Change for Motivation
Using the same organization that you selected in Week 1. " amazon"
Scenario:
Management has reviewed your work from two weeks ago about how the employees' low job motivation may affect the company internally and externally and determined that there is sufficient evidence to support an organizational change. It has asked you to recommend changes that will help to boost employee job motivation.
Recall that a survey showed job motivation among employees was lower than average, with complaints such as:
- My job is so boring!
- My boss micromanages me but never tells me how I'm doing.
- I've been in my position for seven to fifteen years, but I am never allowed to provide any input about making the work better.
Write a paper in which you:
- Defend at least two organizational changes and explain how these changes will improve job motivation in the workforce. Support your recommendations by citing the theories covered in the readings or your own research.
- Assess potential conflicts that may arise due to the changes, including why you anticipate these conflicts.
- Justify a change implementation plan for leading the change initiatives and helping the organization overcome any resistance to the changes.
- Justify an appropriate communication plan that announces the changes and continues through the change management process.
- six- to eight-page paper in APA style
Motivation.html
Motivation
What is motivation? It is "a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive" (Luthans, 2009, p. 157). Perhaps a visual can help us understand motivation:
Needs -> Drives -> Incentives
Needs are energizers or triggers creating behavioral responses. As a need arises, the individual develops and enacts the drive to fulfill that need by pursuing or receiving an incentive. For example, each day, people go to work because they have financial obligations to meet (needs) and they know that by doing their work (drives) they will receive paychecks (incentive). That process seems very simple yet, as we already learned, each individual is quite different, has different needs, and responds to motivational efforts differently. However, a primary implication for leaders is that the presence of a need in an employee may indicate an opportunity to exert motivational influence by creating or clarifying pathways for the employee to obtain a desired goal or incentive.
Reference:
Luthans, F. (2009). Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
One of the first things about motivation we can observe is whether a person seems motivated externally or internally. The externally motivated person seeks a physical reward, such as pay, bonuses, or benefits. The internally motivated individual seeks fulfillment simply in doing the job because the person sees his or her efforts as making a difference. We often see volunteer workers receiving internal rewards, but we can also see people in all kinds of work benefit from having done the job. Teachers often claim that they do the job for the joy of working with their students. The hospital staff claims to receive the greatest benefit from the job by helping people to get better. However, we cannot universally attribute internal or external motivation to certain job types, because there are individual differences in people filling those jobs.
,
Process Theories.html
Process Theories
The process theories of motivation were the first to look at the progression of employee effort from job performance to job satisfaction. The content theories assumed that if employee effort led to performance, it also led to job satisfaction. The process theories did not make that assumption. If content theories answer “what” motivates, process theories answer “how” motivation occurs. That is, how behavior is energized, sustained, or stopped.
One of the well-known process theories is the Vroom expectancy theory. This theory suggests that employees are motivated to put forth effort because they value the reward they will receive for achieving the required level of performance. Central to the theory is the employee's thought process in determining how to behave. Essentially, the behavior is based on the employee's estimated probability that a result will occur. The employee conducts this thought process prior to deciding whether or not to act. Three terms are crucial to the expectancy approach.
- Expectancy: Putting forth effort will lead to the desired level of performance.
- Instrumentality: This performance will lead to a reward.
- Valence: The reward is a desired outcome for the employee.
Employees develop two expectations. First, a perceived probability of successful performance given a certain level of effort. Second, a perceived probability of receiving an outcome given the performance.
Expectancy theory is only one type of process approach. The supplemental material will discuss a second expectancy theory, an equity approach, and a behavioral modification process for motivation.
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Process Approaches
media/transcripts/SUO_MBA5001 PDF W3 L3 Process Theories.pdf
Process Approaches Motivation © 2016 South University More Approaches Porter-Lawler Expectancy Theory of Motivation: This theory is far more complex than what we saw in the content theories. Let's take a stepwise approach to understanding it. At each step, the motivational process can halt.
1. Management determines a reward that it believes employees will be willing to work to receive. 2. The individual employee evaluates the perceived effort that will have to be expended to do the work and the probability of receiving the
reward. 3. The employee determines that the effort is worth putting forth for the reward to be earned. 4. The employee's abilities and traits and the employee's role perceptions are added to the employee's effort; thus performance is
accomplished. 5. As a result, the employee receives intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. 6. When those rewards are received, the employee evaluates whether the rewards are fair and equitable. 7. If the rewards are determined to be fair, the employee has job satisfaction.
Equity Theory of Motivation: This theory is based on the idea that employees are motivated when they perceive they are being treated fairly (equitably) in the workplace. Thus, an individual employee will compare the ratio of his or her input (efforts) to his or her outcomes (rewards) against those of others who are in a similar position. When the individual's input-to-reward ratio equals the referent other's input-to-reward ratio, the individual perceives there to be equity and is motivated to perform. However, if the individual's input-to-reward ratio is not equal to the referent other's input-to-reward ratio, the individual perceives an inequity in the work situation and seeks to minimize that inequality by:
1. Changing input—working less or putting less into the job 2. Changing outcomes—asking for a raise, more time off, or better assignments 3. Changing the reference person—seeking someone else to compare himself or herself with 4. Changing the input or outcomes of the reference person—asking the person to work harder or take on more responsibility 5. Changing the situation—quitting the job or getting transferred to another position within the company in search of a more equitable
situation Behavior Modification Theory: Organizational behaviorists have built on the work of B. F. Skinner to study the methods of encouraging desirable behavior. Over time, we have learned that the quickest, most effective means of getting desirable behavior from employees is through the application of positive reinforcement. Behavior can also be modified by applying punishment, extinction (the removal of rewards as a means of getting rid of a previously acceptable behavior), and negative reinforcement (pointing out when the employee does wrong as a means of shaping behavior into the desired behavior). Goal setting has been found to be very motivational as long as the goals are:
1. Specific 2. Clear 3. Measurable 4. Challenging, but achievable
Also, employees are more committed to reach the goals that they help to set.
,
Content Theories.html
Content Theories
Motivational theories can be organized as two types: Content Theories and Process theories. Let’s first look at content theories of motivation. Content theories seek to understand what it is about the employee that leads to motivation or “what” motivates. The theories seek to identify the factors within a person that energizes, sustains, and stops behavioral responses.
One of the most well-known content theories is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This theory suggests that individuals have very ordered needs. The lowest order needs are physiological, safety, and belongingness needs. These must be met to sustain well-being.
- Physiological includes the need for food, drink, shelter and relief from pain.
- Safety and security includes the need for freedom from threats (events and surroundings).
- Belongingness, social and love includes the need for friendship, affiliation, and interaction.
The higher order needs are esteem and self actualization. They tend towards development and internal needs.
- Esteem includes the need for self-esteem and esteem from others.
- Self-actualization includes the need to fulfill oneself by making maximum use of potential, abilities, and skill.
According to the theory, a person can only be working on fulfilling one level at a time, and a person cannot advance to the higher needs until the lower needs are satisfied. Once satisfied, a need no longer exists and, thus, no longer motivates a behavioral response. Once the lower need is met, the person will move to the next need for motivation. Accordingly, the theory is sometimes called a satisfaction-progression theory. Maslow further indicated that no one ever fully self-actualizes; thus, that level would always be motivational.
For further information on Maslow's theory .
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Content Theories
media/transcripts/SUO_MBA5001 PDF W3 L2 Content Theories.pdf
media/transcripts/SU_MBA5001_W3_G1.jpg
,
Professor feedback : use more analysis, research and references.
Week one
|
Week 1 Project |
45 / 50 |
90 % |
90%
Overall Feedback
Overall this is good and you support your analysis with a good level of research and references normally three for sufficient and more than three good references for well researched paper. The level of analysis needs a bit more depth. Note the word analyzed. You are more descriptive than analytical. Need to tell what it all means as well as describe the problem and make sure you use theory to support your opinions and analyses. By the way according to Herzberg money is a hygiene factor not a motivator. What does this mean? we will study this shortly and you can decide but remember to support your opinions with theory and references to support.
Week 2
|
Week 2 Project |
42 / 50 |
84 % |
84%
Overall Feedback
Hits the key points of this assignment about a change and how it is effectively implemented. Well written and organized but with minimum level of research and references to support the analysis. This is important to support your opinions with references. Three references are generally the minimum and you do hit this level so the analysis is sufficiently supported by research. Needs more research and references for a well-researched paper. Note the descriptions in the rubric. more descriptive than analytical. Could use more analysis, research and references.