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Chapter

Learning Goals

Motivation

What is motivation?
What three beliefs help determine work effort,
according to expectancy theory?
What two qualities make goals strong predictors of
task performance, according to goal setting theory?
What does it mean to be equitably treated according
to equity theory, and how do employees respond to
inequity?

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Copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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Copyright 2011 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Goals, Contd

What is Motivation?

What is psychological empowerment, and

what four beliefs determine empowerment
levels?
How does motivation affect job performance
and organizational commitment?
What steps can organizations take to increase
employee motivation?

Motivation is defined as a set of energetic forces

that originates both within and outside an employee,
initiates work-related effort, and determines its
direction, intensity, and persistence.
Motivation is a critical consideration because job
performance often requires high levels of both ability and
motivation.
Employees who are engaged completely invest themselves
and their energies into their jobs.

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Motivation and Effort

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Discussion Questions
What makes you decide to direct your effort
to work assignments rather than taking a
break or wasting time?

Figure 6-1

What makes you decide to be a good citizen

by helping out a colleague or another
student?

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Expectancy Theory

Expectancy Theory

Employee behavior is directed toward pleasure

and away from pain or, more generally, toward
certain outcomes and away from others.

Figure 6-2

Expectancy theory describes the cognitive

process that employees go through to make
choices among different voluntary responses.

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Expectancy Theory, Contd

Expectancy Theory, Contd

Expectancy represents the belief that exerting a high

level of effort will result in the successful
performance of some task.

Instrumentality represents the belief that successful

performance will result in some outcome(s).
Instrumentality is a set of subjective probabilities, each
ranging from 0 to 1 that successful performance will
bring a set of outcomes (abbreviated P O).
Valence reflects the anticipated value of the outcomes
associated with performance (abbreviated V).

Expectancy is a subjective probability, ranging from 0 to 1

that a specific amount of effort will result in a specific level
of performance (abbreviated E P).

Can be positive, negative, or zero

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Expectancy Theory, Contd

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Expectancy Theory, Contd

What exactly makes some outcomes more

positively valenced than others?
In general, outcomes are deemed more
attractive when they help satisfy needs.
Needs can be defined as cognitive groupings or
clusters of outcomes that are viewed as having
critical psychological or physiological
consequences.
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Extrinsic motivation is motivation that is

controlled by some contingency that depends
on task performance.
Intrinsic motivation is motivation that is felt
when task performance serves as its own
reward.
OB on Screen
The Dark Knight
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Extrinsic and Intrinsic Outcomes

Expectancy Theory, Contd

Total motivational force to perform a given action
can be described using the following formula:

Table 6-2

Motivational Force = E P x [(P O) x V]

The symbol in the equation signifies that
instrumentalities and valences are judged with various
outcomes in mind.
Motivational force equals zero if any one of the three
beliefs is zero.
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Goal Setting Theory

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Goal Difficulty and Task Performance

Assigning employees specific and difficult goals

will result in higher levels of performance.

Figure 6-4

Goal setting theory views goals as the primary

drivers of the intensity and persistence of
effort.

What is a difficult goal?

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Goal Setting Theory, Contd

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Goal Setting Theory, Contd

Why do specific and difficult goals have such

positive effects?
Assignment of a specific and difficult goal shapes
peoples own self-set goals the internalized
goals that people use to monitor their own task
progress.
Goals trigger the creation of task strategies,
defined as learning plans and problem-solving
approaches used to achieve successful
performance.
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Moderators on Task Performance

Feedback consists of updates on employee
progress toward goal attainment.
Task complexity reflects how complicated the
information and actions involved in a task are, as
well as how much the task changes.
Goal commitment is defined as the degree to
which a person accepts a goal and is determined
to try to reach it.
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Goal Setting Theory

Figure 6-5

Table 6-4

Strategies for Fostering Goal Commitment

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Equity Theory

Equity Theory, Contd

Equity theory acknowledges that motivation

doesnt just depend on your own beliefs and
circumstances but also on what happens to
other people.
Employees create a mental ledger of the
outcomes (or rewards) they get from their job
duties.

You compare your ratio of outcomes and inputs

to the ratio of some comparison other some
person who seems to provide an intuitive frame
of reference for judging equity.
Cognitive calculus
Ratio of outcomes to inputs is balanced between
you and your comparison other.
My Outcomes vs. Others Outcomes
My inputs
Others Inputs

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Some Outcomes and Inputs Considered by

Equity Theory

Equity Theory, Contd

Cognitive calculus, contd

Any imbalance in ratios triggers equity distress an

internal tension that can only be alleviated by restoring
balance to the ratios.

Table 6-5

Your ratio of outcomes to inputs is less than your

comparison others ratio.

Your ratio of outcomes to inputs is greater than

your comparison others ratio.
Change your comparison other.
Internal versus external comparisons
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Judging
Equity with
Different
Comparison
Others
Table 6-6

Figure 6-6

Three Possible
Outcomes of
Equity Theory
Comparisons

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Psychological empowerment reflects an energy

rooted in the belief that work tasks contribute to
some larger purpose.
Meaningfulness captures the value of a work goal or
purpose, relative to a persons own ideals and passions.
Self-determination reflects a sense of choice in the
initiation and continuation of work tasks.
Competence captures a persons belief in his or her
capability to perform work tasks successfully.
Impact reflects the sense that a persons actions make a
differencethat progress is being made toward fulfilling
some important purpose.

Why Are Some

Employees
More
Motivated
than Others?

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Figure 6-7

Psychological Empowerment

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Strongest performance effect is self-efficacy /

competence; people who feel a sense of internal
self-confidence tend to outperform those who doubt
their capabilities.
Difficult goals are the second most powerful
motivating force.
The motivational force created by high levels of
valence, instrumentality, and expectancy is the next
most powerful motivational variable for task
performance.
Perceptions of equity have a somewhat weaker
effect on task performance.
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Figure 6-8

Effects of Motivation on Performance and

Commitment

How Important is Motivation?

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Compensation Plan Elements

Application: Compensation Systems

Do the elements provide difficult and specific goals
for channeling work effort?

Consider the correspondence between individual

performance levels and individual monetary
outcomes.
Merit pay represents the most common element of
organizational compensation plans.

Table 6-7

Lump sum bonuses and gainsharing have been credited

with improvements in employee productivity.

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Compensation Plan Elements, Contd

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Takeaways

Table 6-7

Motivation is defined as a set of energetic forces that

originates both within and outside an employee,
initiates work-related effort, and determines its
direction, intensity, and persistence.
According to expectancy theory, effort is directed
toward behaviors when effort is believed to result in
performance (expectancy), performance is believed to
result in outcomes (instrumentality), and those
outcomes are anticipated to be valuable (valence).
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Takeaways, Contd

Takeaways, Contd

According to goal setting theory, goals become strong drivers of

motivation and performance when they are difficult and specific.
Specific and difficult goals affect performance by increasing self-set
goals and task strategies. Those effects occur more frequently when
employees are given feedback, tasks are not too complex, and goal
commitment is high.
According to equity theory, rewards are equitable when a persons ratio
of outcomes to inputs matches those of some relevant comparison
other. A sense of inequity triggers equity distress. Underreward inequity
typically results in lower levels of motivation or higher levels of
counterproductive behavior. Overreward inequity typically results in
cognitive distortion, in which inputs are reevaluated in a more positive
light.

Psychological empowerment reflects an energy rooted

in the belief that tasks are contributing to some larger
purpose. Psychological empowerment is fostered
when:

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work goals appeal to employees passions (meaningfulness),

employees have a sense of choice regarding work tasks
(self-determination),
employees feel capable of performing successfully
(competence), and
employees feel they are making progress toward fulfilling
their purpose (impact).
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Takeaways, Contd
Motivation has a strong positive relationship with job
performance and a moderate positive relationship
with organizational commitment. Of all the energetic
forces subsumed by motivation, selfefficacy/competence has the strongest relationship
with performance and commitment.
Organizations use compensation practices to
increase motivation. Those practices may include
individual-focused elements (piece-rate, merit pay,
lump sum bonuses, recognition awards), unitfocused elements (gainsharing), or organizationfocused elements (profit sharing).
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