Organizational behavior

1. What are the three key elements of motivation?

The three key elements of motivation are intensity, direction and persistence. Intensity refers to the amount of effort a person exerts or how hard they try. Direction refers to how the intensity is channeled to benefit the organization. Persistence measures how long a person can maintain effort.

2. What are some early theories of motivation? How applicable are they today?

The four theories of motivation listed in the text are Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Theory X, Theory Y, Two-Factor Theory, and McClelland’s Theory of Needs. Mazlow’s theory dictates that people must work in order to fulfill more basic needs, like obtaining food, shelter, and safety, and then to be able to move on to more complex needs involving self esteem and self actualization. Theory X states that people generally do not like to work, and therefore they must be coerced into it.

Theory Y contrasts to Theory X and states that people can see work as natural as rest or place, and therefore they can accept it. The Two-Factor Theory states that the opposite of satisfaction isn’t dissatisfaction and removing dissatisfying characteristics doesn’t make a job satisfying. To motivate people management needs to focus on aspects directly relating to the job and what people derive from it like achievements, personal growth, recognition and responsibility. Lastly, McClelland’s theory is built around three basic needs: the need for achievement, need for power, and the need for affiliation.

3. How do the predictions of self-determination theory apply to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?

When an organization offers money and rewards for good performance, employees that do well usually achieve high results because of intrinsic motivation rather than the fact that it’s what the organization wants. Without extrinsic rewards, a person decides whether the work is personally fulfilling to them. If goals are based on intrinsic values and interests, the person is more likely to be successful rather than if they were focused on extrinsic goals.

4. What are the implications of employee engagement for management?

Setting goals for employees increases performance from employees. Giving employees more challenging goals to meet makes them work even harder to find solutions to the problem, meet quotas, etc. An example the book gives that helped me understand better was the fact that most students wouldn’t study nearly as hard for a test that they perceive to be easy as one they understand to be more challenging.

5. What are the similarities and differences between goal setting theory and management by objectives?

Both of these systems utilize goals to motivate employees to produce better results, produce feedback and utilize time limits. MBO is different from goal setting theory because it links all of the set goals and objectives in the hierarchy to one another and people get to participate to a degree in the goal setting process. Goal setting theory doesn’t have to involve the employees nor does it need to link the goals to make the system work more efficiently.

6. What are the similarities and differences between reinforcement theory and goal-setting theory?

Goal-setting is more of a cognitive approach in which we assume that an employees purposes direct his or her actions, meaning that specific goals will make them achieve more. Reinforcement theory on the other hand is more of a behavioral approach in which reinforcement and consequence in the environment is thought to drive behavior. The goal setting theory focuses more on intrinsic motivations while reinforcement theory is strictly behavioral with no concern to the thoughts or feelings of the individual.

7. How is organizational justice a refinement of equity theory?

Equity theory is what you perceive your worth is to the company based on what you think you deserve versus what you receive, and how that stacks up to people around you. Organizational justice is very similar; this is how employees perceive their organization as just or unjust when they believe rewards and the way they are distributed are fair.

8. What are the key tenets of expectancy theory?

The three relationships that expectancy theory focuses on are Effort-Performance, Performance-Reward, and Rewards-Personal Goals. Effort-Performance is the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance. Performance-Reward relationship is the degree to which the individual believes outperforming at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome. Rewards-Personal Goal is the degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual.

9. What are some contemporary theories of motivation and how do they compare to one another?

The contemporary theories of motivation are goal-setting theory, self-efficacy theory, reinforcement theory, equity theory/organizational justice, and expectancy theory. Expectancy theory predicts that employees will exert a high level of effort if they perceive a strong relationship between effort and performance. I think this is related to equity theory and organizational justice because it describes the relationship between work and payoff. If there isn’t perceived to be a just payoff and an employee doesn’t feel that their equity is that high, they won’t work as hard. Reinforcement also plays a role because the reward should reinforce the employees drive to work harder while under-appreciation might slow them down.