Before covering and defining which are the main techniques of work motivation, we must briefly explain and develop the concept of work for the subsequent understanding of these techniques.
1. JOB DEFINITION:
Man's activity aimed at the transformation of nature, to satisfy human needs.
Development and implications of the work.
Work constitutes a specific feature of human activity: it is a common denominator and an essential condition for the existence of social life. For this reason, the historical process of human development is based on work, which is the transformation process that man makes of nature, and this in turn reacts on man by modifying it: "Work".
However, from the economic point of view, what is of interest is the fact that work itself is the essential element of the production process, and in turn, it consists of applying a certain effort, physical or mental, on an objective in order to transform it.
The observation of reality shows a great variety of types of work. Thus, from the point of view of the product obtained, there are almost as many types of jobs as there are goods and services. However, all work, no matter how different it may be, involves a human effort and as such an expense of the powers of man. From the point of view of the individual, work can be considered as an abstract category.
Work can take on very different aspects depending on the means of production at its disposal and depending on the types of relationships that are established between men through work. Both conditions are mutually interrelated, and in fact, characterize the different modes of production in the history of mankind.
From the point of view of work, there is a fundamental historical fact: from a certain moment man is capable of producing with his work more than he needs to live, that is, a surplus appears.
The appearance of the surplus is a phenomenon that, in addition to allowing exchange and favoring the possibilities of progress, is a necessary cause for exploitation to arise. Throughout history, exploitation has taken various forms: slavery, servitude, wage earners.
The existence of wage labor is conditioned by the generalization of the production of merchandise, until reaching the situation in which the same work is a commodity, which as such is bought and sold in the market. It requires the existence of a free worker (with legal and real capacity) and of a mass of individuals whose only possession is their own capacity to work. These wage earners, by selling their work capacity, can obtain in exchange the other goods necessary for their subsistence.
2. WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
"It is the impulse that initiates, guides and maintains the behavior, until the desired goal or objective is reached."
Other definitions of Motivation:
- The word motivation is derived from the Latin word 'movere', which means to move. Dessler regards it as a reflection of 'a person's desire to satisfy certain needs'. Frederick Herzberg says:' Motivation tells me to do something because it is very It is important for me to do it. "Kelly states that:" It has something to do with the forces that maintain and alter the direction, quality and intensity of behavior. "Jones has defined it as something related to:" The way in which behavior behavior is started, energized, sustained, directed, stopped, and with the kind of subjective reaction that is present in the organization while all of this is going on. ”Stephen Robbins publishes the following definition of motivation:“ Willingness to carry out great efforts to achieve organizational goals,conditioned by the ability of effort to satisfy some individual need.
Motivation models.
Expectations Model.- It maintains that individuals as thinking and reasonable beings have beliefs and harbor hopes and expectations regarding future events in their lives. Therefore, to analyze motivation, it is necessary to know what people are looking for from the organization and how they believe they can obtain it.
Porter and Lawler model.- Mentions that effort or motivation for work is a result of the attractiveness of the reward and the way the person perceives the relationship between effort and reward.
Integrative Motivation Model.- It combines everything that is known about the important and complex phenomenon of motivation: needs, impulse to achieve, hygiene factors, expectation, motivation, performance and satisfaction.
Motivation and job satisfaction
Theories of work motivation
There are 2 types of theories, those focused on content and those focused on the process; (for now we are only going to name them briefly).
Those focused on content are:
It consists of increasing work motivation by improving hygiene factors, those related to the work text that allow individuals to satisfy their higher-order needs and avoid work dissatisfaction.
Many jobs have a very specialized and fractional task. The worker does not play any role in the planning and design of tasks, limiting himself to developing a mechanical and routine activity. This is what to avoid.
This technique seeks to incorporate into a specific job the person who has sufficient knowledge, skills and experience to carry out the job with guarantees and who is also motivated and interested in its characteristics.
This technique consists in that the workers participate in the elaboration of the design and planning of their work. It is based on the fact that it is the workers themselves who know best how to do their work and therefore who can propose the most effective improvements or modifications.
Employees frequently complain that when they do a particularly good job, the boss does not comment on them. However, when they make the first mistake, the boss immediately appears to criticize them. This situation can immediately demotivate even the best of workers.
It consists of evaluating the results of the labor conduct and providing the information obtained to the worker. This is an important motivating stimulus.
The goal setting technique consists of reaching a periodic agreement between subordinate and boss about the objectives to be achieved for a specific period of time. Likewise, there is a periodic review to analyze the degree of achievement of objectives.
Employee motivation
Motivated employees are those who believe that their work helps them achieve their important goals.
There are different systems of motivation that are used today.
Expectations Model (Vroom).
Motivation is the product of 3 factors:
- Valencia (how much a reward is desired) Expectation (the estimate of the probability that the effort will produce a successful performance) Instrumentality (Means and Tools) (the estimate that the performance will lead to receiving the reward).
It is the level of desire that a person has to achieve a goal. It is unique for each employee, is conditioned by experience and can vary over time as old needs are satisfied and new ones appear.
The valence can be negative or positive, with a range between –1 and +1.
It is the degree of conviction that work-related effort will produce the completion of a task. It is presented in the form of probabilities (Value between 0 and 1).
The evaluation of the expectation increases the self-efficacy of the individual (the belief that they have the necessary capacities to carry out the work) and the impostor phenomenon decreases (considering that they are not as capable as they make others see).
The employee performs an assessment of the likelihood that the company will assess his performance and award him rewards. (Value between 0 and 1). If you assess that promotions are performance-based, instrumentality will score highly.
The combination of these 3 elements produces motivation, in different degrees according to the intensity of the factors.
When the valence is negative, we speak of avoidance, the employee wants to avoid getting something. And the strength of the behavior to avoid something depends on the other factors.
According to this model, then, there are two possible ways in order to motivate a person:
- Recognize and try to affect the perception of rewards, valence and probability of receiving them Strengthen both the real value of rewards and the connection between effort and performance and between performance and rewards.
The reaction to rewards is filtered by the perception of each person, which is the vision of the world that they have and that is strongly influenced by personal values. For this reason, managers cannot motivate based on rational statements without considering that people act according to how they see the facts and not how the management sees them. Motivation should always be based on the needs of the employees, as it is very difficult for them to accept motivational schemes that the administration wants them to have.
The connection between effort and ultimate reward is uncertain. The employee is not sure if he will finally receive the reward and on the other hand there are primary and secondary results to his action that are also uncertain as they depend on others.
- Contributions: it is a valuable tool to help managers think about the mental processes through which motivation occurs. It presents people as thinking beings whose perception, ideas, and probability estimates have a powerful effect on their behavior. The model values human dignity. Limitations: Not fully tested yet. There are no reliable measurements of the 3 elements. It needs to be more complete.
The Expectations Model ties in well with the CO Model.
They are based on the fact that individuals interact with one another and are constantly making comparisons.
Individuals are not only interested in the simple satisfaction of their needs, but also that the reward system (of all kinds) is fair.
The theory of equity states that individuals judge justice by comparing their contributions to the company with the performance they receive and also comparing that margin with that of other people.
| performance | Contributions |
| Salary and benefits Social rewards
Psychological rewards |
Effort at workEducation
Antiquity Performance Job difficulty Others |
3 combinations can be derived from social comparisons:
- Equity Excessive reward Little reward
If the person perceives that there is inequality, he will try to restore the lost balance.
Reactions to inequality can be physical or psychological, as well as internal or external.
| Reaction type | Excessive reward | Little Reward |
| External / Physical | Work harder | Work less |
| External / Psychological | Underestimate the reward | Overestimating the reward |
| Internal / Physical | Encourage the referrer to get more | Negotiate to get more; give up probably |
| Internal / Psychological | Change of reference person | Change of reference person |
You should remind managers that employees work within various social systems and that people have different preferences for fairness (Sensitivity for Fairness). Some prefer excessive reward, others settle for the traditional mode, and others prefer less rewards. Identifying which category each employee falls into can help the manager predict who will experience inequality and how important that would be in affecting their behavior and performance.
The Equity model is associated with the Expectations model, since both are based on perception.
Attribution Model:
Attribution is the process by which people interpret the causes of their behavior and that of others. The model raises the idea that if it is possible to understand the way in which people assign causes to what they see, then there will be a better chance of predicting and affecting their behavior.
According to the model, people can attribute the causes of their performance to personal or situational characteristics (the environment). On the other hand, these factors can be stable or unstable. Thus, a matrix of four combinations is generated that correspond to possible explanations about the employee's performance at work.
| Stable | Skill | Difficulty |
| Unstable | Effort | Luck |
| Personal | Circumstances |
When evaluating their own or someone else's performance, people tend to overestimate the influence of more personal traits when evaluating their own successes and to attribute the achievements of others to circumstantial factors. The process is reversed in the case of failures.
The attribution model can be easily integrated with other models:
- McClelland Model Achievement Oriented -> Effort
Competence -> Skill
- Expectations Model
Perceptual Sets and Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Perceptual sets (the set of perceptions that we have) can lead us to see what we want to see, then managers must be careful with them and with their effect on interaction with others.
The idea of the perceptual set extends to the self-fulfilling prophecy, which is that the expectations that a manager has with respect to an employee will lead him to treat him in a different way and this, in turn, will respond in a way that confirms the initial expectations.
Micro motivation and Macro motivation
It focuses on motivation within an individual organization in order to improve employee productivity.
It focuses on motivation outside the company, in those conditions that also influence job performance.
Interpretation of Models
None is perfect, all have strengths and weaknesses, but all contribute to understanding the motivation process.
The motivational model must be adapted to the situation, combining if necessary with other models.
ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
Concept
The organizational climate is represented by the set of factors that occur in a work environment.
Measurements and Dimensions
The dimensions are three:
- Functional dimension: refers to the different stages in which the individual is involved in the organization Hierarchical dimension: referring to the place he occupies according to his position within the organization (role) Inclusive dimension: corresponding to the increase or decrease of centrality of the individual, in the organization.
Organizational climate model
The model consists of 5 parts:
- From Individuals: Individuals have their own personalities, skills, and attitudes, which influence what they hope to achieve by participating in the system. A formal organization: it is formed by Interrelated patterns of work, which together establish the structure of the system. Small groups: Individuals do not work in isolation but are members of small groups and this serves as a means to facilitate their own adaptation within the system. Status and roles: The differences in status and role that exist between the different positions of an organization, define the behavior of individuals within the system. Physical framework: The physical framework refers to the external physical environment and the level of technology that characterizes the organization.
Relationship of the climate with other variables
Negative variables
Effect of the influence on the individual of a series of factors of different origin, which affect the general system at a physiological, psychological and behavioral level.
It refers to a syndrome of emotional fatigue and disappointment that occurs between people; because emotional resources are reduced; workers feel that they are no longer capable of giving more of themselves and reaching a certain psychological level.
Positive variables:
Degree to which a person identifies psychologically with their work; it also refers to the internalization of values about its importance.
Studies that relate self-esteem to work behavior indicate that subjects with high self-esteem feel competent and anticipate success, while the opposite occurs in the other case.
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Below Dan Pink, a labor analyst, presents findings that some would classify as "surprising" in the science of work motivation, a very interesting video that you can not stop watching if you want to know more about incentives and motivation.
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