Motivation As A Vital Aspect Of Leadership

I. What Is Motivation?

Motivation refers to the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and
sustained toward attaining a goal. This definition has three key elements:

a) Energy. An element that measures intensity, drive, and vigor. A motivated person puts
forth effort and works hard. However, the quality of the effort must be considered as well
as its intensity.
b) Drive/Direction. High levels of effort don’t necessarily lead to favorable job performance
unless the effort is channeled in a direction that benefits the organization. Effort that’s
directed toward, and consistent with, organizational goals is the kind of effort we want
from employees.
c) Persistence. We want employees to persist in putting forth effort to achieve those goals.

II. Early Theories Of Motivation

a) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
- creator: Abraham Maslow
- widely recognized during the 1960s and 1970s
- Managers using Maslow’s hierarchy to motivate employees do things to satisfy
employees’ needs.

Maslow was a psychologist who proposed that within every person is a hierarchy of five
needs:

1. Physiological needs: A person’s needs for food, drink, shelter, sex, and other physical
requirements.
2. Safety needs: A person’s needs for security and protection from physical and emotional
harm, as well as assurance that physical needs will continue to be met.
3. Esteem needs: A person’s needs for internal esteem factors such as self-respect,
autonomy, and achievement and external esteem factors such as status, recognition,
and attention.
4. Self-actualization needs: A person’s needs for growth, achieving one’s potential, and
self-fulfillment; the drive to become what one is capable of becoming.
5. Social needs: A person’s needs for affection, belongingness, acceptance, and
friendship.

b) McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

-Douglas McGregor is best known for proposing two assumptions about human nature.

1. Theory Xis a negative view of people that assumes workers have little ambition, dislike
work, want to avoid responsibility, and need to be closely controlled to work effectively.
2. Theory Yis a positive view that assumes employees enjoy work, seek out and accept
responsibility, and exercise self-direction.
 McGregor believed that Theory Y assumptions should guide management practice and
proposed that participation in decision making, responsible and challenging jobs, and
good group relations would maximize employee motivation.

Unfortunately, no evidence confirms that either set of assumptions is valid or that being
a Theory Y manager is the only way to motivate employees.

c) Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory

Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory (also called motivation-hygiene theory)
proposesthat intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are
associated withjob dissatisfaction.
- wide popularity from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, despite criticisms of his
procedures and methodology.

1. Hygiene factors are the extrinsic factors that create job dissatisfaction.
2. Motivators are the intrinsic factors having to do with the job itself.

d) Three-Needs Theory
-David McClelland and his associates proposed the three-needs theory.
-there are three acquired (not innate) needs that are major motives in work.

1. need for achievement (nAch). The drive to succeed and excel in relation to a set of
standards
2. need for power (nPow). The need to make others behave in a way that they would not
have behaved otherwise.
3. need for affiliation (nAff). The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.

III. Contemporary Theories of Motivation

a) Goal-setting theory. Specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals, when
accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals.
Takeaway: Working toward a goal is a major source of job motivation.
-Deals with people in general.
-Studies on goal setting have demonstrated that specific and challenging goals are
superior motivating force.
-Everyone is committed to a goal.
.
Contingencies that influence goal performance
1. Feedback
-People will do better if they get feedback since it helps identify discrepancies between
what they have done and what they want to do.
-Self generated feedback-where an employee monitors his or her own progress has
been shown to be more powerful motivator than feedback coming from someone else.
 2. Goal Commitment
-Commitment is most likely when goals are made public, when the individual has an
internal locus of control and when the goals are self-set rather than assigned.

3. Self-Efficacy
-Individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task. The higher self-
efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to succeed a task.

4. Natural Culture

b) Reinforcement theory. Behavior is a function of its consequences. Those

consequences that immediately follow a behavior and increase the probability that the
behavior will be repeated are called reinforcers.
Takeaway: People will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they are rewarded for
called reinforcers. doing so. These rewards are most effective if they immediately follow
a desired behavior; and behavior that isn’t rewarded, or is punished, is less likely to be
repeated.

-Ignores factors such as goals, expectations and needs instead focuses solely on what
happens to a person when he or she is doing something.

-Keep the workforce motivated to meet goals by rewarding them what they did, thus
reinforcing the behaviors.

c) Job design theory. Managers should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect
the demands of the changing environment, the organization’s technology, and
employees’ skills, abilities, and preferences. The ways that managers can design
motivating jobs are:
1. Job enlargement- increasing job scope horizontally
2. Job enrichment-vertical expansion of a job by adding planning and evaluating
responsibilities; increases job debt(degree of control employees have over their
work
3. Job characteristics model- identifies five core job dimensions, their
interrelationship and their impact on employee productivity, motivation and
satisfaction. The Five core job dimensions are:
a. Skill variety
b. Task identity
c. Task significance
d. Autonomy
e. Feedback
4. Redesigning Job Design Approaches

d) Equity theory. Developed by J. Stacey Adams, proposes that employees compare what
they get from a job (outcomes) in relation to what they put into it (inputs), and then they
compare their inputs–outcomes ratio with the inputs–outcomes ratios of relevant others.
Takeaway: If an employee perceives her ratio to be equitable in comparison to those of
relevant others, there’s no problem. However, if the ratio is inequitable, she views herself
as underrewarded or overrewarded.
1. Distributive justice
2. Procedural Justice
 e) Expectancy theory. States that an individual tends to act in a certain way based on the
expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of
that outcome to the individual. Three variables or relationships:
1. Expectancy or effort–performance linkage
2. Instrumentality or performance–reward linkage
3. Valence or attractiveness of reward
IV. Integrating Contemporary Theories of Motivation

Expectancy theory predicts that an employee will exert a high level of effort if he or she
perceives a strong relationship between effort and performance, performance and rewards, and
rewards and satisfaction of personal goals. Each of these relationshipsis, in turn, influenced by
certain factors.

V. Current Issues in Motivation

Understanding and predicting employee motivation is one of the most popular areas in
management research. Contemporary theories of employee motivation are influenced by some
significant workplace issues—motivating in tough economic circumstances, managing cross-
cultural challenges, motivating unique groups of workers, and designing appropriate rewards
programs.

a) Motivating in Tough Economic Circumstances

b) Managing Cross-Cultural Motivational Challenges
c) Motivating Unique Groups of Workers
1. MOTIVATING PROFESSIONALS
2. MOTIVATING CONTINGENT WORKERS
3. MOTIVATING LOW-SKILLED, MINIMUM-WAGE EMPLOYEES
 d) Designing Appropriate Rewards Programs
1. OPEN-BOOK MANAGEMENT
2. EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION PROGRAMS
3. PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE

Reference:

Robbins, S. and Coutler M. Management. Prentice Hall. 11th ed.