103. According to reinforcement theory, individuals act to receive rewards and to avoid
punishment.
104. In reinforcement theory, reprimands and reductions in pay are examples of negative
reinforcements.
105. The basic principle of equity theory is that employees try to maintain fairness between
their efforts and their compensation compared to others in similar positions.
106. Equity theory tells us that when employees perceive inequitable treatment they will
respond in a manner that will attempt to reestablish fairness.
107. According to equity theory, if employees perceive that their level of effort is greater than
their compensation, they will work to increase their productivity.
108. Equity theory suggests that if employees perceive inequity in the workplace, they might
respond with reduced productivity, higher absenteeism, or even voluntary resignation.
109. Equity judgments are precise, objective measurements of the fairness between an
employee’s effort and their compensation.
110. The best strategy to deal with a perceived inequity in the compensation of different
employees is to require that salaries and other forms of compensation are kept secret.
111. For management by objectives to be successful, employees must be willing to accept the
objectives set by top management without question and without hesitation.
112. A major problem with the MBO approach is that it provides no way for employees to
provide input into the goal-setting process.
113. According to expectancy theory, worker motivation almost always increases when
employees are assigned a very challenging task.
114. U.S. workers value being treated fairly. According to equity theory, if things seem unfair,
they will do their best to make them equitable by withholding effort, increasing effort, or by
rationalizing that they are undeserving of the same as others.
115. In reinforcement theory,
extinction
refers to a strategy of responding to undesirable
behavior with negative reinforcements, such as verbally reprimanding an employee in front of his
peers.
116. Elias is disappointed with the work effort of the employees in his department. According
to expectancy theory, Elias could improve employee performance by setting more ambitious
performance standards that exceed the ability of most employees to attain them.
117. Cedric works for a landscaping business. His employer has asked Cedric if he would be
willing to work overtime this weekend to finish a job for an important client. According to
expectancy theory, Cedric will want to compare the compensation or other rewards offered by his
employer to the extra effort involved before he decides whether to agree to the job.
118. Ruth Eday is sorry she ever hired Helen Highwater since Helen’s work is sloppy and often
late. Moreover, she doesn’t get along well with most of the other employees and frequently
initiates arguments. According to reinforcement theory, the only effective way for Ruth to deal
with Helen’s behavior is to wait for Helen to do something good, and then praise and reward her
for the result.
119. You get a lower grade in a course than your friend did even though you studied more
during the semester and attended class more often. As a result, equity theory predicts that you
might convince yourself that “Grades aren’t all that important. After all, lots of people who
succeed in the real world didn’t make good grades in school.”
120. Jill operates her own small business and is a strong advocate of equity theory. Because of
her acceptance of this theory, Jill is likely to try to assure employees that they are compensated
in a way that reflects their efforts and contributions relative to those of other employees.
121. As a human resources manager for your company, you are looking for ways to motivate
employees to favor your company over competitors. The company cannot afford to offer a wide
array of benefits, but you are confident that if you survey employees and provide them the
opportunity to vote on the benefits that are most important to them, they will see this as a fair
and equitable way to operate.
123. You are a graduate student in the biology department at Fair University. You have several
graduate student friends who have graduate appointments in the business department and the
English department. While everyone’s compensation and employee benefits are exactly the same,
your department requires you to always show up and tutor students at least four hours each day
and to serve on one university committee each semester. Graduate students at the other
departments are not required by their management to follow these rules. Lately, you are doing
your best to limit your daily obligation to 2 to 3 hours each day. Relating your situation to one of
the theories we have studied, your goal of limiting inputs is explained by expectancy theory.
124. As the marketing director for Chipper’s Golf Resort, you are making plans for the annual
golf tournament, and trying to decide on the amount for the top three prizes. In past years, you
successfully raised $25,000 through registration fees and sponsorship. You know that you could
easily attract some great local talent if you made the top prize $10,000, but can you afford to
announce a $10,000 top prize at the expense of losing out on a portion of the registration fees of
lesser players who decide not to participate? Using expectancy theory rationale that you learned
in business class, you explain to the general manager that if you set the prize too high, several
better than average golfers in the area will find their chances to be “out of their league” when the
top players join in and will be unmotivated to participate and spend their money. Your analysis of
the situation is reasonable to the general manager.
125. As the marketing manager for Chipper’s Golf Resort, you hired three interns from the
local university to go out and sell your annual golf event. You provided each of the interns with
their own list of past sponsors, participants, and prize contributors. You asked each to create a
marketing plan to secure five new sponsors in the next four weeks, and promised them a bonus
at the end of the fourth week if they could verify that they followed their own plan, contacted
everyone on their list and also developed new sponsors. During the fourth week, you randomly
contact a few sponsors on each of the three lists and quickly learn that one of the interns has
slacked off on the job. As a motivational technique, you prefer to provide
positive reinforcement
,
so when you meet with the interns, you withhold the bonus from the one that did not do the job
and inform him that his internship grade will reflect the fact that he was not motivated to get the
job done.
126. Based on Herzberg’s theory of motivators,
job enrichment
will motivate employees to
satisfy higher-order needs.
127.
Job enrichment
is based on Herzberg’s higher motivators, such as responsibility,
achievement, and recognition.
128.
Job enlargement
is about breaking down a sizeable job into smaller parts so that the
employee is not overwhelmed by a large task.
129. Skill variety is one of the characteristics of work that lead to improved motivation and
performance.
130. Using
job enrichment
strategy, management can contribute to improved motivation and
worker performance primarily by increasing employee pay.
131. Feedback enhances worker motivation by giving employees a feeling of achievement and
recognition.
132. Task identity refers to the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or
work of others in the company.
133. Job simplification attempts to increase task efficiency by breaking the job into simple
steps and assigning people to perform each of those steps.
134. Job simplification is an effective strategy for managers who want to achieve job
enrichment.
135. Job enlargement is the strategy of assigning employees to different jobs within the
organization on a regular basis.
136. Job enlargement attempts to enrich jobs by combining a series of tasks into one
challenging and interesting assignment, as opposed to simplifying the job.
137. Job rotation attempts to make a job more interesting and motivating by moving employees
from one job to another.
138. As part of their open communication strategy, management should reward upward
communication, even if it is negative.
139. Open communication is a verbal strategy. It does not involve listening.
140. Open communication strategies include the removal of physical barriers such as separate
offices.
141. As a motivational technique, open communication is enhanced when management
provides several opportunities for employees to congregate and share ideas.
142. Special parking areas, dining rooms, and restrooms set aside for executives are barriers to
open two-way communication within an organization.
143. By the time they graduate from high school, most people have received ample training to
develop good listening skills.
144. To implement self-managed teams, managers at most companies must reinvent work.
145. The first step in any motivational program is to establish open communication among
employees in order to encourage teamwork and cooperation.
146. Teamwork tends to occur naturally within business organizations regardless of the plans
or actions of managers.
147. In order to encourage teamwork among managers and employees, top management must
create an organizational culture that allows autonomy, decentralizes authority, and rewards good
work.
148. As a motivational technique, letting employees know they’ve done a good job is not as
powerful as providing them with a bonus.
149. Progressive managers are rewarding good work in all kinds of ways including family trips,
informal events at work, and just letting everyone know when someone does a good job.
150. When asked why they change jobs, nearly 80% of those surveyed said they felt a lack of
appreciation.