HRM 601 Organizational Behavior

Session 6

Motivational Applications

Goals That Motivate

• Specific Goals

• Difficult Goals

• Goal Acceptance

• Goal Feedback

Why Goals Motivate

• Mobilize energy in relation to goal

• Focus attention towards goals attainment

• Encourages setting of action plans or strategies for goal attainment

• Encourages persistence until goal is attained

Enhancing Goal Acceptance

• Participation

• Rewards

• Supportiveness

Incentives for Individuals

• For Executives– Compensation tied to achieving strategic goals

• For Lower Level Employees– Tied to performance: bonuses, commissions,

piecework

Incentives for Groups

• Team incentives

• Profit sharing

• Gain sharing

• Stock options

Where Pay Fails to Motivate

• Bonuses or merit pay is too small

• Non-existent link between pay and performance

• Performance appraisal is done poorly

• Effect of unions

• Adaptation problems

Effective Reward Systems

• Set high goals for performance

• Develop accurate ways to measure performance

• Train supervisors in performance appraisal

• Link pay to performance

• Make increases noticeable and meaningful

Hackman & Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model

Core Dimensions Psychological States Outcomes

Skill VarietyTask IdentityTask Signif.

Autonomy

Feedback

Meaningfulness of Work

Responsibilityfor outcomes

Knowledge ofResults

High intrinsicmotivationHigh job per-ormanceHigh job satis-factionLow absenteeism & turnover

Moderating Variables for the Job Characteristics Model

• Growth need strength– job is a vehicle for personal growth, sense of

achievement, avenue for feeling success

• Knowledge and skills

• Satisfaction with extrinsic aspects of work

Motivating Potential Score

MPS =

Skill Variety +Task Identity+Task Significance3

X

Autonomy

X

Feedback

Implementing Concepts for the Job Characteristics Model

• Combine tasks: Effects skill variety, task identity, & task significance

• Group tasks into natural work units: Effects task significance and task identity

• Give workers contact with customers: Effects skill variety, autonomy, feedback

• Vertically load jobs: Effects autonomy• Open feedback channels: Effects feedback

Criticisms of the Job Characteristics Model

• Job characteristics are not distinct

• Link to critical psychological states is not clear

• Individual differences have an important effect

• Job outcomes are not clearly linked to job characteristics

Designing Jobs for Teams

• Team has to be an identifiable group, doing a specified piece of work, and be self-managing

• Key behaviors: Ask for ideas, give suggestions,. listen to others, share information, help others

• Manager’s role: Make alterations needed for effective group performance, consult

Business Process Re-engineering

• The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as quality, service and speed. (Hammer & Champy, 1993)

What BPR Is & Is Not

• Deals with business processes (work activities with a beginning & end with inputs & outputs)

• Process is difficult to see

• Does not deal with structure

• Structure is easily seen• Not replacement of

computer systems• Not technology

initiated• Not a piecemeal

approach

Role of Technology in BPR

• Re-engineering originally used with change in software systems or hardware

• These changes in Information Technology often accompany BPR

• Information technology support BPR and enables the reconstruction of work

Demand -Control Model of Job Strain

• Decision latitude and psychological demands

• Job strain level and activity level

• Interaction of demands and decision making

• Social support

Decision Latitude and Psychological Demands

• Decision latitudes - Combination of decision making authority and opportunity to use and develop skills on the job

• Psychological demands - The mental workload or intellectual requirements of the job

Job Strain Level and Activity Level

• Job strain level - level of stress derived from the workplace. Job strain relates positively to feelings of passivity and helplessness on the job

• Activity level - Level of job demands in relation to decision latitude.– High activity - lawyers, engineers, teachers, nurses

– Low activity - clerks, janitors

Interaction of Demands & Decision Making

Job demandsHigh Low

JobDecisionLatitude

High

Low

Low Strain

High Strain

Active

PassiveRisk of psychologicalstrain & illness

Activelearning, etc.

Social Support

• Buffering effect on job strain

• Social isolation carries risk

• Social isolation with high strain carries higher risk