Chapter 7: Creating a Motivating Work Setting

Organizational Behavior 4th Edition Chapter 7:Creating a Motivating Work Setting JENNIFER GEORGE & GERARD JONES

Chapter Objectives • Appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific management approach to job design • Describe the job characteristics model and its implications for using job design to create a motivating work setting • Understand implications of the social information processing model

Chapter Objectives • Appreciate how and why organizational objectives can motivate employees • Describe goal setting theory and the kinds of goals that contribute to a motivating work setting

Opening Case: Motivating Employees at Norsk Hydro • How can organizations create a motivating work setting? • Norway’s biggest industrial company • Known for initiatives to promote job satisfaction and well-being • Holistic approach to job design • Emphasis on work significance

What is Job Design? • The process of linking specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding what techniques, equipment, and procedures should be used to perform those tasks • Job design may increase motivation and encourage good performance

Job Design: Early Approaches • Scientific Management • Job Enlargement • Job Enrichment

Scientific Management • A set of principles and practices stressing job simplification and specialization • There is one best way to perform any job • Management’s responsibility is to determine what that way is • Time and Motion Studies

Disadvantages of the Scientific Management Method • Perception of lost control over work behaviors • Repetitive, boring tasks • Works feels depersonalized, meaningless, and monotonous • Job dissatisfaction is high • No opportunity to develop and acquire new skills

Job Enlargement • Increasing the number of tasks an employee performs but keeping all of the tasks at the same level of difficulty and responsibility • Horizontal job loading • Do more tasks • Equal level of responsibility • Intended to increase intrinsic motivation

Job Enrichment • Designing jobs to provide opportunities for employee growth by giving employees more responsibility and control over their work • Vertical job loading • Based on Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory

Enrichment Methods • Allow employees to plan their own work schedules • Allow employees to decide how the work should be performed • Allow employees to check their own work • Allow employees to learn new skills

The Job Characteristics Model • Skill variety • Task identity • Task significance • Autonomy • Feedback

Job Diagnostic Survey • Scales used to measure the five dimensions • Allows for the computation of a job’s motivating potential score • A measure of the overall potential of a job to foster intrinsic motivation • Average of skill variety, task identity, and task significance multiplied by autonomy and feedback • Identifies the dimensions most in need of redesign

Ways to Redesign Jobs to Increase MPS • Combine tasks so that an employee is responsible for work from start to finish • Group tasks into natural work units • Allow employees to interact with customers or clients • Vertically load jobs to give employees more control and higher levels of responsibility • Open feedback channels

Job Dimensions and Psychological States • Experienced meaningfulness of the work • Experienced responsibility for work outcomes • Knowledge of results

Work and Personal Outcomes • High intrinsic motivation • High job performance • High job satisfaction • Low absenteeism and turnover

Individual Differences • Growth-need strength • Knowledge and skills • Satisfaction with the work context

The Social Information Processing Model • Factors other than the core dimensions influence how employees respond to job design • Social information • Social environment provides employees with information about how they should evaluate their jobs and work outcomes

Meeting Organizational Objectives • Social Identity Theory • Goal Setting • Management by Objectives (MBO)

Social Identity Theory • People tend to classify themselves and others into social categories • Team membership • Religious affiliation

Goal Setting • Explains what types of goals are most effective in producing high levels of motivation and performance • Emphasizes how to motivate employees to contribute inputs to their jobs • Stresses importance of ensuring that employees’ inputs result in acceptable levels of job performance

What is a Goal? • What an individual is trying to accomplish through his or her behavior and actions

Goal Characteristics • Specificity • Difficulty

How Do Goals Affect Motivation? • By directing employees’ attention and action toward goal-relevant activities • By encouraging higher levels of effort • By encouraging the development of action plans • By causing persistence in the face of difficulty

Management By Objectives (MBO) • Goal-setting process • Setting and evaluation of goals with manager on periodic basis • Basic Steps • Goal setting • Implementation • evaluation

Chapter 7: Creating a Motivating Work Setting