Chapter 8 Motivation: From Concepts to Applications Page
Questions For Review
8-1. How does the job characteristics model motivate employees?
Answer: The job characteristics model is the Hackman and Oldham’s concept
information on performance. The way elements in a job are organized (job design)
impacts motivation, satisfaction, and performance.
environment
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-2. What are the major ways that jobs can be redesigned?
Learning Objective: Compare the main ways jobs can be redesigned
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-3. What are the motivational benefits of the specific alternative work arrangements?
Answer:
outside the core.
b. Job sharing: The practice of having two or more people split a 40-hour-a-week
job.
for a company. Flextime is not applicable to every job. It reduces traffic
congestion, increases autonomy, increases productivity, etc. Job sharing allows a
direct supervision of employees by managers. Also, feelings of worker isolation
can be a problem.
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performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-4. How can employee involvement measures motivate employees?
Answer: Employee involvement programs are participative processes that use the
quality circles (a group that regularly meets to discuss their quality programs and
take corrective actions).
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-5. How can the different types of variable-pay programs increase employee
motivation?
appraisal ratings. Weaknesses include: the validity of the system based on annual
appraisals; the pay pool can be small; and unions strongly resist them. Bonuses
cuts.
Learning Objective: Demonstrate how the different types of variable-pay programs can increase
employee motivation
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-6. How can flexible benefits motivate employees?
allowing each employee to select the benefits that fit his or her current needs.
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
8-7. What are the motivational benefits of intrinsic rewards?
Learning Objective: Identify the motivational benefits of intrinsic rewards
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
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AASCB: Reflective thinking
Experiential Exercise
Developing an Organizational Development and
Compensation Plan for Automotive Sales Consultants
This exercise contributes to:
environment
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
have just been hired. Considering the car sales consultant job (and O*NET, if available,
for retail salespersons: https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/41-2031.00), complete
8-8. As a group, consider each of the five job characteristics (skill variety, task
maintaining the high elements), develop a plan for how the job characteristics can
be improved or maintained.
8-9. Next, how important do you think employee involvement and participation will be
for not having such a plan.
8-10. Finally, think about what might be important (and reasonable) in terms of
compensation for the automotive sales consultants. What types of rewards would
you provide to the consultants? What type of plan would you select? What type
of specific benefits packages would you make available?
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education) and
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(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-j
ennifer-pontano-ke-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-20
11.html) for more information.
Ethical Dilemma
Ethical Dilemma You Want me to do WHAT?
This exercise contributes to:
motivation
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
You’re a bright, female investment analyst about to give a major presentation to a group
research on illegitimate tasks, or tasks that violate “norms about what can be reasonably
be expected from a given person” in a job. Therefore, illegitimate tasks are unethical and
violate or offend one’s professional and task identity. What might cause supervisors and
managers within organizations to allocate these kinds of tasks? One study points to a
structure.
Researchers have found that these sorts of tasks can have some nasty outcomes. For one,
illegitimate tasks lead to increased stress and CWB, even after controlling for the
effort-reward imbalance, organizational justice, and personality traits. Illegitimate tasks
can literally keep you up at night: one study found that on days in which these tasks were
want to leave.
Source: Based on D. Cardwell, “Competing with Prison Labor,” The New York Times (March 15, 2012) pp. 1, 4.
Questions:
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8-11.How do you think employees should respond when given illegitimate tasks? How can
are given are “legitimate”? Why?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary depending on each student’s
opinion.
8-12. Is there ever a case in which illegitimate tasks should be tolerated or “rightfully”
given? How so?
opinion.
8-13. How should the criterion of “legitimacy” be determined? Why?
opinion.
Case Incident 1
We Talk, but They Don’t Listen
This exercise contributes to:
environment
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
It’s a great feeling to be sought for your opinion and participation when your organization
than to find another job?”
Furthermore, some suggest that these bosses perhaps should be let go—given that bad
members can lower employee satisfaction and engagement, supervisors who exercise this
form of control often emphasize politics over productivity and abuse his/her power, while
employees complain because of the lack of support their getting, they are getting “thrown
feigned interest were more reluctant to offer input later, experienced more conflicts with
colleagues, bullied others, and refused to participate in meetings. Conversely, employees
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relationships with their coworkers.
Sources: G. de Vries, K. A. Jehn, and B. W. Terwel, “When Employees Stop Talking and Start Fighting: the Detrimental Effects of
Pseudo Voice in Organizations” Journal of Business Ethics 105, no. 2 (2012): 221–230; H. R. Huhman, “5 Signs It’s Time to Fire a
Company Manager”, Entrepreneur, May 28, 2014, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234184; L. Ryan, “The Real Reason Good
Employees Quit”, Forbes, March 31, 2017,
Questions
8-14. Do you think sometimes managers are justified in not taking their employer’s
advice? Why or why not?
Management. Student responses will vary.
8-15. How should managers handle their employees’ dissatisfaction with not having
their advice put into practice?
Management. Student responses will vary.
8-16. Which do you think is the most effective form of Employee Involvement and
Participation (EIP), participative management or representative management? Is it
possible to implement changes of both? Why or why not?
Management. Student responses will vary.
Case Incident 2
Pay Raises Everyday
This exercise contributes to:
motivation
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
How do you feel when you get a raise? Happy? Rewarded? Motivated to work harder for
but some larger employers like discount website retailer Zulily, Inc., assess pay quarterly.
Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens would like to do so even more frequently. “If it wasn’t a big
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reason is to increase feedback. Phone app designer Solstice Mobile gives promotions and
salary increases six times a year; with this structure, Kelly O’Reagan climbed from
$10/hour to $47.50/hour in 4 years. The company’s CEO, John Schwan, said that young
workers are especially motivated by the near-constant feedback. O’Reagan said, “Seeing
structure.
No one is saying frequent pay raises are cheap, or easy to administrate. Pay itself is a
complex issue, and maintaining pay equity adds another level of difficulty. Frequent pay
reviews are motivating, but only for the people receiving them—for the others, it’s a
risk.”
Sources: R. Feintzeig, “When the Annual Raise Isn’t Enough,” The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2014, B1, B5; J. C. Marr and S. Thau,
“Falling from Great (and Not-So-Great) Heights: How Initial Status Position Influences Performance after Status Loss,” Academy of
Management Journal 57, no. 1 (2014): 223–248; and “Pay Equity & Discrimination,” IWPR,
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-anddiscrimination.
Questions
8-17. Do you think frequent, small raises versus annual, larger raises is more
motivating? Why or why not?
and opinion.
8-18. Do you think you would personally be more motivated by more frequent raises or
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.
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8-19. Annual pay raises in the United States are expected to be around 3 percent in the
or why not?
Answer: Again, responses to this question will vary by student.
MyLab Management
as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:
8-20. In regard to Case Incident 1, what cultural differences in collectivism/
minimizes the extent to which illegitimate tasks can be allocated? Why or why
not?
in Case Incident 2?
8-22. MyLab Management Only—comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.
Instructor’s Choice
Applying the Concepts
This exercise contributes to:
motivation
Learning Outcome: Describe the major theories of motivation and relate them to organizational
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
For decades, the primary teaching philosophy in higher education has been pedagogy,
traditional bell curve.
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If the assumptions of higher education change to andragogy, assumptions underlying
the knowledge, and then activities in the course can permit students to learn through
practice and application, which tends to be incorporated into long-term memory.
Ask students in the class how they would structure a course and its content to incorporate
the andragogical approach in a college class. Instead of traditional lectures in class, what
Instructor Discussion
Select a course that currently depends heavily on traditional higher education practices
including lectures, tests, and written assignments. Do not identify the specific course or
instructor. Perhaps a course such as foundation history meets these criteria. As students
look at the request in the exercise, they may suggest some innovative ways that the
focuses on ensuring all students are successful.
Exploring OB Topics on the Web
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Demonstrate how the different types of variable-pay programs can increase employee
motivation
performance
AASCB: Reflective thinking
1. Paying up is hard to do! Should the organization choose a skill-based pay plan or
pay-for-performance? Start by comparing the two, then making a recommendation as to why
Performance: What Are the Issues?:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues374a.shtml to learn more about the
choice for teachers. If you were to make a recommendation as to which strategy would be the
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2. From quality circles to TQM, getting employees involved is not a simple venture.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelvenables/2013/04/20/how-lego-makes-the-safe-quali
ty-diverse-and-irresistible-toys-we-all-want-part-two/ to learn about how one company,
learn from its experience.
3. What do worker’s want? Money? Probably. But other things, too. Go to Business
what motivational theories are at play in this article—just a paragraph or two. Bring your
4. Self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-respect, and self-actualization. Learn more about
these terms and how employers can foster these concepts in their employees Human
Resource’s website:
motivated you when you felt discouraged or simply tired and did not want to go
that day? Who was the “coach” who encouraged you, and how important of a role
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