ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR

LECTURE NOTES BPA 208

UNIT 6
MOTIVATION
 OBJECTIVES

• By the end of this unit, you should be able to

 Define the concept of motivation
 Differentiate content/needs based theories of
motivation from process based theories
 Demonstrate your understanding of the
practical application of motivational theories
within the job context
 WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
• Motivation is the set of forces that causes
people to engage in one behavior rather than
some alternative behavior.
• Students who stay up all night to ensure that
their term papers are the best they can be, and
doctors who make follow-up phone calls to
patients to check on their conditions are all
motivated people.
• motivation relates to the processes that
account for an individual’s intensity, direction,
and persistence of effort toward attaining a
goal.
 Importance of Motivation

• The Importance of Motivation

• Job performance depends on ability and environment as well as
motivation. To reach high levels of performance, an employee
must want to do the job well (motivation); must be able to do
the job effectively (ability); and must have the materials,
resources, equipment, and information required to do the job
(environment). A deficiency in any one of these areas hurts
performance.
• A manager should thus strive to ensure that all three conditions
are met. In most settings motivation is the most difficult of these
factors to manage.
• If an employee lacks the ability to perform, she or he can be
sent to training programs to learn new job skills. If the person
cannot learn those skills, she or he can be transferred to a
simpler job and replaced with a more skilled worker. If an
employee lacks materials, resources, equipment, and/or
information, the manager can take steps to provide them.
 Theories of Motivation
Current Theories of Motivation
• Over the years the various motivation theories
have been divided into two broad categories,
content theories and process theories.
• Content theories
• Current motivation approaches generally recognize
that motivation begins with individual needs.
• These needs are viewed as deficiencies which
energize or trigger certain behaviors to satisfy
those needs.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• For instance, at some point in our lives, we may have a
strong desire for food and shelters, while at other
times, some needs may remain unfulfilled.
• These unfulfilled needs tend to create a tension in
people which compels them to find ways to reduce or
satisfy those needs.
• Conversely, a satisfied need does not motivate.
• Basically, there are four content theories of motivation
that have been identified and these are; Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs theory, Alderfers ERG (existence,
relatedness and growth) theory, Herzberg’s motivation
– hygiene theory, and McClelland's theory of learned
needs.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
• This theory condenses the various needs that scholars
have identified into a hierarchy of five basic categories,
which are,
• 1. Physiological/biological needs, which refer to the
desire to satisfy the requirements for food, air, water,
sex and shelter. In the organization a good example
would be base salary
• 2. Safety/Security needs are the requirements for a
secure and stable environment including the absence of
pain, threat or illness, pension plan.
• There should be certainty in the job and non existence of
arbitrary action on the part of management/employer
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• 3. Belongingness/social needs include the need for love, affection and
interaction with other people. Friends with the work group. People want
to belong to some social group where their emotional need of love,
affection, warmth and friendship are satisfied. Being member of sports
club, social organizations or being the company of friends and relatives
• 4. Esteem needs refer to the desire for self – esteem through personal
achievement and social esteem through recognition and respect from
others.
• Thus, this encompasses two slightly different kinds of needs: the need for
a positive self-image and self-respect and the need to be respected by
others.
• It these needs are satisfied it gives an individual a sense self-worth and
ego satisfaction
• 5. Self – actualization which is concerned with the need for self –
fulfillment and the feeling that an individual’s potential has been realized.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• The three sets of needs at the bottom of the
hierarchy are called deficiency needs because they
must be satisfied for the individual to be
fundamentally comfortable. The top two sets of
needs are termed growth needs because they
focus on personal growth and development.
• Maslow’s theory holds that even if a person is
unable to satisfy a higher order need, he will
continue to be motivated by it until it is satisfied.
• It also states that the most important needs initially
are physiological, which people are motivated to
satisfy first before moving to the next stage.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Although the hierarchy of needs theory is one of the best
– known organizational behavior theories, it has been
criticized on the premise that it is too rigid to explain the
dynamics and unstable characteristics of employee needs.
Some research studies have found that in reality people’s
needs do not actually cluster neatly around the five
categories as some may overlap.
• In addition, satisfaction of one need does not
automatically result in increased motivation to satisfy the
next higher level need.
• Despite such shortcomings, Maslow’ theory has provided
an invaluable introduction to employee needs and laid the
foundation for other theories of motivation, such as
Alderfer’s ERG theory.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• ERG Theory
• The acronym ERG stands for existence, relatedness and
growth.
• This theory was developed by Clayton Alderfer
principally in an attempt to overcome the difficulties of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory.
• The theory groups human needs into their broad
categories, namely; existence, relatedness and growth:
• 1. Existence needs refer to a person’s needs such as;
the need for food, shelter including safe working
conditions.
• Existence needs are similar to Maslow’s physiological /
biological needs and safety/security needs.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• 2. Relatedness needs include an individual’s
desire to interact with other people, receive
public recognition and feel secure around
people. Relatedness needs—similar to Maslow’s
safety, belongingness and esteem needs.
• 3. Growth needs, which closely correspond to
Maslow’s esteem and self – actualization needs.
• In contrast to Maslow’s approach, ERG theory
suggests that more than one kind of need—for
example, both relatedness and growth needs—
may motivate a person at the same time.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• A more important difference from Maslow’s hierarchy
is that ERG theory includes a satisfaction-progression
component and a frustration-regression component.
• The satisfaction-progression concept suggests that
after satisfying one category of needs, a person
progresses to the next level. On this point, the need
hierarchy and ERG theory agree. The needs hierarchy,
however, assumes that the individual remains at the
next level until the needs at that level are satisfied. In
contrast, the frustration-regression component of
ERG theory suggests that a person who is frustrated
by trying to satisfy a higher level of needs eventually
will regress to the preceding level
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Suppose, for example, that you have satisfied your
basic needs at the relatedness level and now you
are trying to satisfy your growth needs. For a variety
of reasons, such as organizational constraints and
the lack of opportunities to advance, you are unable
to satisfy those needs. No matter how hard you try,
you seem stuck in your current position.
• According to ERG theory, frustration of your growth
needs will cause your relatedness needs to once
again become dominant as motivators. As a result,
you will put renewed interest into making friends
and developing social relationships.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• Herzberg’s Motivation – Hygiene Theory

• Motivation hygiene theory was developed by
organisation behaviour scholar Frederick Herzberg. It
is different from Maslow's and Alderfer’s model
because it does not propose that people change their
needs overtime. Motivation – hygiene theory makes
the assumption that people are principally motivated
by growth and esteem needs, which are in two
categories – motivators and hygiene’s.
• Hygiene’s which affect the degree to which employees
experience job dissatisfaction. These include things
like job security, working conditions, company policies,
worker relations and worker – supervision relations.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• A singular but significant aspect of Herzberg’s theory is that it
does not consider job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as polar
opposites. This is because of its recognition that improving the
motivators increase job satisfaction but it does not decrease job
dissatisfaction. On the other hand, improving the hygiene
factors reduces job dissatisfaction but it does not increase job
satisfaction.
• Herzberg’s theory proposes that job satisfaction is produced by
fulfilling growth – related needs and other work content
outcomes, while job dissatisfaction is due to the context of the
work itself.
• The major point of departure with Maslow’s and Alderfer’s
theories is that motivation – hygiene theory propose that
growth needs represent the only source of motivation for
employees.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• The principle benefit of Herzberg’s theory is
that hygiene factors are widely used in
organisations to motivate people to join them,
report for work on time, do their jobs much
better and learn new competencies.
• Its main limitation is the suggestion that
hygiene factors are not motivators in
themselves, because some research studies
have discovered that some employees are
motivated more by the job itself.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Theory of Learned Needs - McClelland
• The theory of learned needs was developed by
David McClelland, a psychologist who devoted
his career to studying three secondary needs
that he considered to be important sources of
motivation.
• These are need for achievement, need for
affiliation and need for power. These needs
are learned rather than inborn or instinctive.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• You have one beanbag and five targets set up in front
of you, each farther away than the last. Target A sits
almost within arm’s reach. If you hit it, you get $2.
Target B is a bit farther out, but about 80 percent of the
people who try can hit it. It pays $4. Target C pays $8,
and about half the people who try can hit it. Very few
people can hit Target D, but the payoff is $16 for those
who do. Finally, Target E pays $32, but it’s almost
impossible to achieve. Which would you try for? If you
selected C, you’re likely to be a high achiever. Why?
Read on.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Need for achievement (nAch) is the drive to excel,
to achieve in relationship to a set of standards.
• Individuals who have a high need for achievement
tend to set moderately difficult goals and to make
moderately risky decisions.
• For example a manager may set a goal of ensuring
that firm productivity should initially increases by
5% in year one and subsequently 100% in year two.
It is possible to achieve the first goal (i.e 5% growth
rate) but it may be difficult to achieve goal two.
Thus, the manager may need to be moderate in
setting goals if they are to be attainable.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• High-need achievers also want immediate,

specific feedback on their performance. They
want to know how well they did something as
quickly after finishing it as possible.
• For this reason, high-need achievers frequently
take jobs in sales, where they get almost
immediate feedback from customers, and
avoid jobs in areas such as research and
development, where tangible progress is
slower and feedback comes at longer intervals.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Research has shown that successful entrepreneurs
and business people usually have a high need for
achievement, since they normally set challenging goals
for themselves and thrive in an atmosphere of
competition.
• High need for achievement employees may perform
well in large companies where they are given
considerable autonomy in their operations.
• However, it must be noted that, corporate leaders and
managers should have a somewhat weaker need for
achievement because their jobs also involve building
support among employees and delegating work to
subordinates.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• Need for power (nPow) is the need to make

others behave in a way they would not have
otherwise.
• Need for power refers to the desire to control
one’s environment, including people and
material resources.
• Individuals with high need for power generally
want to control others and are concerned about
maintaining their leadership positions. Some
people have a high need for personalized power
whereas others have a need for socialized power.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• People with high need for power are very
persuasive, talk more than others in meetings and
have a tendency for frequenting and publicly
assessing situations in the environment.
• Political and corporate leaders have a high need
for power, which motivates them to influence
others.
• However, McClelland has argued that effective
leaders should have a high need for socialized
power rather than personalized power, as they are
supposed to exercise their power within the frame
work of moral and ethical standards.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• Need for affiliation (nAff) is the desire for

friendly and close interpersonal relationships.
• It also refers to the desire to seek approval
from others, conform to their wishes and
expectations and avoid conflict and
confrontation in the work place.
• People with high need for affiliation want to
form positive relationships with others and
try to project a favourable image of
themselves.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• They also take steps to be liked by others. In
addition, such individuals usually actively support
others and try to resolve conflicts that happen in
meetings and other social settings.
• Need for affiliation is similar to Maslows’
belongingness need and Alderfer’s relatedness
need.
• High need for affiliation employees are more
effective in co – coordinating roles and jobs
requiring high degrees of social interaction.
• Managers can create social clubs to help employees
satisfy this need
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Practical Implications of Needs/Content
Theories of Motivation
• Firstly, corporate leaders and executives are
required to be sure that the rewards provided
to employees actually fulfill their needs
otherwise they will be useless and have no
value as motivators.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…
• Secondly these theories propose that people
normally have different needs at different times.
• For instance, some employees may be ready to
fulfill growth needs while others will still be
studying to satisfy their physiological or existence
needs.
• Needs also change overtime as people enter new
stages in their lives and as such, rewards which
might have motivated them previously could
have progressively diminished in value over the
years.
 Theories of Motivation Cont…

• Thirdly, these theories caution against relying

too much on financial rewards as the primary
source of employee motivation. This is
because there are other potentially more
powerful sources of motivation like being
given challenging assignments, learning
opportunities or receiving praise from
workmates and supervisors.
PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Process-based perspectives are concerned
with how motivation occurs.
• Rather than attempting to identify
motivational stimuli, these perspectives focus
on why people choose certain behavioral
options to satisfy their needs and how they
evaluate their satisfaction after they have
attained these goals.
• The following are useful process perspectives
on motivation: the equity, expectancy, and
goal-setting theories.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
EQUITY THEORY
• Equity theory is a preposition that tries to
explain how people develop perceptions of
fairness in the distributions and exchange of
resources.
• In other words, it explains what people are
motivated to do when they are in a situation
where they feel unfairly treated
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• MAIN ELEMENTS OF EQUITY THEORY
1. OUTCOMES / INPUT RATIO
• The outcome/input ratio refers to the value of the
outcomes received, divided by the value of inputs
provided in the exchange relationship.
• Inputs are an individual’s contributions to the
organization and these include such factors as
education, experience, effort, and loyalty.
• Outcomes are what the person receives in return
from the organization and these include pay,
recognition, social relationships, intrinsic rewards,
and similar things.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• In effect, then, this part of the equity process is
essentially a personal assessment of one’s
psychological contract.
• The equity comparison thus takes the following form:

Outcome (self) Outcomes (other)

-------------------compared with------------------------
Inputs (self) Inputs (other)
• If the two sides of this psychological equation are
comparable, the person experiences a feeling of
equity; if the two sides do not balance, a feeling of
inequity results.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Thus, inputs and outcomes are weighed in
accordance with their value to the employee
though the weighting differs from person to
person. To some individuals, seniority may
matter more while to others it could be the
perks that go with the job.
• Equity theory therefore recognizes that people
value outcomes differently because they have
different needs.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• 2. COMPARISON OTHER
• People have a habit of comparing their situation on the job
with what is called “a comparison other,” although the theory
does not actually specify or identify this comparison other.
• A ‘comparison other’ could refer to another employee, a
team, or even comparing a person’s current circumstances
with the past. It could even be another person doing the same
job, in another job or in another organization.
• Ordinarily, however, people tend to compare themselves and
how they are valued by their employer with others who are
nearby and in a similar position, with probably the same back
ground. This is because, it is easier to get the needed
comparative information about fellow employees than those
working in other organizations.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• People in very senior corporate positions like chief executive
officers usually have as direct comparison within the organization
and as such, they have a tendency to compare themselves more
with their counterparts in other organizations, to judge how they
are
3. EQUITY EVALUATION
• People are said to form an equity evaluation after determining
their own outcome/input ratio and then comparing with the
‘comparison others’ ratio.
• For example, a worker will experience what is called under reward
inequity, when the comparison other is a fellow worker who
receives higher outcomes, like pay, for the same effort,
qualifications or experience.
• Over reward inequity takes place when some employees receive
more outcomes (such as higher pay) than their colleagues doing
the same job with similar efforts.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• The equity theory model takes into account the fact
that people make more complex equity evaluations
when their comparison other have different
outcomes and inputs. And since the model
compares outcome /input ratios and not just
amounts or qualities, it means that equality can
occur even where the qualities of inputs and
outcomes are not equal.
• For instance, employees will feel inequitably treated
when they apply themselves to the job more than
the comparison other and proportionally receive
higher rewards as a consequences.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Consequences of Inequity
• Findings support the predictions of equity theory quite
consistently, especially when workers judge themselves to be
in a position of inequality.
• Employees may take the following measures to reduce the
feeling of inequity:
• Firstly, they will try to change the inputs. Employers who
perceive themselves to be under warded will tend to reduce
their effort and performance as long as the outcomes do
not affect their salary or wage.
• Over rewarded employees may increase their inputs, though
not very common, by working harder and producing more in
terms of goods and services.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Secondly, an employee may decide to change
outcomes by resorting to asking for more desired
outcomes, such as pay. If such requests are
denied, the employee could be compelled to join
a trade union to fight better salaries or wages.
• Thirdly, employees may be forced to change
perceptions by distorting inputs and outcomes in
order to restore equity in their feelings. For
example, overpaid workers can resort to this
strategy as it is easier to justify their over reward
by exaggerating the value of their inputs such as
knowledge, seniority and experience.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Fourthly, employees will try to leave the inequity
situation by moving away from a place where they feel
to be unfairly treated in order to reduce their perception
of inequity. They can do this by resigning, going on
study leave, seeking a transfer etc.
• Fifthly, employees may act on the comparison other to
minimize feelings of inequity. In this respect, they could
attempt to restore equality by changing the comparison
others inputs or outcomes. For instance, if a worker is
over rewarded, he might encourage the underpaid
colleague to work at a more relaxed pace. On the other
hand, if an employee believes that he is under paid, he
could suggest that the better paid counterpart does
most of the work as a compensatory measure.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Goal Setting Theory
• Edwin Locke proposed that intentions to work
toward a goal are a major source of work motivation.
• That is, goals tell an employee what needs to be
done and how much effort is needed.
• Goal setting is the process of motivating employees
and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing
clear performance objectives or targets.
• For example, telling your bus driver that weekly
cashing of K2, 000.00 will result in a weekly bonus of
K500 may motivate him to meet the set goal.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

• Evidence strongly suggests that specific goals

increase performance; that difficult goals, when
accepted, result in higher performance than do easy
goals; and that feedback leads to higher
performance than does non-feedback.
• Characteristics of effective goal setting
They include the following:
1. Goals must be specific
• When a goal is specific and has a definite time for its
completion, there is less misunderstanding about
what is expected. Your goal to complete your
program; if period of completion was unknown,
misunderstandings would have arisen
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Furthermore, employees will tend to exert more
effort into a task activity when they work towards
specific targets, which are not ambiguous, as these
help in communicating precise performance
expectations.
• Specificity itself seems to act as an internal
stimulus. E.g. When a Mazhandu Bus driver
commits to making two trips between Livingstone
and Lusaka on a daily basis. This intention gives
him a specific objective to attain. All things being
equal, he will outperform a counterpart with no
goals or the generalized goal “do your best.”
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
2. Goals must be Challenging
• Employees will generally exert persistent work effort
when they feel they have challenging instead of very
easy goals to achieve.
• Challenging goals also tend to satisfy a person’s need
for achievement or growth, particularly when that goal
is realized.
• Why are people motivated by difficult goals?
• First, challenging goals get our attention and thus tend
to help us focus.
• Second, difficult goals energize us because we have to
work harder to attain them. Do you study as hard for an
easy exam as you do for a difficult one? Probably not.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Third, when goals are difficult, people persist in trying to attain
them.
• Finally, difficult goals lead us to discover strategies that help us
perform the job or task more effectively. If we have to struggle to
solve a difficult problem, we often think of a better way to go about
it
• EXAMPLE: Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Company,
is well known for articulating difficult and specific goals as a potent
motivating force. For example, although Hyundai was a latecomer
in the development of a hybrid vehicle, the South Korean
automaker launched its first U.S. hybrid in 2010, with annual sales
set at 50,000 units. By 2018, the company expectations were that,
hybrid sales would go to 500,000 units worldwide.
• Challenging employees to reach high goals has helped Hyundai
experience tremendous growth in recent years
 Goal Difficulty and Performance
High
Task Performance

Area of
Optimal
Goal
Difficulty

Low Moderate Challenging Impossible

Goal Difficulty
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
3. There must be commitment to goals
• In certain cases, goals can be so daunting in
their challenge, such that some employees
lose commitment to their achievement,
because the task becomes too complicated to
accomplish.
• One version of SMART, as used in
manager/employee scenarios, has A and R
standing for Agreed and Realistic instead of
Attainable and Relevant.
PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Agreed goals lead to commitment, and both
parties must agree the goal is Realistic.
• Goal commitment is most likely to occur when
goals are made public, when the individual
has an internal locus of control and when the
goals are self-set rather than assigned.
• An important strategy to build or maintain
commitment to goals is by ensuring that
workers are involved in the goal – setting
process.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Participation also tends to enhance goal commitment
as employees take ownership of the goal.
4. Goal feedback
• People do better when they get feedback on how well
they are progressing toward their goals, because it
helps identify discrepancies between what they have
done and what they want to do—that is, feedback
guides behavior. But all feedback is not equally
potent.
• Self-generated feedback—with which employees are
able to monitor their own progress—is more
powerful than externally generated feedback.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Goal setting requires measurable or
quantifiable feedback to enable employees
know whether they achieved the goal or are
properly directing their efforts towards it.
• Feedback is also imperative for motivation
because people’s growth needs cannot be
fulfilled unless they receive information on
goal achievement.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

APPLICATION OF GOAL SETTING THEORY

• A number of organizations are applying goal setting in a
process known as management by objectives (MBO).
• Some managers set aggressive performance targets
• Generally speaking management by objectives begins by
identifying organizational goals, which are then shared out to
various work units and individual employees as performance
targets.
• The organization’s overall objectives are translated into specific
objectives for each level (divisional, departmental, individual).
• Four ingredients are common to MBO programs: goal
specificity, participation in decision making (including the
setting of goals or objectives), an explicit time period, and
performance feedback.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Many elements in MBO programs match propositions
of goal-setting theory. For example, having an explicit
time period to accomplish objectives matches goal-
setting theory’s emphasis on goal specificity.
• Similarly, we noted earlier that feedback about goal
progress is a critical element of goal-setting theory.
• The only area of possible disagreement between
MBO and goal-setting theory is participation: MBO
strongly advocates it, whereas goal-setting theory
demonstrates that managers’ assigned goals are
usually just as effective.
•
Overall organization NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC
objective ADMINISTRATION

Departmental
objectives MSD BSD LAW NES IT

Individual
objectives
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• Many elements in MBO programs match propositions of
goal-setting theory. For example, having an explicit time
period to accomplish objectives matches goal-setting
theory’s emphasis on goal specificity. Similarly, feedback
about goal progress is a critical element of goal-setting
theory.
• The only area of possible disagreement between MBO and
goal-setting theory is participation: MBO strongly advocates
participation, whereas goal-setting theory demonstrates
that managers’ assigned goals are usually just as effective.
• Though MBO has received some criticisms for creating too
much paper work as a result of numerous meetings and
report writing, it can nevertheless be a reasonably effective
way of applying goal setting theory.
 PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
CRITICISMS OF GOAL SETTING THEORY
• Firstly, when goals are tied to financial incentives,
some employees may resort to selecting easy rather
than challenging goals.
• Secondly, the theory cannot be applied to every
performance dimension of a job. This is because
some jobs are difficult to measure, complex and long
term performance outcomes. Consequently goal
setting sometimes focuses employees on a narrow
subset of short–term performance indicators. In such
cases, the theory may cause more performance
problems in the long–term than it solves in the
interim period.
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

Job design
• Job design is concerned with the relationship between
workers and the nature and content of jobs, and their task
functions.
• It attempts to meet people’s personal and social needs at
work through reorganization or restructuring of work.
• There are two major reasons for attention to job design:
• 1. To enhance the personal satisfaction that people derive
from their work; and
• 2. To make the best use of people as a valuable resource of
the organization and to help overcome obstacles to their
effective performance.
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

• Job design is defined as the process of

deciding on the content of job in terms of
duties and responsibilities; on the methods to
be used in carrying out the job, in terms of
technique, system and procedure and on the
relationships that should exist between job
holder and his superiors, subordinates and
colleagues.
 Principles of Job design
• Robertson and Smith (1985) suggest the following five
principles of job design:
• To influence skill variety: Can be achieved by providing
opportunities for people to do several task and combine tasks.
• To influence task identity, combine tasks and form a natural
work units
• To influence task significance, form natural work units and
inform people of the importance of their work
• To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for
determining their own working systems
• To influence feedback, establish good relationships and open
feedback chanells
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards
Approaches to Job Design
• Earlier approaches to job design concentrated on the
restructuring of individual jobs and the application of three
main methods: (i) Job rotation; (ii) Job enlargement; and
(iii) Job enrichment.
• Job Rotation: If employees suffer from overroutinization of
their work, one alternative is job rotation
• It is the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to
another with similar skill requirements at the same
organizational level (also called cross-training ).
• It is the movement of employees from one task to another
in order to reduce monotony and increase variety
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

Strengths of Job Rotation

• It reduces boredom as employees do not
need to do the same work over and over again
• it increases motivation and helps employees
better understand how their work contributes
to the organization.
• An indirect benefit is that employees with a
wider range of skills give management more
flexibility in scheduling work, adapting to
changes, and filling vacancies.
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

Weaknesses of job rotation

• However, job rotation has drawbacks such as:
• Training costs increase, and moving a worker into a
new position reduces productivity just when efficiency
at the prior job is creating organizational economies.
• Job rotation also creates disruptions when members
of the work group have to adjust to the new
employee.
• And supervisors may also have to spend more time
answering questions and monitoring the work of
recently rotated employees.
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

Job Enlargement
• Job enlargement is expanding a worker’s job
to include tasks previously performed by other
workers.
• In other words, it involves giving workers more
tasks to perform.
• It means combining previously fragmented
tasks into one job, so that you can increase
the variety and meaning or repetitive work
 Applied motivational practices: Job design
and Rewards
• For example a Lecturer who teaches a component of a
course or program, may be given more responsibilities
by asking him to teach the whole program or course.
• However, job enlargement has failed to produce the
desired results of reducing monotony at the place of
work.
• For example, If the task of putting two bolts on a piece
of machinery was “enlarged” to putting on three bolts
and connecting two wires, the monotony of the
original job essentially remains.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF JOB ENLARGEMENT
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

Job enrichment:
• Job rotation and job enlargement seemed promising
but eventually disappointed managers seeking to
counter the ill effects of extreme specialization. They
failed partly because they were intuitive, narrow
approaches rather than fully developed, theory
driven methods. Consequently, a new, more complex
approach to job design—job enrichment—was
developed.
• Job enrichment is based on the dual-structure theory
of Herzberg and entails giving workers more tasks to
perform and more control over how to perform them.
Many managers would consider it difficult—
if not impossible—to enrich jobs such as
those performed by janitors, lawn maintenance
workers, and so forth. But Texas
Instruments achieved positive results when
the firm started letting their janitors have
control over their schedules and gave them
the responsibility for ordering their own
cleaning supplies.

Source: (Griffins and Moorhead, 2014)

ILLUSTRATION OF JOB ENRICHMENT
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

OBJECTIVES OF JOB ENRICHMENT

1) Reduce repetitive work.
2) Increase the employee's feelings of
recognition and achievement.
3) Provide opportunities for employee
advancement (i.e. promotions into jobs
requiring more skills).
4) Provide opportunities for employee growth
(i.e. an increase in skills and knowledge
without a job promotion).
Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards
Principles of Job Enrichment
• To enrich a position, usage of the following seven principles
has been recommended by scholars:
1) Removing some controls while retaining accountability
2) Increasing the accountability of individuals for own work
3) Giving a person a complete, natural unit of work
4) Granting additional authority to employees in their activity
5) Making periodic reports directly available to the workers
themselves rather than to supervisors
6) Introducing new and more difficult tasks not previously
handled
7) Assigning individuals specific or specialized tasks; enabling
them to become experts
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

WEAKNESSES OF JOB ENRICHMENT

APPROACH TO JOB DESIGNING
• Many job enrichment programs have failed.
Some companies have found job enrichment
to be cost ineffective, and others believe that
it simply did not produce the expected results.
• For example, several programs at Prudential
Insurance, were abandoned because
managers believed they were benefiting
neither employees nor the firm.
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

The Job Characteristics Approach to Task

Design
• To meet some of the limitations of job
enrichment a group of researchers began to
concentrate on the relationship between
certain job characteristics, or the job scope,
and employee motivation. Richard Hackman
and Greg Oldham developed the most widely
recognized model of job characteristics (JCM)
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

• According to Robbins and Judge (2013), the job

characteristics model (JCM) describes any job in
terms of five core job dimensions as follows:
1. Skill variety is the degree to which a job requires a
variety of different activities so the worker can use a
number of different skills and talent.
• For example, the work of a garage owner-operator
who does electrical repairs, rebuilds engines, does
bodywork, and interacts with customers scores
high on skill variety. On the other hand, the job of a
bodyshop worker who sprays paint 8 hours a day
scores low on this dimension.
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

2. Task identity is the degree to which a job requires

completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.
• E.G, A cabinetmaker who designs a piece of furniture,
selects the wood, builds the object, and finishes it to
perfection has a job that scores high on task identity. A
job scoring low on this dimension is operating a factory
lathe solely to make table legs.
3. Task significance is the degree to which a job affects the
lives or work of other people.
• E.G, The job of a nurse handling the diverse needs of
patients in a hospital intensive care unit scores high on
task significance; sweeping floors in a hospital scores low.
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

4. Autonomy is the degree to which a job provides

the worker freedom, independence, and discretion
in scheduling work and determining the procedures
in carrying it out.
• E.G., A salesperson who schedules his or her own
work each day and decides on the most effective
sales approach for each customer without
supervision has a highly autonomous job. A
salesperson who is given a set of leads each day
and is required to follow a standardized sales
script with each potential customer has a job low
on autonomy.
 Applied motivational practices: Job design and Rewards

5. Feedback is the degree to which carrying out

work activities generates direct and clear
information about your own performance.
• E.G., A job with high feedback is assembling
iPads and testing them to see whether they
operate properly. A factory worker who
assembles iPads but then routes them to a
quality-control inspector for testing and
adjustments receives low feedback from his or
her activities.
 Job Characteristics Model (JCM)
Core Job Critical Psychological Outcomes
Dimensions States

High internal work

Skill variety
Experienced meaning- motivation
Task identity fullness of the work
High quality work
Task significance performance
Experienced responsibility High satisfaction
Autonomy for work outcomes with the work
Knowledge of results of Low absenteeism
Feedback and turnover
the work
Employee growth need strength
Context satisfaction