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

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)

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

Content-related theories

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

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

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

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

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

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

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

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

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

Process related theories

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

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