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Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 8: Motivation Core Concepts
Learning Objectives
8.1: Identify and discuss the three parts of the motivation process.
8.2: Compare and contrast Maslow’s hierarchy with McClelland’s needs theory.
8.3: Produce an example of a SMART goal.
Chapter Summary
Chapter summary here.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Do You Have Grit?
A. Grit is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Related to:
i. The feeling of a purpose or a “calling”
ii. Setting long-term goals
iii. Developing strategies to attain intermediate short-term goals
II. What is Motivation?
A. Motivation is:
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i. Direction: what a person does
ii. Intensity: how hard a person works
iii. Persistence: how long a person works
B. An overview of the motivation process suggests it follows three stages:
III. Needs Theories
A. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
i. The most well-known theory of need motivation
ii. The first to point out individual differences in motivation
iii. Three levels:
a. Physiological needs (hunger, sex, etc.)
b. Safety needs (protection from physical harm.)
c. Social needs (belongingness, friendship, etc.)
d. Self-esteem needs (status, recognition from others, etc.)
e. Self-actualization: The drive to meet our fullest capacity (growth,
feelings of fulfilment, etc.)
iv. Lower-order needs are physiological and safety needs, while higher-order
needs are social, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs.
v. Despite Maslow’s hierarchy’s popularity, it is unsupported by research.
a. No evidence that unsatisfied needs are dominant.
vi. Maslow himself never presented these needs as a hierarchy.
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Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
iv. Applicability of McClelland’s theory in business is limited, as those needs
may be learned at a very young age.
C. Two-factor theory: Covers lower- and higher-order needs and relates them to job
satisfaction
i. Motivator-hygiene theory: Another term for the two-factor theory
ii. Hygienes: Things that come to mind when people think about what makes
them dissatisfied at work
a. Ex: supervision, pay, company policies, working conditions
b. Improving hygiene can only bring a person’s satisfaction level to a
maximum of “no dissatisfaction.”
IV. Goal Setting
A. “SMART” Goals
i. Goal-setting principles to create motivating goals:
a. Specific: Specific goals or targets are more motivating than a “do
your best” goal.
b. Measurable: Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress
c. Attainable: Goals must be challenging but not unrealistic.
d. Relevant: The set goal must matter to the individual and/or the
organization.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
i. Regulatory focus theory (RFT): An alternative approach to understanding
how individuals strive to meet their goals
ii. Learning goal orientation (LGO): People who want to learn new things
at work and see themselves as adaptable
a. Promotion-focused individuals tend to have this orientation.
b. Predicts job performance, likely because employees with LGO are
more persistent, seek feedback, and set personal goals
c. Have higher-quality relationships with supervisors
C. Role of Leaders in Goal Setting
i. Microsoft’s leader expectations for goal commitment:
ii. Feedback: Information on the effectiveness of the employee’s work
a. Self-feedback may be more motivating than external feedback.
iii. Criticisms of goal setting:
a. May undermine creativity
b. May have a negative effect on employees’ flexibility
V. Job Characteristics Theory
A. Job characteristics theory (JCT): The theory that works itself may have
characteristics that have the potential to motivate people to higher levels of
performance.
i. Holds that jobs can be designed such that people perform better and are
more motivated and satisfied.
B. The Motivating Potential of Work
i. JCT specifies five core job dimensions:
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d. Autonomy: The employee has the freedom to plan and perform his
ii. Growth need strength: A person’s need to learn new things, grow, and
develop from working
a. People vary in this need, which may affect performance.
C. Designing Work to Be Motivational
i. Work redesign: Loading jobs with more of the core job characteristics that
have been shown to motivate.
ii. Job rotation: A job enrichment method involving cross-training or
allowing workers to do different jobs
a. Increases skill variety, task identity, and potentially task
significance
b. Combining tasks: Designing workflows to create natural work
units
c. Job rotation and combining tasks are both horizontal job loading
techniques
iii. Ways of vertically loading jobs:
D. Work Redesign and Job Stress
i. Redesign can be used to lessen work stress.
a. When workers create their own job designs to solve problems, they
experience less fatigue.
b. Particularly effective when followers are empowered to make
changes to their own work
E. Job Crafting
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i. Job crafting: The extent to which individuals can demonstrate initiative in
designing their own work.
a. The actions employees take to shape, mold, and redefine their jobs.
ii. Outcomes:
a. Changes to the work itself
b. Interactions with others that may enhance meaningfulness of the
work
VI. The Importance of Fairness
A. Prevalence of the “just-world hypothesis,” or the belief that people should get
what they deserve
i. Some see the need for fairness as a universal motive.
B. Equity Theory
i. Equity theory: Suggests people may become demotivated or put forth less
effort when they feel that what they give and what they get is not in balance
a. Distributive justice: What people receive as a result of their
knowledge, skills, and effort on the job
ii. When comparing equity, there are three possible outcomes:
a. Inputs and outcomes for FP = inputs and outcomes for CO.
b. Inputs and outcomes for FP are lower than inputs and outcomes for
CO.
c. Inputs and outcomes for FP are higher than inputs and outcomes for
CO.
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b. Employees in underpayment conditions may engage in behavior to
adjust or compensate for the inequity, like theft.
iv. Employees experiencing unfair situations participate in lower
C. Organizational Justice: Expanding Fairness
i. Organizational justice is the members’ sense of the moral propriety of how
they are treated.
a. Moral outrage: A severe reaction to a perceived injustice
ii. Organizational justice has four components:
a. Distributive justice: The fairness of decisions made, as perceived by
iii. Rules of fair process expected by employees to achieve procedural
justice:
a. To have a voice in decisions that affect them
b. Some form of appeal or correction process for unfair policies
iv. Informational justice requires full explanations of processes and an
understanding that the leader is being truthful.
D. Developing a Fair Reputation
i. Fairness is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for effective
leadership.
ii. Leaders can develop a fair identity with their actions.
a. Fair identities are negotiated and must be monitored carefully.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
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iii. When a follower presents the boss with an unfair situation, a boss should
show empathy and can respond in a few different ways:
a. Damaging verbal responses: deny the unfairness, show regret, or
admit unfairness. These may affect trust levels.
VII. Expectancy Theory
A. Valence-instrumentality-expectancy (VIE) theory has three principles:
i. Employees decide to put forth effort when they believe that their effort will
lead to good performance.
a. Effort → performance relationship, or E → P expectancy.
ii. The employee’s performance will be evaluated accurately and will lead to
rewards (e.g. pay raises, bonuses).
a. The employees estimated probability that performance →
organizational reward, or P → O instrumentality.
B. Expectancy Theory Predictions of Effort and Motivation
i. In original VIE theory, the three components were multiplied to predict
effort.
a. Later, it was found that each aspect can directly predict effort
(without combination).
ii. Self-efficacy: The self-perception that an individual can perform a task.
a. A leader plays a large role in motivating followers by increasing
VIII. The Pygmalion Effect
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Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
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A. Pygmalion effect: Performance expectations by a leader play a significant role in
improving follower motivation and performance.
i. Also known as a “self–fulfilling prophecy.”
ii. Managers can boost performance by raising their expectations of
followers.
iii. Ways to communicate high expectations to followers:
B. The Galatea Effect
i. Galatea effect: When an individual sets high expectations and then
performs to those expectations
a. These followers tend to have high self-esteem and believe in their
abilities.
b. Ongoing feedback and challenging assignments increase follower
expectations.
C. The Golem Effect
i. Golem effect: When an individual sets lower expectations which leads to
lower performances
IX. Leadership Implications: Who Will Lead?
A. Motivation to lead (MTL): An individual differences construct that affects a
leader’s or leader–to–be’s decisions to assume leadership training, roles, and
responsibilities and that affect his or her intensity of effort at leading and
persistence as a leader
i. Affective-identity MTL: The natural tendency to lead others
a. In many cases, MTL is learned through experience.
B. Studies of long-term team projects and military recruits found:
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
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i. Those high in affective-identity MTL become leaders in leaderless
discussions.