Chapter Six
Motivating Behavior with Work and Rewards
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Real-World Challenge: Orchestrating Outcomes ………………………………………………. 2
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Chapter Overview
figure; a certain potential exists for motivated behavior directed at enhanced performance. Managers may
need to take certain steps to translate the potential for motivation directed at enhanced performance into
real motivation and enhanced performance.
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Identify and describe different approaches to job design and relate each to motivation.
2. Discuss employee participation, empowerment, and flexible work arrangements and identify how
Real-World Challenge: Orchestrating Outcomes
Summary: New York-based Orpheus Symphony doesn’t play with a conductor, yet flawlessly completes
a complex work without the artistic and managerial leadership of someone who directs rehearsals and
stands at a podium waving an authoritative baton. “For us at Orpheus,” explains executive director
Real-World Challenge: An orchestra leader has asked you how to imitate the Orpheus’s success. After
reading this chapter, you will have some suggestions on how to do this.
Real-World Response: The first principle in what is now known as the “Orpheus Process” is this: “Put
power in the hands of the people doing the work.” A core team of players selected by the orchestra from
each instrument section plans and leads rehearsals for a given piece of music.
The Orpheus Process consists of five elements designed to put this principle into practice:
1. Choosing leaders: Each piece of music receives a core leadership team responsible for the final
performance reflecting “a unified vision.”
Chapter Outline
I. JOB DESIGN IN ORGANIZATIONS
Job design is an important method managers can use to enhance employee performance. Job design
can be defined as how organizations define and structure jobs.
The first widespread model of how individual work should be designed was job specialization.
A. Job Specialization
Frederick Taylor, the chief proponent of job specialization, argued that jobs should be
B. Basic Alternatives to Job Specialization
Managers initially developed two alternative approaches: job rotation and job enlargement.
These approaches, along with job enrichment, remain common today.
1. Job Rotation
Job rotation involves systematically shifting workers from one job to another to sustain
their motivation and interest.
2. Job Enlargement
Job enlargement, or horizontal job loading, is expanding a worker’s job to include tasks
3. Job Enrichment
Job rotation and job enlargement seemed promising but eventually disappointed managers
seeking to counter the ill effects of extreme specialization.
Job enrichment is based on the two-factor theory of motivation, which is discussed in
Chapter 5. That theory contends that employees can be motivated by positive job-related
C. Job Characteristics Theory
The job characteristics theory uses five motivational properties of tasks and three critical
psychological states to improve outcomes.
The three critical psychological states are:
1. Experienced meaningfulness of the work: the degree to which the individual experiences
the job as generally meaningful, valuable, and worthwhile
Hackman and Oldham suggest that the three critical psychological states are triggered by the
following five characteristics of the job, or core job dimensions:
1. Skill variety: the degree to which the job requires a variety of activities that involve
different skills and talents
5. Feedback: the degree to which the job activities give the individual direct and clear
information about the effectiveness of his or her performance
Figure 6.2 shows that these five job characteristics, operating through the critical psychological
states, affect a variety of personal and work outcomes: high internal work motivation (that is,
intrinsic motivation); high-quality work performance; high satisfaction with the work; and low
II. EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT
Employee motivation can also be enhanced in some cases through the use of participation and
empowerment. In a sense, participation and empowerment are extensions of job design because
each fundamentally alters how employees in an organization perform their jobs.
Participation occurs when employees have a voice in decisions about their own work.
A. Areas of Employee Participation
Based on their own expertise and experience with their tasks, workers might be able to improve
their own productivity.
B. Approaches to Participation and Empowerment
The basic motive of organizations to extend employee participation and empowerment beyond
traditional areas has been to better capitalize on the assets and capabilities inherent in all
employees. Thus, many managers today prefer the term “empowerment” to “participation”
because it implies a more comprehensive level of involvement.
Practical ways to empower others include:
• Articulating a clear vision and goals
• Fostering personal mastery experiences to enhance self-efficacy and build skills
Regardless of the specific technique used, however, empowerment only enhances
organizational effectiveness if certain conditions exist.
First, the organization must be sincere in its efforts to spread power and autonomy to lower
levels of the organization.
Global Issues: Participation around the World
Summary: Some people think U.S. businesses pioneered the use of work teams. Not true. In the mid-
1970s, Swedish (at the time) automaker Volvo used a new process of moving platforms with partially
assembled cars from one team area to another. Team members worked to complete a long list of tasks,
without direct supervision, setting their own pace and schedule. Volvo’s logic was that by empowering
employees, they would produce higher-quality products.
III. FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
Beyond the actual redesigning of jobs and the use of employee involvement, many organizations
A. Variable Work Schedules
Employees locked into a standard work schedule may find it necessary to take a sick or
vacation day to handle routine personal business. On a more psychological level, some people
may feel so powerless and constrained by their job schedules that they grow resentful and
frustrated.
To help counter these problems, one alternative some businesses use is a compressed work
schedule. An employee following a compressed work week schedule works a full forty-hour
week in fewer than the traditional five days.
Job sharing may be desirable for people who only want to work part-time or when job markets
are tight. For its part, the organization can accommodate the preferences of a broader range of
employees and may benefit from the talents of more people.
B. Extended Work Schedules
An extended work schedule is one that requires relatively long periods of work followed by
relatively long periods of paid time off.
C. Flexible Work Schedules
Another popular alternative work arrangement is flexible work schedules, sometimes called
flextime. Flextime usually gives employees more personal control over the hours they work
each day.
D. Alternative Workplaces
Another recent innovation in work arrangements is the use of alternative workplaces.
The most common version of this approach is usually called telecommuting—allowing
employees to spend part of their time working off-site, usually at home.
IV. GOAL SETTING AND MOTIVATION
From a motivational perspective, a goal is a meaningful objective. Goals are used for two purposes
in most organizations. First, they provide a useful framework for managing motivation. Second,
goals are an effective control device (control meaning the monitoring by management of how well
the organization is performing).
Social learning theory perhaps best describes the role and importance of goal setting in
organizations. People’s degree of pride at reaching their goals or disappointment at not reaching
their goals is affected by their self-efficacy, the extent to which they feel that they can still meet
their goals even if they failed to do so in the past.
A. Goal-Setting Theory
The research of Edwin Locke and his associates most clearly established the utility of goal-
setting theory in a motivational context.
1. Goal Difficulty
Goal difficulty is the extent to which a goal is challenging and requires effort.
If people work to achieve goals, it is reasonable to assume that they will work harder to
achieve more difficult goals. But a goal must not be so difficult that it is unattainable.
2. Goal Specificity
Goal specificity is the clarity and precision of the goal.
Some goals, such as those involving costs, output, profitability, and growth, can easily be
stated in clear and precise terms. Other goals, such as improving employee job satisfaction
The expanded model, shown in Figure 6.4, attempts to capture more fully the complexities
of goal setting in organizations. The expanded theory argues that goal-directed effort is a
function of four goal attributes: difficulty and specificity (previously discussed), and
acceptance and commitment.
B. Broader Perspectives on Goal Setting
Some organizations undertake goal setting from the somewhat broader perspective of
management by objectives, or MBO. The MBO approach is essentially a collaborative goal-
setting process through which organizational goals systematically cascade down through the
organization.
A successful MBO program starts with top managers establishing overall goals for the
organization. After these goals have been set, managers and employees throughout the
organization collaborate to set subsidiary goals.
discuss why.
C. Goal-Setting Challenges
Research has demonstrated fairly consistently that goal difficulty and specificity are closely
associated with performance.
A few studies have shown the importance of acceptance and commitment, but little is currently
known about how people accept and become committed to goals. Goal-setting theory may also
focus too much attention on the short run at the expense of long-term considerations.
MBO also has a tendency to overemphasize quantitative goals to enhance verifiability. Another
potential liability is that an MBO system requires a great deal of information processing and
record keeping since every goal must be documented. Finally, some managers do not really let
subordinates participate in goal setting but instead merely assign goals and order subordinates
to accept them.
V. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Managers can do a variety of things to enhance employee motivation and performance, including
designing jobs, allowing greater participation and promoting empowerment, considering alternative
work arrangements, and setting goals.
The core of performance management is the actual measurement of the performance of an
individual or group.
A. Purposes of Performance Measurement
Performance appraisal may serve many purposes. The ability to provide valuable feedback is
one critical purpose. Appraisal results, of course, are also used to decide and justify reward
allocations.
B. Elements of Performance Management
Many issues must be considered in determining how to conduct an appraisal. Three of the most
important issues are who does the appraisals, how often they are done, and how performance is
measured.
1. The Appraiser
In most appraisal systems, the employee’s primary evaluator is the supervisor. Problems
often arise, however, if the supervisor has incomplete or distorted information about the
employee’s performance.
2. Frequency of the Appraisal
Another important issue is the frequency of appraisals. Annual performance appraisals are
convenient for administrative purposes such as record keeping and maintaining a level of
routine that helps keep everyone comfortable.