1. PM 4035 The Psychology of Work Lecture 3 Week 3 Studying Individuals at work Motivation

2. Force that energizes, directs and sustains behavior Psychological processes that initiate and determine direction, intensity and persistence of voluntary and goal-directed actions (Mitchel, 1987) Work motivation: internal and external forces that initiate work-related action and determine its form, intensity, direction and duration (Pinder, 1998)

3. We will look at Content-related theories-focus on why individuals are motivated and explore personal and situational (task-related) factors Process-related theories-focus on how motivation evolves and is transformed into goal-directed behavior – Expectancy theories – Goal-setting theory

4. Content-related theories

5. Assumption is That work-related behavior is explained as determined by – Characteristics of employee – Characteristics of task – Characteristics of job context – Interaction of these – It is intrinsically motivated behavior

6. A. CHARACTERISTICS OF EMPLOYEE Personal factors-Individual needs McClelland Need for Achievement: Individual's need to seek and accomplish challenging tasks Need for affiliation: evaluation of social interaction with others-need to belong Need for power: Interest in influencing others

7. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

8. Two sets of motivational forces: – Those that ensure survival by satisfying basic physical and psychological needs – Those that promote the person’s self-actualization

9. Assumptions of hierarchy: – Needs lower down must be satisfied before – Higher-level needs are an evolutionary development of species and individuals – Higher-level needs are related to experience, not biology – The higher the need, the more difficult to achieve

10. B. JOB CHARACTERISTICS Herzberg’s two-factor theory Two factors are important in determining job satisfaction and dissatisfaction – Motivators: elements related to job content that when present offer satisfaction – Hygienes: elements related to job context that when absent cause job dissatisfaction

11. Job Characteristics Model-JCM Hackman and Oldham (1976) Employees must experience three psychological states to be motivated: – Perceive their work as meaningful – Associate a sense of responsibility with the job – Have some knowledge of results of their efforts

12. Emphasizes the role that certain aspects of jobs play in influencing work motivation – Skill variety – Task identity – Task significance – Autonomy – feedback MPS=skill variety+task identity+task significance/3 x autonomy x feedback

13. C. INTERACTION BETWEEN PERSON AND TASK CHARACTERISTICS Flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1982) Subjective experience of optimal motivational state when people are completely engaged in what they are doing Three antecedents: – Clear set of goals and rules – Match between perceived task demands and individual skills – Clear and immediate performance feedback

14. Process related theories

15. Expectancy-Valence theory (Vroom, 1964) Valence: desirability of an outcome to an individual Instrumentality: the perceived relationship between the performance of a particular behaviour and the likelihood of receiving a particular outcome Expectancy: the perceived relationship between the individual’s effort and performance of a behavior

16. Goal setting theory Specificity – Often quantitative Difficulty – Should be hard but not impossible for most workers to achieve Acceptability – Especially important when managers set goals for subordinates Feedback So that workers know how well they are doing