Chapter 7
Motivation Concepts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
7-1. Describe the three key elements of motivation.
7-2. Compare the early theories of motivation.
7-3. Contrast the elements of self-determination theory and goal-setting theory.
7-4. Demonstrate the differences among self-efficacy theory, reinforcement theory, equity
theory, and expectancy theory.
7-5. Identify the implications of employee job engagement for managers.
7-6. Describe how the contemporary theories of motivation complement one another.
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Instructors may wish to use the following resources when presenting this chapter.
Text Exercises
Career OBjectives: Why Won’t He Take My Advice
Myth or Science?: “Helping Others and Being a Good Citizen is Good for Your Career”
An Ethical Choice: Motivated by Big Brother
Personal Inventory Assessments: Work Motivation Indicator
Point/Counterpoint: Goals Get You to Where You Want to Be
Questions for Review
Experiential Exercise: Organizational Justice Task
Ethical Dilemma: The New GPA
Text Cases
Case Incident 1: The Demotivation of CEO Pay
Case Incident 2: The Sleepiness Epidemic
Instructor’s Choice
This section presents an exercise that is NOT found in the student’s textbook. Instructor’s Choice
reinforces the text’s emphasis through various activities. Some Instructor’s Choice activities are
centered on debates, group exercises, Internet research, and student experiences. Some can be
used in class in their entirety, while others require some additional work on the student’s part.
The course instructor may choose to use these at any time throughout the class—some may be
more effective as icebreakers, while some may be used to pull together various concepts covered
in the chapter.
Web Exercises
At the end of each chapter of this Instructor’s Manual, you will find suggested exercises and
ideas for researching OB topics on the Internet. The exercises “Exploring OB Topics on the
Web” are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to your class, and
make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as an out-of-class activity
or as lab activities with your class.
Summary and Implications for Managers
The motivation theories in this chapter differ in their predictive strength. Maslow’s hierarchy,
McClelland’s needs, and the two-factor theory focus on needs. Self-determination theory and
cognitive evaluation theory have merits to consider. Goal-setting theory can be helpful but does
not cover absenteeism, turnover, or job satisfaction.
Reinforcement theory can be helpful, but not regarding employee satisfaction or the decision to
quit. Equity theory’s strongest legacy is that it provided the spark for research on organizational
justice, which has more support in the literature. Expectancy theory can be helpful, but assumes
employees have few constraints on decision making, such as bias or incomplete information, and
this limits its applicability. Job engagement goes a long way toward explaining employee
commitment. Specific implications for managers are below:
Make sure extrinsic rewards for employees are not viewed as coercive, but instead
provide information about competence and relatedness.
Consider goal-setting theory: clear and difficult goals often lead to higher levels of
employee productivity.
Consider reinforcement theory regarding quality and quantity of work, persistence of
effort, absenteeism, tardiness, and accident rates.
Consult equity theory to help understand productivity, satisfaction, absence, and turnover
variables.
Expectancy theory offers a powerful explanation of performance variables such as
employee productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.
This chapter begins with a discussion about corporate social responsibility. As we read in the opening story,
employees don’t always volunteer just because it’s a good thing to do; they have to be motivated. A significant part
of their motivation comes from an internal desire to contribute, but organizations can also play an important role by
encouraging and enabling them. Motivating employees—to volunteer and to work—is one of the most important and
challenging aspects of management. As we will see, there is no shortage of advice about how to do it.
Motivation is one of the most frequently researched topics in organizational behavior (OB). In one survey, 69
percent of workers reported wasting time at work every day, and nearly a quarter said they waste between 30 and
60 minutes each day. How? Usually by surfing the Internet (checking the news and visiting social network sites) and
chatting with coworkers. So, though times change, the problem of motivating a workforce stays the same. In this
chapter, we’ll review the basics of motivation, assess motivation theories, and provide an integrative model that fits
theories together. But first, take a look at the potential that a little motivation to ask for a raise can yield, shown in
the OB Poll.
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Defining Motivation
A. What Is Motivation?
1. The level of motivation varies both between individuals and within individuals at
different times.
2. Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and
persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
3. We will narrow the focus to organizational goals in order to reflect our singular
interest in work-related behavior.
4. The three key elements of our definition are intensity, direction, and persistence.
II. Early Theories of Motivation
A. Introduction
1. In the 1950s, three specific theories were formulated and are the best known.
2. These early theories are important to understand because they represent a foundation
from which contemporary theories have grown.
B. Hierarchy of Needs Theory
1. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the most well-known theory of motivation.
He hypothesized that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs.
(Exhibit 7-1)
a. Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily needs.
b. Safety: Includes security and protection from physical and emotional harm.
c. Social: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.
d. Esteem: Includes internal factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and
achievement; and external factors such as status, recognition, and attention.
e. Self-actualization: The drive to become what one is capable of becoming;
includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment.
2. As a need becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant. No need
is ever fully gratified; a substantially satisfied need no longer motivates.
3. Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders.
4. Maslow’s need theory has received wide recognition, particularly among managers.
a. Research does not generally validate the theory.
C. Two-Factor Theory
1. The two-factor theory is sometimes also called motivation-hygiene theory.
2. Proposed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg when he investigated the question,
“What do people want from their jobs?” He asked people to describe, in detail,
situations in which they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs. (Exhibit 7-2)
These responses were then tabulated and categorized.
3. From the categorized responses, Herzberg concluded:
a. Intrinsic factors, such as advancement, recognition, responsibility, and
achievement, seem to be related to job satisfaction.
b. Dissatisfied respondents tended to cite extrinsic factors, such as supervision, pay,
company policies, and working conditions.
c. The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction.
d. Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the
job satisfying.
e. Job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from job dissatisfaction factors.
Managers who eliminate job dissatisfaction factors may not necessarily bring
about motivation. (Exhibit 7-3)
f. When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; neither will
they be satisfied. To motivate people, emphasize factors intrinsically rewarding
that are associated with the work itself or to outcomes directly derived from it.
4. Criticisms of the theory:
a. The procedure that Herzberg used is limited by its methodology.
b. The reliability of Herzberg’s methodology is questioned.
c. No overall measure of satisfaction was utilized.
D. McClelland’s Theory of Needs
1. McClelland’s theory of needs focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and
affiliation.
a. Need for achievement (nAch): the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of
standards.
i. High achievers perform best when they perceive their probability of success
as 50/50.
ii. They like to set goals that require stretching themselves a little.
iii. The view that a high achievement need acts as an internal motivator
presupposes two U.S. cultural characteristics—willingness to accept moderate
risk and concern with performance.
b. Need for power: the need to make others behave in a way that they would not
have behaved otherwise.
i. The need for power (nPow) is the desire to have impact, to be influential, and
to control others.
c. Need for affiliation (nAfl): the desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships.
2. Among the early theories of motivation, McClelland’s has had the best research
support.
a. Unfortunately, it has less practical effect than the others.
III. Contemporary Theories of Motivation
A. Introduction
1. In contrast, contemporary theories have one thing in common: each has a reasonable
degree of valid supporting documentation.
B. Self-Determination Theory
1. Self-determination theory proposes that people prefer to feel they have control over
their actions, so anything that makes a previously enjoyed task feel more like an
obligation than a freely chosen activity will undermine motivation.
2. Much research on self-determination theory in OB has focused on cognitive
evaluation theory, which hypothesizes that extrinsic rewards will reduce intrinsic
interest in a task.
3. Self-determination theory also proposes that in addition to being driven by a need for
autonomy, people seek ways to achieve competence and positive connections to
others.
4. What does self-determination theory suggest for providing rewards?
a. If a computer programmer values writing code because she likes to solve
problems, a reward for working to an externally imposed standard she does not
accept, such as writing a certain number of lines of code every day, could feel
coercive, and her intrinsic motivation would suffer.
b. A recent outgrowth of self-determination theory is self-concordance, which
considers how strongly peoples’ reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with
their interests and core values.
5. Implications
a. For individuals, it means choose your job for reasons other than extrinsic rewards.
b. For organizations, it means managers should provide intrinsic as well as extrinsic
incentives.
C. Goal-Setting Theory
1. Goal-setting theory: in the late 1960s, Edwin Locke proposed that intentions to work
toward a goal are a major source of work motivation.
2. Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how much effort is needed.
3. Evidence strongly suggests that specific goals increase performance, that difficult
goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals, and that
feedback leads to higher performance than does non-feedback.
4. Specific hard goals produce a higher level of output than do the generalized goals.
5. If factors like ability and acceptance of the goals are held constant, we can also state
that the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance.
6. There are contingencies in goal-setting theory. In addition to feedback, three other
factors influence the goals-performance relationship: goal commitment, task
characteristics, and national culture.
a. Goal-setting theory presupposes that an individual is committed to the goal.
i. Believes he or she can achieve the goal and wants to achieve it.
b. Goals themselves seem to affect performance more strongly when tasks are
simple rather than complex, well learned rather than novel, and independent
rather than interdependent.
c. On interdependent tasks, group goals are preferable.
d. Goal-setting theory is culture bound.
i. In collectivistic and high-power distance cultures, achievable moderate goals
can be more motivating than difficult ones.
7. When learning something is important, goals related to performance undermine
adaptation and creativity because people become too focused on outcomes and ignore
changing conditions.
8. Goals can lead employees to be too focused on a single standard to the exclusion of
all others.
9. Despite differences of opinion, most researchers do agree that goals are powerful in
shaping behavior.
10. Research has also found that people differ in the way they regulate their thoughts and
behaviors during goal pursuit.
11. Generally, people fall into one of two categories, though they could belong to both.
a. Those with a promotion focus strive for advancement and accomplishment and
approach conditions that move them closer toward desired goals.
b. Those with a prevention focus strive to fulfill duties and obligations and avoid
conditions that pull them away from desired goals.
12. Which is the better strategy? Ideally, it’s probably best to be both promotion and
prevention oriented.
13. Implementing goal-setting.
a. How do you make goal-setting operational in practice?
i. Management by Objectives (MBO)
(a) Participatively set goals that are tangible, verifiable, and measurable.
ii. Organizations’ overall objectives are translated into specific objectives for
each succeeding level. (Exhibit 7-4)
b. Four ingredients common to MBO programs:
i. Goal specificity.
ii. Participation in decision making.
iii. Explicit time period.
iv. Performance feedback.
14. Goal Setting and Ethics.
a. The relationship between goal-setting and ethics is quite complex: if we
emphasize the attainment of goals, what is the cost?
b. We may forgo mastering tasks and adopt avoidance techniques so we don’t look
bad, both of which can incline us toward unethical choices.
IV. Other Contemporary Theories of Motivation
A. Self-Efficacy Theory
1. Self-efficacy theory, also known as social cognitive theory or social learning theory,
refers to an individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task.
a. The higher your self-efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to
succeed in a task.
b. Self-efficacy can create a positive spiral in which those with high efficacy become
more engaged in their tasks and then, in turn, increase performance, which
increases efficacy further.
2. Goal setting theory and self-efficacy theory don’t compete with one another; they
complement each other. (Exhibit 7-5)
3. Albert Bandura, developer of self-efficacy theory:
a. Enactive mastery—gaining relevant experience with the task or job.
b. Vicarious modeling—becoming more confident because you see someone else
doing the task.
c. Verbal persuasion—more confident because someone convinces you that you
have the skills.
d. Arousal—leads to an energized state driving a person to complete the task.
i. The best way for a manager to use verbal persuasion is through the Pygmalion
effect or the Galatea effect.
4. Influencing self-efficacy in others.
a. Training programs often make use of enactive mastery by having people practice
and build their skills.
B. Reinforcement Theory
1. Goal-setting is a cognitive approach, proposing that an individual’s purposes direct
his action.
2. Reinforcement theory, in contrast, takes a behavioristic view, arguing that
reinforcement conditions behavior.
a. Reinforcement theory ignores the inner state of the individual and concentrates
solely on what happens when he or she takes some action.
3. Operant conditioning theory argues that people learn to behave to get something they
want or to avoid something they don’t want.
a. Unlike reflexive or unlearned behavior, operant behavior is influenced by the
reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by its consequences.
b. Reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood it will be
repeated.
c. B. F. Skinner, one of the most prominent advocates of operant conditioning,
argued that creating pleasing consequences to follow specific forms of behavior
would increase the frequency of that behavior.
d. The concept of operant conditioning was part of Skinner’s broader concept of
behaviorism, which argues that behavior follows stimuli in a relatively
unthinking manner.
e. Of course, the linkage can also teach individuals to engage in behaviors that work
against the best interests of the organization.
4. Social Learning Theory and Involvement
a. The view that we can learn through both observation and direct experience is
called social-learning theory.
i. Models are central to the social-learning viewpoint. Four processes determine
their influence on an individual:
(a) Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they
recognize and pay attention to its critical features.
(b) Retention processes. A model’s influence depends on how well the
individual remembers the model’s action after the model is no longer
readily available.
(c) Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior
by observing the model, watching must be converted to doing.
(d) Reinforcement processes. Individuals are motivated to exhibit the
modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided.
C. Equity Theory/Organizational Justice
1. What role does equity play in motivation?
2. Equity theory: Individuals make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes
relative to those of others and then respond to eliminate any inequities. (Exhibit 7-6)
a. If we perceive our ratio to be equal to that of the relevant others with whom we
compare ourselves, a state of equity is said to exist. We perceive our situation as
fair.
b. When we see the ratio as unequal, we experience equity tension.
D. Employees who perceive inequity will make one of six choices:
a. Change their inputs.
b. Change their outcomes.
c. Distort perceptions of self.
d. Distort perceptions of others.
e. Choose a different referent.
f. Leave the field.
2. Some of these propositions have been supported, but others haven’t.
a. First, inequities created by overpayment do not seem to significantly affect
behavior in most work situations.
b. Second, not all people are equity sensitive.
3. Organizational justice (fairness in the workplace) draws a bigger picture.
a. For the most part, employees evaluate how fairly they are treated along four
dimensions. (Exhibit 7-7)
4. Distributive justice is concerned with the fairness of the outcomes, such as pay and
recognition that employees receive.
5. Although employees care a lot about what outcomes are distributed (distributive
justice), they also care a lot about how outcomes are distributed.
6. Procedural Justice
a. While distributive justice looks at what outcomes are allocated, procedural
justice examines how outcomes are allocated.
i. Having direct influence over how decisions or made, or at the very least being
able to present your opinion to decision makers, creates a sense of control and
makes us feel empowered.
ii. Employees also perceive that procedures are fairer when decision makers
follow several “rules.”
b. It turns out that procedural and distributive justice combine to influence people’s
perceptions of fairness.
i. If outcomes are favorable and individuals get what they want, they care less
about the process, so procedural justice doesn’t matter as much when
distributions are perceived to be fair.
7. Informational Justice
a. Research has shown that employees care about two other types of fairness that
have to do with the way they are treated during interactions with others.
i. The first type is informational justice, which reflects whether managers
provide employees with explanations for key decisions and keep them
informed of important organizational matters.
8. Interpersonal Justice
a. The second type of justice relevant to interactions between managers and
employees is interpersonal justice, which reflects whether employees are treated
with dignity and respect.
9. Justice Outcomes
10. How much does justice really matter to employees?
a. A great deal, as it turns out. When employees feel fairly treated, they respond in a
number of positive ways.
b. All four types of justice discussed in this section have been linked to higher levels
of task performance and citizenship behaviors such as helping coworkers, as well
as lower levels of counterproductive behaviors such as shirking job duties.
i. Distributive and procedural justices are more strongly associated with task
performance, while informational and interpersonal justices are more strongly
associated with citizenship behavior.
c. Despite all attempts to enhance fairness, perceived injustices are still likely to
occur.
i. Fairness is often subjective; what one person sees as unfair, another may see
as perfectly appropriate.
11. Ensuring Justice
a. It might be tempting for organizations to adopt strong justice guidelines in
attempts to mandate managerial behavior, but this isn’t likely to be universally
effective.
b. In cases where managers have more rules and less discretion, those who calculate
justice are more likely to act fairly, but managers whose justice behavior follows
from their affect may act more fairly when they have greater discretion.
12. Culture and Justice
a. In terms of cultural differences, research shows individuals in both individualistic
and collectivistic cultures prefer an equitable distribution of rewards over an equal
division (everyone gets paid the same regardless of performance).
i. International managers must consider the cultural preferences of each group of
employees when determining what is “fair” in different contexts.
V. Expectancy Theory
1. Expectancy theory is one of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation.
Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory has its critics but most of the research is
supportive.
2. Expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way
depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given
outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.
3. It says that an employee will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when he/she
believes that:
a. Effort will lead to a good performance appraisal.
b. That a good appraisal will lead to organizational rewards.
c. That the rewards will satisfy his/her personal goals.
d. Three key relationships: (Exhibit 7-8)
i. Effort-performance relationship: the probability perceived by the individual
that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance.
ii. Performance-reward relationship: the degree to which the individual
believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a
desired outcome.
iii. Rewards-personal goals relationship: the degree to which organizational
rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness
of those potential rewards for the individual.
VI. Job Engagement
A. Job engagement: the investment of an employee’s physical, cognitive, and emotional
energies into job performance.
B. Many studies attempt to measure this deeper level of commitment.
C. What makes people more likely to be engaged in their jobs?
1. One key is the degree to which an employee believes it is meaningful to engage in
work.
2. Another factor is a match between the individual’s values and those of the
organization.
3. Leadership behaviors that inspire workers to a greater sense of mission also increase
employee engagement.
D. One of the critiques of engagement is that the construct is partially redundant with job
attitudes like satisfaction or stress.
E. Engagement may also predict important work outcomes better than traditional job
attitudes.