Motivation 

is the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and

persistence of effort towards attaining an organizational goal.  Key elements of
motivation include:
 Intensity: how much effort a person puts forth to meet a goal. 
 Direction: efforts are channeled toward organizational goals.
 Persistence: how long a person maintains effort towards a goal.
Maslow's theory originally proposed five levels of needs. These are as follows:
 Physiological: lower order need, includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other
bodily needs.  Lower order needs are satisfied externally, through forces
outside of the person.
 Safety-security: lower order need, includes security and protection from
physical and emotional harm.
 Social-belongingness: upper order need, includes affection, belongingness,
acceptance, and friendship. Upper order needs are satisfied internally, that is,
from within the person.
 Esteem: upper order need, includes internal (self-respect, autonomy, and
achievement) and external (status, recognition, and attention) esteem factors.
 Self-actualization: upper order need, defined as the drive to “be all one can be,”
it includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment.
As each of the lower level needs are satisfied, the next unsatisfied need becomes
dominant. Once satisfied, that particular need no longer motivates. Only unsatisfied
needs motivate people. It should be noted, however, that the order of needs can vary
across cultures.

According to the two-factor theory (also known as motivation-hygiene

theory),  Frederick Herzberg proposed that things that make people feel good about
their work are motivating factors while those things that do not make them feel good
about are demotivating factors. He argued that the opposite of satisfaction is not
dissatisfaction. There are two different factor scales - one that ranges from satisfaction
to no satisfaction (called motivation factors) and the other from dissatisfaction to no
dissatisfaction (called hygiene factors). 
 Hygiene factors - when these factors are not met, lead to job dissatisfaction. 
When they are met, they do not lead to job satisfaction, but rather, to a lack of
dissatisfaction. Therefore, meeting hygiene factors does not increase
motivation. However, they do keep workers placated.
 Motivation factors - these are intrinsically rewarding factors in the work
environment.  Meeting these factors will increase motivation by creating a
satisfying work environment. 
This theory is based on three basic sub-conscious needs of people.
 Need for Achievement (nAch):  For people predominantly driven by this need,
the need to excel and to achieve in relation to a set of standards is significant. 
 High achievers perform best when they have a 50-50 chance of success.  They
do well in jobs with a high degree of personal responsibility and feedback with
an intermediate degree of risk. However, A high need for achievement does not
necessarily mean the person would be a good manager for larger organizations,
since the desire for personal recognition may supersede the individual's concern
for the organization. 
 Need for Power (nPow): the need to make others behave in a way they would
not have behaved otherwise. People with high need for power may be effective
leaders. 
 Need for Affiliation (nAff): the desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships. A combination of a high need for power and affiliation can make
for good managers.

Self-determination theory proposes that people prefer to feel they have control over
their actions. Consequently, if a previously enjoyable task is made to feel more like an
obligation  rather than a freely chosen activity for any reason, it will undermine
motivation. It suggests  that in addition to being driven by a need for autonomy,
people seek ways to achieve competence and positive connections to others.
A lot of the research on self-determination theory in OB has focused on cognitive
evaluation theory, which hypothesizes that extrinsic rewards will reduce intrinsic
interest in a task. In other words, when people are paid for work, it feels less like
something they want to do and more like something they have to do.
A recent outgrowth of self-determination theory is self-concordance, which considers
how strongly people’s reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests
and core values. If individuals pursue goals because of an intrinsic interest, they are
more likely to attain their goals and are happy even if they do not because their
intrinsic interest makes the process of striving towards the goals an enjoyable
experience. People who pursue work goals for intrinsic reasons are more satisfied
with their jobs, feel like they fit into their organizations better, and may perform
better. 

The idea behind the goal-setting theory is that goals that are specific and effectively difficult can
lead to higher performance if they include self-generated feedback. Typically, the more
difficult a goal is, the higher level of performance, assuming that goal has been
accepted by the employee.  This is because difficult goals focus attention on the task
and away from distractions, energize employees,  tend to make people persist in
efforts toward attaining them, and force employees to discover strategies to help them
perform the task or job more effectively. Contingencies in goal-setting include:
 Goal Commitment - commitment increases when goals are made public, an
individual has an internal locus of control, and goals are self-set rather than
assigned.
  Task Characteristics - goals are better in terms of performance on simple
rather than complex tasks, when tasks are familiar, and when they are
accomplished by a single individual.
 National culture - goal-setting theory is culture-bound.  It is important that the
key components of goal-setting theory match the culture traits.

One of the effective ways to formalize goal-setting theory is through management by

objectives (MBO). MBO emphasizes setting goals that are tangible, verifiable, and
measurable. The result of MBO is a hierarchy of objectives that build toward
organizational objectives.

According to equity thoery, motivation is influenced by comparisons made by

employees regarding their job inputs (effort, experience, education, confidence) and
the job's outcomes (salary levels, raises, recognition) relative to the inputs and
outcomes of other employees.  If the ratios of inputs to outputs are roughly equal
between employees, a state of equity is said to exist and it reduces tension.  However,
when the ratios are perceived to be unequal, people maybe motivated to act in a way to bring the
situation into a more equitable state. Employees perceiving inequity may choose any of the
following to cope with the situation: 
 Change inputs (exert less effort if underpaid or more if overpaid).
 Change outcomes (individuals paid on a piece-rate basis can increase their pay
by producing a higher quantity of units at a lower quality).
 Distort perceptions of self (“I used to think I worked at a moderate pace, but
now I realize I work a lot harder than everyone else.”).
 Distort perceptions of others (“Mike’s job isn’t as desirable as I thought.”).
 Choose a different referent (“I may not make as much as my brother-in-law, but
I’m doing a lot better than my Dad did when he was my age.”).
 Leave the field (quit the job).

Job design suggests that the way elements in a job are organized can influence employee
effort. The job characteristics model (JCM), designed by Hackman & Oldham, proposes
that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions:
 Skill Variety - the degree to which the job requires a variety of different activities
so the worker can use a number of different skills and talents.
 Task Identity - the degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and
identifiable piece of work.
 Task Significance - the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the
lives or work of other people.
 Autonomy -  the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,
independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and
determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.  Jobs that possess
autonomy give employees a feeling of personal responsibility for the results.
  Feedback - the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the
job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the
effectiveness of his or her performance.  Jobs that provide feedback lets
employees know how effectively they are performing.

There are some helpful ways to redesign a job to increase the motivation of the
employees:
 Job rotation - It  is the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to
another.  It reduces boredom, increases motivation through diversifying the
employee's activities, and  helps employees understand how their work
contributes to the organization.
 Relational job design - It shifts the spotlight from the employee to those whose
lives are affected by the job that employee performs.
 Job Enrichment – It increases the degree to which a worker controls the planning,
execution, and evaluation of the work. 
 Alternative work arrangements
o Flextime - allows employees some discretion over when they arrive at
work and when they can leave.  Employees have to work a specific
number of hours per week, but they are free to vary the hours of work
within certain limits.
o Job Sharing – two or more individuals split a traditional job. Difficulty of finding
compatible pairs of employees to job share and the historically negative
perceptions of individuals not completely committed to their jobs and employers.
are two of the challenges associated with using job sharing.

o Telecommuting -  refers to employees who do their work remotely for at

least two days a week using a computer linked to their office.
Employee involvement and participation is a participative process that uses the
input of employees to increase their commitment to the organization's success. The
assumption is that by involving workers in decisions that affect them and by
increasing their autonomy and control over their work lives, employees will become
more motivated, more committed to the organization, more productive, and more
satisfied with their jobs. Two main forms of employee involvement are as follows:
 Participative management is the use of joint decision making in an
organization.  Subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making
power with superiors. In order for this type of decision making to be effective,
followers must have trust and confidence in their leaders.
 Representative participation is a legislated form of participation. Workers are
represented by a small group of employees who participate in decisions
affecting personnel.