour turnover.

Empowerment means having more power and control over your working life -having the scope
to make significant decisions about how to allocate your time and how to move forward. It
may lead to greater risks being taken, but can also lead to opportunities being identified and
exploited. Above all else, it should aid motivation.

TEAMWORKING
Teamworking is the attempt to maximize staff satisfaction and involvement by organizing
employees into relatively small teams.
Teamworking also gives scope for motivating influences such as job enrichment and quality
circles.
Team-working has a number of benefits:
 Productivity may be greater because of pooled talents.

 People can specialize and draw on the skills and knowledge of others in the team

 Increasingly businesses are finding the abilities of teams are needed to solve difficult
business problems.

 Responsibility is shared – people may be more prepared to take risks.

 Ideas may be created by brainstorming.

 It allows flexible working.

However, team work does not always produce the desired results:
 Too much emphasis on harmony – teams probably work best when there is room for
disagreement.

 Too much discord. Tension can destroy team effectiveness.

14
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

 Poor preparation. It is important that team members prepare for meetings by focusing
on the facts. Members should have a detailed knowledge of the issues at hand and all
work with the same information.

 A feeling of powerlessness. To work well, teams must be able to influence decisions.

 The failure of senior management to work well together. This creates problems because
team members may walk into meetings with different priorities.

 Seeing teams as the solution for all problems – some tasks are better accomplished by
individuals, rather than groups.

MOTIVATION IN PRACTICE – Financial Reward Systems

Although some theorists like Herzberg believe that money is not a positive motivator (although
lack of it can de-motivate), pay systems are designed to motivate employees.

The scientific approach, in particular, argues that workers respond to financial rewards.

Getting employee pay right (often referred to as the “remuneration package”) is a crucial task
for a business.

Why is pay important?

• Pay helps to satisfy many needs (e.g. security, esteem needs, resources to pursue self-
actualisation).

SALARY
A salary is a fixed regular payment made by an employer, often monthly, for professional or
office work. It differs from time-based wages in that it is not strictly related to the actual number
of hours worked and any extra hours worked do not normally attract any overtime payment.

PIECEWORK
Piecework means working in return for a payment per unit provided. The payment itself is
known as piece-rate. Pieceworkers receive no basic or shift-pay, so there is no sick pay, holiday
pay or company pension.

15
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Piecework is used extensively in small-scale manufacturing, e.g. jeans or jewellery. Its

attraction for managers is that it makes supervision virtually unnecessary. All the manager
need do is operate a quality control system which ensures the finished product is worth paying
for. Day by day, the workers can be relied upon to work fast enough to earn a living (or a
good) wage.

TIME BASED WAGES

Time-based wages is one method of rewarding employees for their labour. It is payment for
the length of time spent working rather than the quantity of output achieved. It is a simple
method to administer as it requires only a record of attendance and so is the most common
method of payment, often adopted where remuneration is difficult to relate to output e.g.
Nurses, teachers. The main disadvantage for the employer is that it relies on trust. The
employee is expected to give ‘a fair day’s work’ for the agreed remuneration. Some firms prefer
to ensure they get a satisfactory output by employing supervisors to oversee the work of time-
based operatives.

OUTPUT BASED WAGES

Output-based wages are directly related to the output each individual or group of workers
produces. Output achieved in excess of this is rewarded by bonus payments. One advantage of
this method is that it should provide an incentive for workers to be productive and needs less
supervision. There is no incentive to waste time or produce items that are likely to be rejected.
Where the bonus is dependent on group targets the method can build team spirit.
It may, however, lead to rushed work, lower quality production and an increase in rejects,
which the operator might not be paid for. The employee often has to depend on other workers
to keep production flowing and so could be adversely affected by slower workers or machine
breakdown. The non-availability of raw materials or components will reduce the earning
potential of the workers.

PERFORMANCE RELATED PAY

Performance-related pay is a financial reward to staff whose work is considered above average.
It is used for employees whose work achievements cannot be assessed simply through
numerical measures such as units produced or sold. PRP awards are usually made after an
appraisal process has evaluated the performance of staff during the year.

16
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

COMMISSION

Commission is a payment made to employees based on the value of sales achieved. It can form
all or part of a pay package. Commission is, therefore, a form of “incentive pay”. Commission,
like piece-rates, is a reward for the quantity or value of work achieved. In most cases, the
employee is paid a flat percentage of the value of the good or service that is sold.

PROFIT SHARING
A different approach to financial incentives is to provide staff with a share of the firm’s annual
profit. This puts staff with a share of the firm’s annual profit. This puts staff in the same
position as shareholders as, in effect, they are paid an annual dividend.

SHARES AND SHARE OWNERSHIP

Offering employees shares in a business is an increasingly popular part of pay packages –
particularly for businesses whose shares are traded on a stock exchange. Offering shares is a
more complicated kind of reward than paying employees cash. However, it can be much more
effective in linking the objectives of the business (e.g. profit maximisation) and the objectives
of employees (e.g. make a large gain on the value of shares held). This payment method also
encourages employees to commit to the business in the longer-term.

Employee Share Ownership Plans (“ESOP’s”)

Employee share ownership is a means of obtaining a greater commitment of staff to the welfare
of the company by offering a financial incentive in the form of shares. As the value of the
shares is directly related to the success of the company and its profit level, it serves as an
incentive for workers to not only work hard but to reduce costs and to suggest improvements.
The main drawback is that the worker must be committed to the company for a substantial
period of time in order to achieve significant benefits from the share scheme. The financial
incentive may not be enough to overcome the boredom of the job.

BONUS
A bonus is an extra payment to employees usually as a reward for making a particular target
such as a predetermined sales or profit figure. It is a one-off payment with no guarantee that
the target will be repeated in the future or if it is that the payment will remain the same. Bonuses
are used for the achievement of short-term objectives.

17
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

FRINGE BENEFITS
These are forms of reward other than income. Some managers have generous expense
accounts. Many have company cars. Usually all maintenance and running costs are paid by
the company. In some cases, even petrol for private mileage can be charged to the employer.
Other fringe benefits include:
 Membership of clubs or leisure centres.
 Low interest rate loans or mortgages
 Discounts on the company’s products
In all cases, fringe benefits are offered to encourage staff loyalty and to improve human
relations.

Fringe benefits are benefits received by employees in addition to their wages or salary.
Common fringe benefits are: a company pension scheme, a company car, subsidised medical
care, discounts when buying company products, the provision of leisure facilities and a share
option scheme.

FLEXIBLE BENEFITS AS MOTIVATORS

Flexible benefits can help drive performance and improve staff motivation. The more
motivated and engaged staff a company has, the better the levels of work performance. This
translates into a more profitable business. There are a range of factors that influence staff
motivation including the basics such as working conditions, pay and benefits, communication,
recognition and rewards to make staff feel valued and appreciated. However, this is not a short-
term fix and to be truly effective, incentives and motivation programmes must be well planned,
long term and consistent if they are to create sustained improvement.
In order to cope with the peaks and troughs in demand, many organisations are now adopting
flexible working methods, allowing employees flexibility in their jobs and enabling
organisations more efficient use of their human resources. The main methods of flexible
working are:
Overtime: this allows companies to cover peaks in production by offering premium payments
e.g. time and a half or double time to employees, over and above their normal pay and working
hours. Overtime however has its downside, when employees work more slowly during the day
to ensure that there is need to work overtime.

18
 MGMT 058 Supervisory Management I, Sasha Chatar, Summer AY 2019/2020

Flexi-time: flexi-time gives employees the opportunity to determine when they come in to
work and when they go home. “Core time” is the time when employees are required to be at
work, usually between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.
Shift Working: shift work allows the production process to be ongoing so that the factory
environment never usually shuts down, effectively optimizing the utilization of employees and
machinery.
Teleworking: teleworking involves working from home, with employees linked to employers
by computers, telephones and faxes. Teleworking allows single parents and disabled persons
to work from home, savings in accommodation costs from employer and reduction in stress as
teleworkers don’t have to commute to work.
Homeworking: homeworking affords the same benefits as teleworking, but includes self
employed workers and freelance workers such as graphic artists, editors, hairdressers, etc.
Flexible leave - employees can take them when they need them. Leave may be taken over
school holidays or one day at a time. People may have the opportunity to “buy” more leave by
reducing their salary over the whole year. There are endless combinations of casual leave and
sick leave.
Study leave/career breaks - This involves supporting employees in their study objectives.
This can range from paying for some or all of a course, to giving time off to study.
Job share - Two people share a job as though they are one person. This may provide better
opportunities for people who want to work part time, especially in client-focused industries
where a full-time presence may be required.
Telecommuting - Rather than going into an office every day, employees have the opportunity
to work from a home office either permanently, a few days a week, or ad-hoc according to
changing family or personal needs. Employers may provide a computer, pay for phone calls
and other business expenses.
Other work/life balance initiatives
 Assisting with childcare.
 Scheduling meetings within work hours rather than before or after work.
 Providing gym memberships, yoga classes, “quit smoking” programs, and diet clubs.
 Offering training on time management.
 Giving access to counseling.

19