Motivation free essay sample

A discussion of motivation and the theories of motivation. This paper is a brief discussion of motivational theory. Various theories of motivation are outlined, including the most widely recognized modern motivational theory of opportunity-cost. The importance of motivation is also discussed. Motivation is the study of what makes us do things. Every day we are faced with many decisions. What choice we make is the study of motivation. There are several theories of motivation, the theory of opportunity-cost is the most widely recognized. This paper will discuss the major forces that drive us and influence our decisions. The advent of the industrialized age forced many companies to study what motivates their workers in an attempt to boost production. It was believed that money was the key motivational factor in driving employee performance. It was later found that other factors besides money effect their attitudes and work ethics (Lindner, 1998). This led to further studies in an attempt to understand the factors that motivate employees. According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the best method to recruit and keep Gen Y is to decrease hygiene factors and increase motivator factors. The surprising fact that accounting firms dominated BusinessWeek’s second annual ranking of the best companies for new college graduates proves this point. Because these accounting firms are among the first to pay close attention to how to attract and keep Gen Y. Ernst Young uses Facebook to let prospective employees talk freely with real ones. Deloitte will show a rap video about office life—made by interns—to give students a realistic view of the company.And PWC requires some bosses to get a second opinion on their evaluations of new hires to make sure the feed back is clear enough, the goals ambitious enough for kids who are uncomfortable with ambiguity. All these things accounting firms did are motivator factors resulting in job satisfaction. They provided Gen Y with recognition, advancement and growth. So it is rational that accounting firms can have top ranking in BusinessWeek’s second annual ranking of the best companies for new college graduate. Edouard S. Roland’s story is another good example. Roland graduated from Baruch College with a degree in computer information systems this May and went to work as consultant with Deloitte. He thinks his job at Deloitte is funny, flexible and challenging. On the contrary, he doesn’t like an intern he did earlier at private banking. He feels the things he was doing there were tedious. But Deloitte is willing to work with his schedule. He also thinks that he is really developing himself through managing his time. When he was assigned to a client on the second or third day, he was delighted to be hold in such high esteem. Now he is very†¦very satisfied with the job at Deloitte.He feels like he could stay here and be on the partner track. Obviously, his story tells us that the more motivator factors, the higher job satisfaction; it is possible for a company to use motivator factors to attract or retain new college graduates. But we should not neglect this crucial statement that improving the hygiene factors will only decrease job dissatisfaction; it will not increase job satisfaction. Hygiene factors contain organizational policies, quality of supervision, working conditions, base wage or salary, relationships with peers, relationships with subordinates, status and security.For instance, Google first-year salaries now average $60,000 to $65,000 (and that’s before bonuses). Being a Googler has its perks; Employees enjoy free lunches, on-site massage, and yoga. All these programs never generate job satisfaction on account of the fact that they are all hygiene factors. Consequently, Google’s ranking is lower than accounting firms. To summarize, decreasing hygiene factors and increasing motivator factors will help company to attract and retain Gen Y employees. 2. How does Reinforcement Theory explain how in Motorola secured effort and creativity from members of the RAZR Team?Reinforcement is the administration of a consequence as a result of behavior. Organizational behavior modification (OB Mod) is the systematic reinforcement of desirable work behavior and the non-reinforcement or punishment of unwanted work behavior. OB Mod includes four basic reinforcement strategies: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement (or avoidance), punishment, and extinction. Positive reinforcement is the administration of positive consequences that tend to increase the likelihood of repairing the behavior in similar settings.It indicates proper behavior, makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again, and makes people feel good. Positive reinforcement strategy is applied into Motorola RAZR Team. Roger Jellicoe is a good example. When Jellicoe had dinner with Rob Shaddock, a senior wireless executive, Jellicoe showed him the sketches of what the phone might look like. Midway through the meal, Shaddock told Jellicoe the job was his. The job Jellicoe wanted was the reward to his fantastic idea of the phone. This reward indicated Jellicoe’s proper behavior and made him continue performing well.Another example in point is that the team members decided for themselves that the company was wrong and four extra millimeters in width was acceptable; furthermore, they were able to construct a phone with all the features they wanted that measure 13. 9 millimeters at the beam, exceeding the target by a little more than an eighth of an inch. Their achievements are the result of application of positive reinforcement. Because rewards can make it more likely that the behavior will occur again. The application of positive reinforcement strategy still continued.Last July several key players from the RAZR development team were asked to appear at a meeting of top executives at company headquarters. Then, as the team members filled in, the executives awaiting them rose in applause, delivering a standing ovation followed by news that the team members would be also be rewarded with a boatload of stock options. Apparently, Motorola upper-level management can fully use positive reinforcement strategy to motivate the employees. I believe that Motorola will keep creative and powerful due to this point. Another critical strategy Motorola applied is negative reinforce (avoidance).Negative reinforcement is the withdrawal of negative consequences, which tends to increase the likelihood of repeating the behavior in a similar setting; it is also known as avoidance. In 2004, when Ed Zander, former Sun Microsystems president, began to run Motorola, he used avoidance to treat the Motorola RAZR team. He started at Motorola on the first business day without unveiling a strategy but promising to rid the company of its hide-bound ways. He didn’t let on publicly, but early in his tenure he got a look at the ultrathin phone.His action indicated that RAZR team’s work was proper and he liked this phone, which led the team to continue their work. The RAZR team never had troubles or pressure form this new outsider. As a result, RAZR team achieved their goal and brought Motorola great deal of profits. But Zander’s behavior really made people puzzled. Every time I saw him he had it in his hand, whether it was in a staff meeting or having a beer, says Lynch, who has since left Motorola to become CEO of Tyco’s electronics business. People were not certain about what Zander’s intention is. So we always say that avoidance can indicate proper behavior but creates uncertainty. Last but not least, Motorola avoids using punishment or extinction strategy in order to secure effort and creativity from members of the RAZR team. Because punishment or extinction does not indicate proper behavior, makes people feel bad or dissatisfied. In short, Motorola uses positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement to secured effort and creativity from members of the RAZR team. 3. How can Expectancy Theory be used to explain the success Netflix has had motivating its employees as well as the potential risks to its reward system?Expectancy theory argues that work motivation is determined by individual beliefs regarding effort/performance relationships and work outcomes. In expectancy theory, a person is motivated to the degree that he or she believes that (1) effort will yield acceptable performance (expectancy), (2) performance will be rewarded (instrumentality), and (3) the value of the rewards is highly positive (valence). As a good example, one of today’s most popular movie rental companies Netflix is a loyal follower of expectancy theory. Let’s find out how expectancy theory works in the motivation of its employees.First, Netflix establishes a proper environment that makes employees believe their efforts will yield acceptable performance. Reed Hastings, Netflix Inc. founder, uses his â€Å"freedom and responsibility† to manage employees. And as one might expect, employees get all cinematic when describing the vibe. Netflix is the workplace equivalent of Ocean’s 11, says Todd S. Yellin, hired to perfect the site’s movie-rating system. Hastings is Danny Ocean, the bright, charismatic leader who recruits the best in class, gives them a generous cut, and provides the flexibility to do what they do best, all while uniting them on a focused goal.On the basic of what Yellin says, we can find that employees at Netflix believe their efforts will yield acceptable performance. Second, Netflix uses certain measures to make employees believe that performance will lead to reward. Hastings pays higher-than-average salaries—and tying bonuses and raises to the marker, not a pool can make stars less likely to bolt. Money is no object in hiring. Moreover, Hastings gives employees unlimited vacation and let them structure their own compensation package. All these satisfactory treatment makes employees believe that performance will lead to greater reward.They may think that if they perform well, they must get more bonuses or other rewards than those they earn now. Third, Netflix makes employees believe that the value of the rewards is highly positive (valence). I conclude that there exist two effective way in Hastings’ management. One is that when it comes to paychecks, Netflix is arguably going where no public company has gone before. Employees are free to choose annually how much of their compensation they want in cash vs. stock. Another one is that employees in Netflix’s employees can take as much vacation as you want.One engineer got so excited that he told human resources head Patty McCord to give him half pay in stock. Last year, engineering manager Aroon Ramadoss, took off five weeks to go to Europe with his girlfriend. â€Å"I like to travel in bigger chunks rather than take five days off and rush right back,† says Ramadoss. It is clear that people likes the rewards Netflix provides and appreciate the value of these rewards. In a word, Netflix apply expectancy theory into practice successfully. So it is one of today’s most popular movie rental companies and still keeps going. . Explain how the self-concept can be used to explain the success of leader ship development efforts at top companies like GE. Self-concept is a view an individual has of him or herself as physical, social and spiritual or moral being. Two related and crucial aspects of the self-concept are self-esteem and self-efficacy. Self-esteem is a belief about one’s worth based on an overall self-evaluation. People high in self-esteem see themselves as capable, worthwhile, and acceptable and tend to have few doubts about themselves.Companies in today’s market are striving to develop leaders that have high self-esteem. At the same time, they don’t want their leaders to have unnecessary high self-esteem because they may also be overconfident at times and fail to obtain important information. For instance, GE trains its leaders to have high self-esteem so as to boost their motivation and performance. Meanwhile, keep them working under appropriate management in order to prevent them from overconfidence. Compared with people with high self-esteem, one with low self-esteem has opposite performance.They always fail to see themselves as capable and confident of finishing a project. On the other hand, self-efficacy is more specific version of self-esteem; it is an individual’s belief about the likelihood of successfully completing a specific task. For example, a person with high self-esteem might have a feeling of low self-efficacy about perform a certain task, such as public speech. Company, today, want their leaders to strengthen their weaknesses; therefore, they provide them with programs that train them to face the world more efficiently.For examples, GE’s Immelt says, GE enrolls its leaders in leadership development programs early on in their carriers. It is not only a strong selling point but also shows that companies really care about the qualities their leaders have and they want to inculcate the thing they stand for into their leaders. The companies also work towards making their leaders become team players, who are given both positive and constructive feedback at every step of the way. That is called a Pygmalion effect or a self fulfilling prophecy. According to this theory, people behave in the way that their managers want them to.For example, GE’s CEO Jack Welch and HR chief Bill Conaty put Immelt incharge during a crisis situation in which they had to recall millions of GE refrigerators due to a defective compressor. Because both the mentors showed confidence in Immelt who had no experience with the refrigerators or recalling affairs, he finally accomplished the task. This situation also shows that companies today push their leaders to the boundaries. They want them to take up leadership positions in the time of crisis as people learn faster and more in times of emergency. Like the PG’s chief A. G.Lafley said, you learn ten times more in a crisis than during normal times. This is an example in which the self-fulfilling prophecy had a positive effect. In conclusion, most top companies such as GE are creating warmer environment for its employees with regular performance feedbacks, which help the leaders learn more and better skills and improve their self-concept. 5. Describe the causal relationship between satisfaction, performance, and rewards. Use examples from the companies described in these combined articles to support your position. Satisfaction, performance and rewards make up the base of any motivation theory.They are highly intertwined to the point where one can not exist without the other. What makes people satisfied with their jobs? Is it a better working environment, better salaries, better stock options, more vacation time, or a place where they can prove their capabilities and be recognized? The answer is all of above. A better work environment, a decent salary with stock options and work perks do make a job a more desirable. But once someone is past the initial hurdle, it is the sense of achievement, being recognized, being trusted with a work that keeps people motivated year after year in the same job.All these attributes also form the motivator factor of Herzberg’s two factor theory. The new hires in today’s job marker are looking for firms that help them develop their abilities and appreciate their inputs. For example, 90% of the interns that worked at the New York Life Insurance were expecting a job offer because they were treated like adults and during the initial phases of their internship were encouraged to make suggestions for improving companies operations. A policy like this not only provides people with a sense of being trusted and achievement but also motivated them to be inspired and inspire others.If people are motivated at work their performance will automatically inc rease. For example, the team at Motorola that developed RAZR was constantly being motivated by its leaders by recognition and healthy competitions among workers. In return, the team worked overtime through weekends and holidays and companies plunge at the stock market to keep the ball rolling. A consequence of this was reward in the form of worldwide recognition and better stock options within the company. They also kept going because their leaders entrust them with the task and showed them the support they needed.This is also an example of the Pygmalion Effect where managers or people in position reflect onto others what they expect from them and achieve the desired result. Rewards can be both extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic being materialistic and intrinsic being advancement and growth. For example, Netflix gives raises every year based on marker average. But people who excel in their job not only get better arises but also are recognized within the company as well. Hence, rewards satisfy people and further motivate them to perform better.