On the Job Video

Question 1
Maslows hierarchy of needs theory states that people are motivated to achieve certain
needs (Daft, 2012). There are 5 general types of motivating needs in order ascendance:
physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization
needs which at highest level.
Safety needs in Maslows hierarchy is the most important to the employees who work
for LivingSocial Escapes. Safety needs refer to the safe and secure environment (Daft, 2012).
For employees who work at LivingSocial Escapes, they are reflected in the needs for safe
work, fringe benefits and job security. At this early stage, the work is not about stability; its
about adventure. Employees may think company will either be successful or fail, so they have
low motivation and work less. Employees also care about job security such as being fired by
managers in case the company fails or finance report is always in deficit. Besides, employees
can only share their bonuses if the trips are profitable. So, employees will only do the job
according to their base salary because there are no extra rewards to motivate them to do more
for the company.
As a manager, in order to satisfy safety needs of the employees, Maya must guarantee
the company is working in stable and set up a goal such as to raise the companys profit
margin from 30% to 35% by year-end. Goal setting can increase motivation among
employees and inform employees that company will continue to operate and all employees
must work together to achieve the goal in the future. Without giving the extra bonus, manager
can give employees offer where the workers are able to join for an outdoor trip with other
LivingSocial Escapes employees.

After the safety needs are fulfilled, employees will have to concentrate with the
belongingness needs which are higher than safety needs in hierarchy. Therefore,
belongingness needs in Maslows hierarchy needs become important to the employees who
work for LivingSocial Escapes. Belongingness needs refer to the emotional relationship that
drives human behavior (Cherry, 2011). For employees who working for LivingSocial
Escapes, they are reflected in the needs for participation in a work group and positive
relationship with manager. LivingSocial Escapes expand rapidly in other cities and it may
cause the manager to not be able to communicate well with other employees in different
countries. Again, employees and manager cannot demand high commitment from the team
and respond quickly to customer needs.
As a manager, Levy must engage employees feel connected to the company,
colleagues and managers (Draft, 2012). Employees will be motivated when their manager
takes care about their needs ot problems, and help them develop positive relationship with
other colleagues. Besides, it will also give employees rewards such as team-based
compensation that is based on incentives pay on the performance of employee teams (Lisa,
2012). Therefore, employees are motivated to work together and feel stronger and will be
more effective when working in a team to complete the job.

Question 2
There are a lot of important theories that can be applied for employee motivation, and
one of the theories is Equity Theory. According to Daft (2012), Equity Theory focuses on
individuals perceptions of how fairly they are treated when being compared with others.
People will usually believe that they are being treated fairly and without any
discrimination when their payment is the same to what other employees receive for the same
contributions. Thus, a conclusion that can be made here is that equity is evaluated by a ratio
of inputs to outcomes. Inputs to a job include education, experience, effort, skill and ability.
Whereas outcomes to a job include pay, wage, recognition, benefits and promotions (Daft,
2012).
When an inequity occurs, it shows that the ratio of the LivingSocial Escapes
employees inputs to outcomes is imbalanced. For example, when an employee feels
underpaid and unappreciated compared with other workers, he or she may feel the need to
correct the inequity by putting more efforts when working, or getting higher education.
However, they also may reduce their level of effort or decrease their productions.
Besides that, the employee in LivingSocial Escapes might also change his or her
outcomes, for example, an underpaid employee might ask for a raise in their pay, or demand
for a better benefit. Next, their perceptions will be changed too. If changes in inputs or
outcomes are unable to be made, people may change the perceptions of equity. Their job
statuses may be increased and others perceived rewards might be deteriorated too just to
bring equity back into balance (Daft, 2012).
Last but not least, when an employee who works for LivingSocial Escapes Company
feels underpaid or unappreciated, they might just as well quit the job. People who feel that

they were treated unjustly probably would just decide to leave their job rather than having to
suffer from the fact that they were being underpaid and not being appreciated by others.
Question 3
The value of outcomes such as pay, recognitions and other rewards, or attraction to outcomes
for an individual is known as valence (Daft, 2012). Every outcome that is available due to
high effort and good performance by the employees that is not appreciated by the company
will cause the motivation to be low, and vice versa.
One of the examples of an outcome or reward that possess high valence for managers
and guides who work at Living Social Escapes is to maintain a good relationship with fellow
colleagues. An employee that has the ability to maintain good relationships with other peers
might feel comfortable and enjoy working at his or her workplace. To maintain a good
relationship with other colleagues, the employee should participate and mingle more with the
rest of the workers. Thus, this will increase the productivity and motivation of the employee.
Next, whenever an employees hard work is being acknowledged or recognized by
their supervisor or other employees, the employees motivation will go higher. Therefore, if
the workers who work in LivingSocial Escapes want their hard work to be recognized by
their manager, the employee should volunteer himself/herself more whenever there is a lack
of workers.
Another example of rewards that possess high valence for manager and guides who
work at LivingSocial Escapes is promotion. Employees who are promoted will increase their
responsibility to the company and they may feel that the company need and value them.
Hence, the employee will continue to work hard and update their skills and knowledge until
they receive their promotion. Therefore, the employees will feel motivated.

Lastly, increase in pay is also another example of rewards for employees. Employees
perceive that if they work hard or work for company in a long term, they will receive more
benefits. Besides, the attitude and discipline of the employees in a company may affect their
pay. Thus, employees will maintain a good discipline, such as come to work on time and stay
loyal to the company and will not give up doing their job easily.
In a nutshell, different employees will have different needs and wants to satisfy
themselves in order to increase their motivation. Therefore, the manager of LivingSocial
Escapes should know the employees wants to achieve high valence. For example, if
employee A wants a promotion while employee B wants a raise in pay and the manager gives
both of the employees a promotion, Employee A will feel satisfied and possess high valence
but as for employee B, he will feel unsatisfied and demotivated which will cause him to have
a low valence.

Biz Flix Video Case

Question 1
In the early sequence, Mike Winchell did not show the characteristic of this definition
because of his family issue. Mike was born in a single-parent family, which his mother was
the only breadwinner in his family. Since his mother fell sick, he was facing financial
problems, which include school fees and daily expenses in their daily lives. Then, it affected
his current performance in the team because he was lack of concentration during the training
session, as he had to work as part-timer.
After the sequence ended and he returned to the team, we expected him to show the
characteristic of motivation which can get from the forces from external to a person such as
from his coachs direction. For example, Coach Gaines can use the positive and negative
motivation on Mike and the team. Positive and negative motivation means that it is not
necessary for all the motivation to be positive; sometimes it can also be negative (Keshav
Poudel, 2009). Positive motivation is related to the process of stimulating team players for
good performance. If the team performed well in the football match, the coach can reward
them by showing the appreciation in terms of monetary form. However, negative motivation
can be a punishment. If the team players absent in training more than three times without
legal reason or notification, the coach can punish them by giving warning letter.
On the other hand, we also expect him to show the characteristic of motivation which
can get from the forces of internal to a person such as persistence of Mikes behavior. For
example, Mike should maintain continuous process of motivation since it is an ongoing
process rather than one short affair (Keshav Poudel, 2009). Even though an individual has
unlimited needs, but all of them cannot be satisfied at the same time (Jithin Kottikkal, 2013).
The new need comes continuous after the satisfaction of the current one. For example, Mike
needs to keep on his motivation despite of the obstacles.
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Question 2
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs is the most famous content theory, which was proposed
by Abraham Maslow. It consists of five general types of motivating needs, which are
physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization
needs. Once the fundamental level of needs has been fulfilled, it will proceed to attain the
other levels. While ERG Theory developed by Clayton Alderfer, whereby it is a modification
of Maslows theory. The three categories of needs are existence needs, relatedness needs and
growth needs.
In the earlier sequence, we found that Mike lack of belongingness needs that reflect
the desire to be accepted by ones peers, have friendships, be part of a group and be loved
which falls under the Hierarchy of Needs. Apart from that, we discover that the
belongingness needs similar with the relatedness need, which involves the satisfactory
relationships with other people we care about. It includes family, friends, co-workers and
employers that under the ERG Theory (Daft, 2012). The similarities come from both of the
needs as they have the same characteristics, which mainly focus on relationships between
each other.
According to the video case, Mike lack of the needs that stated above because he is
worrying about no one can take care of his mother during his training sessions. Therefore, his
concentration is more focus on his mother instead of the training and it leads to his
performance gradually decreased. In order to solve this problem, the coach should consider
restructuring the teams training schedule based on Mikes time slot. After the motivation
given by the coach, Mike already fulfilled both of the belongingness needs and relatedness
needs.
In the later sequence, we also found that Mike still lack of esteem needs that relate to
the desire for a positive self-image, receive attention, recognition and appreciation from
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others that falls under the Hierarchy of Needs. Besides that, it is similar with the relatedness
needs that involves the satisfactory relationships and recognition with other people that Mike
concern about which under the ERG Theory (Daft, 2012). For instance, it includes his family,
football players and coach. The similarities come from both of the needs as they have same
characteristics, which mainly focus on wants to getting attention from others.
According to the video case, the reason of why Mike is still lack of esteem needs and
relatedness needs due to he has not yet getting approval and attention from people. Since he
has not master in football skills, therefore he cannot grab the attention as well as recognition
from others. At the end, Mike called his sister to inform that he determines to have a harsh
practice during his training session. Besides, he also hoping that his sister able to take care
more on his mother, so that he can attain the esteem needs to become a well-known football
player without burden.
Question 3
The four parts of the goal-setting theory which apply in this sequence consists of goal
setting, goal difficulty, goal acceptance and feedback.
According to the video, we found that there is no goal specificity is given by the
coach to Mike. Goal specificity refers to the degree to which the goals must be specific,
measurable, attainable, time bound and relevant (kunokkhachok, 2013). This is due to
concrete and unambiguous goal are more motivating than vague goal which will frustrating
team players. For instance, the coach should set a precise goal such as I want you win
Cooper in 1988 semifinal rather than an ambiguous goal such as can you get the job done.
Subsequently, we also found that there is goal difficulty through the vague goal which
given by the coach according to the video. Goal difficulty means that the hard but realistic
goals can lead to an increase on the Mikes performance as it is more motivating than an easy
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goal. Once Mike wins the semifinal by adopting the goal difficulty, it can build up his
confidence and personal effectiveness. This is because Mike can discover his potential and
abilities during the progress of semifinal. For example, if Mikes team has won their
competitors, Copper who is a team that has much of larger players, he can be motivated
through the achieving of accomplishment from this difficult goal.
Besides that, from the conversation between Mike and his coach, we found that there
is goal acceptance in this video. Goal acceptance refers to the degree to which Mike has
accepted the goal and be committed to it (Laura E. Marler, 2013). Having people participate
in setting goals is a good way to increase acceptance and commitment (Daft, 2012). However,
Mike still accepts the goal although there is only coach set goal from the video because there
is fiduciary relation between them. Not only that, Mike believes that, the goal set by his
coach is meaningful and attainable. So, it will indirectly lead to good performance in the
semifinal of Mike. For example, Mike is motivated by his coach when his coach help and
accompany him to overcome his family issue by lending money to Mike to pay his mothers
medical expenses.
Last but not least, we found that the last part that applies in this sequence is feedback
according to the video. The component of feedback means that Mike get information from his
coach about how well or how bad he is performing in the progress toward achievement goal
(Daft, 2012). It is more motivated than his coach give an external feedback to improve his
performance. For example, the coach tells to Mike that his current performance is gradually
decreased and he motivated Mike to solve this problem as soon as possible by giving
feedback.

Reference

Keshav

Poudel

(2009).

Characteristics

of

Motivation.

Available

from

http://accountlearning.blogspot.com/2013/03/characteristics-of-motivation.html.

Accessed 26 June 2013.

Jithin
Kottikkal
(2013).

http://www.slideshare.net/kottikkal/motivation-12807384. Accessed 27 June 2013.

kunokkhachok
(2013).
Goal
Setting
PPT.
Available
from

Motivation-

Nature.

Available

from

http://www.slideshare.net/kunokkhachok/goal-setting-ppt-8211571. Accessed 27 June

2013.
Laura E. Marler, (2013).GOALS AND GOAL SETTING. Available from
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ex-Gov/Goals-and-Goal-

Setting.html. Accessed 27 June 2013.

Daft , Richard L., 2012. New Era of Management. 10th edition. United States of
Amerika. SOUTH WESTERN Cengage Learning.

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