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Summary 4.1 Attitudes and Emotions
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Complete English summary of theme 2-4 in the first course of the Work and Organizational master
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Problem 11. What motivation theories are there and how can they be used to explain
employee motivation at work?
Steve M., Jex and Thomas W. Britt. (2014). Theories of Motivation. In Organizational
psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach. (pp. 289-330).
The goal of this chapter is to discuss the major theories that explain motivation in work context.
According to Kanfer, Chen, and Pritchard motivation is a hypothetical construct: you cannot
see/feel it. But, the effects of it are observable (just like gravity). Motivation determines the form,
intensity, and duration of work related behavior.
1. Form: types of activities that someone does at work
2. Direction: the path someone takes on the way to a specific goal
3. Intensity: the validity and amount of energy that is being put in goal oriented job
performance
4. Duration: indicates how long someone sustains a certain direction
Basic Assumptions about motivation
Motivation contains choice: motivation is reflected in the choices we make
Motivation contains allocation of resources: we only have limited resources available to us,
like cognition, attention, and time. For ex: we cannot study for a big exam, socialize with
friends, and watch a movie at the same time. We have to choose how we allocate our
resources > when we choose to allocate resources to studying, we are motivated to get a
good grade on the exam
Motivation is a multilevel process: you are motivated by many different things at the same
time > you want to do good at work, be a good parent, live healthy, be liked etc.
Theoretical approaches to motivation
1. Need-based theories: explain job motivation in terms of degree to which employees fulfill
important needs in the job environment
2. Cognitive process theories: emphasize the decisions and choices employees make when
allocating their efforts
3. Behavioral approach: emphasizes allocating learning principles on the job environment
4. Self-determination theory: emphasizes the importance of differentiating between
motivation by extrinsic factors (money, approval) vs intrinsic factors (interest)
5. Job-based theories: place job motivation in the context of jobs
Need-based theories of motivation
Maslow’s need hierarchy
Physiological: need for food, air, water. These are on the lowest level because they will only
motivate when not satisfied
Safety: protection and shelter. For ex: you work so you can give your family a home in a safe
environment + save for retirement
, Love and belonging: need for having meaningful relations
with others and a sense of belonging. For ex: working
because you keep up social contacts through it/get reward
out of this
Esteem: need for feeling competent and experiencing a
feeling of mastery. For ex: a clean and tidy house, or
feeling good when you finish a task quickly
Self-actualization: realizing your potential and maximizing
your capacity. For ex: a teacher who feels actualized when
teaching the generation of the future
Critique: was not empirically supported, mainly served as
inspiration for other theories. Mainly based on clinical observation
instead of empirical studies
ERG theory: represents existence (physiological needs and safety
needs), relatedness (love and belonging needs), and growth
(esteem and self-actualization needs).
Matches the phases of Maslow, but then subdivided in 3 levels instead of 5. The needs are
not hierarchical, and can also be lowered when one isn’t met.
Critique: little empirical support, but was basis for others theories
Need for Achievement theory: people with higher need for achievement take more risks, have
strong need for knowledge of results/feedback, they become absorbed in their work, set difficult
goals and make long working days. Is used to explain differences between people regarding goal
directed behavior. Critique: the theory is more useful than earlier theories, because it is focused on
one need (achievement) instead of different needs (smaller)
Cognitive process theories of motivation
Equity theory: form of social exchange theory. The equity theory focuses on the way in which one
determines what fairness of social exchange is. Employees put their inputs in the organization, like
academic results, years of working experience, job related skills and effort.
- Outcomes: are what you get back from the organization like money, promotion, recognition
> ratio of inputs-to-outcomes: employees compare with what they see as the standard (ex:
another employee with same job).
- When ratios are equal > state of equity is reached
- When ratios not equal > state of inequity is reached.
Most common form is underpayment: employee isn’t satisfied with the exchange relationship and
would like to bring this back into balance, ways to restore the balance:
, Inequity can also arise because employees receive too many outcomes, aka overpayment
Feelings of underpayment are uncomfortable, but with overpayment this is also the case, it
causes a feeling of guilt.
There has to be a lot of research done look into the difference between persons (equity
sensitivity)
Expectancy theory: focuses on the cognitive processes that make someone make a decision about
where they will put effort. Employees will execute this behavior as:
- There is a large chance they will be able to carry out this behavior when trying (expectancy)
- There is a good chance that action will lead to an outcome (valance) > can be
positive/negative
When one of these 3 conditions is missing, people will probably not do effort for a certain action.
The 3 variables can be combined into a formula.
The outcome (force = F) is the degree of effort that individual will do to perform well.
Force is highest when employees believe that effort will lead to certain level of
performance, and that level will lead to the desired outcomes
Critique: mixed empirical evidence
Goal-setting theory: human behavior is motivated and regulated by goals and aspirations. Goals
have three motivational values:
1. They cause attention and effort to be directed in a certain direction
2. They cause persistence
3. They cause development of task strategies
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