SYNOPSIS ON MOTIVATION

Learning Objective:
After these sessions the learners will be able to Understand and note what is motivation and its significance Recognize factors leading to motivation Analyze different theories on motivation Note how far such theories are applicable in work situation Focus What is motivation In search of motivation Maslows Need Hierarchy Herzborgs two factors theory Vrooms Expectancy Theory Performance Satisfaction Theory Goal Setting Theory Learning Methodology A questionnaire/ instrument on motivation was circulated electronically to all students for their self assessment and discussed in the class.Ppt. Presentation was made followed be interaction.

What is Motivation
Motivation is a moving force, a stimulus or a motive which precedes a behavior or an act. Motive is an internal factor, a psychological process that arouses, directs and integrates a persons behavior. In work situation, motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of efforts to reach organizational goals, conditioned by efforts and ability to satisfy the individuals The basic motivation of any living being is to seek satisfaction to meet their needs. Seeking satisfaction of needs requires necessary drive and ability. For example, somebody is thirsty. He wants to quench the thirst. He should, therefore, fetch the water. Quenching thirst in this case is his goal, water is the need and fetching water is his drive. This causative linkage between need, drive and goal is universal. This is the basis of survival and growth of the mankind .Mere drive to meet the goal is not enough. It has to be coupled with ability. To reach the other side of a river, mere diving into the water with zeal is not sufficient; one must be able to swim across. In work situation the motivation is said to be evident with the employees willingness or zeal to perform for the organizational objective but not merely a mechanical or formal way of doing something as asked for. High level of motivation is recognized if somebody goes out of the way and does something extra for a common objective within his/her ability. For example, extinguishing fire is the normal duty of a fireman. In the process, if somebody rescues a victim by jumping into the fire, risking his own life is said to have exhibited extraordinary zeal or motivation.

Theories on Motivation

There are several theories on the factors leading to motivation or in search of motivation. We will briefly touch upon the following:

A. Earlier Theories: They include the Scientific Management Model profounded by FW Taylor & Human Relation Model of Elton Mayo B. Contemporary Theories include (a) Content Theories such as Maslows Need Heirarchy Herzbergs two factors theory Alderfers ERG theory (b) Process Theories such as Vrooms Expectancy Theory Adams Equity Theory Performance Satisfaction Model Goal Setting Theory
A. Earlier Theories: After Industrial Revolution, Frederick Taylor profounded the Scientific Management concept with the following assumptions: Production is an engineering phenomenon needing scientific approach Division of labor results in greater productivity (Right man in right place) Managers should follow a particular path and guidance Men, like machine, are needed to be maintained (capacity building and provision of amenities) As per Theory X men need reward or punishment to work Basing on such principles many Organizations treated the employees as one of their valuable resources and adopted a number of labor protection and welfare schemes as motivational initiative. During the great depression in USA, during nineteen twenties, certain experiments were conducted out of which Hawthorne experiment was, by far, the most famous. The research was headed by Elton Mayo, a professor of Harvard University. The experiment revealed that productivity of a group of people in an organization does not depend upon the amenities alone.Proportionate decrease in physical facilities does not result in proportionate decrease in productivity. On the other hand productivity depended on some other factors like group identity/esteem, recognition etc which are achieved through the effective group cohesion, teamwork, leadership and the consequent synergy. Contrary to what Scientific Management Theory, the Hawthorne experiment proved that productivity is not only an engineering phenomenon but also a social phenomenon. Thus the Scientific Management Theory viewed to have the following drawbacks: Division of Labour and Specialization make the job monotonous and boring Worker lacks involvement since he sees only a part of the a product but not the whole of the end product Man is not a machine.

Worker is not merely a pair of hands but a whole man. There is no one best way of doing a job but several alternatives. All employees are not under the category of what Theory X believes. Productivity is not merely an engineering phenomenon but a social phenomenon.
B. Contemporary Theories: (a) Content Theories:

Content Theories explain why human needs change with time and what specific factors that motivate behavior. All these theories are helpful in providing a contextual framework for dealing with human behavior.
Maslows Need Hierarchy:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". He subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity and was very useful in sociological research and management training.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom and the need for selfactualization at the top. The five needs from bottom to top in the hierarchy are basic or physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, needs for esteem and self actualization.
Basic or physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly, and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first. Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans beings. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection. With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. Safety and Security needs include: Personal security, Financial security, Health and well-being & safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts. After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of belongingness. According to Maslow, human beings need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among their social groups. They need to love and be loved both sexually and non-sexually by others. The third layer in the need hierarchy is, therefore, the social need. After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem , social recognition, status ,identity etc. This is also called as ego need. What a man can be, he must be. This is the basis of the need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to a person's full potential and the realization of that potential. For example,

one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be to excel in sports, in paintings or in singing etc.
Alderfers ERG Theory

Clayton Paul Alerter is an American psychologist who further developed Maslow's hierarchy of needs by categorizing the hierarchy into his ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness and Growth). He grouped the lower order needs (Physiological and Safety) into the Existence category and fitted Maslow's interpersonal love and esteem needs into the Relatedness category. The Growth category contained the self-actualization and self-esteem needs. According to him when needs in a higher category are not met, the individuals redouble the efforts in a lower category need. For example, if self-actualization or self-esteem is not met then individuals will invest more effort in the relatedness category in the hopes of achieving the higher need.
Herzbergs Two Factors Theory

There are two ways of searching for motivation: one external and the other internal. External factors of motivation are normally either giving reward or punishment. This is otherwise called carrot and stick strategy. This policy are found to be, by and large, not effective. A policy of appeasement normally results in more demands. Punishment or threat to punishment causes more resentment which in turn leads to sabotage. More sabotage attracts more punishment and the cycle goes on. Herzeberg ,therefore, categorized two types of factors leading to motivation. According to him there are two basic conditions attached to any job: extrinsic & intrinsic. Extrinsic elements include salary, designation, security, perks (facilities), interpersonal relations, organizational policies etc. All these factors are called hygiene or basic factors without which there may not be job satisfaction. But these factors alone do not give job satisfaction either since job satisfaction depends upon the intrinsic elements of the job which include recognition, nature of work, growth and advancement, responsibility level, autonomy etc. Herzberg calls these as motivating factors.
(b) Process Theories :

While Content Theories of Motivation deal with what motivates people and it is concerned with individual needs and goals, Process Theories deal with the process of motivation and is concerned with how motivation occurs. Vroom, Porter, Adams and Locke studied motivation from this process point of view.
Vrooms Expectancy Theory

Victor H. Vroom defines motivation as a process governing choices among alternative forms of voluntary activities, a process, controlled by the individual. There are three components of Expectancy theory: Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valance.

Expectancy is the belief that one's effort (E) will result in attainment of desired performance goals (P).Instrumentality is the belief that a person will receive a reward if the performance expectation is met. The valence refers to the value the individual personally places on the rewards. In case the valance is greater than the instrumentality the person will be motivated. Take for an example a work is offered to somebody in an organization to be performed. The person will be motivated to perform the job finding answers to the following questions in three stages: Stage 1 (Expectancy): (a) (b) (c) (d) What will be the result of my performance?(Performance Goal) Am I capable of performing to obtain such results? (Self Efficacy) How realistic the goal is? How much control do I have in achieving such goal? (level of Autonomy)

Stage 2 (Instrumentality) After the performance objective is achieve the following questions may arise in his or her mind: (a) What is the outcome out of this performance result? In other words what I gain after performing this job and achieving the objective? (Reward) (b) What is the policy of the Company? ( confidence in being rewarded) (c) How far they can be relied upon? ( Reliability) Stage 3 (Valance) At this stage the person attaches value to the perceived outcome (reward) of his or her performance basing on the following factors: (a) What is my need? Does this outcome meet my need? (b) What is my goal? Does this outcome meet such goal? (c) How much the outcome worth and what is its nature? Will it affect my personal values or image? (d) Who is the motivator? Are they credible? In nutshell, as per the Expectancy Theory, a person puts effort with an expectation of certain performance output. Effort (E) results in expected Performance Output (P).Against this Performance Output he/she expects certain Outcome or Reward (O). He or she individually attaches certain value on this expected Reward which is called Valance (V).In case the Valance is less than one i.e. less than his/her expectation ,the person will not be motivated to perform the assigned job. If valance is equal to one, the person will be indifferent to the job offered. Only in case the valance is greater than one, the person will be motivated.
Adams Equity Theory

Equity theory was first developed in 1963 by John Stacey Adams, a workplace and behavioral psychologist, who asserted that employees seek to maintain equity between the inputs that they bring to a job and the outcomes that they receive from it against the perceived inputs and outcomes of others. This theory suggests that employees weigh what they put into a job (input) against what they get from it (outcome) and then compare this ratio with the input-outcome ratio of other workers. A person will be motivated to work if he/she feels that the rewards he/she gets is equal or more than his or her contribution to the job and also in comparison to others in the similar job with similar contribution.
Performance Satisfaction Theory

Job satisfaction is simply how content an individual is with his or her job. The two factor theory of Herzeberg speaks about the hygiene factors and motivating factors .The hygiene factors are extrinsic elements of a job and motivating factors relate to the intrinsic elements of a job. Later scholars expanded this concept and stated differently and named the satisfaction arising out of such factors as affective job satisfaction and cognitive job satisfaction. . Affective job satisfaction is usually an overall emotional feeling of an individuals about their job as a whole. They are derived from the intrinsic elements of a job such as autonomy, recognition etc. Cognitive job satisfaction is derived from more objective and logical evaluation of various facets of a job. It comprises evaluation of certain aspects of a job, such as, pay, perks etc which are related to extrinsic elements of a job. When job satisfaction was split into extrinsic and intrinsic components, the data suggest that performance causes intrinsic satisfaction and that extrinsic satisfaction causes performance.
Goal setting Theory

Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted goals whose acronym is S.M.A.R.T. According to Dr .Edwin Locke's research there is a relationship between difficult and specific a goal to people's performance of a task .As he found, specific and difficult goals lead to better task performance than vague or easy goals. Telling someone to "Try hard" or "Do your best" is less effective than "Try to get more than 80% correct." There are five principles to set goals such as: 1. Clarity: When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded. 2. Challenge: If an assignment is easy and not so important then the zeal to put effort may not be there. But it's important to strike an appropriate balance between a challenging goal and a realistic goal. Setting a goal that you'll fail to achieve is possibly more de-motivating than setting a goal that's too easy. 3. Commitment: Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective. Employees must feel that they were part of creating that goal. 4. Feedback: Feedback provides opportunities to clarify expectations, adjust goal difficulty, and gain recognition

5 .Task complexity: In case of complex nature of job it is better to give the person sufficient time to meet the goal or improve performance to practice or learn what is expected and required for success. *** Reference: Organizational Behavior by K Aswathappa (Chapter 11) Organizational Behavior by P.Robbin, A.Judge & N.Vohra (ch.7) Articles from the internet

Things to do

1. Discuss amongst your group on theory difference of content theory and process theory of motivation 2. Discuss Maslows Need Heirarchy and compare with ERG Theory 3. Job satisfaction is not the opposite of job dissatisfaction. Debate on the above statement citing Herzbergs two factor theory. 4. Discuss Vrooms expectancy theory