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Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 215
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.
expectancy theory.
procedural justice, and interactional justice.
7-6. Identify the implications of employee job engagement for managers.
7-7. 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
MyLab Management
oPersonal Inventory Assessments: Work Motivation Indicator
oTry It!: Motivation
oWatch It!: Motivation (TWZ Role Play)
Point/Counterpoint: Goals Get You to Where You Want to Be
Questions for Review
Experiential Exercise: Organizational Justice Task
Ethical Dilemma: Follies of Reward
Text Cases
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 216
Case Incident 1: The Demotivation of CEO Pay
Case Incident 2: Laziness is Contagious
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
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.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 217
Expectancy theory offers a powerful explanation of performance variables such as
employee productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.
This chapter begins with a discussion about goal setting theory. As we read in the opening story, motivation
is a powerful force: it can drive employees through encouragement and reward to accomplish challenging
goals. It can also drive employees to cheat when they experience injustice or are threatened by
unattainable goals. As a manager, navigating and attempting to predict these forces becomes a challenge,
but knowing more about different theories of motivation can help increase an understanding of how
motivation may operate and how employees become motivated.
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Motivation Defined
A. What Is Motivation?
individuals at different times.
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)
harm.
c. Social: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.
d. Esteem: Includes internal factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and
attention.
e. Self-actualization: The drive to become what one is capable of becoming;
includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 218
2. As a need becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant.
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.
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:
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.
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.
not have behaved otherwise.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 219
i. The need for power (nPow) is the desire to have impact, to be
influential, and to control others.
relationships.
2. McClelland’s theory has research support, particularly cross-culturally (when
cultural dimensions including power distance are considered).
a. Unfortunately, the theory is difficult to put into practice.
III. Contemporary Theories of Motivation
A. Introduction
reasonable degree of valid supporting documentation.
B. Self-Determination Theory
1. Self-determination theory proposes (in part) that people prefer to feel they
have control over their actions, and anything that makes a previously enjoyed
task feel more like an obligation than a freely chosen activity will undermine
motivation.
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?
consistent with their interests and core values.
5. Implications
a. For individuals, it means choose your job for reasons other than extrinsic
rewards.
extrinsic incentives.
C. Goal-Setting Theory
1. Goal-setting theory: in the late 1960s, Edwin Locke proposed that intentions
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.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 220
6. There are contingencies in goal-setting theory. In addition to feedback, three
task characteristics, and national culture.
7. Goal Commitment
goal.
i. Believes he or she can achieve the goal and wants to achieve it.
8. Task Characteristics
independent rather than interdependent.
b. On interdependent tasks, group goals are preferable.
9. National Culture
a. Goal-setting theory is culture bound.
i. In collectivistic and high-power distance cultures, achievable moderate
goals can be more motivating than difficult ones.
10. When learning something is important, goals related to performance
undermine adaptation and creativity because people become too focused on
outcomes and ignore changing conditions.
11. Goals can lead employees to be too focused on a single standard to the
exclusion of all others.
12. Despite differences of opinion, most researchers do agree that goals are
powerful in shaping behavior.
13. Research has also found that people differ in the way they regulate their
thoughts and behaviors during goal pursuit.
14. 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.
15. Which is the better strategy? Ideally, it’s probably best to be both promotion
and prevention oriented.
16. 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.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 221
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.
17. Goal Setting and Ethics.
IV. Other Contemporary Theories of Motivation
A. Self-Efficacy Theory
1. Self-efficacy theory, a component of social cognitive theory or social
learning theory, refers to an individual’s belief that he or she is capable of
performing a task.
ability to succeed in a task.
b. Self-efficacy can (but not always) 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:
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.
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.
3. Operant Conditioning/Behaviorism and Reinforcement
a. Operant conditioning theory argues that people learn to behave to get
something they want or to avoid something they don’t want.
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 222
consequences.
ii. Reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood it
will be repeated.
iii. B. F. Skinner, one of the most prominent advocates of operant
conditioning, argued that creating pleasing consequences to follow
behavior.
iv. 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.
v. Of course, the linkage can also teach individuals to engage in
4. Social Learning Theory and Reinforcement
a. Individuals learn by being told or by observing what happens to other
people, as well as through direct experience.
i. The view that we can learn through both observation and direct
experience is called social-learning theory.
determine their influence on an individual:
(i) Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when
they recognize and pay attention to its critical features.
(ii) 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.
to doing.
(iv) Reinforcement processes. Individuals are motivated to exhibit
the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are
provided.
C. Expectancy Theory
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:
d. Three key relationships: (Exhibit 7-8)
Chapter 7 Motivation Concepts Page 223
i. Expectancy: the effort-performance relationship: the probability
perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will
lead to performance.
ii. Instrumentality: the performance-reward relationship: the degree
individual.
