Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
1. The sense of satisfaction you get when you achieve an important goal is an intrinsic
reward.
2. Extrinsic rewards are those that are given to a person by someone else.
3. Since motivation comes from within an individual, there is little that managers can do to
help motivate employees.
4. When unhappy employees leave a company, the firm normally ends up benefiting
financially.
5. Frederick Taylor’s goal was to find ways to improve worker motivation by making work
more interesting and challenging.
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6. A key element of Frederick Taylor’s approach was the time-motion study, which
examined the tasks performed to complete a job and the time needed to complete each
task.
7. Frederick Taylor based his approach on the belief that each worker was an individual who
should be treated as a unique asset to the firm.
8. Scientific management became the dominant strategy for improving productivity during
the early 1900s.
9.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
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Elton Mayo conducted studies know as the Hawthorne Studies and became known as the
father of scientific management.
10. Frederick Taylor believed that employees would be more productive if they were allowed
to decide for themselves which methods at work to use.
11. Three elements were basic to Taylor’s approach: time, methods, and rules of work.
12. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth developed the principle of motion economy, which said that
every job could be broken down into a series of elementary motions.
13.
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Frederick Taylor’s ideas about improving worker productivity attracted a lot of attention
at the time, but had little lasting significance.
14. The concept engagement is used to describe the level of passion and motivation that a
person has about their work.
15. Frederick Taylor encouraged managers to make use of psychological techniques to
improve worker motivation.
Feedback: Taylor was the founder of scientific management, a school of thought that paid
little attention to the human side of work. Scientific management viewed employees almost as
if they were machines that could be programmed to work in the most efficient way.
16.
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Frederick Taylor believed that workers existed to make management’s job easier and
more efficient. He believed that workers were interested in one thing: good pay. If a
business provided good pay, workers would provide the grueling labor necessary to get
the job done.
Feedback: Due to the fact that Taylor believed that good pay was the only thing that
motivated employees, many firms today still operate with Taylor’s rigid rules and
expectations of conformity.
17. Janis works for a local bakery. At one time, she loved the idea of becoming a head pastry
chef, but now she is not sure that this is how she would like to spend her working career.
Her current supervisor does not believe in breaks. And, lately, he stands next to her and
instructs her as to how to roll out the bread dough and ice the cupcakes, as though she
never learned these basic skills in culinary school. Just this morning, he commented
loudly from the other side of the room, “You should be able to ice five cupcakes in a
minute! Time yourself!” Frederick Taylor would have approved of Janis’ supervisor.
Feedback: Frederick Taylor’s research involved time-motion studies, where he believed that if
you studied the motions that workers created in performing tasks, you could learn to improve
each task and increase productivity.
18.
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Mark successfully completed a very challenging assignment given to him by his
supervisor at work. The feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction Mark experiences is
an example of an extrinsic reward.
Feedback: This is an intrinsic reward. An intrinsic reward is the personal satisfaction you feel
when you perform well and complete goals.
19. The Green Velvet Lawn Care Company teaches all of its employees specific methods for
fertilizing and seeding lawns. The methods are designed to ensure adequate lawn coverage
with a minimum of time and effort. All employees are expected to follow these methods
precisely. Green Velvet’s approach to lawn care is consistent with the ideas of scientific
management.
Feedback: Scientific management focused on finding the most efficient way to perform tasks
and teaching these methods to employees.
20.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
Andy is a supervisor at a web design company. Andy has observed that most employees
he supervises are more productive if he lets them have some freedom and flexibility in
how they go about their work. Andy’s experience is consistent with the teachings of
scientific management.
Feedback: Scientific management emphasized that all employees should use the most
efficient methods for performing tasks, as determined by time-motion studies. In this sense,
scientific management viewed employees as if they were machines that could be programmed
to complete a job as efficiently as possible.
21. One of the original objectives of the Hawthorne studies was to determine the degree of
lighting needed in the workplace to enable employees to achieve optimum productivity.
22. The original results of the Hawthorne studies proved that employees were much more
productive when they worked in well-lit areas than when they worked in poorly lit areas.
23. A major conclusion of the Hawthorne studies was that the best way to motivate
employees is with monetary incentives such as pay raises and bonuses.
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48. Jimmy is a talented musician, and has already won a number of awards. Still, he practices
about two hours every day, trying to reach his highest potential. Jimmy is motivated by
self-actualization needs.
Feedback: Self-actualization needs include the need to reach one’s fullest potential.
49. Millie recently accepted a new job with better pay and a high degree of job security. She
is now able to live in a nicer apartment and maintain a fairly comfortable life style.
However, she still feels like an “outsider” at work, and does not yet perceive that her
fellow employees have accepted her into their group. According to Maslow’s theory,
Millie is driven by a desire to satisfy her social needs.
Feedback: Maslow classified the need to feel accepted and part of a group as social needs. He
felt that people who have met their physiological and safety needs, as Millie apparently has
done, would be motivated by the desire to meet social needs.
50.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
Jon earns a decent salary and is on friendly terms with the other employees in his
department. Lately, he is frustrated because they don’t recognize or appreciate some of his
accomplishments. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Jon will have a
desire to satisfy his self-esteem needs before his self-actualization needs.
Feedback: Because Jon earns a decent salary, he should be able to meet physiological and
safety needs, which are basic survival needs and is accepted at work by others in his
department satisfying social needs. However, since he is frustrated by a lack of recognition
and appreciation, he appears to be motivated by the desire to meet his esteem needs, which
reflect the desire to be acknowledged and respected by others.
51. The late famous broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite said that one of his regrets in life
was not actively participating in the space program as an astronaut. Back in the 1980’s, he
was selected as a candidate to be the first journalist to fly into space, but NASA decided to
take a teacher instead. In some ways, this may appear as though Cronkite was pursuing a
self-esteem need; however, having already achieved celebrity status, for Cronkite, his was
the pursuit of a self-actualization need.
Feedback: According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the next level of higher order needs
(after self-esteem needs) is self-actualization needs. According to Maslow, a self-actualization
need involves the need to develop to your fullest potential.
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52. Talk about “shell-shock”! Two nights ago, Adam was living in a tent with thirty other
Marines in the hills of Afghanistan. Today he is waking up to the smell of fresh linen, in a
king-sized bed, in his very own room in DeKalb, Illinois. Three days ago, his first priority
was the welfare of his battle buddies. This morning, his first priority (according to his
family) is not wasting anytime and getting back into College. Although he has always
believed in the importance of school and the respect that comes with achieving a degree,
right now he is not quite in the frame of mind. His first desire is to spend time renewing
old friendships, including organizing a couple of float trips and ball game nights with the
group of friends he left behind. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Adam has a
strong desire to satisfy his self-esteem needs.
Feedback: Adam would satisfy self-esteem needs if he were ready to start the journey of
going back to school and earning a degree that he believes is important for self-recognition
and respect from his peers and family. At this moment, he is driven to satisfy a need that
according to Maslow falls below self-esteem. He desires to satisfy his social needs.
53. Herzberg’s research focused on determining which management style achieved the
highest level of worker motivation.
54. Herzberg’s research examined how conditions related to the job itself affected the
motivation of employees.
55.
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Herzberg’s study showed that pay was the job characteristic that ranked highest as a
motivator.
56. Herzberg found that the factors associated with job content ranked high as employee
motivators.
57. Herzberg found that the sense of achievement employees experienced when they
performed their jobs was an important motivator.
58. Herzberg used the term hygiene factor to refer to an element of job content that was most
important as a source of worker motivation.
59.
Chapter 10 – Motivating Employees
According to Herzberg, when a hygiene factor is not fulfilled, employees will become
dissatisfied.
60. Herzberg’s research found that improvements in the work environment were a more
effective way to motivate employees than improvements in job content.
61. Maslow identified and categorized basic needs that most persons would like to satisfy,
while Herzberg’s research identified motivators and hygiene factors that inspire employees
to fulfill their needs.
62. Herzberg’s research identified the key factors that motivate workers, including company
policies and administration, wage rates, interpersonal relations with co-workers, and
physical environment at work.
