Topic Six - Motivation to work

Two Factor Theory (Pg 69)

Motivator factors: Achievement, Recognition and Promotion - Satisfaction is the result of these but they have little effect on disatisfaction.

Hygiene factors: Pay and benefits, Job security and Physical environment - Disatisfaction is the result of these, they have little effect on long term satisfaction.

Extrinsic motivators = hygeine factors - can both motivate and demotivate

Intrinsic motivators = motivator factors - good motivators!

Evaluation issues:

+ Open q's and critical incident

+ Has considerable preparatory investigations

-Survey of only 200 people

Need for achievement NACH

Participants were shown a picture and asked to write a story about it. If the story was indepth and went beyond the image (inspirational) that indicates a high need for achievement.

[Cooper (1983) - this correlates well (positively) with time spent on difficult tasks.]

Those with high motives to achieve - Show high levels of performance, Persist for longer and value feedback, Attribute their performance to internal factors e.g. effort.

Those with high motives to avoid failure - Tend to avoid tasks where evaluated by others, Tend to avoid tasks they could fail, Attribute success to external factors e.g. luck.

Our motivation is the difference between the two! The situation has an impact as well, 2 aspects = task difficulty and incentive value of success. High achievers take the risk whereas low achievers choose bad competition.

Equity Theory (Pg 68)

Adam's equity theory - give and take, what you put in you get out, need for balance and equality.

Aim - To test the role of the equity theory of motivation in a real life

Hypothesis - The experience of inequality would produce motivation to restore equality. This would result in altered inputs by the non-signed players.

Procedure - Some baseball players kept their old contracts but some were limited to one year. WHile playing out thier existing contracts , the players were aware of inequalities in their earnings.

Results - THere was a significant reduction in performance was found (batting average, home runs and runs batted in). However there was a recovery to normal levels of performance in the players who had signed new contracts.

Conclusion - Lord and Hohenfeld concluded that perceptions of inequality were motivational factors that led to the decrease in performance of the players. This lends evidence in support the equity theory.