Motivation & Stress
Dr. Joe O’Mahoney 200707906133649
Learning objectives
• To understand content and process theories of motivation
• To know how organisations attempt to manage employee motivation
• To critique the theories, assumptions and practice of motivation literature
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1. What is Motivation?
2. Theories of Motivation
3. Critiquing Motivation
The Agenda
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What is Motivation?
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What is motivation?
• I am motivated (internal drive)
• What am I motivated to do?
• What is my motivation?
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What motivates you?
• Motivators– Security (physical, food, psychological)– Power (position, money, authority)– Sex– Social (peer-esteem, love, belonging)– Expression (creativity, achievement, identity)
• Why does it matter?– If you’re not motivated you’re dead– Controlling people– Labour vs. Labour Power– The cost & inadequacy of supervision
I was saying "I'm the greatest”
long beforeI believed it.
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems
longer.
Theories of Motivation
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Needs / Content Theories
• Needs / Content Theories– Maslow– Hertzberg– Alderfer
MaslowHerzberg
Hygiene
Motivators
Factors
Maslow
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Process Theories
• Decision-making processes• E.g. Vroom, Porter and Lawler, Adams• Goal Setting• Expectancy Theory: M = E x I x V• But…overly rational? Too many variables?
Expectancy
Effort - Performance Link
E=0
No matter how much effort you put in, probably not possible
to memorise the text in 24 hours
Instrumentality
Performance - Rewards Link
I=0
Your tutor does not looklike someone who has £1 million
Valence
Rewards - Personal Goals Link
V=1
There are a lot of wonderful things you could do with £1 million
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Motivated to do what?
• All cultures have….– Hierarchies……but of what?– Sex……..but with what?– Groups….but of what?
• Conditioning– Pavlov and Skinner– Reinforcement (punishment / reward)– Peer pressure
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Managing Worker’s Motivations: HRM
• Needs– Security - pay, insurance, job security– Social - team work, feedback, socialising, respect– Power - authority, autonomy, decision-making, status– Expression - achievement, challenge, innovation
• Process: goals– Goal Setting / Management by Objectives– Specific, measurable, attainable goals– Participation
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Critique of Motivation
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The failure of organisational motivation?
• Failure?– Most efforts = short-term improvements (Herzberg, 1968)– Little evidence in most jobs– Modern programs do more harm than good e.g. portfolio careers,
deregulation, flexiblity, temporary contracts
• Resistance motivators– Making out– Stories and identities (Frese, 1982)– Games
• Demotivated workers– Often have highly motivated lives– Experience higher rates of mental illness– Redefine and lower their goals
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The social construction of motivation?
• Social Influence– Individualism vs. religion, class, community– The American Dream
• The media rhetoric– X-Factor, Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice– Winners and losers
• The mundane reality– Stuck in middle management– Routine and boredom– Short-term successes
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When Motivation Succeeds….
• Success?– 24 hour jobs (WFH, Mobiles, Laptops)– Devolving responsibility– Enlarged jobs
• When motivation does not equal achievement = inadequacy
• Identity control tied up in high performance (e.g. TQM)
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Stress• Over-motivation?
– Highest motivated are the most stressed– Workaholics: 1/3 of high-performers ‘addicted’ to work– Hours, stress and insecurity are increasing– 25% of men exhausted– 20 of workers ‘extremely stressed’
• Effects– 4% days taken off sick– Costs £13bn / years– ¾ executives report stress affects their health, happiness & home
• Presented as a problem to be ‘managed’– Stress management techniques– Counselling– You need stress
• The ‘social construction’ of stress?– A 20th century phenomena– Primary goal = to be happy– No more hygiene needs?
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Why ‘motivation’ and not ‘persuasion’?
Questions?