Human Resource Management Dersi 7. Ünite Özet

Understanding Motivation

The roots of human behavior grow directly from needs and indirectly from a motive system coming from beliefs, values, and attitudes. Motivation involves starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities.

“Work motivation is a psychological process that influences how personal effort and resources are allocated to actions pertaining to work, including the direction, intensity, and persistence of these actions.” Following features might be noted:

• Motivation differs within and across individuals, also across situations for the individual.
• Motivation is not directly observable, and it must be inferred from person and situation antecedents and consequences.
• Motivation is determined by a combination of individual and environmental characteristics, and it represents a set of psychological processes that connect and integrate these forces.
• As a function of forces both internal and external to the individual, motivation is subject to change Motivation is subject to change as a function of forces internal to the individual as well as external to the individual, either in the work environment or outside that environment.
• The primary feature of the motivational process is the coupling between intentions and the allocation of resources toward specific actions.

Content-Need Theories of Motivation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

We can interpret Maslow’s theory also in terms of workplace. Physiological needs refer to basic needs such as a minimum wage to survive and a decent work. Security needs refer to a stable work environment, safety, and benefits. Social needs refer to the relationship with colleagues and superiors. Esteem needs refer to recognition and respect needs such as job titles. Last but not the least, self actualization refers to achievement concerns such as autonomy.

Alderfer’s ERG Theory

This theory was developed by Clayton Alderfer. ERG is an acronym for “relatedness and growth.” The nature of the theory is pretty similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Alderfer scaled down the needs in the pyramid. Existential needs correspond to physiological and safety needs, relatedness matches with social needs, growth needs represent the esteem needs and self-actualization.

Learned Needs Theory

This theory was developed by David McClelland (1966) considering that needs can be learned because they are influenced by the cultural background and they can be acquired over time. He suggested that every human being has three important needs: the need for achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation.

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory is like a transition between the needs theory of motivation and cognitive theories of motivation. It is also known as the motivatorhygiene theory or the dual factor theory. This theory is more likely to be associated with organizational context. Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are the main concerns of the theory, and they are considered as independent sides not the opposite ends.

Dissatisfier factors in this theory are called the Hygiene needs (see as Table 7.2.) which include security, status, relationships with subordinates and superiors, personal life, salary, working conditions, supervision, and company policies. Lack of hygiene needs causes dissatisfaction for the employees. Nevertheless, their presence will not be a motivator.

Satisfier factors like growth, advancement, responsibility, work itself, recognition and achievement are called the motivator factors. According to Herzberg, absence of the motivator needs should not cause dissatisfaction. However, their presence is a strong motivator for the employees.

Cognitive Theories of Motivation

Expectancy Theory

Four important factors in his theory should be explained in order to understand it clearly:

Outcomes: We have to differentiate between the first level and the second level of outcomes in the process. The first level of outcomes is associated with the job itself, e.g., performance levels and quality of work. The second level of outcomes ais mainly the outcome of the first level of outcomes, e.g., promotion, job security, acceptance by colleagues.

Expectancy: It is the subjective belief that a specific level of effort will cause a specific level of performance. So, we might say that the belief that working hard will result in a desired level of performance. For example, a student might believe that a certain amount of energy that he/she spent on working late at night will lead to a good grade in the exam.

Valence: It is the value a person assigns to rewards and other work related outcomes. An individual always associates values with the outcomes. If an individual is uncaring regarding the outcome, then the valence should be 0. Valences might have negative and positive values depending on the interest of the individual on outcome.

Instrumentality: It is the belief that successful performance will be followed by rewards. It is also the association of first and second level of outcomes. Consider that you work hard and get good marks in the exams, which will most likely lead to passing the course you are taking. If there is no relationship between getting good marks and passing the course, then the instrumentality level should be zero.

Here are some assumptions underpinning the expectancy theory regarding what individuals do when deciding how to behave:

• Forces in the environment and in the individual interact to affect behavior.
• Individuals choose among different courses of action.
• Individuals make choices based on preferences for the outcomes of actions.
• The choices are rational and grounded on an individual’s perceptions of the value of the results of actions

Equity Theory

According to Adams (1963), when there is an inconsistency between behavior and perception, human beings would be tense, agitated, and unhappy. Especially fairness is pretty relative for every individual. Therefore, people compare outcome-input ratio of themselves to the outcome-input ratio of other people.

People may respond to unfairness or inequity in different ways at workplace. They can change inputs by reducing effort or productivity in cases of negative inequity . They might still be motivated. To increase effort for positive inequity. Individuals might try to change outcomes by asking for an increase in salary or better working conditions. They might also change their perceptions of inputs or outcomes of themselves or others. It is also possible for an employee to withdraw from the condition leading to inequity by leaving the firm for good or by requesting leaves of absence. Acting against the comparison person is another possible behavior in these circumstances. Inequity might also allow one to switch to r another comparison person in the group to change his/her reference group. People may respond to inequity differently as suggested in many studies. According to some researchers, there are three types of equity sensitivity: equity sensitives, benevolents, and entitleds.

Behavioral Theories of Motivation

Reinforcement Theory

Unlike classical conditioning in learning, operant conditioning focuses on consequences instead of stimuli. Operant conditioning involves adjusting to the consequences of our behaviors, so we can learn to do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t work.

According to Skinner, if the correct behavior is rewarded properly, that behavior will be strengthened. That reward is called reinforcement. Positive and negative reinforcement might be applied depending on the occasion. In positive reinforcement, something desired by the individual is offered as a consequence of the correct behavior. In negative reinforcement, the individual’s suffering is stopped by ending something unpleasant as a consequence. Punishment is also a method to weaken the incorrect behavior.

Different schedules of reinforcement might affect the motivation of an individual:

Fixed-Ratio Schedule: The reinforcer comes after a fixed number of responses. Most of the salespersons earn after a certain amount of sales with this schedule.

Variable-Ratio Schedule: The reinforcer comes with the response made after a variable number of responses whose average is predetermined. It motivates you to keep going till you are rewarded.

Fixed-Interval Schedule: The reinforcer is delivered for the first response made after a fixed period of time.

Variable-Interval Schedule: The reinforcer is delivered for the first response made after a variable period of time whose average is predetermined.

Goal Setting Theory

Within the goal-setting theory, it is concluded that human beings are more likely to be motivated by setting goals.

Goal-setting theory suggests that goals should be clear, specific, reachable, and measurable in order to motivate individuals. Global business environment demands high achievements. In order to accomplish those achievements, organizations shout set the goals step by step. Reaching small goals would motivate the employees to further their efforts and accomplish more complex and higher goals. If the goals are specific and clear, then the employee will not be confused regarding the achievement. Setting the bar will be easy and reachable. The last but not the least, measurable goals would enable organizations to reward employees fairly.

Goal difficulty: Should it be easy, moderately difficult, or hard to achieve?

Goal specificity: How specific should the goal be?

Goal commitment: How can we make employees commit to goals?

Participation in setting goals: How should we involve employees in the goal-setting process?

Feedback: How should we inform the employees about their progress as they work to achieve the performance goals?

Ability: How should we employ individuals with the ability to accomplish organizational goals?

Rewards: How should we understand individual preferences of employees and set the rewards for the specific goals?

These are some questions for organizations to answer in order to implement the goal setting theory in practice.