Chapter 5: Motivation
There are many sources of information available on the subject of motivation. Equal amounts of materials have been published by the psychology field as the business community. There are common themes between motivation gurus which strike to the heart of why this science is important. The ability to motivate people in the right way is important part of being able to achieve my aspirations because no leader can hope to accomplish great wins if he cannot get his employees maximum effort.
We learn from Frederick Herzberg's HBR article “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees”. This article is relevant to my aspirations because of the understanding gained about the difference between hygiene and motivators. Previously I would have thought that motivators and hygiene were mere opposites that is not the case. Through this understanding I will be able to better motivate the teams that work for me. Based on my self-assesments this article will build on my strength of leading teams.
There is general agreement that companies receive significantly higher benefits when employees are engaged and intrinsically want to contribute because they enjoy it and believe in its purpose. This is cast against the alternative of workers either being forced to work under threat of harm or directly to a financial reward. In these latter cases the work only persists as long as the stimuli does and even then works do the bare minimum to gain the reward/avoid punishment.
Mr. Herzberg explains how what actions or benefits that might seem appealing to workers actually can decrease an organizations long term success. Actions such as reducing time at work, spiraling wages, and increasing fringe benefits don’t actually help. Organizations that respond by trying to ‘fix’ employees through sensitivity training, counseling or human relations training end up frustrated.
Thorough research factors that motivate and demotivate have been identified. Interestingly enough the motivating and demotivating factors are not simply opposites. The author differentiates these factors my naming the groups Hygiene and Motivators. For example recognition has a sizeable effect on an employee’s motivation, whereas lack of recognition is only a minor de-motivator. Same is true for dissatisfiers – Company policies can cause significant dissatisfaction, but lack of company policy does not cause happiness.
In order to put this knowledge to practical use the author introduces the concept of the eternal triangle based on three general philosophies of personnel management. Work can be enriched by striking the proper balance between the three philosophies of organizational theory, industrial engineering, and behavioral science.
Jobs can be enriched through proper job loading of which there are two types. Horizontal job loading which typically means doing more of the wrong thing should be avoided. Vertical job loading is desired and can be instituted in steps:
1. Select jobs in which investment is industrial engineering does not make changes too costly, attitudes are poor, etc.
2. Approach these jobs with conviction that they can be changed.
3. Brainstorm list of changes that may enrich the jobs.
4. Screen list to eliminate suggestions that involve hygiene rather than motivation.
5. Screen the list for generalities that are rarely followed.
6. Screen list to eliminate horizontal loading suggestions.
7. Avoid direct participation by the employees whose jobs are to be enriched.
8. Set up a control group to progress can be measured.
9. Be prepared for an initial drop in performance during the first few weeks of execution.
10. Expect first line supervisors to become anxious because the nature of roles is being adjusted.
There were a few interesting points in the summary of Anne Bruce and James Pepitone’s book summary “Motivating Employees”. The authors assert that motivation is intrinsic, that is employees will do something if they believe it is in their best interest. This article is relevant to my aspirations because it compliments builds off of the message in Herzberg’s article and gives some practical ideas on how to motivate employees. I can use these suggestions to motivate the employees who work for me now and in the future. Based on my self-assesments I can sometimes be overly analytical, this article will help me with the softer skills.
Motivation can be accomplished in three ways: fear, incentives, and feeding the want for personal growth. Acknowledgement is given to both McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y and to Maslow’s five fundamental psychological needs. The result is a conclusion that each employee is unique and therefore specific and different needs will drive different levels of motivation.
· Encourage entrepreneurial thinking.
· Link motivation to performance. You should expect the best to get the best out of them.
· Get employees to accept responsibility for their motivation
· Instill feeling of hope and trust
· Make work fun
· Combat de-motivators and dissatisfiers.
· Motivate for good team work
Thad Green’s book summary “Motivation Management” points out that motivation is future oriented. This book is relevant to my aspirations because it highlights the idea that people typically think of the future and to properly motivate them a manager must appeal to their beliefs of the future. I need to keep this in mind when evaluating the state of motivation of the employees who work for me. Based on my self-assesments I believe if I can be seen as being a force of motivation, that is one way to improve my need to become more charismatic in the workplace.
Employees are motivated by what they believe will happen not by what you tell them will occur. The author claims that many popular theories of motivation focus only on outcomes and job satisfaction, however there is more to the equation which must be considered in whole.
Effort -> performance -> outcomes -> satisfaction
Much of the summary’s focus is on understanding and reinforcing what the employees actually believe. The beliefs must be in place in order for motivation to be possible.
1. Confidence ; “ I can do it”
2. Trust ; “Outcomes are tied to my performance”
3. Satisfaction ; “The outcomes will result in personal satisfaction”
If a motivation problem is suspected managers are given the advice to follow three steps
1. Identify the cause of the problem. Dig beneath the symptoms; don’t focus only on performance.
2. Learn what is wrong by asking and dialog, not just observing.
3. Find solutions that should have something to do with the beliefs listed above. Listen and be open
The Academy of Management article “Integrating Theories of Motivation” by Piers Steel and Cornelius Konig believe that over the years division among differing disciplines has prevented research into motivation from being effective. This article is relevant to my aspirations because it introduces the understanding of how time delay of rewards or punishment warp a person’s sense of utility/value of an outcome. This concept can help me better manage my team. Impulsive people should have faster and easier goals whereas achievers should have more difficult less frequent goals.
Real situations are far more complex than most singular models can account for. Their goal is to find commonality and integrate motivational theories. The authors consider the fundamental features of picoeconomics, expectancy theory, cumulative prospect theory and need theory and add another dimension; time. Temporal motivational theory (TMT) is constructed based on the knowledge that utility/rewards that are distant are often underappreciated and the utility/rewards that are near term are over inflated.
Assuming one can put a number to how an individual values a particular reward a mathematical formula is derived to illustrate the TMT approach. A few points to recognize are that each person’s personality will affect their expected value. Traits such as optimism, self-efficacy, and attributional style will make the same situation more or less meaningful to different individuals. Another consideration is that motivation towards a specific task must be stronger than competing motivations towards other tasks (which includes procrastination)
The HBR article “Employee Motivation, A Powerful New Model” by Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee submit to the reader that past theories of behavior and motivation were based on careful and educated observation, but lacked the benefits of modern brain science. This article is relevant to my aspiration because it introduces human concepts that are common to everyone. These drives cannot be changed or trained into a person. I will be better able to motivate my teams based on understanding of employees predominant state throughout a project or tenure on the team. Based on my self-assesments this article will increase my ability to lead a project team.
They point out that there are four drives that are hardwired into every human’s brain: the drive to acquire, the drive to bond , the drive to comprehend, and the drive to defend. Each one of these drives has a primary level that a manager can utilize to motivate workers. The reward system is the lever for the drive to acquire. Actions a manager can take are to differentiate good performers from everyone else, tie rewards to performance, pay as well as the competition. Setting the right culture is the level for the drive to bond. Managers can foster mutual reliance among coworkers, value teamwork, encourage sharing of best practices. The job design is the lever for the drive to comprehend. Mangers should design jobs that are distinct and important to the organization and design jobs that are meaningful to the organization. Performance management and resource allocation processes are the levers for the drive to defend. Actions for these levers include increasing the transparency of all processes, emphasize process fairness, and build trust by granting forms of recognition.
The HBR article “What Great Managers Do” by Marcus Buckingham allows us to dive in deeper to appreciate the difference between individuals. This article is relevant to my aspirations because it stresses the uniqueness of each worker. Taking the time to recognize each person individual situation will allow me to bring out the very best performance in each person and allow them to feel fulfilled in their role. Think of workers as pieces on a chess board, each piece type has a particular move and restrictions.
The author compares great managers to great leaders. Great leaders discover what is universal and capitalize on it. They rally people towards a better future and cut through personal differences and tap into needs we all share. A great manager, meanwhile, turns one person’s particular talent into performance. There are three things a manager must know about each subordinate to manage them well: his strengths, the triggers that activate those strengths, and how he learns. It takes time and effort to gain a full appreciation of an employee’s strengths. Managers should observe, create dialog with the employee and survey both customers and peers. This approach will yield and understanding of both strengths and weaknesses. Both are important to understand and provide coaching for, focusing on their strengths will assist in unlocking motivation. Next, a manager must determine what triggers good performance. A person’s strengths sometimes need a trigger to kick in. These triggers tie into some of the articles listed above. Finally, understand each employees learning style. There are three learning styles, although everyone uses them all, each person will prefer a predominant style. The learning styles are analyzing, doing, and watching.
Raymond Katzell and Donna Thompson’s article in American Psychologist titled “Work Motivation, Theory and Practice” does a good job of summarizing many differing theories of work motivation. This article is relevant to my aspirations because it provides a broad summary of many of the motivation theories that exist and divides them into two groups – those that can influence motivation directly and those that have an indirect effect. Some of the recommendation would be considered both motivators and hygiene avoidance, borrowing Hertzberg’s terms. I have additional levers to use when trying to motivate the employees that work for me.
Theories can be classified broadly in two ways dealing with exogenous causes or endogenous processes. Exogenous theories have variables that can be used as levers to raise motivation; endogenous theories deal with process that can modify motivation indirectly based on change in exogenous variables.
Endogenous theories include: arousal/activation theory, expectancy-valence theory, equity theory, attitude theory, intention/goal theory, attribution/self-efficacy theory. Exogenous theories include: Motive/need theory, incentive/reward theory, reinforcement theory, goal theory, personal and material resource theory, group and norm theory, sociotechnical system theory. Because exogenous theories provide action levers to change work motivation, seven key strategies are developed each with motivational imperatives and illustrative programs. Details are on the PowerPoint deck on the web site.
· Personal motives and values
· Incentives and rewards
· Reinforcement
· Goal setting techniques
· Personal and material resources
· Social and group factors
· Sociotechnical systems
The article “Demystifying Employee Motivation” by Fred Herrera in Employee Relations Today provides insight from an HR manager’s standpoint. This article is relevant to my aspirations because it contains some very practical advice to making sure employees experience job satisfaction. The suggestions are mostly concerned with fairness and consistency in dealing with employees. Based on my self-assesments this article is relevent because it helps me understand how to be more sensitive to others needs.
A leader should create an environment where employees are appreciated and respected and suggests three other factors that include
· Open and honest communication that includes an issue resolution process
· Dignity and respect manifested as equal and fair treatment
· Reward and recognition
In addition to environmental items just listed organizations needs to provide employees with reasons to stay – beyond the money and benefits. One reason is a sense of belonging, purpose or exclusivity. People band together for a common cause or against a common enemy. Earning trust is also key; managers can earn trust by sharing same values as, have skills valued by, and act fair and consistently towards employees . The author creates a ‘hot stove’ analogy as a disciplined principle to ensure fairness and consistency; a hot stove:
· Is consistent – it burns every time
· Is immediate – it burns right away
· Does not apologize – it makes no apology for burning
· It forewarns –the closer you get the hotter it feels
· Is impersonal – it does not care about rank or title
· Shows no emotion
Exercises and practice routines
Excercise # 1. Motivation rank comparisons by different organizational roles
Objective - To identify what motivates people to work.
Give each person a copy of the table below. Divide the learners into small groups of three or four. Ask each learner to rank each item under the column titled “Individual” from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most important and 10 being the least important.
Individual Factors Group Factors What do people want from their jobs?
_______ Promotion in the Company
_______ Tactful Discipline
_______ Job Security
_______ Help with Personal Problems
_______ Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
_______ High Wages
_______ Full Appreciation of Work Done
_______ Good Working Conditions
_______ Feeling of Being In on Things
_______ Interesting Work
When they have completed the ranking, have each group total the average individual weights within their group. Rank the 10 items under the column titled “Group.” Inform the group that this same scale has been given to thousands of workers across the country. Their ranking is as follows:
Supervisors ranked the items in this order:
1. High Wages
2. Job Security
3. Promotion in the Company
4. Good Working Conditions
5. Interesting Work
6. Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
7. Tactful Discipline
8. Full Appreciation of Work Being Done
9. Help on Personal Problems
10. Feeling of Being In On Things
However, when employees were given the same exercise, their rankings tended to follow this pattern:
1. Full Appreciation of Work Being Done
2. Feeling of Being In On Things
3. Help on Personal Problems
4. Job Security
5. High Wages
6. Interesting Work
7. Promotion in the Company
8. Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
9. Good Working Conditions
10. Tactful Discipline
Discussion Questions
1. In comparing the different ratings, what might account for the different opinion?
2. What might be the cause of the supervisor's rankings being so different from the employees?
3. If this survey was given to your department, what would the results be?
Exercise # 2. Managing and influencing group norms
Objective: Discover and understand group norms
1. Explain the idea of workplace norms to the group
2. Give an example of charting job satisfaction level vs frequency
3. Ask the group to come up with their own examples of actual workplace norms and chart them.
4. Have a discussion with the team and jointly analyze the graphed results
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Bibliography
Herzberg, Frederick. One more time: how do you motivate employees?. Harvard Business Review, 1968.
Bruce, Anne, James S. Pepitone, Roger A. Formisano, and James S. Peitone. Motivating employees. McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Green, Thad B. Motivation management: Fueling performance by discovering what people believe about themselves and their organizations. Davies-Black Pub., 2000.
Steel, Piers, and Cornelius J. König. "Integrating theories of motivation." Academy of Management Review 31, no. 4 (2006): 889-913.
Nohria, Nitin, Boris Groysberg, and L. Lee. "Employee motivation: A powerful new model." Harvard Business Review 86, no. 7/8 (2008): 78-84.
Buckingham, Marcus. “What Great Managers DO.” Harvard Business Review. 83, no. 3 (2005): 70-79
Katzell, Raymond A., and Donna E. Thompson. "Work motivation: Theory and practice." American Psychologist 45, no. 2 (1990): 144-153
Herrera, Fred. "Demystifying employee motivation." Employment Relations Today 28, no. 4 (2002): 37-52.
Herzberg, Frederick. One more time: how do you motivate employees?. Harvard Business Review, 1968.
Bruce, Anne, James S. Pepitone, Roger A. Formisano, and James S. Peitone. Motivating employees. McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Green, Thad B. Motivation management: Fueling performance by discovering what people believe about themselves and their organizations. Davies-Black Pub., 2000.
Steel, Piers, and Cornelius J. König. "Integrating theories of motivation." Academy of Management Review 31, no. 4 (2006): 889-913.
Nohria, Nitin, Boris Groysberg, and L. Lee. "Employee motivation: A powerful new model." Harvard Business Review 86, no. 7/8 (2008): 78-84.
Buckingham, Marcus. “What Great Managers DO.” Harvard Business Review. 83, no. 3 (2005): 70-79
Katzell, Raymond A., and Donna E. Thompson. "Work motivation: Theory and practice." American Psychologist 45, no. 2 (1990): 144-153
Herrera, Fred. "Demystifying employee motivation." Employment Relations Today 28, no. 4 (2002): 37-52.