Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Other Motivational Theories

Herzberg's two-factor theory
Frederick Herzberg offers another framework for understanding the motivational implications of work environments.
In his two-factor theory, Herzberg identifies two sets of factors that impact motivation in the workplace:
• Hygiene factors include salary, job security, working conditions, organizational policies, and technical quality of supervision. Although these factors do not motivate employees, they can cause dissatisfaction if they are missing. Something as simple as adding music to the office place or implementing a no-smoking policy can make people less dissatisfied with these aspects of their work. However, these improvements in hygiene factors do not necessarily increase satisfaction.
• Satisfiers or motivators include such things as responsibility, achievement, growth opportunities, and feelings of recognition, and are the key to job satisfaction and motivation. For example, managers can find out what people really do in their jobs and make improvements, thus increasing job satisfaction and performance.
Following Herzberg's two-factor theory, managers need to ensure that hygiene factors are adequate and then build satisfiers into jobs.
Alderfer's ERG theory
Clayton Alderfer's ERG (Existence, Relatedness, Growth) theory is built upon Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. To begin his theory, Alderfer collapses Maslow's five levels of needs into three categories.
• Existence needs are desires for physiological and material well-being. (In terms of Maslow's model, existence needs include physiological and safety needs)
• Relatedness needs are desires for satisfying interpersonal relationships. (In terms of Maslow's model, relatedness correspondence to social needs)
• Growth needs are desires for continued psychological growth and development. (In terms of Maslow's model, growth needs include esteem and self-realization needs)
This approach proposes that unsatisfied needs motivate behavior, and that as lower level needs are satisfied, they become less important. Higher level needs, though, become more important as they are satisfied, and if these needs are not met, a person may move down the hierarchy, which Alderfer calls the frustration-regression principle. What he means by this term is that an already satisfied lower level need can become reactivated and influence behavior when a higher level need cannot be satisfied. As a result, managers should provide opportunities for workers to capitalize on the importance of higher level needs.
McClelland's acquired needs theory :
David McClelland's acquired needs theory recognizes that everyone prioritizes needs differently. He also believes that individuals are not born with these needs, but that they are actually learned through life experiences. McClelland identifies three specific needs:
• Need for achievement is the drive to excel.
• Need for power is the desire to cause others to behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise.
• Need for affiliation is the desire for friendly, close interpersonal relationships and conflict avoidance.
McClelland associates each need with a distinct set of work preferences, and managers can help tailor the environment to meet these needs.
High achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desires to do things better. These individuals are strongly motivated by job situations with personal responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk. In addition, high achievers often exhibit the following behaviors:
• Seek personal responsibility for finding solutions to problems
• Want rapid feedback on their performances so that they can tell easily whether they are improving or not
• Set moderately challenging goals and perform best when they perceive their probability of success as 50-50
An individual with a high need of power is likely to follow a path of continued promotion over time. Individuals with a high need of power often demonstrate the following behaviors:
• Enjoy being in charge
• Want to influence others
• Prefer to be placed into competitive and status-oriented situations
• Tend to be more concerned with prestige and gaining influence over others than with effective performance
People with the need for affiliation seek companionship, social approval, and satisfying interpersonal relationships. People needing affiliation display the following behaviors:
• Take a special interest in work that provides companionship and social approval
• Strive for friendship
• Prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones
• Desire relationships involving a high degree of mutual understanding
• May not make the best managers because their desire for social approval and friendship may complicate managerial decision making
Interestingly enough, a high need to achieve does not necessarily lead to being a good manager, especially in large organizations. People with high achievement needs are usually interested in how well they do personally and not in influencing others to do well. On the other hand, the best managers are high in their needs for power and low in their needs for affiliation.
Motivation Theories: Behavior
Process theories explain how workers select behavioral actions to meet their needs and determine their choices. The following theories each offer advice and insight on how people actually make choices to work hard or not work hard based on their individual preferences, the available rewards, and the possible work outcomes.
Equity theory
According to the equity theory, based on the work of J. Stacy Adams, workers compare the reward potential to the effort they must expend. Equity exists when workers perceive that rewards equal efforts.


But employees just don't look at their potential rewards, they look at the rewards of others as well. Inequities occur when people feel that their rewards are inferior to the rewards offered to other persons sharing the same workloads.
Employees who feel they are being treated inequitably may exhibit the following behaviors:
• Put less effort into their jobs
• Ask for better treatment and/or rewards
• Find ways to make their work seem better by comparison
• Transfer or quit their jobs
The equity theory makes a good point: People behave according to their perceptions. What a manager thinks is irrelevant to an employee because the real issue is the way an employee perceives his or her situation. Rewards perceived as equitable should have positive results on job satisfaction and performance; those rewards perceived as inequitable may create job dissatisfaction and cause performance problems.
Every manager needs to ensure that any negative consequences from equity comparisons are avoided, or at least minimized, when rewards are allocated. Informed managers anticipate perceived negative inequities when especially visible rewards, such as pay increases or promotions, are allocated. Instead of letting equity concerns get out of hand, these managers carefully communicate the intended values of rewards being given, clarify the performance appraisals upon which these rewards are based, and suggest appropriate comparison points.
Expectancy theory
Victor Vroom introduced one of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation. Very simply, the expectancy theory says that an employee will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when he or she believes that:
1. Effort will lead to a good performance appraisal.
2. A good appraisal will lead to organizational rewards.
3. The organizational rewards will satisfy his or her personal goals.
The key to the expectancy theory is an understanding of an individual's goals and the relationships between effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and finally, between the rewards and individual goal satisfaction. When an employee has a high level of expectancy and the reward is attractive, motivation is usually high.
Therefore, to motivate workers, managers must strengthen workers' perceptions of their efforts as both possible and worthwhile, clarify expectations of performances, tie rewards to performances, and make sure that rewards are desirable.
Reinforcement theory
The reinforcement theory, based on E. L. Thorndike's law of effect, simply looks at the relationship between behavior and its consequences. This theory focuses on modifying an employee's on-the-job behavior through the appropriate use of one of the following four techniques:
• Positive reinforcement rewards desirable behavior. Positive reinforcement, such as a pay raise or promotion, is provided as a reward for positive behavior with the intention of increasing the probability that the desired behavior will be repeated.
• Avoidance is an attempt to show an employee what the consequences of improper behavior will be. If an employee does not engage in improper behavior, he or she will not experience the consequence.
• Extinction is basically ignoring the behavior of a subordinate and not providing either positive or negative reinforcement. Classroom teachers often use this technique when they ignore students who are “acting out” to get attention. This technique should only be used when the supervisor perceives the behavior as temporary, not typical, and not serious.
• Punishment (threats, docking pay, suspension) is an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior recurring by applying negative consequences.
The reinforcement theory has the following implications for management:
• Learning what is acceptable to the organization influences motivated behavior.
• Managers who are trying to motivate their employees should be sure to tell individuals what they are doing wrong and be careful not to reward all individuals at the same time.
• Managers must tell individuals what they can do to receive positive reinforcement.
• Managers must be sure to administer the reinforcement as closely as possible to the occurrence of the behavior.
• Managers must recognize that failure to reward can also modify behavior. Employees who believe that they deserve a reward and do not receive it will often become disenchanted with both their manager and company.
Goal-setting theory
The goal-setting theory, introduced in the late 1960s by Edwin Locke, proposed that intentions to work toward a goal are a major source of work motivation. Goals, in essence, tell employees what needs to be done and how much effort should be expanded. In general, the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance expected.
Managers can set the goals for their employees, or employees and managers can develop goals together. One advantage of employees participating in goal setting is that they may be more likely to work toward a goal they helped develop.
No matter who sets the goal, however, employees do better when they get feedback on their progress. In addition to feedback, four other factors influence the goals-performance relationship:
• The employee must be committed to the goal.
• The employee must believe that he is capable of performing the task.
• Tasks involved in achieving the goal should be simple, familiar, and independent.
• The goal-setting theory is culture bound and is popular in North American cultures.
If the goal-setting theory is followed, managers need to work with their employees in determining goal objectives in order to provide targets for motivation. In addition, the goals that are established should be specific rather than general in nature, and managers must provide feedback on performance.

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