Foundations of Employee Motivation

Employee Engagement

The employee’s emotional and cognitive motivation, self efficacy to perform the job, perceived clarity of the organization's vision and his or her specific role in that vision and belief that he or she has the resources to get the job done.

Employee Engagement Model

Employee Drives & Needs

To create a more motivated workforce, we first need to understand employee drives and needs, and how these concept relate to individual goals and behaviour.

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

GE (General Electric) Strike

ERG Theory

Maslow’s Theory Vs. ERG Theory

ERG Theory allows for an individual to seek satisfaction of higher-level needs before lower-level needs are satisfied.

ERG Theory accounts for differences in need preferences between cultures; therefore, the order of needs can be different for different people

For example, it can explain Mother Teresa’s behaviour of placing spiritual needs above existence needs The most important aspect of the ERG Theory, is the frustration-

regression principle. When a barrier prevents an individual from obtaining a higher-level need, a person may “regress” to a lower-level need ( or vice versa) to achieve satisfaction.

Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People

Drives & Needs

Self-concept, social norms,and past experience

Drives(primary needs)

and emotionsNeeds

Decisions and behaviour

Needs Goal-directed forces that people experience Drive-generated emotions directed toward goals Goals formed by self-concept, social norms, and

experience

Four Drive Theory

Drive to acquire

Social norms

Drive to bond

Drive to learn

Drive to defend

Personal values

Past experience

Mental skill set resolves competing drive demands

Goal-directedchoice and effort

Four drive theory

four drive theory- A motivation theory that is based on the innate drives to acquire, bond, learn and defend, and that incorporates both emotions and rationality.

the idea that emotions play a significant role in employee motivation is supported heavily by neuroscientific research, but is predominantly absent from contemporary OB motivation theories.

The Drives

The emerging knowledge of interplay between motivation and emotional drive is supported by the four-drive theory. having been

developed by Harvard professors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, four drive theory states that everyone has the drive to acquire,

bond, learn and defend. The drive to acquire- this is the drive that humans have to seek control and gain

ascendancy over others in society. four drive theory states the drive to acquire is insatiable because the purpose of human motivation is to achieve a higher position than others, not just to fill one's physiological needs.

Drives The drive to bond- This is the drive people feel to form meaningful and caring social

relationships with others. This explains how people form social identities in alignment with the social groups they conform with. The drive to bond is in direct correlation with successful organisations due to the fact that people are more inclined to cooperate when they are striving to bond with one another.

The drive to learn- This is the drive to satisfy pour curiosity, and realise more about ourselves and our environment. Studies have shown that when people have been removed from any novel information will crave even boring information, such is the brains need and drive for continued learning.

The drive to defend- The drive to protect ourselves physically and socially. This 'fight or flight' style goes beyond protecting oneself but also includes defending our relationships, our acquisitions and our belief systems.

How the drives will cause emotion in the employee

The four 'drives' are universally innate, all humans from all walks of life will express these characteristics in one way or another.

The drives are neither dependant on one another nor are each of them superior or more important than the other.

Another key factor in the theory is that all of the theories are proactive with the exception of driving to defend, which is reactive.

The four drive theory draws current neuroscience knowledge to explain how drives translate into goal-directed effort. According to the four drives theory, emotions are immediately drawn from a particular drive.

For example, if you come to work one day to see a man sitting in your office char, you might feel worried or curious, or both. These emotions are automatically created by one or more

of your four drives.

These emotions drawn from the drives cause us to act in the work place.

Evaluation of four drive theory.

The four drive theory is heavily based on emotional intelligence, therefore gives a deeper and more holistic understanding of emotional intelligence.

Even with the continuing advances of neuro scientific research though, the theory is far from complete as many argue that other drives such as personality and social identity play a larger role in the emotions and proceeding actions of people and employees.

The most important part in workplaces analysis of the four drive theory is to understand and ensure that a balanced opportunity to fulfil the drives to acquire, bond, learn and defend are provided.

This opportunity comes with two main recommendations, one is that workplaces offer condition suitable for employees to fulfil all four drives, and the other is that the fulfilment of these drives is kept in balance, that organisations should avoid too much or to little opportunity to achieve one of the four drives.

Expectancy Theory

Behaviour results from conscious choices whose purpose is to maximise pleasure and minimize pain.

It is proposed that an employee’s performance is based on individual factors such a personality, skills knowledge, experience and abilities.

Expectancy theory states that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that:

Expectancy Theory

a) There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance

b) Favourable performance will result in a desirable reward

c) The reward will satisfy an important need

d) The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile.

3 main beliefs of the Expectancy theory:1) Valance- refers to the emotional orientation

people hold with respect to outcomes [rewards]. What sort of rewards does an employee strive towards:

• Extrinsic: money, promotion, time off, benefits etc..

• Intrinsic: satisfaction from completing the set work

3 main beliefs of the Expectancy theory:

2) Expectancy- Employees have different expectations and levels of confidence about what they’re capable of doing. (It is the role of management to discover what resources, training, or supervision employees need.

3 main beliefs of the Expectancy theory:

3) Instrumentality- The perception of employees whether they will actually get what they desire even if it has been promised by a manger. (It is the role of management to fulfil all rewards and promises and to make employees aware of it

The theory states that Expectancy, Instrumentality and valance interact psychologically to create a motivational force that allows the employee to act in ways that bring pleasure and which avoid pain. The force can be calculated via the following formula:

Motivation = Valance x Expectancy

This formula can be used to predict/indicate: job satisfaction, one’s occupational choice, the likelihood of staying in a job/current job and the effort one might put into his/her work

Expectancy Theory

E-to-Pexpectancy

P-to-Oexpectancy

Outcomes& valences

Outcome 1+ or -

Effort Performance

Outcome 3+ or -

Outcome 2+ or -

Ways to maintain & improve employee motivation

Goal Setting Strength-based feedback:

Focus on the employees’ strength, rather than what’s wrong with them

Reward Performance Community Involvement

Goal setting and feedback

Goal setting- the process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by

establishing performance objectives.

Goals setting six characteristics: Specific goals Relevant goals Challenging goals Goal commitment Goal participation Goal feedback

Balanced Score Card – A goal setting reward system that represents an organisation’s vision and mission into specific goals.

Characteristics of Feedback- should be specific, relevant, measurable (5% increase..etc.), timely, credible and it should be sufficiently frequent!

Feedback

•Sources of feedback•Non social or social sources

•Without communicating•Information

• directly communicating • information

•Choosing feedback sourcesSources of feedback multisource feedback executive dashboards customer surveys non verbal communication, etc.•Preferred feedback choice depends on the purpose of information.

The Equity Theory The theory explains how people develop perceptions of fairness in distribution and

exchange of resources.

The equity principle infers that people should be paid in proportion to their contribution!

The equity principle is the most common distributive justice rule in organisational settings.

Inequity and employee motivation When treated unequaly people feel de-motivated at

work and performance is altered.

Application of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs in an extended care facility