1. Organizational Behavior MBA-542 Instructor: Erlan Bakiev, Ph.D.

2. Chapter 7 Motivation: From Concepts to Application
Essentials of
Organizational Behavior, 11/e
Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge
Chapter 7
Motivation: From Concepts
to Application

3. After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe the job characteristics model and evaluate the way it motivates by changing the work environment.
Compare and contrast the three main ways jobs can be redesigned.
Give examples of employee involvement measures and show how they can motivate employees.
Demonstrate how the different types of variable-pay programs can increase employee motivation.
Show how flexible benefits turn benefits into motivators.
Identify the motivational benefits of intrinsic rewards.

4. Motivating by Changing the Work Environment: JCM
The Job Characteristics Model - jobs are described in terms of five core dimensions:
Skill variety
Task identity
Task significance
Autonomy
Feedback
The job characteristics model looks at describing any job in terms of five core job dimensions. These job dimensions include skill variety which is the degree to which the job incorporates a number of different skills and talents. Task identity is another dimension that looks at the degree to which the job requires a completion of whole and identifiable piece of work. Task significance is included and looks at how the job impacts the lives of others. Autonomy, the fourth dimension, identifies how much freedom and independence the worker has over their job. And finally, feedback is how much the job generates direct and clear information about the worker’s performance.

5. The Job Characteristics Model
Much evidence supports the JCM concept that the presence of a set of job characteristics—variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback—does generate higher and more satisfying job performance

6. JCM: Designing Motivational Jobs
JCM-designed jobs give internal rewards
Individual’s growth needs are moderating factors
Motivating jobs must be:
Autonomous
Provide feedback, and
Have at least one of the three meaningfulness factors
JCM creates motivational jobs as they are designed to give internal rewards. Positive outcomes are moderated by individual growth needs as each individual will respond differently. In order for the jobs to increase motivation there should be a high degree of autonomy, feedback and a least one meaningfulness factor such as significance, identity or variety.

7. How Can Jobs be Redesigned?
Job Rotation
The periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another
Job Enrichment
Increasing the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of the work
There are some helpful ways to redesign a job to increase the motivation of the employees. Two common practices are job rotation and job enrichment. In job rotation an organization will shift the employee to different tasks with similar skill requirements but all in the same organizational level.
In job enrichment a manager will expand an employees job by increasing the level of control the worker has in planning their job, executing it or evaluating the work.

8. Guidelines for Enriching a Job Using JCM
Job enrichment is helpful in keeping the worker engaged in their work. There are many actions a manager can take to help the worker. These actions help to achieve core job dimensions. For example if the manager combines tasks for the worker it can help the worker increase the amount of skills they are utilizing and help them to identify tasks that need to be completed. This action can help the worker to have a better understanding of their job and how it helps the organization complete its goals as well as help the worker enjoy their work more because they are using more of their skill set.
Enrichment reduces turnover and absenteeism while increasing satisfaction.

9. Alternate Work Arrangements
Flextime
Some discretion over when worker starts and leaves
Job Sharing
Two or more individuals split a traditional job
Telecommuting
Work remotely at least two days per week
There are some alternative work arrangements that have been successful in helping increase the motivation of workers. These arrangements give the worker more control over their work and thereby can increase their level of motivation. An example of this is Flextime. Flextime is short for flexible work hours and allows the workers to choose what hours they work within a set time period. So for example, if the worker needs to work 8 hours a day the manager may say you can choose 8 hours between 6am and 8pm. That may allow a mom to be home when her kids are coming home from school. Another example is job sharing where two workers split a job and each work part-time. Telecommuting is another alternative work arrangement that has been utilized. This is when workers work from home at least 2 days a week.

10. The Social and Physical Context
Social characteristics that improve job performance:
Interdependence
Social support
Interactions with people outside the workplace
Work context also affects performance. Some things to consider are:
Temperature
Noise level
Safety
There is both a social and a physical context to work. The social context can help to improve job performance by creating a sense of interdependence, social support and interactions with people outside of work. The physical context can also impact job satisfaction by creating a pleasant and safe environment.

11. Employee Involvement
A participative process that uses the input of employees to increase their commitment to the organization’s success Two types: Participative Management Representative Participation
Employee involvement is defined as a participative process that uses employees’ input to increase their commitment to the overall success of the organization. Some examples of programs that help with employee involvement are participative management and representative participation.

12. Participative Management
Subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with superiors
Required conditions:
Issues must be relevant
Employees must be competent and knowledgeable
All parties must act in good faith
Only a modest influence on productivity, motivation, and job satisfaction
Participative management is when managers include employees in the decision-making process.
In order for participative management to be successful there must be issues that are relevant, employees who are knowledgeable and competent and all parties must be acting in good faith.
This type of employee involvement program has shown to have limited impact on productivity, motivation and job satisfaction.

13. Representative Participation
Workers are represented by a small group of employees who participate in decisions affecting personnel
Works Councils
Board membership
Desires to redistribute power within an organization
Does not appear to be very motivational
Representative participation tries to redistribute power by putting labor on a more equal footing with the interest of managers and stockholders. They do this by letting the workers be represented by small groups of employees who participate in decisions.

14. Major strategic rewards decisions:
Rewarding Employees
Major strategic rewards decisions:
What to pay employees
How to pay individual employees
What benefits to offer
How to construct employee recognition programs
As we saw in previous chapters money is not the primary driver for job satisfaction. However, it does motivate individuals and companies often underestimate its impact in keeping top talent.
It is critical to figure out what to pay and to establish a pay structure that makes sense for your industry and organization. Then it is imperative that an organization utilizes this pay system and applies it to the pay of individual employees.

15. 1. What to Pay Need to establish a pay structure Balance between:
Internal equity – the worth of the job to the organization
External equity – the external competitiveness of an organization’s pay relative to pay elsewhere in its industry
A strategic decision with trade-offs
Setting pay levels can be complex and requires a balance of internal and external pay equity. Internal equity looks at the worth of the job to the organization and compares it with what others are making within the organization. External equity looks at external competitiveness of an organization’s pay relative to pay elsewhere.

16. 2. How to Pay: Variable-Pay Programs
Bases a portion of the pay on a given measure of performance
Piece-Rate Pay – workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed
Merit-Based Pay – pay is based on individual performance appraisal ratings
Bonuses – rewards employees for recent performance
Skill-Based Pay – pay is based on skills acquired instead of job title or rank – doesn’t address the level of performance
Some types of variable-pay programs include piece-rate, merit- based, bonuses and skill-based pay. Piece-rate pay plans pay a fixed amount of money for each unit of production. Merit-based pay plans are similar where they pay based on performance. However, it is not necessarily tied to production because in some jobs output is not as easy to measure. Bonuses is another method that is becoming increasingly popular. Bonuses are a lump sum at the end of a set period of time. The amount of the bonus is typically dependent upon the performance of the individual or the organization or some combination of both.
Skill-based pay will add compensation to workers as they gain more skills and the ability to do additional jobs. It rewards the employees for continuous improvement.

17. More Variable Pay Programs
Profit-Sharing Plans – organization-wide programs that distribute compensation based on an established formula designed around profitability
Gainsharing – compensation based on sharing of gains from improved productivity
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) – plans in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices
Other types of variable pay programs include: profit-sharing plans, gainsharing and employee stock ownership plans.
Profit-sharing plans are organizational wide programs where some of the profits of the company are shared with all workers. Gainsharing is a group incentive where a department or unit will earn additional income if they improve group productivity from the previous period. ESOPs are a method used to motivate the employees towards the organizational goals. As part of their benefit package they are able to earn or purchase company’s stock, often at below-market rates. This encourages them to work towards the overall profitability of the organization as they have ownership in it and will gain as the company gains.
It is important to remember that while it is often thought that pay does increase productivity it is not true that everyone responds positively to variable-pay plans.
While it appears that pay does increase productivity, it seems that not everyone responds positively to variable-pay plans.

18. 3. What Benefit to Offer: Flexible Benefits
Each employee creates a benefit package tailored to their own needs and situation
Modular plans – predesigned packages to meet the needs of a specific group
Core-plus plans – core of essential benefits and menu of options to choose from
Flexible spending plans – full choice from menu of options
Flexible benefits allow employees choices between different benefits. This allows them to customize their options and create a plan that best meets their needs and situation. This increases their motivation because they realize the organization has their best interest in mind.
Some types included modular plans, packaged plans that meet the needs of the group, care-plus plans, a set of core benefits that most need and then some additional options to choose from and flexible spending plans where there is a menu of options to choose from.

19. 4. How to Recognize Them: Employee Recognition Programs
In addition to pay there are intrinsic rewards
Can be as simple as a spontaneous comment
Can be formalized in a program
Recognition is the most powerful workplace motivator – and the least expensive!
A method of motivation that has been highly successful is employee recognition programs. This idea recognizes the importance of coupling extrinsic and intrinsic methods to help motivate employees. Recognition is an intrinsic motivation technique that can range from giving an employee the proverbial pat on the back to a more public recognition ceremony. Recognition programs are highly effective and cost very little to administer. There are critics of such programs, however, who say that they can be politically motivated and if the perception is that they are applied unfairly they can cause more harm than good.
Thank you!

20. Global Implications Do motivational approaches vary by culture?
Job Characteristics/Enrichment: may not be the same in collectivist cultures
Telecommuting, variable pay, flexible benefits: while all of these seem to be on the increase, not enough research has been done to make any conclusions
Employee Involvement: important to modify practices to reflect national culture
There is some application of these various theories to other cultures. However, there has not been a lot of research to support common assumptions and understandings. It would make sense that these ideas apply across the globe, but more research needs to be done.

21. Implications for Managers
Recognize and allow for individual differences
Use specific goals and feedback
Allow employees to participate in decisions that affect them
Link rewards to performance
Check the reward system for equity
The motivational theories presented in this chapter and the last chapter set forth the following overarching ideas. It is important to recognize individual differences when designing and applying motivational programs. Managers will get better results if they use goals, feedback and allow employees to participate in the decisions that impact them. Finally, by linking rewards to performance and making sure the system is equitable better results will follow.

22. Keep in Mind…
Most people respond to the intrinsic job characteristics of the JCM
It is not clear that employee involvement programs work – use caution!
Variable-pay plans can enhance motivation
It is important to keep in mind that intrinsic rewards work and this is supportive of the JCM. However, employee involvement programs are less clear on their benefits so organizations should use caution when implementing these programs. Variable-pay programs fall in the middle and can enhance motivation, but not in all cases.

23. Summary
Described the job characteristics model and evaluated the way it motivates by changing their work environment.
Compared and contrasted the three main ways jobs could be redesigned.
Gave examples of employee involvement measures and how they could motivate employees.
Demonstrated how the different types of variable-pay programs could increase employee motivation.
Showed how flexible benefits can turn benefits into motivators.
Identified the motivational factors of intrinsic rewards.