CHAPTER FOUR

4. MOTIVATION CONCEPTS AND

THEIR APPLICATION
• 4.1 What Is Motivation?
• Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s
intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a
goal.
– When we see in an organization context,
motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward
organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy
some individual need.
• 4.2. Features of Motivations
• There are several characteristics of motivation.
Motivation is a psychological phenomenon.
Motivation is a continuous process.
Motivation is the result of the person’s thoughts
and expectations.

It can be of two types:

intrinsic motivation
extrinsic motivation, tension
 Conti--
• intrinsic motivation that comes from within the person,
based on personal enjoyment of any task, and

• extrinsic motivation, which is based on external rewards

such as money, pay and grades.
• 4.3 Importance of Motivation
• The following are among the importance’s of
motivation:
High level of performance
 Low employee turnover and absenteeism.
Acceptance of organization change
Organizational image
• 4.4 Theories of Motivation
• These are theories explaining how employees
will be motivated.
• Two categorizations theories of motivation:
early theories
 contemporary
• 4.4.1 Early Theories of Motivation
• These motivational theories relatively old
• Knowing these theories is important at least for
two reasons:
They represent a foundation from which
contemporary/modern theories have grown.
 Practicing managers still regularly use these theories and
their terminology in explaining employee motivation.
• These are
1. Carrot and Stick Approach
2. the hierarchy of needs theory,
3. Theories X and Y, and
4. the motivation-hygiene theory
• 1. Carrot and Stick Approach
• This approach relates the use of rewards and
penalties in order to induce desired human
behavior.
– Carrot - money in the form of pay or bonuses.
– Stick – fear such as fear of loss of job, loss of income,
reduction of bonuses demotion or some other penalty.
• 2. Hierarchy of Needs Theory
• Abraham Maslow developed this theory in the
1940s, based on four major assumptions.
First, only unmet needs motivate.
 Second, people’s needs are arranged in order of
importance (hierarchy) going from basic to
complex.
Third, people will not be motivated to satisfy a
higher-level need unless the lower-level need(s)
has been at least minimally satisfied.
Finally, Maslow assumed that people have five
classifications of needs.
 Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow defined human needs as:

Physiological: the need for food, drink, shelter,

and relief from pain.
Safety and security: the need for freedom from
threat; the security from threatening events or
surroundings.
Belongingness, social, and love: the need for
friendship, affiliation, interaction, and love.
Esteem: the need for self-esteem and for respect
from others.
Self-actualization: the need to fulfill oneself by
maximizing the use of abilities, skills, and
potential
• 3. Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas
McGregor)
• Theory X – pessimistic and negative
• Theory Y- adopts a developmental approach/
modern/positive set of assumptions, optimistic
• (SEE CHAPTER SIX LEADESRCHIP)

• McGregor grouped the physiological and

safety needs as lower-order needs and the
social, esteem, and self-actualization needs
as higher-order needs.
 Theory X Theory Y
1) Employees dislike work and 1) Employees do not inherently
will avoid work if they can dislike work; working is as
2) As employees dislike work, natural as resting and playing.
they must be coerced to achieve 2) Employees are capable of self-
objectives. direction and self-control if they
3) Employees have little are committed to objectives.
ambition; they prefer to be 3) The typical employee can
directed and to avoid learn to accept and seek
responsibility. responsibility.
4) Employees primarily want 4) Most employees are able to
security. use creativity to solve problems.
• Douglas McGregor believed that theory X
assumptions are appropriate for employees
motivated by lower-order needs.

• Theory Y assumptions, in contrast, are

appropriate for employees motivated by
higher-order needs, and theory X are then
inappropriate.
• 4. The Two-Factor Theory (motivation-
hygiene theory)
• two-factor theory also called motivation-hygiene
theory
• proposed that motivators rather than hygiene factors
motivate employees.

• Herzberg concluded that job dissatisfaction and job

satisfaction arise from two separate sets of factors.
• Dissatisfiers/ maintenance/ Hygiene Factors: are
features of the work environment rather than the
work itself.
• The word „hygiene‟ indicates that they stop
dissatisfaction from occurring, and work could be
very dissatisfying if they are absent.
• Motivators/ Satisfiers:
• Are factors leading to job satisfaction
• all related to the job context and the rewards of work
performance seem to be related to job-satisfaction.
 Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene's

Motivators leading to Hygiene's leading to no

Job satisfaction dissatisfaction

• Achievement • Organizational Policies

• Recognition • Supervision
• Work it self • Relations with peers
• Responsibility • Working Condition
• Advancement • Pay
• Personal growth • Job Security
• 5. David McClelland’s Theory of Needs
• It looks at three needs:
i. Need for achievement
ii. Need for power
iii. Need for affiliation

i. Need for achievement (nAch) is the drive to excel,

to achieve in relationship to a set of standards.
High need for achievement people:
Prefer individual responsibilities.
Prefer challenging goals.
Prefer performance feedback.
ii. Need for power (nPow) iii. Need for affiliation
is the need to make others (nAff) is the desire for
behave in a way they friendly and close
would not have otherwise. interpersonal relationships.

• High need for power • High need for affiliation

people: people:
Seek influence over  Are drawn to interpersonal
relationships.
others.
 Seek opportunities for
Like attention.
communication.
Like recognition.
• 4.4.2 Contemporary Theories of Motivation
• We call them contemporary theories not because they
necessarily were developed recently, but because they
represent the current state of the art in explaining
employee motivation.
• It includes:
ERG theory
Equity Theory
Expectancy Theory
Goal setting theory
• 1) ERG Theory
• ERG theory is a well-known simplification of the
hierarchy of needs theory.
• Clayton Alderfer reorganized Maslow’s needs
hierarchy into three levels of needs:
E-Existence (physiological and safety needs),
R-Relatedness (social), and
G-Growth (esteem and self-actualization).
• 2) Equity Theory
• Equity theory proposes that employees are motivated when
their perceived inputs equal outputs.

• Equity theory focuses on people’s feelings of how fairly they

have been treated in comparison with the treatment received
by others.

• Equity= when employees perceive that the ratios of

their inputs (efforts) to their outcomes (rewards) are
equivalent to the ratios of other similar employees.
• 3) Expectancy Theory
• It is based on Victor Vroom’s formula: Motivation =
Expectancy x Valence.
• It is based on employee expectancy.
• It proposes that employees are motivated when they
believe they can accomplish the task and the rewards
for doing so are worth the effort.

• He believes that employee is motivated to exert high

level of efforts that efforts will lead to good
performance and therefore organizational rewards
that will satisfy achievement of personal goals.
• The theory, therefore, focuses on three relationships
Efforts - Performance relationship: It is related to the
probability perceived by individual that exerting a given
amount of efforts will lead to performance
(Expectancy).

Performance- Reward Relationship: The degree to

which the individual believes that performing at a
particular level will lead to attainment of desired
outcome (Instrumentality).

Reward-personal goal relationship: The degree to

which an organizational reword will satisfy individual
needs and its attractiveness for the individual(Valence)
• 4. Goal-Setting Theory
• The basic premise of goal theory is that people’s goals or
intentions play an important part in determining behavior.
• A goal is “what an individual is trying to accomplish

• General goal such as “do your best,” do not lend to accurate

performance appraisal and proportionate rewards.

• Specific goals are clear and tend to give a clear direction to the
worker, resulting in improved performance.

• Similarly, difficult goals, once accepted, lead to higher

performance.
• According to Locke, goal setting motivates in four
ways:
Goals direct attention.
Goals regulate effort.
Goals increase persistence.
Goals encourage the development of strategies
and action plans.
• Goals direct attention. Goals indicate where
individuals should direct their efforts when they
are choosing among things to do.
– For instance, recognizing that an important
assignment is due in a few days, goal setting may
encourage you to say no when friends invite you to a
movie this evening.
• Goals regulate effort. Goals suggest how much
effort an individual should put into a given task.
– For instance, if earning a high mark in accounting is
more important to you than earning a high mark in
organizational behavior (OB), you will likely put
more effort into studying accounting.
• Goals increase persistence. Persistence represents
the effort spent on a task over time.
– When people keep goals in mind, they will work hard on
them, even in the face of obstacles.
• Goals encourage the development of strategies
and action plans. Once goals are set, individuals
can develop plans for achieving those goals.
– For instance, a goal to become fit may include plans to
join a gym, workout with friends, and change eating
habits.

• N.B. However, no evidence supports the idea that

such goals are associated with increased job
satisfaction.
4.5 Implication of motivation for performance and
satisfaction
• 4.5.1Motivation Vs Satisfaction
• Motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want or a goal.
• Satisfaction refers to the contentment/pleasure experienced when a
want is satisfied.
• In other words, motivation implies a drive toward an outcome, and
satisfaction is the outcome already experienced.
• 4.5.2 Motivation and Performance

• Thus, we see motivation is a necessary but insufficient

contributor to job performance. The multiplication sign is
used to emphasize how a weakness in one factor can
negate/contradict the other.
• The above relationship between performance and motivation
clearly shows us that managers should hire individuals who
have the ability to do what is required.
• Keeping other variables constant, motivation and performance
have neither positive nor negative relationship. As motivation
increases, job performance increases, reaches its maximum
and decreases.
• 4.6 Managerial Approaches for Improving
Motivation
• To motivate employees the management uses
several important ways such as
rewards,
 job design,
self-leadership,
empowerment,
performance feedback
Alternative Work Arrangements
1. Reward Systems: Organizations can offer two types of rewards:
Intrinsic rewards (or internal motivators include status,
authority, participation, challenging task etc.)
Extrinsic rewards (include pay allowances, bonus, and
fringe benefits, free housing, conveyance /transport,
medical facilities, etc)

2. Job Design: is the process of assigning tasks to a job, including

the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs.

• Contemporary job design strategies reverse job specialization through job

rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment.
Job Rotation: is the practice of moving employees from one job to
another typically for short periods.

Job Enlargement: is the practice of increasing the number of tasks

employees performs within their job.
3. Self-Leadership: It is the process of influencing oneself to
establish the self-direction, and self-motivation needed to
perform the task.

4.Empowerment: means creating conditions in which employees

perceive themselves as competent and in control of performing
meaningful tasks.
– Besides delegating responsibility, managers can empower employees
• by sharing information freely and
• by minimizing red tape/bureaucracy and other
roadblocks/barriers to effective performance.

5.Performance Feedback: The degree to which carrying out the

work activities required by a job results in the individual
obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness
of his or her performance.
6.Alternative Work Arrangements: is to alter work arrangements
with :
flextime,
job sharing, or
telecommuting.

• Flextime: Flexible work hours for employees.

• Job sharing: An arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a

traditional 40-hour-a-week job. One might perform the job from 8:00 a.m.
to noon and the other from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., or the two could work full
but alternate days.

• Telecommuting: Working from home at least two days a week on a

computer that is linked to the employer’s office.
 QUIZE 5%
1. Give examples of
intrinsic motivation
extrinsic motivation

2. List 3 managerial Approaches for Improving

Motivation
37