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Summary Problem 1 - Work Motivation
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Laura Heijnen – Working ManProblem 1. What drives them?
Arnold & Randall (2010) – Work psychology. Understanding human behaviour in
the workplace – Chapter 9: Approaches to work motivation and job design
Huczynski & Buchanan (2013) – Organizational behavior: An introductory text –
Chapter 9: Motivation
Landy & Conte (2013) – Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and
organizational psychology – Chapter 8: Motivation to Work
Spector (2012) – Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice –
Chapter 8: Theories of Employee Motivation
What motivates work?
Motivation: concerns conditions responsible for variations in intensity
(amount of effort), persistence (continuing engagement), quality +
direction (choice of behaviour) of ongoing behaviour popular in factory
+ mill work. Internal state that induces a person to engage in particular
behaviours.
- Goals: main motives for behaviour; motivation in terms of desired
outcomes/goals; content theories of motivation.
- Decisions: motivation in terms of cognitive decision-making
processes influencing individual’s choice of goals; process theories
of motivation.
- Influence: motivation as social influence process; job enrichment
theories.
Innate drives, but may not be restricted to basic biological needs
active sensation-seekers who have innate cognitive drives (e.g. curiosity,
sense-making, order and meaning, effectance or competency, self-
understanding).
Motives: acquired through experience.
History of motivation theory
- Instinct (psychodynamic theory, Freud): inborn tendency that is
thought to direct behaviour economic instinct, existence of
instinct because people engage in work.
o Vicious cycle (circularity) + ignored interaction between
individual and environment.
- Need, motive, drive (Maslow, 1943): needs are inborn + universally
present (= instincts); drives are nonhuman equivalent of motives
and needs. Environment plays role in motivated behaviour: one set
of needs satisfied by environmental forces next higher set of
needs activated.
o Little research attention nowadays.
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, Laura Heijnen – Working Man
- Behaviourist approach (Skinner, 1938): emphasis on environment
rather than any internal needs/instincts. Nature-versus-nurture
controversy. Other approaches about environment, but less
mechanical:
o Field theory (Lewin): various forces in psychological
environment interact + combine to yield final course of action.
Each force has ‘valence’ that attract/repel individual.
o Group dynamics (Lewin): application in industry.
- 1940 – 1960: behaviourists vs. need theorists.
- Cognitive psychology (1960): motivational superiority thought +
decision process.
- Nowadays: cognitive + emotional at foundation. What + how people
think.
Metaphors for motivation (Weiner)
- Person as machine: people’s behaviours/actions are reflexive +
involuntary and are performed without conscious awareness
(psychoanalytic, drive theory, behaviourism + field theory).
o Pushed by internal needs, pulled by environmental stimuli.
o Characteristics: automatic response, responds to needs and
drives, external stimuli, and reinforcement.
- Person as scientist: people are active info gatherers + analysts who
seek knowledge and understanding as a way of mastering
environment accurate prediction. Reflexive, intentional + rational
(modern motivational theories; late 1950s/early 1960s).
o Person as judge + intentional.
o Analyses internal + external info, hypothesizes about
foundation for events + actions of others, and develops goals
+ action plans.
o Criticism: individuals are not perfectly rational.
o Person as judge (Simon & Kahneman): limited rationality of
human decision maker individual seeks info about extent to
which person + others are perceived as responsible for
positive + negative events looking for evidence of
intentions.
Universal motives: basic self-interest, self-esteem driven
by fear of mortality socially + emotionally oriented.
Meaning and importance of motivation in the workplace
- Motivation and performance:
o Viteles: motivation is method for productivity, general
indifference in workers as major reason for decline in
productivity.
o Pritchard: ProMES (Productivity Measurement and
Enhancement System) increasing amount of time + effort
that individual devotes to task (= motivation) ↑ personal
performance + productivity.
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