Motivating Employees
Motivation helps explain why people choose to act, how much effort they give, and how long they continue working toward a goal. In business, managers cannot assume that every employee is motivated by the same thing. Pay matters, but so do achievement, recognition, responsibility, fairness, meaningful work, relationships, security, and opportunities to grow.
Chapter 10 brings together several important theories of employee motivation. Some focus on human needs, some on the design of the job, and others on the employee’s expectations about effort, rewards, and fairness.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards
Intrinsic rewards are the personal satisfaction people feel when they perform well or accomplish a goal. Pride in a job well done and a sense of achievement are examples. These rewards come from within the individual.
Extrinsic rewards come from outside the individual as recognition for work. Examples include pay raises, promotions, awards, benefits, status, improved working conditions, and other tangible forms of recognition.
Both types of rewards can matter. However, an external reward does not automatically create lasting motivation. Managers should consider what employees value and whether the work itself provides challenge, meaning, responsibility, and accomplishment.
Scientific Management
Scientific management, associated with Frederick Taylor, sought to improve productivity by studying work carefully, finding efficient methods, and teaching workers those methods. Taylor emphasized time, methods of work, and rules of work.
The approach can be summarized as a process:
- Study how a job is performed.
- Gather time and motion information.
- Compare different methods.
- Identify and standardize an efficient method.
- Select workers whose skills fit the work.
- Establish an appropriate level of performance and pay.
Time-motion studies examine the tasks required to complete a job and the time needed for each task. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth extended this work by studying elementary motions involved in jobs. Scientific management improved attention to efficiency, although its early forms could treat workers too much like parts of a machine rather than people with social and psychological needs.
The Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne studies examined worker productivity under changing workplace conditions. In one well-known part of the research, workers were studied under different levels of lighting. Productivity increased even when the lighting changes did not seem to explain the improvement.
The research helped managers recognize the importance of human and psychological factors in the workplace. The Hawthorne effect describes the tendency for people to act differently when they know they are being studied or receiving special attention.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivation theory based on unmet human needs. The hierarchy moves from basic needs toward higher-level needs:
- Physiological needs — basic necessities such as food and shelter, supported at work by adequate income.
- Safety needs — security, stability, and protection from physical or economic harm.
- Social needs — belonging, relationships, teamwork, and acceptance.
- Esteem needs — recognition, respect, responsibility, status, and accomplishment.
- Self-actualization needs — reaching one’s potential, growing, creating, and doing meaningful work.
The theory proposes that needs already reasonably satisfied are less likely to motivate behavior, while unmet needs can become important motivators. Managers can therefore provide different opportunities and rewards depending on the needs most important to employees.
Herzberg’s Motivators and Hygiene Factors
Frederick Herzberg separated job factors into two broad categories. Motivators are factors that can increase satisfaction and encourage employees to be productive. Examples include the work itself, achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth, and advancement.
Hygiene factors are elements of the job environment that can cause dissatisfaction when they are inadequate, but improving them does not necessarily create strong motivation by itself. Examples include company policies, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, and job security.
This distinction helps explain why simply increasing pay may not make an uninteresting job satisfying over the long run. Good pay and working conditions can prevent dissatisfaction, while meaningful work, responsibility, recognition, and achievement can provide stronger motivational value.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Douglas McGregor argued that managers may operate from very different assumptions about employees.
Theory X
- Workers dislike work and try to avoid it.
- Workers must be controlled, directed, or threatened with consequences to perform.
- Workers prefer direction and avoid responsibility.
- Fear and money are viewed as primary motivators.
Theory Y
- Work can be a natural part of life.
- People can commit themselves to goals.
- Commitment is influenced by the rewards associated with achievement.
- People can use creativity to solve problems.
- Employees may seek responsibility and be motivated by many kinds of rewards.
A manager’s assumptions can influence how employees are treated. Theory X tends toward close control; Theory Y is more compatible with participation, responsibility, and empowerment. The appropriate management response may also depend on the employee and situation.
Ouchi’s Theory Z
William Ouchi examined differences between American and Japanese management approaches. In the chapter presentation, Theory Z is described as a hybrid approach that combines selected features of an individual-oriented approach with practices emphasizing group commitment and employee involvement.
The central lesson is that management and motivation can be influenced by organizational culture. Practices that work well in one setting may need to be adapted for another workforce or culture.
Goal-Setting Theory
Goal-setting theory proposes that ambitious but attainable goals can motivate employees and improve performance when employees accept the goals, receive feedback, and have organizational support for achieving them.
A goal should provide direction and a clear standard for success. Goals that are impossible, vague, unsupported, or never followed by feedback are less likely to motivate effectively.
Management by Objectives
Management by objectives (MBO) is a cycle of discussion, review, and evaluation of objectives among managers, supervisors, and employees. Managers and employees cooperate in formulating goals, results are monitored, and achievement is evaluated and recognized.
MBO applies goal-setting principles to the organization. Participation can increase understanding and commitment because employees know what is expected and have a role in establishing the objectives.
Expectancy Theory
Expectancy theory states that the effort employees exert on a task depends on what they expect the outcome to be. Employees may effectively ask three questions:
- Can I accomplish the task?
- What reward will follow successful performance?
- Is that reward worth the effort?
Motivation can weaken if employees believe they cannot succeed, if good performance will not lead to a reward, or if the offered reward is not valuable to them. Because people value different outcomes, the same reward will not motivate everyone equally.
Reinforcement Theory
Reinforcement theory focuses on how consequences can influence behavior. Positive reinforcement can include praise, recognition, or other desirable consequences following a behavior. The chapter also discusses negative consequences such as reprimands or reduced rewards and extinction, which attempts to reduce a behavior by no longer responding to or reinforcing it.
Managers should use consequences carefully and consistently. The goal is not simply to reward or punish, but to make the relationship between behavior and its consequences understandable.
Equity Theory
Equity theory focuses on perceived fairness. Employees compare what they contribute—such as effort, skill, time, experience, and responsibility—with what they receive, and they may compare that relationship with people in similar positions.
If employees perceive inequity, motivation can suffer. The presentation notes possible outcomes such as reduced productivity or quality, absenteeism, and resignation. Managers therefore need to consider not only the actual reward system but also whether employees understand and perceive it as fair.
Job Enrichment
Job enrichment motivates employees through the job itself. It builds on Herzberg’s emphasis on responsibility, achievement, recognition, growth, and meaningful work.
The presentation identifies several characteristics that can make work more motivating:
- Skill variety — using different abilities and talents.
- Task identity — completing a recognizable whole piece of work.
- Task significance — understanding that the work matters to other people or the organization.
- Autonomy — having appropriate freedom and responsibility in how work is performed.
- Feedback — receiving useful information about performance.
Job Enlargement and Job Rotation
Job enlargement combines a series of tasks into a broader, more challenging assignment. Job rotation moves employees from one job to another. Both can increase variety and help employees develop a broader understanding of the organization.
These approaches are most useful when they genuinely improve the work experience. Simply adding more tasks without greater meaning, responsibility, or support may not increase motivation.
Recognizing Good Work
Recognition does not have to mean only a pay raise. The chapter presentation gives examples such as paid time off, flexible scheduling, work-from-home opportunities, paid dependent care, stock options or profit sharing, company awards, and company events or teams.
The important point is to match recognition to what employees value. A reward that is highly motivating to one employee may be less important to another.
Personalizing Motivation
The chapter emphasizes that workforces include people with different experiences, expectations, communication preferences, and priorities. It uses generational categories to illustrate possible differences and encourages managers to think about how motivation and communication may need to be personalized.
These categories should be treated as broad discussion tools rather than assumptions about every individual. Effective managers learn what specific employees value through communication, observation, feedback, and fair treatment.
Managing Attention and Workload
Technology makes employees reachable almost constantly, but constant interruption can reduce focus. The presentation suggests practical habits such as scheduling times to handle correspondence, concentrating on one task, allowing calls to go to voicemail when appropriate, and giving full attention to people during face-to-face conversations.
Motivation is not only about increasing effort. Managers should also create conditions that allow employees to direct that effort productively.
Putting the Motivation Theories Together
No single theory explains every employee in every situation. Maslow emphasizes needs; Herzberg distinguishes job content from job environment; McGregor focuses on managerial assumptions; goal-setting and MBO emphasize clear objectives; expectancy theory considers the employee’s beliefs about effort and rewards; reinforcement theory considers consequences; and equity theory emphasizes fairness.
Managers can use these ideas together. They can provide fair working conditions, design meaningful jobs, establish attainable goals, give useful feedback, recognize achievement, connect performance to valued rewards, and listen to employees about what matters to them.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming that money is the only important employee motivator.
- Confusing intrinsic rewards with extrinsic rewards.
- Assuming the Hawthorne studies proved that lighting itself caused higher productivity; the major lesson concerns human and psychological factors and attention.
- Confusing Herzberg’s motivators with hygiene factors.
- Treating Theory X and Theory Y as descriptions of two fixed kinds of employees rather than contrasting managerial assumptions.
- Setting difficult goals without making them attainable, accepted, supported, and accompanied by feedback.
- Assuming the same reward has the same value to every employee.
- Confusing job enrichment, job enlargement, and job rotation.
- Using broad generational categories as stereotypes instead of learning about individual employees.