WORKPLACE MOTIVATION

 Importance and Features of Motivation

PERFORMANCE = Motivation X Ability X Environment
Motivation: the desire to achieve a goal or a certain performance level,
leading to a goal-directed behavior.
Ability: having the skills and knowledge required to perform the job; key
determinant of effectiveness.
Environmental factors: having the resources, information, and support one
needs to perform well.

Motivation – an internal force that impacts the direction, intensity, and

endurance of a person’s voluntary choice of behavior. It consists of:
 Direction - focused by goals
 Intensity – bulk of effort allocated
 Persistence – amount of time taken for the effort to be exerted
Features of Motivation
 Needs – the requirements or deficiency which is created whenever
there is physiological imbalance.
 Drives – the various camps or events organized to motivate the
employees and give them new opportunities.
 Incentives – the rewards/returns for a nice work in order to keep one
encouraged.
Importance of Motivation
 Highly motivated employees are more quality conscious and productive
compared to others
 It helps in achieving three behavior dimensions of human resource
namely
o Candidates must be attracted not only to join but also remain in
the firm.
o Employees must perform task in a dependable manner.
o Employees should be creative, spontaneous and innovative at
work.
 Theories relating to Motivation
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory/ Maslow’s needs hierarchy
theory (Abraham Maslow – psychologist - 1940)
- a motivation theory of needs arranged in a hierarchy,
whereby people are motivated to fulfill a higher need as a
lower one becomes gratified.
- most widely known theory of human motivation.
- along with the 5 categories, Maslow identified the desire
to know and the desire for aesthetic beauty as two innate
drives that do not fit within the hierarchy.
- human beings are motivated by several primary
needs(drives) but the strongest source of motivation is the
lowest unsatisfied.
- Maslow is considered a pioneer in positive organizational
behavior.
Psychological Needs – basic requirements to sustain; food, clothing,
shelter; relatively independent of each other but are finite.
 Safety Needs – protection from physiological danger, economic
security. In an organization - job security, salary increment. Offering
pension scheme, provident fund and gratuity.
Social Needs – common requirement every human desires. It helps
managers to think about encouraging their employees by identifying
employee needs. Presents motivation as constantly changing force,
expressing itself to the constant need for fulfillment of new and higher
level of needs.
Esteem – the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by
others.
Self-Actualization – realizing one’s full potential; a desire to complete
everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.
2. Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor – social
psychologist)

Theory X
- the assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike
responsibility, and must be coerced to perform.
- believes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike
working, and this encourages an authoritarian style of
management.
- management must firmly intervene to get things done.
- X-type workers are mostly in minority.
Theory Y

- The assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek

responsibility, and can exercise self-direction.
- Explains a participative style of management- distributive in
nature.
- Employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative,
and enjoy working with greater responsibility.
- People at lower levels are engaged in decision making and have
more responsibility.
Theory X vs. Theory Y
 Work Organization
Theory X: employees are specialized, and the same work cycle
continues.
Theory Y: the work tends to be coordinated around wider areas
or skill or knowledge. Employees are also motivated to develop
expertise and make suggestions and improvements.
 Rewards and Appraisals
Theory X: work on ‘carrot and stick’ basis, and performance
assessment is part of the overall mechanism of control and
compensation.
Theory Y: appraisal is also regular and crucial but is usually a
separate mechanism from organizational controls. Provide
employee frequent opportunities for promotion.
 Application
 Theory X: widely accepted as inferior to others, it has its place in
large scale production procedure and unskilled production-line
work.
Theory Y: widely accepted by different types of organization that
value and motivate active participation. Appropriate for
knowledge work and licensed services.
3. ERG Theory (Clayton Alderfer)
- Modification of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
- Main contribution to literature – relaxation of Maslow’s
Assumptions
- Does not need in any particular order rank needs.
- Has a ‘frustration-regression’ hypothesis – suggesting that
individuals who are frustrated in their attempts to satisfy one
need may regress to another.
3 Categories
1) Existence
 Corresponds to Maslow’s physiological and safety
needs
2) Relatedness
 Corresponds to social needs
3) Growth
 Corresponds to esteem and self-actualization
4. Two-Factor Theory (Frederick Herzberg)
Hygiene Factors:
- factors causing dissatisfaction of workers; are part of the
context in which the job was performed as opposed to the job
itself.
- company policies, supervision, working conditions, salary, safety,
and security on the job.
Motivators:

- factors that are intrinsic to the job

- achievement, recognition, interesting work, increased
responsibilities, advancement, and growth opportunities.
- the conditions that truly encourages employees to try harder.
5. Acquire-Needs Theory (Dave McClelland)
- one that has received the greatest amount of support.
- Individuals acquire three types of needs as a result of their life
experiences- need for achievement, need for affiliation and need
for power.
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): unique method to assess
the dominant need; entails presenting research subjects an
ambiguous picture asking them to write a story based on it.
- Those who have high need for achievement have a strong need
to be successful.
- Individuals who have a high need for affiliation want to be liked
and accepted by others
- Those with a high need for power want to influence others and
control their environment.
FOUNDATIONS OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION (ref. book)
 Employee Engagement- individual emotional and cognitive motivation,
particularly a focused, intense, persistent, and purposive effort toward work-
related goals.
High level of absorption in the work - the experience of focusing intensely on
the task with limited awareness of events beyond that work.
Self-efficacy - the belief that you have the ability, role clarity, and resources
to get the job done.
 Employee Drives and Needs
Drives (primary needs)
- hardwired characteristics of the brain that attempt to keep us in
balance by correcting deficiencies.
- Produce emotions that energize us to act on our environment.
E.g., drive for social interaction, for competence, to comprehend
our surroundings, and to defend ourselves against physiological
and psychological harm.
- Innate and universal; starting point of motivation
- Both emotion and motivation originate from the latin word
movere, which means ‘to move’.
- Needs – goal-directed forces that people experience.
Individual Differences in Needs
Individual Differences – including self-concept, social norms, and past
experience- influence the motivation process in a second way.
 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation
- the motivation controlled by the individual and experienced from
the activity itself.
- occurs when people seek need fulfillment from doing the activity
itself, not as a means to some other outcome.
Extrinsic Motivation

-
occurs when people are motivated to receive something that is
beyond their personal control for instrumental reasons.
- they direct their effort toward a reward controlled by others that
indirectly fulfills a need.
- performance bonuses, recognition awards, and frequent
reminders
- also occurs when employees create their own internal pressure
to act in association with external factors.
- even occurs when employees internalize the value of the
external control source.
 Does Extrinsic Motivation Undermine Intrinsic Motivation?