CHAPTER FOURTEEN Motivating Today’s Employees - …

[Pages:15]Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Motivating Today's Employees

Learning objectives After studying this chapter, you will be able to: 1. Define motivation. 2. Define the traditional theory of motivation. 3. Explain the hierarchy of needs. 4. Discuss the motivation-maintenance theory of motivation. 5. Discuss the preference-expectancy theory of motivation. 6. Explain reinforcement theory. 7. State several things that the supervisor can do to affect employee motivation.

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

SUPERVISION DILEMMA

In recent weeks, Jane Harris has noticed that whenever she enters the office, several of her employees appear to be loafing or involved in gossipy conversations. In Jane's opinion, they just don't seem to be working very hard. A quick review of the human resources records verified another suspicion--absenteeism and

tardiness have increased in recent months. Jane is baffled. Just two months ago, everyone received an 11 percent pay raise. In addition to this, the facilities of her department have been recently refurbished. What else could the employees possibly want?

"Nobody wants to work like they did in the good old days." "Half the problems we have around here are due to a lack of personal motivation." "Workers just don't seem to care." Such sentiments are often expressed by today's supervisors. However, motivating employees is not a new problem. Much of the pioneering work in the field of management was concerned with motivation. One can even find examples showing motivation problems existed back in biblical times.

What Is Motivation?

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Numerous definitions can be found for the word motivation. Often included in these definitions are such words as aim, desire, end, impulse, intention, objective, and purpose. The word motivation actually comes from the Latin movere, which means "to move." In today's organizations, motivation means getting people to exert a high degree of effort on their job. A motivated employee is an employee who tries hard. The key to motivation, then, is getting employees to want to do a job. In this light, motivation is not something that the supervisor does to an employee. Rather, motivation is something that must come from within an employee. The supervisor can, however, create an environment that encourages motivation on the part of employees. This is the context in which the supervisor motivates employees.

Motivation can best be understood using the following sequence of events:

Needs Drives or motives Accomplishment of goals

In this sequence, needs produce motives, which lead to the accomplishment of goals. Needs are caused by deficiencies, which can be either physical or mental. For instance, a physical need exists when a person goes without sleep for a long period. A mental need exists when a person has no friends or no meaningful relationships with other people.

Motives produce action. Lack of sleep (the need) activates the physical changes of fatigue (the motive), which produce sleep (the accomplishment of the goal). The accomplishment of the goal satisfies the need and reduces the motive. When the goal is reached, balance is restored. Other needs soon arise, however, and the sequence repeats itself.

Understanding People

Every supervisor knows that some people are easier to motivate than others. Why is this true? Are some people simply born more motivated than others? No person is exactly like any other person. Each individual has a unique personality and makeup. Thus, because people are different, it stands to reason that different factors are required to motivate different people. Yet many supervisors often expect all employees to react in a similar manner.

243

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

SUPERVISION ILLUSTRATION 14?1

MOTIVATION BY NO-LAYOFF COMPANIES

After the September 11, 2001, tragedy, the dot-com bust, and a declining economy, many companies were announcing job cuts of 20 percent or more. However, many companies such as Southwest Airlines, FedEx, AFLAC, Erie Insurance, and Nucor Corporation refused to follow a practice of laying off employees. Rather, executives at no-layoff companies argue that maintaining their workforce even in terrible times breeds fierce loyalty, higher productivity, and the innovation needed to enable them to snap back

once the economy recovers. The CEO of Southwest Airlines, James F. Parker, said: "We are willing to suffer some damage, even to our stock price, to protect the jobs of our people." At steelmaker Nucor Corp., based in Charlotte, N.C., some plants are on a four-day schedule, shaving 20 percent off the average employee's $50,000 annual pay. Bonuses of senior executives, which make up 66 percent of their salaries, have been stopped.

Source: Adapted from Michelle Conlin, "Where Layoffs Are a Last Resort," Business Week, October 8, 2001, p. 42.

Not all employees expect or even want the same things from their jobs. People work for different reasons. Some people work because they have to work; they need money to pay their bills. Others work because they want something to occupy their time. Some people work for extra money--to buy something they would not otherwise be able to afford. Other people work so that they can have a career and its related satisfactions. In light of the many different reasons why people work, it is not logical to expect the same things to motivate everyone.

When attempting to understand the behavior of an employee, the supervisor should always remember that people do things for a reason. The reason may be imaginary, inaccurate, distorted, or unjustifiable, but it is real to the individual. The reason, whatever it may be, must be identified before the supervisor can understand the employee's behavior. All too often, the supervisor disregards an employee's reason for a certain behavior as being unrealistic or based on inaccurate information. Such a supervisor responds to the employee's reason by saying, "I don't care what he thinks--that is not the way it is!" Supervisors of this kind will probably never understand why employees behave as they do.

Yet another consideration in understanding the behavior of employees is the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, also known as the Pygmalion effect. This concept refers to the tendency of an employee to live up to the supervisor's expectations. In other words, if the supervisor expects an employee to succeed, the employee usually will succeed. Of course, the opposite is also true. If the supervisor expects an employee to fail, the employee will usually fail.

All in all, humans are very complex beings. Different things motivate different people. Today's supervisor must recognize these differences and learn to deal with them. Supervision Illustration 14?1 describes a unique approach to motivation that has been used by several companies.

Basic Motivation Theories

Several basic theories of employee motivation have been developed. The most widely recognized theories are discussed below.

Traditional Theory

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244

The traditional theory of motivation evolved from the work of Frederick W. Taylor and the scientific management movement in the early 1900s. Taylor's ideas were based on his belief that most reward systems were not designed to reward a person for high production. Taylor felt that the output of highly productive people would decrease when they discovered that they were receiving basically the same compensation as people who produced less. Taylor's solution was quite simple. He designed a system whereby individuals were compensated according to their production.

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

Chapter 14 Motivating Today's Employees 245

Need Hierarchy Theory

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

One of Taylor's problems was determining reasonable standards of performance. Taylor solved this problem by breaking jobs down into components and measuring the time necessary to accomplish each component. In this way, he was able to establish standards of performance "scientifically."

Under Taylor's reward system, one rate was paid for units produced up to the standard, but once the standard was reached, a significantly higher rate was paid not only for the units above the standard but for all of the units produced during the day. Thus under Taylor's system, employees could significantly increase their pay by exceeding the standard.

The traditional theory of motivation is based on the assumption that money is the primary motivator of people. Under this assumption, financial rewards are directly related to performance in the belief that employees will work harder and produce more if these rewards are great enough.

The need hierarchy theory is based on the assumption that employees are motivated to satisfy a number of needs and that money can satisfy, directly or indirectly, only some of these needs. The need hierarchy theory is based largely on the work of the psychologist Abraham Maslow.

Maslow felt that five levels of needs exist within individuals and that these need levels relate to one another in the form of the hierarchy shown in Figure 14.1.

The physical needs are basically the needs of the human body that must be satisfied in order to sustain life. These needs include food, sleep, water, exercise, clothing, shelter, and so forth. The safety needs are concerned with protection against danger, threat, or deprivation. Since all employees have, to some degree, a dependent relationship with the organization, the safety needs can be critically important. Favoritism, discrimination, and arbitrary administration of organizational policies are actions that arouse uncertainty and therefore affect the safety needs.

The third level of needs is the social needs. The social needs include love, affection, and belonging. Such needs are concerned with establishing one's position relative to that of others. They are satisfied by the development of meaningful personal relations and by acceptance into meaningful groups of individuals. Belonging to organizations and identifying with work groups are ways of satisfying the social needs in organizations.

The fourth level of needs is the esteem needs. These needs include both self-esteem and the esteem of others. Maslow contended that all people have needs for the esteem of others and for a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of themselves. The esteem needs are concerned with the development of various kinds of relationships based on adequacy, independence, and the giving and receiving of indications of self-esteem and acceptance.

FIGURE 14.1

Maslow's Need Hierarchy

Selfactualization

Esteem or ego Social Safety Physical

High-order needs Lower-order needs

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

246 Section Four Leadership Skills

FIGURE 14.2

Examples of Needs and Workplace Examples to Satisfy Needs

Physical Needs

1. Food and water 2. Sleep

3. Health

4. 5.

Body needs Exercise and rest

Wages

Safety Needs

1. Security and safety 2. Protection

3. Comfort and peace 4. No threats or danger

5. Orderly and neat surroundings

6.

Assurance

of

long-term economic

well-being

Benefits/Pension

Social Needs

1. Acceptance 2. Feeling of belonging

3. Membership in groups

4. Love and affection 5. Group participation

Friendly Co-Workers

Esteem (or Ego) Needs

1. 2. 3. 4.

Recognition and prestige Confidence and leadership Competence and success Strength and intelligence

Promotions, Recognition, and Rewards

Self-Actualization Needs

1. Self-fulfillment of potential

2. 3.

Doing things for the challenge of accomplishment Intellectual curiosity

4. Creativity and aesthetic appreciation

5. Acceptance of reality

Meaningful Work

The highest-order needs in Maslow's hierarchy are self-actualization and selffulfillment: the needs of people to reach their full potential in terms of their abilities and interests. Such needs are concerned with the will to operate at the optimum and thus receive the rewards that are the result of doing so. The rewards may not only be economic and social but also mental. The needs for self-actualization and self-fulfillment are never completely satisfied. One can always reach one step higher. Figure 14.2 lists several examples of each need level.

Maslow believed that at any given time only one need level serves as a person's primary motivation. He also believed that people start with the lower-order needs and move up the need hierarchy one level at a time as the lower-order needs become satisfied. Thus, until the physical needs have been substantially satisfied, they tend to dominate all other needs. Once the physical needs have been satisfied, the safety needs become dominant in the need structure. Different needs emerge as each of the respective need levels is satisfied.

In our society, the physical and safety needs are more easily and therefore more generally satisfied than the other levels of needs. In fact, Maslow estimated the percentage of persons satisfying the various need levels as follows: physical, 85 percent; safety, 70 percent; social, 50 percent; ego, 40 percent; and self-actualization, 10 percent. Many of the

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

AchievementPowerAffiliation Theory

MotivationMaintenance Theory

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Chapter 14 Motivating Today's Employees 247

tangible rewards (pay and fringe benefits) given by today's organizations are used primarily to satisfy physical and safety needs.

Although the needs of the majority of people are arranged in the sequence shown in Figure 14.1, differences can occur, depending on an individual's learning experiences, culture, and social upbringing.

It is important to note that the strength of an individual's needs may shift back and forth under different situations. For instance, an individual's behavior might be dominated by the physical and safety needs in bad economic times and by the higher-order needs in good economic times.

It is not necessary to completely satisfy one need before another need emerges. Meeting some needs partially can result in an opportunity for another need to present itself. For instance, it is possible to be motivated by the social and esteem needs at the same time.

Finally, different individuals can use different methods to satisfy a particular need. Two individuals may have to satisfy the same social need, but the ways in which each of them chooses to satisfy that need may vary considerably.

As far as the motivation process is concerned, the thrust of the need hierarchy theory is that a satisfied need is not a motivator. Consider the basic physical need for oxygen. Only when individuals are deprived of oxygen can it have a motivating effect on their behaviors.

Many of today's organizations are applying the logic of the need hierarchy. For instance, compensation systems are generally designed to satisfy lower-order needs--physical and safety needs. On the other hand, interesting work and opportunities for advancement are designed to appeal to higher-order needs. Thus, the job of the supervisor is to determine the needs of employees and then provide the means by which those needs can be satisfied.

Closely related to Maslow's theory is the achievement-power-affiliation theory, developed primarily by David McClelland. This theory holds that all people have three needs: (1) a need for achievement, (2) a need for power, and (3) a need for affiliation.

The need for achievement is a need to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. The need for power is basically a need to influence people. The need for affiliation is a need to be liked--to establish or maintain friendly relations with others.

McClelland maintains that most people have a degree of each of these needs but that the level of intensity varies. For example, a person may be high in the need for achievement, moderate in the need for power, and low in the need for affiliation. This person's motivation to work will vary greatly from that of a person who has a high need for power and low needs for achievement and affiliation. According to the achievement-power-affiliation theory, it is the responsibility of supervisors to recognize the differences in the dominant needs of both themselves and their employees and to effectively integrate these differences. For example, an employee with a high need for affiliation would probably respond positively to demonstrations of warmth and support by the supervisor. An employee with a high need for achievement would probably respond positively to increased responsibility. Through selfanalysis, supervisors can gain insight into how they tend to respond to employees. They may then want to alter their response to employees so that they can best fit the employee's needs.

Frederick Herzberg has developed a theory of work motivation that has gained wide acceptance in management and supervisory circles. His theory is referred to by several names: motivation-maintenance theory, dual-factor theory, and motivator-hygiene theory.

Herzberg's theory deals primarily with motivation through job design. The theory is based on the belief that the factors that demotivate or turn off employees are different from the factors that motivate or turn on employees. Herzberg maintains that the factors that tend to demotivate employees are usually associated with the work environment. These factors include such things as job status, interpersonal relations with supervisors and peers,

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

248 Section Four Leadership Skills

FIGURE 14.3

Hygiene and Motivator Factors

Hygiene Factors (relate to the environment)

Policies and administration Style of supervision Working conditions Interpersonal relations Factors that affect employee's personal life Money, status, security

Motivator Factors (relate to the job itself)

Achievement Recognition Challenging work Increased responsibility Advancement Personal growth

PreferenceExpectancy Theory

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

the style of supervision that the person receives, company policy and administration, job security, working conditions, pay, and aspects of personal life that are affected by the work situation. Herzberg refers to these factors as hygiene or maintenance factors. He chose these terms because he perceived these factors as being preventive in nature. In other words, he believed that these factors would not produce motivation but could prevent motivation from occurring. Thus, proper attention to hygiene factors is a necessary but not sufficient condition for motivation. For example, Herzberg contends that pay will not motivate a person (at least for more than a short period of time) but that insufficient pay can certainly demotivate a person.

According to Herzberg, the factors that motivate people are factors related to the work itself as opposed to the work environment. These factors, which he calls motivators, include achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the challenges of the job. Herzberg maintains that true motivation occurs only when both the motivator factors and the hygiene factors are present. At best, proper attention to the hygiene factors will keep an individual from being dissatisfied but will not motivate the individual. Figure 14.3 lists some examples of hygiene and motivator factors.

As a solution to motivation problems, Herzberg developed an approach called job enrichment. Unlike job enlargement or job rotation, job enrichment involves upgrading the job by adding motivational factors such as increased responsibilities. (Job enlargement merely involves giving an employee more of a similar type of operation to perform. Job rotation is the practice of periodically rotating job assignments.) Designing jobs that provide for meaningful work, achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and growth is the key to job enrichment. Herzberg's major contribution has been his emphasis on the relationship between the job content and the employee's feelings.

The preference-expectancy theory is based on the belief that people attempt to increase pleasure and decrease displeasure. According to this theory, people are motivated to work if (1) they believe that their efforts will be rewarded and (2) they value the rewards that are being offered.

The belief that efforts will be rewarded can be broken down into two components: (a) the expectancy that increased effort will lead to increased performance and (b) the expectancy that increased performance will lead to increased rewards. These expectancies are developed largely from an individual's past experiences. For example, an employee may feel that working harder does not result in higher performance. Or an employee may believe that working harder does result in higher performance but that higher performance is not directly related to rewards. It should be pointed out that employee expectations are based on perceptions. These perceptions may or may not reflect reality--but whether or not they do, they represent reality to the employee.

The preference element of the preference-expectancy theory is concerned with the value that the employee places on the rewards that the organization offers. Historically, organizations have assumed that employees will value whatever rewards are provided.

Rue: Supervision, Eighth Edition

IV. Leadership Skills

14. Motivating Today's Employees

? The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004

Chapter 14 Motivating Today's Employees 249

FIGURE 14.4 Preference-Expectancy Theory of Motivation

( ) ( ) Motivation =

Expectancy that increased effort will lead to rewards

?

Preference of the individual for the rewards

[( ) Expectancy that

=

increased effort will lead to increased

?

( )] ( ) Expectancy that increased performance will lead to rewards

Preference of ? the individual

for the rewards

performance

Reinforcement Theory

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Even if this were true, certainly some rewards are less or more valued than others. In fact, certain rewards, such as a promotion that involves a transfer to another city, may be viewed negatively by some people. Figure 14.4 illustrates the preference-expectancy theory.

Supervisors can affect each of the components of the preference-expectancy theory. They can positively influence the expectancy that increased effort will lead to increased performance by providing proper selection and training and clear direction to employees. They can also affect the expectancy that increased performance will lead to rewards by linking rewards to performance. Of course, other factors such as the presence of a union can also affect how rewards are distributed. The employee's preference component, with regard to the rewards being offered, is often taken for granted by the supervisor. Supervisors should solicit feedback from their employees concerning the types of rewards they want. Since an organization is going to invest a certain amount of money in rewards (salary, fringe benefits, and so on), it should attempt to get the maximum return from this investment.

The development of the preference-expectancy theory is still in its infancy, and many questions remain to be answered. Some critics attack the theory on the grounds that it is overly rational, that humans often don't act as rationally as the theory assumes they act. Others say that the theory ignores impulsive and expressive behavior. Despite these criticisms, the preference-expectancy theory is currently one of the most popular theories of motivation.

Reinforcement theory is closely related to the preference-expectancy theory. The general idea behind this theory is that reinforced behavior is more likely to be repeated than behavior that is not reinforced. For instance, if employees are given a pay increase when their performance is high, then the employees are likely to continue to strive for high performance in hopes of getting another pay raise. Reinforcement theory assumes that the consequences of behavior determine an individual's level of motivation. Thus, an individual's motives are considered to be relatively minor in this approach.

Basically, four types of reinforcement exist: positive reinforcement, avoidance, extinction, and punishment. Positive reinforcement involves providing a positive consequence as a result of desired behavior. Avoidance, also called negative reinforcement, involves giving a person the opportunity to avoid a negative consequence by exhibiting a desired behavior. Both positive reinforcement and avoidance can be used to increase the frequency of desired behavior. Extinction involves providing no positive consequences or removing previously provided positive consequences as a result of undesirable behavior. In other words, behavior that no longer pays is less likely to be repeated. Punishment involves providing a negative consequence as a result of undesired behavior. Both extinction and punishment can be used to decrease the frequency of undesired behavior.

The current emphasis on the use of reinforcement theory in supervisory practices is on positive reinforcement. Examples include increased pay for increased performance and praise and recognition when an employee does a good job.

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