Motivation: Productivity Through People

Define the concept of motivation and discuss its implications for productivity.

     Motivation is the process of stimulating employees to perform better in the pursuit of organizational objectives. It results partly from a conscious process of influencing persistent and constructive behavior by addressing individual needs and reinforcing activities that enhance employee satisfaction, partly from work&-related, behavior initiated by the individual through self&-generated drives. And partly from environmental factors. When employees want to perform better and are better satisfied with their results, organizational productivity will improve through higher&-quality products and services.

Discuss and contrast the three major approaches to motivation.

     The three major approaches to motivation are content, process, reinforcement theories. Content theorists argue that motivation comes from within individual via needs and desires that can be consciously addressed by managers. Process theorists argue that behavior is the result of expectations about work and rewards; employees decide how to behave on the bias of their perceptions of relationships between work, rewards, and the importance of rewards. In contrast to content and process theories, which focus on people's perceptions and needs, reinforcement theory is based on conditioning people to respond to the consequences of their behavior.

Describe content theory and the concept of perceived needs for motivation.

     Psychological and physiological needs motivate individuals to act to fulfill them and seek satisfaction. Content theorists study how managers can motivate employees to fulfill perceived needs. In content theory, understanding motivation consists largely of recognizing patterns of need and then encouraging behavior that results in satisfying those patterns.

Explain process theory and the concepts of expectancy and equity.

     Process theory emphasizes that employees make decisions about their work performance. Personal expectations of performance outcomes are critical for determining how to motivate employees. Expectancy theorists believe that individuals make work&-related decisions based on their perceived abilities to perform tasks and to receive rewards, both of which are influenced by how important the tasks and rewards are to the employees. Equity theorists study individual perceptions about how fair their treatment is compared with their peers' treatment.

Describe reinforcement theory and issues fundamental to operant conditioning, and discuss the controversy about the ethics of motivation and behavior modification.

     Reinforcement theory proposes that people learn from past experiences to behave in ways that lead to rewards and avoid punishments. Operant conditioning implies a consistent replication of consequences (rewards or punishments) for behavior so that we become conditioned to them in similar circumstances. Organizational behavior modification (OB Mod) is the process of using reinforcement methods to alter work&-related behavior. The controversy involves purposeful efforts to modify behavior by managers. Some managers may be incapable of making constructive modifications and their efforts may be manipulative, which is ethically negative.