Employees Motivation

1. Employees Motivation UHS 2062 LECTURES at UTM Skudai. Prepared by SitiRokiahSiwok srsiwok@gmail.com

2. Motivation is the force that drives our actions

3. Motivation • IO psychologists generally define work motivation as the internal force that drives a worker to action , as well as the external factors that encourage the actions (Locke & Latham, 2002 in Aamodt, 2007). • Motivation is a force that serves three functions, namely energizes, directs and sustains

4. Motivation and work • Ability and skill determine the employee can do the job. • Motivation determines whether the employee will do the job properly. • Generally psychologist agree that increased employee motivation results in increased job performance. • Motivation cannot be directly observed. • There are many theories of work motivation.

5. Many motivation theories

6. Needs Theories of Motivation • Needs involve specific physiological or psychological deficiencies that the person /organism is driven to satisfy. • Examples : • Food to satisfy hunger (physiological ) • Love to satisfy the need to be loved and to love (psychological )

7. Needs theories of Motivation • Need theories are based on the idea that there are psychological needs, that lie behind human behaviour. • When our needs are unmet we experience tension or disequilibrium which we try to put right; which means we behave in ways that satisfy our needs. • Needs theories of motivation propose that motivation is the process of interaction among various needs and the drives to satisfy those needs.

8. Needs Theories of Motivaton: • Basic Needs Theories • Need hierarchy theory ( Maslow) • ERG Theory ( Alderfer) • Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory

9. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

10. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Physiological needs are the ones required for survival. • Security needs involve keeping oneself free from harm. • Social needs are the desire for love, friendship, and companionship. • Esteem needs are the need for self-esteem and the respect of others. • Self-actualization needs describe the desire to live up to one’s full potential. ****People may be seeking to meet more than one category of needs at a time.

11. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Hierarchical , meaning that the lower-level needs have to be satisfied before one is concerned with the next level (like the staircase). • Each level is taken a step at a time and thus the higher level need cannot be reached until the lower- level need is satisfied • The first two bottom levels are called the “deficiency needs” while the top two are called the “growth needs”.

12. What are the needs of these children?

13. What are the needs of the children?

14. What are the needs of these two people?

15. ….and these?

16. Evaluation of Maslow’s Theory • “Maslow’ theory is popular and stood the test of time, but not very much supported by research. • The biggest “problem” with regards to the levels. …need there be five? Or two or three enough? • What about people who skip levels? • What about overlapping of levels?

17. Five levels is not enough? • More levels

18. ERG Theory • To address the limitation of Maslow’s Theory, , Clayton Alderfer proposed the ERG theory, which like Maslow's theory, describes needs as a hierarchy. • The ERG theory is based on the work of Maslow, so it has much in common with it but also differs in some important aspects. • Overlapping of levels has been addressed by reducing the number of levels to three • The letters ERG stand for three levels of needs: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth.

19. ERG Theory • Existence = basic physiological and safety needs • Relatedness = social needs • Growth = needs to develop one’s potential

20. ERG Theory • Like Maslow’s theory, ERG theory also postulates that the once the lower level of needs have been satisfied, the next higher level becomes a stronger motivator. • In addition, with the presence of various factors at the work place, such as a company’s policy, ERG theory also can explain why a higher-level need sometimes do not become more important once a lower-level need has been satisfied. • Different from Maslow’s , with ERG theory, people can skip levels.

21. Basic Needs Theory: Criticism • Received a great deal of attention from people in various fields, especially psychology. • Both theories did a good job of describing various types of needs, and, differentiating the “lower-form” and the “higher-order” needs, but neither has led to any useful application or strategy for improving work motivation. • Not very useful for prediction ( Riggio, 2009)but Maslow’s theory is useful as guidelines ( Aamodt, 2010) . Example: If we provide recognition, enrichment and a safe working place…it does increase employee motivation

22. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • This theory states that there are three needs central to work motivation: • The needs for achievement • The needs for power • The needs for affiliation

23. Needs for Achievement • The compelling drive to succeed and to get the job done. • Love the challenge of work. • Motivated by the desire to get ahead of the job, to solve problems and to be outstanding in their work performances. • Associated with task-oriented, preferring situations with moderate levels of risk or difficulty, and also desiring feedback on goal attainment.

24. Needs for power • The need to direct and control the activities of others and to be influential. • Status oriented • More motivated to gain influence and prestige than to solve particular problems personally or reach performance goals. • Two types of needs of power: • Personal power used for personal ends. • Institutional power used to achieve organizational objectives.

25. Needs for affiliation • The desire to be likes and accepted by others. • These individuals strive to foster relationships. • Greatly concerned with interpersonal relationships on the job and prefers to work with others on a task. • Motivated by cooperative rather than competitive work situations.

26. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • This theory also highlights that each person has different basic needs. • Everybody has more or less of each, and each individual has a or a number of particular need/s which predominate/s

27. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • Employees who have a strong need for achievement are motivated by jobs that are challenging , and over which they have some control. • Employees who have little achievement needs are more satisfied with jobs that involve minimal challenge; also have a high probability of success.

28. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • Employees who have strong need for affiliation are motivated by jobs in which they can work with and help other people. • Employees who have strong need for power are motivated by jobs in which they can influence others. For this kind of employees, being successful is more meaningful when they can influence other people.

29. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • An application of Mc Clelland’s theory is to match workers’ motivational profiles to the requirements of jobs. • Another application is “achievement training” programme. • This theory is also related to leadership; in which the leader must be aware and responsive to the different needs of the subordinates in order to motivate them.

30. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory : Measurement

31. Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory • Mc Clelland used a variation of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in which respondents are asked to study each of a series of fairly ambiguous pictures for a few moments and then “write the story it suggests” • One of the criticism towards Mc Clelland’s theory is the use of TAT, as the scoring can be unreliable. • However, meta-analyses show that TAT is a reasonably good measurement tool ( Spangler, 1992 in Riggio 2009)

32. Behaviour-based Theories of Motivation

33. Behaviour-based Theories of Motivation • These theories are categorized as “behaviour-based” because the theories focus on behavioural outcomes as crucial in work motivation. • The two theories are reinforcement theory and goal-setting theory

34. Reinforcement Theory • Reinforcement theory is based on the principles of operant conditioning; that is, behaviour is motivated by its consequences. • A consequence that follows a behaviour and serves to increase motivation to repeat the behaviour is called a reinforcer. • Reinforces are of two( 2) types: • Positive reinforcers (rewards) • Negative reinforcers

35. Reinforcment Theory: Positive reinforcers • Positive reinforcers are referred to as rewards. Desirable to the person. • Examples of rewards are praise, money, appreciation etc • Negative reinforcers are events that lead to the avoidance of the unwanted state or condition. • Negative reinforcers increase the motivation to perform the desired behaviour again in as an effort to keep away the unwanted condition • Both positive and negative reinforcers increase motivation to repeat a behaviour.

36. Reinforcement theory: Punishment • Besides reinforcement, this theory uses punishment. • Punishment is the unpleasant consequence that directly follows the performance of a behaviour. • The role of the punishment is to weaken the tendency to perform a behaviour which is considered inappropriate. • Reinforcement theory holds that reinforcement is better than punishment, because punishment only stops the unwanted behaviours whereas reinforcement strengthen and motivates the desired behaviour.

37. Schedules of Reinforcement • Reinforcement in the work place takes place on a partial or occasional reinforcement schedule which can be either the interval or ratio type. • For interval schedules are used, the reinforcement is based on passage of time. • When ratio schedules are used, reinforcement comes after the performance of the desired behaviours.

38. Interval schedule • Fixed-interval schedule • Reinforcement occurs after the passage of a specific amount of time, regardless of performance rate of the job-related behaviours. • Predictable • Variable-interval schedule • Reinforcement occurs after the passage of a non- specific amount of time; depending on the circumstances.

39. Ratio schedule • Fixed-ratio schedule • Reinforcement occurs after the employee performed a number of pre-determined number of specified behaviours. • Example, an employee is paid according to the number of components assembled or reports written. This type of fixed-ratio payment is called “piecework.” • The strength of this schedule is that reinforcement is dependent on the performance of the desired behaviours. • A favored schedule compared to interval schedules.

40. Ratio schedule 2. Variable-ratio schedule • Involves reinforcement that is dependent on the performance of behaviours, but the number of responses required for a particular reinforcement varies. • Example is the salesman on comission • Generates very high level of motivation because : • the reinforcement is dependent on the performance • The “surprise” element ( you never know when the reinforcement is coming). That is one reason why gambling is such an additive behaviour.

41. Ratio schedule verses interval schedule • Different types of schedule lead to different patterns of responding and thus have important implications for the use of reinforcement in motivating employees. • Generally, ratio schedules results in higher motivation levels than fixed intervals. • A point to ponder: majority of civil servants are paid on fixed-interval reinforcement schedules.

42. Reinforcement: Organizational Behaviour Modification • Reinforcement principles are used informally on a day-to-day basis to motivate workers through the compensation systems and other forms of rewards for work outcomes ( Riggio, 2009, page 191) • When reinforcement theory is applied formally as a program to increase employee motivation , it takes in the form of organizational behaviour modification (OBM) • In OBM, target behaviours are specified, measured and rewarded.

43. Reinforcement: Organizational Behaviour Modification • OBM have been used to motivate workers to be productive a bring about higher-quality work and to cut down absenteeism, tardiness ad work accidents. • In a study by Markham, Scott and Mc Kee, 2002 in Riggio 2009), by simply recognising employees work attendance, absenteeism was reduced. • In a study ( Austin, Kessler, Riccobona and Bailey, 1996 in Riggio 2009) of roofing crews, roofers were offered monetary incentives for reducing the hours to complete a roofing job • Also the roofers could earn time off if they maintained high safety standards using a safety checklist.

44. Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation • Which one is better to implement at the work place? • Why?

45. Incentives at the Work place: Considerations • Timing of incentives • Contingency of the consequences • Type of incentives used • Use of individual-based versus group based incentives • Use of rewards versus punishment • Fairness of the reward system. (Aamodt, 2010)

46. Goal-setting theory • Emphasis on the role of specific, challenging performance goals. • Employees’ commitment to the goals are key determinants to motivation. • Goal setting theory have been used in settings outside work such as weight loss, study and exercise. • Goals must clear, specific, attainable and if possible quantified.

47. Goal setting theory • In goal setting programmes, large and challenging tasks are broken down into series of smaller more attainable goals. • Example? • Difficult or challenging goals may also produce greater levels of motivation, if the goals are accepted by the employees. (Example: if employees participate in goal setting, compared to goals set by supervisors.)

48. Goal setting theory • The key element in goal setting theory is the commitment of the employee. Without the commitment, the goals will not be motivating. • Strategies to influence employees commitment: • Extrinsic rewards • Peer pressure via individual or groups • Intrinsic motivation by the use of feedback • Negative reinforcement may be used too.

49. Goal setting theory • Creates a great deal of research. • Possible reasons for the effectiveness of goal-setting as a motivational technique: • The setting of specific challenging goals stimulate high quality planning from the employees. This quality planning contributes to better performance in achieving goals. • The use of feedback enhance performance

50. Goal setting theory • Specific • Measureable • Attainable • Relevant • Time bound SMART ( Rubin, 2002 in Aamodt 2010) ? What are your definitions of SMART?