Motivation

Set me anything to do as a task, and it

is inconceivable the desire I have to
do something else.
-- G.B. Shaw
 From Concepts to Application
• Management By Objectives
• Employee Recognition Programs
• Employee Involvement Programs
• Variable Pay Programs
• Skill-Based Pay Plans
• Flexible Benefits
• Special Issues in Motivation
 Management by Objectives 
• A program that encompasses
 specific goals
 participatively set
 for an explicit time period
 with feedback on goal progress
• MBO operationalizes the concept of objectives by
devising a process by which objectives cascade down
through the organization.
• The result is a hierarchy of objectives that links
objectives at one level to those at the next level.
• For the individual employee, MBO provides specific
personal performance objectives.
Linking MBO and Goal-Setting Theor
y
 
• Goal Setting Theory Demonstrates that:
• hard goals result in a higher level of individual
performance,
• specific hard goals result in higher levels of performance
than do no goals or generalized goals, and
• feedback on one’s performance leads to higher
performance
• MBO directly advocates specific goals and
feedback.
 Employee Recognition Progra
ms
• What Are Employee Recognition Programs
Programs that use multiple sources and recognizes both individual
and group accomplishments.
• Linking Programs and Reinforcement Theory
Consistent with the reinforcement theory, rewarding a behavior
with recognition immediately following that behavior is likely to
encourage its repetition.
• Employee Recognition Programs in Practice
In contrast to most other motivators, recognizing an employee’s
superior performance often costs little or no money, making them
highly attractive to industry. 
 Employee Involvement Programs 
• A participative process that uses the entire
capacity of employees and is designed to
encourage increased commitment to the
organization’s success.
• Examples of Employee Involvement :
- Participative Management
 Representative Participation
 Work Councils
 Board Representatives
 Quality Circles
 Employee Stock Ownership Plans
Job Redesign and Scheduling Programs
How a job can be redesigned in order to make
them more motivating?
• Job Rotation
The periodic shifting of an employee from one
task to another, usually at the same level when
an activity is no longer challenging.
 Job Rotation
Merits
• Reduces Boredom
• Increases motivation
• Brings diversity
• Enlarge skills
• Gives more flexibility in
 Scheduling work
 Adapting to Change and
 Filling Vacancies
Demerits
• Training costs are increased
• Reduced productivity by
moving an employee to a new
position.
• Creates disruptions.
• Members of a group takes
times to adjust with new
employee
• More time goes in supervision
of new employee
 Job Enlargement
• Increasing the number and variety of task
that an individual performs results in job
with more diversity.
• The horizontal expansion of task
• Efforts at job enlargement met with less
than enthusiastic results.
“Before I had one lousy job. Now, through
enlargement, I have three!!”
 Job Enrichment
• The vertical expansion of jobs, increasing
the degree to which the worker controls the
planning, execution and evaluation of his or
her work.
• It increases the employee’s freedom and
independence, increases responsibility, and
provides feedback to assess and improve
performance.
• More authority in planning and controlling
the work.
 Variable-Pay Programs
• A portion of an employee’s pay is based on some
individual and/or organizational measure of
performance.
 piece-rate pay plans
 profit-sharing plans
 gainsharing plans
• Linking Variable-Pay Plans and Expectancy Theory
 evidence supports the importance of this linkage, especially for
operative employees working under piece-rate systems.
 group and organization wide incentives reinforce and encourage
employees to sublimate personal goals for the best interests of
their department or organization.
 Skill-Based Pay Plans 
• Pay levels based on how many skills employees have or
how many jobs they can do.
• What’s the appeal of skill-based pay?
-Management’s perspective
 flexibility
 facilitates communication
• Is there a Downside?
 People can “top out”
 Employee frustration can increase
 Skills become obsolete
 Paying people for acquired skills not used
 Flexible Benefits 
Allowing employees to tailor their benefit
program to meet their personal needs by
picking and choosing from a menu of
benefit options.
 Motivating Professionals
• How are “Professionals” different?
• Receive a great deal of “intrinsic” satisfaction from their work.
• Strong and long-term commitment to their field of expertise
• Well paid/ Chief reward is work itself.
• Value support
• More focused on work as central life interest.
• How do we motivate professionals?
• Provide challenging projects
• Give them autonomy in follow interests and structure work.
• Reward with educational opportunities.
• Recognize their contributions.
 Motivating Contingent Workers 
• No simple solutions to motivating contingent workers.
 Contingent or temporary workers have little or no job
security/stability, therefore they don’t identify with the
organization or display the commitment of permanent employees.
 Contingent or temporary workers are typically provided with little
or no health care, pensions, or similar benefits.

• Greatest motivating factor is the opportunity to gain

permanent employment.
• Motivation is also increased if the employee sees that the
job he or she is doing for the firm can develop salable
skills.
 Motivating the Diversified Work Force
Not all employees are motivated by money. Flexibility is
the key to maximizing your employees’ motivation by
understanding and responding to the diversity of needs.
• specially designed work schedules
• flexible compensation plans
• flexible benefits plans
• physical work settings
• child care
• elderly care
• flexible work hours
• job sharing
• flexible leave
Motivating the Low-Skilled Service Worker  
One of the most challenging problems in industry
today. Many “plans” have been tried, almost all
unsuccessfully
• flexible work schedules
• broader responsibility for inventory, scheduling, and hiring
• creation of a “family” atmosphere among employees
• Unless pay and benefits rise significantly,
continued high turnover can be expected.
 Motivating People Doing Highly
Repetitive Tasks
Motivating individuals in these jobs can be made through
careful selection:
• People vary in their tolerance for ambiguity.
• Many individuals prefer jobs that have a minimal amount of
discretion and variety.
High pay and careful selection can reduce:
• recruitment problems and high turnover, however, this
• doesn’t necessarily lead to highly motivated workers.
Creative personnel programs have exhibited some success
by providing:
• clean and attractive work surroundings, ample work breaks and
opportunity to socialize during breaks, and empathetic supervisors.
Summary and Implications for Managers  
• Recognize Individual Differences
• Employees have different needs.
• Don’t treat them all alike.
• Spend the time necessary to understand what’s
important to each employee.
• Use Goals and Feedback
• Allow Employees to Participate in Decisions That
Affect Them
• Link Rewards to Performance
• Employees must perceive a clear linkage.
• Check the System for Equity