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in order. He feels that the company has done a good job of handling product manufacturing but should focus more attention on the marketing side of operations. His idea is to redesign the structure and convert it from a functional to a product arrangement. Each product line will be given its own manager, who is to be responsible for handling the advertising, selling, and order placing for that particular line. Each manager will also be given some financial control over the operations of the product line, although there will continue to be a centralised finance department reporting directly to the president. Finally, the production department will be reorganised, with specific managers appointed to oversee the manufacture of each of the product lines. While no new production facilities will be built, the company’s internal structure will be organised to help manufacturing support and respond to the various product line managers.

If this new structure works well and the firm continues to grow, the president is talking about going to territorial departmentalisation. This change will not take place for at least three more years, however.

1.What does the current organisational structure look like? Draw it.

2.What will the newly proposed product organisational structure look like? Draw your version of it.

3.If the company does adopt a territorial departmentalisation arrangement, how will this be integrated into the product departmentalisation structure? Draw the territorial structure in a way that makes clear how the new arrangement will work.

Unit 4

MOTIVATION

READING I

WHAT IS MOTIVATION

Think ahead

Answer the following questions, then in groups of two or three compare your answers.

•If you won a great deal of money, for example, in a lottery, would you continue working?

•If not, do you think you would lose anything by giving up work?

Key concepts and terms

Match up the words on the left with the definitions on the right.

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Text 4.1. Read the text and explain why study motivation.

Understanding People and Motivation

Understanding People

Human beings, as individuals, are very complex in their psychological make-up. When they interact with one another in groups and in large organisations, the complexities are multiplied. In the effort to guide and direct others, the manager must first of all acquire an understanding of why people act as they do. Why is one employee sparkling and cheerful whereas another is downcast and sullen?

Initially it is important to know that all human behaviour has a cause. There is a reason for a person to behave as he/she does. The behaviour of rational human beings is purposeful and their actions are goaldirected. Their behaviour is aimed towards the fulfillment of basic wants, drives and needs. The politician who does favours to his constituents hopes thereby to gain their votes at election time so that he/she can retain the office. The piece-rate workers in the clothing factory may work hard to increase their earnings because they desire to buy a new coat or a car.

The successful leader is the one who can uncover these causes and take steps to correct them. Bawling out an uncooperative manager does not get at the cause. This constitutes treating the symptom only. If a patient complains of a sore throat, the doctor may prescribe aspirin to relieve the pain, however, such an action does not correct the reason for the sore throat. Many times doctors treat only symptoms because medical science has not yet found the cause and cure for a particular ailment (for example, prescribing pain relievers for arthritis). But the medical profession is constantly probing deeper for causes. Likewise the practicing manager must constantly dig beneath surface behaviour to inquire of its causes and get to the root of the problem.

What Is Motivation?

Motivation is concerned with “why” of human behaviour. What makes people do things? Sometimes we attempt to explain; other times we act with little thought of why. Motivation is a catch-all that draws together all these reasons, helps to answer these questions and understand human behaviour. Motivation is the combination of internal processes and external forces that direct and sustain behaviour toward a goal. It is an inner state that activates and moves. Motivation is the main focal point of management. Studying motivation is important for managers for three reasons. First, employees on the job must be motivated to perform at an acceptable level. Second, managers themselves must be motivated to do a good job. Third, employees (managerial and non-managerial) must be motivated to join the organisation.

From a manager’s perspective, a person who is motivated works hard, sustains a pace of hard work and has self-directed behaviour toward important goals.

Thus, motivation involves effort, persistence and goals. It involves a person’s desire to perform.

Motives

The mainsprings of action in people are motives. The term “motive” is a general term applying to the entire class of drives, desires, needs, wishes and similar forces that cause people to do things. It implies both willingness to expand energy and action to achieve a goal or a reward and to satisfy a need. In general, all human needs can be divided into two large groups: innate needs, namely, physiological needs, and acquired needs which include social and egoistic groups of needs.

At work as in life needs and expectations are often unfulfilled. It leads to frustration that refers to negative feelings that result from failure to achieve a goal. A good leader helps people overcome barriers. Frequently, however, feelings of frustration make people respond as shown in the figure on p. 129*. The manager as a leader must learn to recognise and redirect such destructive behaviour.

W o r t h y o f N o t e

The work of managers is to ensure that staff work efficiently in an organisation. To achieve this, it is clear that managers must know what motivates people. By understanding the factors influencing motivation they can create the conditions in which employees will perform to their maximum potential.

* Naylor J. Management. Pearson Education, 2004, p. 369.

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Constructive and destructive responses if needs are unsatisfied

The Motivation Process

The motivation process centers on needs which are caused by imbalances. We can look at motivation as a chain reaction. It starts out with an unsatisfied need. It is the first link in the chain of events leading to behaviour. The unsatisfied need causes tension within the individual and results in wants. This gives rise to tensions (unfulfilled desires) which cause action and lead the individual to engage in some kind of behaviour to satisfy a need and thereby reduce the tension. This activity is directed toward a goal. Achieving the goal satisfies the need and reduces the motive. When the objective is reached, the balance is restored and the process of motivation is complete; of course, other needs then arise. This chain is shown below.

Assume that an engineer in industry seeks to win the admiration and esteem not only of his boss but also of his fellow engineers. This feeling is a need or a motive. Although there are perhaps a number of ways of achieving this, let us assume that our engineer chooses to work unusually diligently on a particular design project so that it becomes evident to his supervisor that he has made a major contribution. The supervisor may then choose to reward the engineer for his performance with oral praise, with a pay increase at salary review time, with certain formal recognition in the company newspaper, or

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by means of a letter of recommendation to higher management. Depending upon how the individual perceives these forms of reward, his original need may be wholly or partially satisfied.

In reality, this chain is more complex than it looks.

•The needs of various individuals in various situations and at different times are not always easy to determine.

•Also, needs may be the result of behaviour as well as the cause of behaviour; the chain does not always work as simply as portrayed.

•Also, motives may be complex and conflicting. A person may be motivated at the same time by desires for certain foods, a better house, a new car, or a vacation. And these desires may give rise to conflict – should we buy a new car or take a vacation?

Concept check

1.What should a successful manager understand and what steps undertake with regard to human behaviour in organisations?

2.Why is motivation the main focal point for management?

3.Can you define motivation?

4.What are motives?

5.In what ways can people react if their needs are unsatisfied? Think of examples of constructive and destructive responses and analyse them. Fill in the table.

6.From what perspective can we look at a model of motivation? Explain the process of motivation and draw its simplified model.

7.Why is this model said to be more complex in real life?

8.Complete the sentences.

1)The complexities in people’s behaviour grow as …. .

2)If a manager is striving for being a real leader of the organisation, he/she should … .

3)Motivation is important for achieving organisational objectives because … .

4)A person who is motivated … .

5)The elements motivation involves are effort, … .

6)Any person can be motivated at the same time by … .

READING II

UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATION:

THE USE OF THEORIES

Think ahead

1.One of the most impotant functions of a manager is to motivate the employees under his or her authority. But how? First, answer the following question: What sorts of things motivate people to do their job well? List all the things you can think of.

2.What kinds of things motivate you? Which of the following factors have been or will be important for you in your choice of a job? Classify them in order of priority. Are there any other important factors that are not listed here?

•Good administration and good labour relations

•Good working conditions: enough space, light, heat, time, and so on

•An adequate wage or salary as well as benefits such as paid holidays, sick pay, and so on

•Job security

•A challenging, interesting and creative job

•Responsibility

•Contact with people

•Opportunities to travel

3. Then, in groups of two or three, compare your answers.

Key concepts and terms

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Match up the words on the left with the definitions on the right.

Text 4.2. Read the text and elicit two groups of rewards. What rewards are of great value personally for you? Share your opinion with the group before reading the text.

Rewards and Motivation

The types of rewards that an organisation offers its employees play a crucial role in determining the level of motivation. In addition, rewards have an impact on the quality and quantity of personnel that the organisation is able to recruit, hire and retain. Organisational rewards include both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Intrinsic rewards are internal to an individual and normally derived from involvement with the job, from the process of performing a particular function. Job satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment are examples. Extrinsic rewards are provided by someone else. Most extrinsic rewards are directly controlled and distributed by the organisation and are more tangible than intrinsic rewards. They include increases in pay, benefits and responsibility.

Although intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are different, they are also closely related. An extrinsic reward can result in intrinsic rewards. For example, if an employee receives a rise, he/she can also experience feelings of accomplishment (intrinsic rewards) by interpreting the pay rise as a sign of a job well done. It should also be realised that many formal rewards are unrelated to what the employee produces. Rewards in this category are called benefits and include paid vacations, insurance plans and paid holidays. Almost all theories of motivation are concerned with rewards offered by the organisation. Some theories focus on intrinsic rewards while others focus on extrinsic ones.

Text 4.3. Read the text and give reasons for splitting motivation theories into three classes.

Motivational Theories

Groups of Theories

Many theories of motivation exist that managers can use to improve the understanding of why people behave as they do. None provides a full, universally accepted explanation of human behaviour. The purpose in presenting the most popular theories is not to identify the one best approach. Rather, it is to introduce ideas that managers can use to develop their own motivational approaches. The figure on p.

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Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, Alderfer’s Modified Hierarchy of Needs, McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory, Arch Patton’s Managerial Motivators Theory.

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

One of the best-known theories of motivation was put forward by an American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in a book entitled Motivation and Personality (1954). In his theory, he presents a hierarchy of needs. This theory is based on the assumption that employees are motivated to satisfy a variety of needs, and only some of them can be satisfied by money. Maslow identified certain basic human needs and classified them in an ascending order of importance. The needs of an individual are said to exist in a hierarchy as follows: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation. Basic needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy, higher needs are at the top. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is shown in the table below*.

Physiological needs are things required to sustain life like food, water, air, sleep, etc. Until these needs are satisfied, Maslow believed, other needs will not motivate people.

Security or safety needs are the needs to be free from danger, physical pain and loss of a job. They include the need for clothing, shelter and stability.

Social needs are a human being’s needs to belong to a group, to be liked and loved, to feel accepted by others and to develop affiliations.

After people have satisfied their social needs, they want to have self-respect and to be esteemed by others. They have a need for power, status, respect and self-confidence, i.e. esteem needs.

Self-actualisation needs are the highest needs, according to Maslow. They are the desire to develop, to maximise potential and to achieve one’s goals.

Maslow says that people satisfy their needs in a systematic way. When a need has been met, it stops being a motivating factor. For example, if a person is starving, he/she will not be too concerned about security and social needs. But once he/she has enough food, he/she starts thinking about those other needs.

Research into Maslow’s theory has not been very conclusive. Studies have tended to show that needs vary greatly among individuals. At the higher levels in a company, self-actualising needs may be very strong whereas at lower levels, social and security needs may be dominant. Another criticism of the need hierarchy is that needs overlap. An equitable salary, for example, may satisfy needs in all five categories; the salary received by a person may have an impact on many different needs. Critics also state that Maslow’s need hierarchy is static. Needs change over time, in various situations, and when people make comparisons about their satisfaction and the satisfaction of others.

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Another theory of motivation, which has been very popular with managers, is Frederick Herzberg’s “two-factor” theory. Herzberg conducted a number of studies in the region of Pittsburg, USA, in the late

* Naylor J. Management. Pearson Education, 2004, p. 373.

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1950s and concluded that the degree of satisfaction and the degree of dissatisfaction felt by an organisation member as a result of performing a job are two different variables that are determined by two different sets of items. He concluded that at work there are certain factors which cause job satisfaction while others lead to dissatisfaction.

The set of items that influences the degree of job dissatisfaction is called hygiene or maintenance factors. They concern the work environment and include interpersonal relations, supervision, company policy and administration, job security, working conditions, salary and fringe benefits, status and personal life. These factors must receive proper attention in the job for motivation to occur. However, the hygiene factors do not motivate employees but rather keep them from being dissatisfied. These factors are considered to be only dissatisfiers, not motivators. If they do not exist, they cause dissatisfaction. If they do exist in quality and quantity, they do not, however, give increased satisfaction. If, for example, you do not get along with your boss and think that you are grossly underpaid, you will become dissatisfied with your job.

The group of factors bringing about satisfaction is called motivators. They relate to the work itself and include things like a challenging job, responsibility, the chances the worker has for achievement and recognition, advancement, and whether or not the job contributes to the worker’s personal growth, etc. These factors give rise to positive satisfaction. In general, organisation members tend to be more motivated and productive as more motivators are built into their job situation. Only if both the hygiene factors and motivators are properly maintained will motivation occur.

Herzberg’s two-factor theory is shown in the following diagramme*.

Hygiene factors are essential if workers are to be motivated and they deal with the question “Why work here?”, while motivators deal with the question “Why work harder?”

W o r t h y o f N o t e

The hygiene factors refer to the context of the job – the conditions of work, while the motivators refer to job content.

If Herzberg’s theory is true, it means that managers must pay great attention to job content. They must find ways of making jobs more challenging and interesting. As a result, managers show great interest in job enrichment programmes. The idea of such programmes is to make jobs more challenging and to give the worker a sense of achievement. The process of incorporating motivators into a job situation is called job enrichment. Job enrichment is not concerned with factors like salary, working conditions and training, but rather with greater scope for personal achievement. To be successful, job enrichment programmes must be designed and administered very carefully.

* Naylor J. Management. Pearson Education, 2004, p. 374.

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Text 4.5. Read the text and answer the question: In what way are the Adams’ and Vroom’s motivation theories alike? Compare and contrast them.

Process Theories

Process theories try to explain and describe the process of how behaviour is energised, directed, sustained and finally stopped. Process theories are necessary for explaining choice (e.g. Should I work hard?), effort (e.g. How hard do I need to work?) and persistence (e.g. How long do I have to keep this pace?). Process theories tend to be more complex than content theories because of the multiple perspectives used. Main process theories are as follows: Equity Theory by Adams, Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, Job Characteristics Theory (by Hackman and Oldham), Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory.

Equity Theory

Equity theory is most closely associated with the work of J. Stacy Adams. In essence, equity theory deals with exchange relationships among individuals and groups. The theory holds that, in deciding whether or not they are being treated equitably or fairly, people compare what they are giving to an organisation to what they and others are getting from the organisation, i.e. the theory matches the notions of “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”.

Equity theory is based on the belief that employees will take whatever actions are necessary to produce feelings of equity with respect to their jobs. All employees bring a certain set of inputs to their jobs in the form of education, previous work experience, etc., and all employees receive certain outcomes in the form of pay, benefits, job satisfaction, prestige, etc. Equity theory states that if a person perceives an imbalance between his or her job inputs and the resulting outcomes, then the person will take the actions necessary to produce a balance between job inputs and outcomes. The table below lists some of the typical inputs and outcomes that are involved in this comparison process.

An important point regarding equity theory is that an individual’s feelings of equity are based on his or her perceptions of inputs versus outcomes. Naturally, these perceptions are heavily influenced by what the individual sees as the inputs and outcomes of others. For instance, an employee might feel good about his or her pay until he or she finds out that others doing the same job are receiving a substantially higher pay.

When a person concludes that, in comparison to others, what he or she is giving to the organisation is equal to what is being received, equity exists. When one side of the equation (either the input or the outcome) is larger, an imbalance exists. The person feels angry (because of being under-rewarded) or guilty (because of being over-rewarded).

For example, it is not unusual for an employee to feel that he or she is underpaid for what he or she does when compared to other employees. According to equity theory, such employee’s effort would be reduced to balance the inputs and outcomes. Although it occurs much less frequently, it is possible for an employee to feel that the outcomes received outweigh the inputs. In this situation, equity theory postulates that the employee would work harder to balance the inputs and outcomes.

Thus, the theory focuses on perceptions of inequity in the output/input ratio. Inequity leads to tensions and efforts to restore the balance. There are several possible responses for the person affected by feelings of inequity. The person can

•change outcomes: ask for more pay, different working conditions, or formal recognition with office, job title and responsibilities to match;

•change inputs: reduce (or increase) effort, attendance, commitment, training, and so on;

•distort perceptions: distort the perceived difficulty or importance of jobs, or the rewards that flow from them; and

•quit: find a new job with closer balance.

Much of the work on equity theory has centered around compensation.

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Preference -Expectancy Theory

An additional theory of motivation was developed by Victor H. Vroom and is called the preferenceexpectancy theory. Vroom’s theory assumes that behaviour results from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose is to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. Together with Edward Lawler and Lyman Porter, Vroom suggested that an employee’s performance is based on individual factors such as personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities.

The theory implies that motivation depends on the preferences and expectations of an individual and people are influenced by the expected outcomes of their behaviour. This theory emphasises the need for organisations to relate rewards directly to performance and to be sure that the rewards are desired by the recipients. Its ingredients are expectancy (the link between personal effort and outcomes) and valence (the anticipated satisfaction from outcomes). This model was later modified by Lawler, who divided expectancy into E-P and P-O stages and now it looks as in the figure below*.

Model of Expectancy Theory

•The Effort-Performance Expectancy is a belief that effort will lead to the successful performance of some task. In other words, “If I try hard enough, can I do it?” This belief depends upon a number of factors, the most important of which is the individual’s assessment of his or her own skills and knowledge relevant to the difficulty of the task being performed. It also depends upon other beliefs, such as whether the right tools and equipment (if needed) are available and whether there are major obstacles to performance in the environment.

•The Performance-Outcome Expectancy is the belief that a certain outcome, usually a reward, will follow performance. “If I do it, will I be rewarded?”

•The third factor affecting motivation in the expectancy model is the valence or value of the outcome or reward. Valence is the anticipated relative satisfaction or dissatisfaction that will result from a certain outcome. Because different individuals have different needs and preferences for rewards, the rewards being offered in exchange for performance may not be valued. If valence is low, i.e. if the reward has little perceived value, expectancy theory predicts that motivation to perform will decrease.

If any of the three factors critical to motivation is low, motivation and subsequent performance will be low. The greatest motivation occurs when both expectancies are high and the expected reward is strongly valued. If either expectancy is zero, no effort will be expanded. This relationship can be expressed by the following formula:

Motivation = E-P Expectancy × P-O Expectancy × Valence

Text 4.6. Read the text and outline the rules for managers to use the reinforcement approach.

Reinforcement Theory

The work of B. F. Skinner forms the primary basis for the reinforcement theory. Avoiding content or process explanations of motivation, it concentrates attention on the link between behaviour and concequencies. Reinforcement is any effect that causes behaviour to be repeated or inhibited.

The general idea behind this theory is that reinforced behaviour will be repeated and behaviour that is not reinforced is less likely to be repeated. For instance, if an employee is given an increase in wages when performance is high, the employee is likely to continue to strive for high performance.

* Naylor J. Management. Pearson Education, 2004, p. 376.

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