Posted: February 26th, 2023

Week 4 Discussion-Motivating People

Task 1: Please give Summary(3-4 Paragraphs) what you have learnt this week. Please see attached files for readings/Videos/Links/Assessment’s(No need to do the Assessment’s-but write the outcomes of the Assessments-Big 5 Scale,CSE Scale,What Motivates you) -Use References what other teammates are writing from task 2(2 Posts) -Please don’t copy paste

Reading Link:

The Problem with Financial Incentives — and What to Do About It

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/podcast-details.aspx?episode=21335069

Video Link:

https://hbr.org/video/2226612733001/the-power-of-progress

Task 2:Please add comments 2-3 Paragraphs for below two posts

Post 1:

 

My first takeaway is from the TED talk by Dan Pink. He discussed the candle problem and how extrinsic and contingent motivators do more harm than good when it comes to being creative and needing creativity to solve problems. Extrinsic motivators worked well in the 20th century for narrow focused tasks. In today’s work environment for workers to be at their best intrinsic motivators are far more beneficial compared to extrinsic motivators. Autonomy is a great way for employees to be motivated to self-direct and get their work done on time. It is important for businesses to adapt to what science says and not just use stick and carrot methods to motivate employees. An example is at my current employer they use extrinsic motivators such as bonuses, they do not use intrinsic motivators especially for the production jobs. That is probably one of the main reasons there is a high turnover for these jobs since they do not have autonomy or intrinsic value in their work.

The second takeaway is from Knowledge at Wharton, specifically that some of the negative aspects to extrinsic motivators are it can create pay inequality, this in turn can increase turnover and cause the company’s bottom line to suffer. Another unintended consequence to financial incentives is it can increase the likelihood of unethical behavior. If employees can find a way to get their bonus by breaking the rules or bending the rules, they will probably do that. Similar to the TED talk, intrinsic motivators such as autonomy, mastery, and purpose are key to have happy and motivated employees.

The third takeaway is from the Employee motivation article. There was a plethora of motivations discussed. The Maslow hierarchy of needs I was familiar with, and it makes sense people will be more focused on being safe and fed before they worry about achieving self-actualization. The equity theory was interesting in that employees compare their compensation to other employees who may do a similar activity or have similar credentials. Employees want to be treated fairly under this theory. I see this all the time at work, where people try and compare how fairly they are paid compared to others. For example, different line managers may feel slighted since they may be in charge of a high gross margin product and feel they should be paid more due to being responsible for a better product.

For the self-assessments, the “What motivates you” my highest score was the achievement category. I was not surprised by this outcome since I enjoy setting realistic goals for myself and reaching them. An example of this is graduating from college with a certain GPA or making my high school varsity tennis team. On the big 5 personality dimension my highest score was the conscientiousness category.

Thanks ,

Jeffry

Post 2:

 

Hi All,

This week’s readings are very familiar to me because of my previous course, Business ethics and social responsibility. In which I learnt lot about autonomy (ability to act on his or her own values and interests, self-directed), mastery (improving comprehensive knowledge or skill in something and getting better with some feedback) and purpose ( is knowing why I am doing something). Without purpose there are no goals or no job satisfaction or no positive energy one feels accomplishing something. For me personally these are the factors that drive me towards achieving my ambition or goals. Next, I would like to talk about how financial incentives work only with certain straight forward goals and kills creativity and critical thinking while working for incentives according Dan Pink’s video.  Motivation towards profits should be an outcome but not a goal to work for. Work with purpose, compassion, interests and profits come as result. Work for corporate social responsibility, for example Nestle company when first planned to start a milk farms in India, to be cost effective but it was very hard. The village in India was very backward and did not have basic needs (schools, electricity, hospitals, veterinarian). Cows were getting sick and dying of diseases, no one to treat or guide the farmers to take care of their animals or their livelihood. Nestle decided to first help the community to make their lives better by providing all the needs and the outcome was people were so loyal and happy to do their best to help the company make their profits. Nestle did make lot of profits as outcome but they had purpose and goal to make that community better as corporate social responsibility. This example was very near to my heart as I am from India.

Thanks,

Dhatri Alla

Motivation

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Motivation

A behavioral process that involves the initiation, the energization, and the persistence of behavior.

Concerns issues of “choice”, “effort”, and “persistence”.

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2 Approaches to Motivation

Content Approach – focus on the idea of human needs. Example theories are by McClelland, Maslow, Alderfer

Process Approach – focus on employee perceptions. A cognitive, rational approach. Example theories include reinforcement theory, equity theory, expectancy theory

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McClelland’s Need Theory

Individuals have 3 needs:

Need for Achievement (nAch)

Need for Power (nPow)

Need for Affiliation (nAff)

These needs are on a continuum, e.g., can have high nAch, medium nPow, and low nAff (or any combination thereof).

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McClelland’s Need Theory

Those with high nAch want challenging yet difficult goals, are concerned with personal achievement, and want feedback on their progress.

Those with high nPow want to influence or control other people and desire recognition.

Those with high nAff enjoy working in groups, want acceptance/to be liked, and dislike conflict.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Individuals have 5 needs. Once a need it satisfied, it no longer motivates an individual.

Implication for managers is to try and understand employees’ needs, and what would satisfy them.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Needs are organized as a pyramid. Needs in order from bottom to top include:

Physiological needs – e.g., food, shelter, clothing

Security needs – e.g., protection, stability

Social needs – e.g., affiliation, belongingness

Esteem needs – e.g., power, recognition, independence

Self-actualization needs – e.g., achieving full potential, personal growth

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Alderfer’s ERG Theory

Individuals have 3 levels of needs:

Existence – e.g., physiological and safety needs

Relatedness – e.g., belongingness, friendship

Growth – e.g., esteem and self-actualization needs

Parallels Maslow’s hierarchy. According to Alderfer, you can be motivated by one than one level at the same time.

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Reinforcement Theory (B. F. Skinner): Operant Conditioning

Behaviors that are rewarded get repeated. Behaviors with negative consequences are not likely to be repeated.

For managers, need to be very aware of what behaviors are being rewarded in the organization. You do not want to reward poor behaviors.

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Equity Theory (Adams, 1963)

What individuals want is to feel equitably rewarded for their efforts. Individuals compare themselves with a “comparison person” to determine whether equity exists.

This may be a coworker in your current organization (e.g., started at the same time) or a colleague performing a similar job in another organization.

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Equity Theory

Equity depends on how you perceive your (& the comparison person’s) inputs and outcomes.

Outcomes – what you receive from the organization, e.g., salary, office/cubicle, parking space, computer equip., furnishings.

Inputs – job performance, hours worked, education, skills, experience, seniority.

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Equity Theory

Compare ratio of Outcomes/Inputs for yourself with that of your comparison person. If ratio is equal, you have equity.

If ratio is not equal, then inequity exists. According to the theory, this creates tension that individuals must address to get back into balance.

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Equity Theory

If your ratio is ‘higher’ than your comparison person’s, you feel ‘over-rewarded’.

To get in balance, you may increase your inputs (e.g., work harder), cognitively distort the situation by rationalization (e.g., decide you are worth it and add more value than the comparison person), or select a new comparison person.

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Equity Theory

If your ratio is ‘lower’ than your comparison person, you feel ‘under-rewarded’.

To get into balance, you can increase your outcomes (e.g., ask for a raise), reduce your inputs (e.g., work less), or in extreme cases quit the organization.

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Organizational Justice (Greenberg, 1987)

Distributive Justice – Fairness of the outcomes (e.g., rewards/punishments) received. Should be proportionate to behavior and employees should know what to expect.

Procedural Justice – Fairness of the procedures used to determine outcomes. Incorporate employee voice in development, apply consistently, and have an appeals mechanism.

Interactional/Interpersonal Justice – Fairness of treatment of employee. Explain decisions and treat respectfully.

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Procedural Justice

(Leventhal, 1980)

Procedures should be applied consistently

Personal bias should not come into play

Procedures should be based on accurate info

An appeals mechanism should be in place

Representation/voice of relevant parties into the determination of procedures

Procedures based on ethical standards

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Affective Events Theory (AET): (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996)

Events in the environment affect an employee’s emotions, and those consequences have an immediate impact on job performance.

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Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964)

Motivation = Expectancy * the sum of (Instrumentality * Valence)

Expectancy theory explains your level of effort for a particular goal.

You want expectancy, instrumentality, and valence to all be high for individuals to be motivated.

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Expectancy Theory

Expectancy – Likelihood you can perform a task if you try. Ranges from 0 to 1.

Instrumentality – Probability of performing a task and receiving a reward. Ranges from 0 to 1.

Valence – Value of the Reward. Ranges from -1 to +1.

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Expectancy Theory

Increase expectancy by providing training, coaching, support, and sufficient resources.

Increase instrumentality by making rewards contingent on performance.

Increase valence by providing rewards employees value.

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Goal-Setting Theory (Locke & Latham, 1990)
To be effective, goals need to be SMART:

Specific (no vague goals)

Measureable (be able to evaluate progress)

Aligned (engenders goal commitment)

Realistic (no easy goals – need difficult ones)

Timeframe (helps assess progress)

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Goals vs Goal Orientation

Type of goal set is a “state”

Goal orientation (Dweck, 1999) is a “trait”

Those with a “learning goal orientation” desire to increase knowledge & learn skills

Those with a “performance goal orientation” try to choose goals where they will excel. Try to avoid tasks where they may perform poorly and look bad.

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Big 5 Personality Factors (FFM)

(Costa & McRae; Digman; Wiggins)

Openness to Experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)

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Selected Findings

Conscientiousness and emotional stability are related to job performance.

Emotional stability and agreeableness important for teamwork.

Extraversion related to performance for managers and those in sales/marketing.

Those higher in openness to experience perform better in training.

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Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura)

Task-specific self-efficacy is the extent to which an individual believes he or she can perform a certain task.

There is also Generalized self-efficacy, which refers to an overall assessment an individual makes as to ability to perform.

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Determinants of Self-Efficacy

Enactive mastery – gain by practice

Behavioral modeling – learning from watching others

Verbal persuasion – from others or self

Self-efficacy is vital for performance.

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Core Self-Evaluation (CSE) – A Higher Order Construct Composed of 4 Traits

Self-esteem

Generalized self-efficacy

Locus of control

Emotional stability

Those higher in CSE have higher job performance and job satisfaction

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Newer Research on Motivation

Focusing on the subconscious and priming effects.

See Project Implicit tests you completed

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Practices of Successful Organizations (Pfeffer & Veiga)

Employment security

Selective hiring

Self-managed teams & decentralization

High compensation contingent on performance

Extensive training

Reduction of status differences

Sharing information

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Instructions:
Please indicate with a circle the degree to which each of the following terms

applies to you using a scale of

1

(does not apply to me at all) to

7

(applies to me a great deal).

Does Not Apply to Me Applies a Great Deal to Me

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2. Sympathetic

3. Organized

4. Envious

5. Creative

6. Shy

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8. Inefficient

9. Moody

10 . Unintellectual

11. Extroverted

12 . Cooperative

13. Efficient

14 . Relaxed

15 . Imaginative

16 . Withdrawn

17. Rude

18 . Sloppy

19 . Temperamental

20 . Philosophical

Big 5 Personality Dimensions (Aldag & Kuzuhara, 2001)

“Big 5” Scoring:

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Extraversion: 1, 6(R), 11, 16(R)

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Agreeableness: 2, 7(R), 12, 17R

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Conscientiousness: 3, 8(R), 13, 18(R)

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Emotional stability: 4(R), 9(R), 14, 19(R)

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Openness to experience: 5, 10(R), 15, 20

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	Extraversion	Agreeableness	Conscientious	Emotional Stability	Openness to Experience
Norm Mean	19.42	20.97	20.50	18. 21	20.36
Norm Median	20					21	18
Norm Minimum
Norm Maximum						28
Class Mean	17.57	22.29	23.86	19.14	21.00
Class Median	16		25	24	19
Class Minimum	10	15	12	14
Class Maximum		26	27

Note: For reverse scored items, subtract the item score from 8. That is, a 5 becomes 3, a 4 becomes 4, and so on.