LMD 5

Employee Motivation & Engagement

Work Motivation
The psychological forces that determine the direction of a person's behaviour in an
organisation, a person's level of effort, and persistence. What inspires someone to reach
a goal.
Performance = Motivation x Ability x Opportunity
Motivation and value systems
Effort and reward
Designing jobs in a way that better suit individuals

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic: from within the individual, behaviour that is performed to satisfy a psychological
need eg. recognition and appreciation
Extrinsic: external and tangible reward, behaviour performed to acquire material or social
rewards or to avoid punishment

Motivational Theory: Content - What Motivates?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 1964

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People are not always logical, Western centric theory
Very little research proving needs theory
Needs do not necessarily group together as predicted
People motivated by more than one need simultaneously
Lack of substantive definition of psychological or physiological

Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Factors

When motivator needs are met, workers will be very satisfied, when they are not met
they will not be satisfied

- Achievement, recognition, work, responsibility, advancement

When hygiene needs are met, workers will not be dissatisfied but when they are not
met they will be very dissatisfied

- Company policy, supervision, manager and peer relationship, work conditions

limited occupations surveyed, can it be universally applied?

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Motivational Theory: Process - What Motivates?

Expectancy Theory
Focus on how people make choices among alternative behaviours and levels of effort I
order to attain valued outcomes.
Expectancy: perception to which effort will result in a certain level of performance
Valance: desirability of an outcome to the individual
Instrumentality: extent to which performance of certain behaviours will lead to the
attainment of a particular outcome

Criticism concerning definition, relationship between E, V & I is inconsistent

Approach works best for attitude rather than behaviour
Research compares different people rather than different outcomes for the same
people

Goal Setting Theory (Locke, 1968)

Identifying the types of goals that are most effective in producing high levels of
motivation and performance, and why these goals have these effects.
Challenging goals better than unchallenging
Specific goals rather than vague goals
Stakeholder participation in goal setting is better than non-participation, assigned goals
need to be well explained and justified
Knowledge of results performance (feedback) is essential

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Why do goals affect motivation & performances?

Direct attention and behaviours towards goal relevant activities cause higher levels of
effort in those activities, stimulate ways to achieve those goals and increase
persistence in the face of obstacles that can thwart goal achievement
Important moderators of goal commitment and importance
Self-Efficacy: belief that the individual is capable of performing behaviours to achieve
S - specific, simple, sensible, significant
M - manageable, measurable, meaningful
A - agreed, attainable, acceptable, accountable
R - realistic, relevant, rewarding, reasonable
T - time bound, tangible, timely, truthful

Motivation Through Job Design

Process linking specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding what techniques, equipment,
and procedures should be used to perform those tasks
Job Enlargement - increasing number of tasks an employee performs but keeping all of
the tasks at the same level of difficulty and responsibility - horizontal job loading
Job Enrichment - increasing worker responsibility and control over their work,
challenging but not beyond capability - vertical job loading

Job Characteristic Theory

Approach to job design which identifies characteristics which make the job intrinsically
motivating and the consequences of those characteristics
Dimensions include:
Skill Variety: degree job requires variety of activities
Task Identity: degree job requires completion of a whole, identifiable piece of work
Task Significance: degree job affects the lives or work of other people
Autonomy: degree job allows individual freedom and discretion
Feedback: degree to which job gives clear indication of performance
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Theory of the job characteristics model is that the core dimensions impact critical
psychological states which impact an individual's work and personal outcomes.

Implementation: combine tasks, form natural work units, establish client relationships,
vertical loading, open feedback channels
Motivating Potential Score (MPS)
A measure of the overall potential of a job to foster intrinsic motivation.
Does not account for knowledge requirements, social activities, work context

Employee Involvement (EI)

Includes involvement in work processes, decision making and/or organisational
governance. Introduced in mid nineteenth century in order to inhibit trade union
membership.
Can involve financial participation through share ownership (stock options) or
partnerships such as John Lewis
Research shows contradictory results as to whether they increase commitment and
are rarely associated to participation in decision making
Need to focus on everyday work, not just remote organisation issues, employees make
decisions not only recommendations, allow for continuous improvement, must lead to
changes in the employees' working life (not superficial changes)
Self Managing Work Teams (SMWT) are effective and can provide innovation, quality,
productivity and redistribution of decision making (Cotton, 1996)
Engagement: cognitive, emotional, physical - leadership, management, voice, integrity
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