Chapter 4

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11/28/12

What is Motivation?
Industrial psychologists generally define work motivation as the internal force that drives a worker to action as well as the external factors that encourage that action (Locke & Latham, 2002). Ability and skill determine whether a worker can do the job, but motivation determines whether the worker will do it properly.

Is an Employee Predisposed to Being Motivated?

Psychologists have postulated that some employees are more predisposed to being motivated than are others. Researchers have found three individual difference traits that are most

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the extent to which a person views himself as valuable and worthy

Kormans Consistency Theory

According to this theory, there is a positive correlation between selfesteem and performance. That is, employees who feel good about themselves are motivated to perform better at work than employees who do not feel that they are valuable and worthy people.

3 Types of Self-Esteem

Chronic self-esteem is a persons overall feeling about himself. Situational self-esteem (also called self-efficacy) is a persons feeling about himself in a particular situation such as operating a machine or talking to other people. Socially influenced self-esteem is how a person feels about himself on the basis of the expectations of

Ways on how to improve self-esteem

Self-Esteem Workshops

To increase self-esteem, employees can attend workshops in which they are given insights into their strengths.

Experience with Success

With the experience-with-success approach, an employee is given a task so easy that he will almost certainly succeed.

Ways on how to improve self-esteem

Supervisor Behavior

Another approach to increasing employee selfesteem is to train supervisors to communicate a feeling of confidence in an employee. The

Ways on how to improve self-esteem

In contrast, the Golem effect occurs when negative expectations of an individual cause a decrease in that individuals actual performance The Pygmalion and Golem effects can be explained by the idea that our expectations of others performance lead us to treat them differently . That is, if we think someone will do a poor job, we will probably treat that

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

When people are intrinsically motivated, they will seek to perform well because they either enjoy performing the actual tasks or enjoy the challenge of successfully completing the task. When they are extrinsically motivated, they dont particularly enjoy the tasks but are motivated to perform well to receive some type of reward or to avoid negative consequences.

Have the Employees Values and Expectations Been Met?

Our work motivation and job satisfaction are determined by the discrepancy between what we want, value, and expect and what the job actually provides.

Job Expectations

A discrepancy between what an employee expects a job to be like and the reality of the job can affect motivation and satisfaction. It is important that applicants be given a realistic job preview (RJP).

Job Characteristics

According to job characteristics theory, employees desire jobs that are meaningful, provide them with the opportunity to be personally responsible for the outcome of their work (autonomy), and provide them with feedback of the results of their efforts. If there is a discrepancy between the extent to which a job provides these three outcomes and an employees need for these

Job Characteristics
According to job characteristics theory, jobs will have motivation potential if they allow employees to use a variety of skills (skill variety) and to connect their efforts to an outcome (task identification) which has meaning, is useful, or is appreciated by coworkers as well as by others in society (task significance)

Needs, Values, and Wants

A discrepancy between an employees needs, values, and wants, and what a job offers can also lead to low levels of motivation and satisfaction. Three theories focus on employees needs and values: Maslows needs hierarchy, ERG theory, and two-factor theory.

Maslows Needs Hierarchy

Maslows Needs Hierarchy

Maslow believed that employees would be motivated by and satisfied with their jobs at any given point in time if certain needs were met. Maslow believed that there are five major types of needs and that these needs are hierarchicalthat is, lowerlevel needs must be satisfied before an individual will be concerned with the next level of needs.

Maslows Needs Hierarchy

Basic Biological Needs. Maslow thought that an individual first seeks to satisfy basic biological needs for food, air, water, and shelter. Safety Needs. After basic biological needs have been met, a job that merely provides food and shelter will no longer be satisfying. Employees then become concerned about meeting their safety needs.

Maslows Needs Hierarchy

Ego Needs. When social needs have been satisfied, employees concentrate next on meeting their ego needs. These are needs for recognition and success, and an organization can help to satisfy them through praise, awards, promotions, salary increases, publicity, and many other ways. Self-actualization might be best

ERG Theory

The three levels are existence, relatedness, and growthhence the name ERG theory Other than the number of levels, the major difference between Maslows theory and ERG theory is that Aldefer suggested that a person can skip levels.

Two-Factor Theory

Herzberg () believed that jobrelated factors could be divided into two categorieshygiene factors and motivatorsthus the name twofactor theory. Hygiene factors are those jobrelated elements that result from but do not involve the job itself. Motivators are job elements that do concern actual tasks and duties