OBA Essays- Motivation
Is there a link between work design, motivation, job performance and job satisfaction?
What role does job design play in motivating individuals to perform?
What are the differences between content and process theories of motivation?
Introduction
Distinction between work design & job design:
o Job design refers to the design of the tasks. Davis (1966): job design is concerned
with the specification of the contents, methods and relationships of jobs in order
to satisfy technological and organizational requirements, as well as social and
personal requirements of the job holder.
o Work design refers to the connection of tasks to all other element of
organisational life
Motivation: processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and
persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
When considering theories of motivation together, a relationship begins to form: high
motivation and job satisfaction are influence by the nature of the work design, leading
to higher work performance.
P1: Content Theories of Motivation
Focuses on a needs-based approach to motivation, looking at it from a rational
perspective.
Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs was the first literature used to understand what
motivates individuals.
o Needs are prioritised, with physiological and safety first, such as eating &
drinking and shelter, and esteem and self-actualisation last.
o High order needs are satisfied internally, low order needs are satisfied externally.
o Only when lower needs are satisfied do the next, higher needs become
dominant.
Alderfer’s (1969) ERG theory rectified Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ main criticism that
the order that needs are in varies dependent on the individual.
o Three core needs: existence, relatedness and growth, but not in a rigid hierarchy-
all needs were simultaneous.
o Unfortunately, there is no empirical substantiation for this theory.
o Managers can use this model to understand that, if you want to motivate
someone, you need to understand what level an employee is on and focus on
satisfying the needs at or above that level.
McGregor’s (1960) Theory X outlined how employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike
responsibility and must be coerced to perform.
o They are motivated in order to obtain a reward such as money.
o Extrinsic motivation- behaviour is driven by external rewards.
Conversely, Theory Y states that employees do like work, are creative, seek
responsibility and exercise self-direction.
o Motivation is intrinsic: employees find rewards within the work itself, such as
through personal challenges, advanced competence, participative decision
making and good group relations.
, Herzeberg (1968) supports McGregor’s theories and advances them by introducing job
satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
o While job satisfaction is positively correlated to motivation, the factors that lead
satisfaction are not opposite to those that lead to dissatisfaction.
o Eliminating job dissatisfaction won’t lead to an increase in motivation.
o Herzeberg outlines that there are two strands of factors that managers need to
look at: hygiene factors which prevent dissatisfaction, such as company policy,
supervision and work conditions, and motivators which increase job satisfaction,
such as responsibility, recognition, advancement and the work itself.
o This theory suggests that job design needs to consider both strands separately.
o Herzberg assumes a relationship between satisfaction and performance.
While these early motivation theories are not supported by evidence and are far too
generalised to be applicable, they provide us with information regarding what needs
individuals have that lead to motivation and begins to develop an understanding of how
intrinsic motivation is linked to job satisfaction and what needs to be looked at in order
to design jobs that maximise these two elements.
P2: Process Theories of Motivation
Locke’s (1968) Goal Setting Theory argues that specific and difficult goals leads to a
higher motivation and therefore a higher performance.
o Designing goals which have a clearly defined components based on Drucker’s
(1955) SMART criteria will increase motivation because employees can clearly
see the relationship between objectives, performance and rewards. T
Vroom (1964)’s Expectancy theory: employees believe that working hard will result in
reaching desired level of performance and, if successful, this performance will be
followed by rewards.
Reinforcement Theory builds on this by adding the idea that behaviour is a function of
its consequences.
o Stresses the importance of feedback within job design for motivation.
o An example of this feedback is the development of direct relationship between
university fundraisers and bursary students. This found that fundraisers who met
with bursary students donated for 42% longer and raised twice as much as those
who hadn’t.
Other theories include Adam’s Equity theory, which discusses how individuals compare
their job inputs and outcomes with those of others which, if they perceive unfairness,
motivates the individual to act to resolve the unfairness.
o This can manifest itself through both behaviour and cognitive actions, such as
changing individual inputs or distorting own inputs respectively.
Vroom’s Expectation Theory also states that motivation depends on the expectation that
effort makes a difference to performance and valence (value a person assigns to
rewards) of outcomes.
o Allows us to identify specific structural and governance features that can bring
about and maintain motivation.
These theories stress the importance of recognising opportunities that can aid effort and
goals that direct behaviour as well as designing a reward system that is perceived to pay
off good performance where the rewards will motivate continued good performance.
