MOTIVATION

for Workshop Facilitation

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

Motivation energises goal-directed behaviour.

Why should I be bothered to do this?

How can I get my colleague to help me?

How can a manager improve employees’ productivity?

How can a facilitator focus a group on project goals?

WORK MOTIVATION

• Work motivation is crucial to productivity• So, lots of money was spent on finding answers• The state of the art is very advanced

WORK MOTIVATION

• Work motivation is crucial to productivity• So, lots of money was spent on finding answers• The state of the art is very advanced different

WORK MOTIVATION

• Work motivation is crucial to productivity• So, lots of money was spent on finding answers• The state of the art is very advanced different• Lots of credible theories• A tangle of issues• Researchers promote different philosophies

Circular arguments+

long what-if chainsSymptoms of over-investment

MANY THEORIES

Equity Theory (Adams)

Expectancy Theory (Vroom)

Two-factor Theory (Herzberg)

Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow)

Job Characteristics Model (Hackman&Oldham)

Emotional Labour (Hochschild)

Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura)

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL

Hackman + Oldham did the first significant empirical workJob Characteristics Model:• contains 21 variables• including most ideas from previous theoriesJob Diagnostic Survey measures these 21 variables• Depends on people answering (moderately) truthfully• All the measures are different, but not independent• The results are replicable• Calibrated over 6,000 people, in a wide range of jobs• Moderate predictive validity

MOTIVATING IT STAFF

1985 Couger + Zawaki surveyed software developers• Most motivation problems were in software maintenance

1996 Warden + Nicholson surveyed UK IT staff• Problems were more widespread• Perhaps due to a less buoyant job market• Quality managers felt ostracised

MOTIVATION IMPROVEMENT

MOTIVATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMDiagnosis• Explain improvement process and agree confidentiality• Administer Job Diagnostic Survey and analyse results• Feed back data and listen to reactions• Report on interpretations and recommend actions

Implementation:• Some things will have changed as a result of the diagnostic process• To sustain personal / cultural change, monitor progress occasionally• Visionary / sponsor promotes things that need management support• Cost-benefit analysis for things that cost money - include intangibles

Verification• Review repeats JDS and compares to assess long-term effects• Problems: no benefit to manager who commissioned original work• a second JDS isn’t an identical process

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL

CORE JOB DIMENSIONS

1. Skill variety - different activities requiring different skills

2. Task identity - whole identifiable piece of work with visible outcomes

3. Task significance - impact on the lives and work of others

4. Autonomy - freedom, independence and discretion in: scheduling work, designing procedures, specifying criteria

Feedback - two measures:

5. Job Feedback – information about performance is providedin the process of carrying out work

6. People Feedback - supervisors, co-workers etc give performance infoif their opinion is valued / respected

EMPLOYEE NEEDS

Strength of this individual’s desire to obtain growth satisfaction from work

• would-like needs - absolute• job - choice needs - relative• social needs - not in published JDS

JOB MATCH

Aggregate Measures

• Person’s Growth Needs StrengthGNS = (growth needs)

• Job’s Motivating Potential ScoreMPS = (core job dimensions)

• Job Match How well does GNS match MPS?

PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES

• Experienced meaningfulnessHow worthwhile or important is the product/service in worker’s view?

• Experienced responsibilityDo workers believe they are personally responsible for outcomes?

• Knowledge of resultsCan workers regularly discover whether outcomes are satisfactory?

WORK OUTCOMES

Job match predicts work outcomes fairly well

• Productivity e.g. Lines of code, per person, per day

• Quality e.g. Number of revisions after delivery, per 10,000 lines of code

• Absenteeism e.g. Average number of days off, per person, per year

• Accidents e.g. Accident reports / claims for industrial injury, per year

• Staff turnover e.g. Percentage of staff leaving this team, per year

PERSONAL OUTCOMES

• General satisfaction• Growth satisfaction (often easy to fix with training)

• Internal motivation• Pay satisfaction• Job security• Social satisfaction• Dealings with others • Supervisory satisfaction

(JDS method doesn’t provide anonymity for team leader)

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL

CONFIDENCE IN RESULTS

One team doesn’t give enough data pointsso we can’t expect statistical significance.

We can ask the team members:• We see two clusters. Different jobs / people?• We see an outlier. Is this person/job different?• Why is this job dimension so low? What can we do to fix it?

For a larger population, we can look for statistical significance• Are high GNS people given high MPS jobs?• Does seniority/age/gender influence any of the variables?• In what way are different job titles statistically different?

PLOT JOB-PERSON MATCH

Higher GNS people should get higher MPS jobs

INTERPRETING THE PLOT

EXAMPLE ONE

What situation does this plot show?

Everyone is near the ideal line.No problems.

EXAMPLE ONE

EXAMPLE TWO

What situation does this plot show?

EXAMPLE TWO

Two outliers are badly matchedReallocate tasks

EXAMPLE THREE

What situation does this plot show?

EXAMPLE THREE

People are similar, but tasks are different.Re-allocate tasks to spread MPS more equally.

EMOTIONAL LABOUR

Emotional Work= facial & bodily display of emotion for personal purposes

Emotional Labour= facial & bodily display of emotion for wages

Facilitation requires a lot of emotional labour

EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES

Outcomes depend on both employer & employee:

Employers require specific behaviours (display rules)

An employee creates personal behaviours

that express his/her distinct identity

OUTCOMES

Emotional labour can be simultaneously both liberating and oppressive

Oppressive outcomes: emotional dissonance >emotional numbness, self-estrangement,

effort to maintain self-esteem, feeling “phoney”,physical illness, guilt, burnout

Liberating outcomes: task effectiveness, creativity,self-expression, better interaction with customers,enjoying one’s own performance

STATEGIES for difficult episodes

Managers’ strategies:Requiring adherence to display rulesVerbal and non-verbal approval disapprovalJoking and story telling

Employees’ strategies:Blaming colleagues, to defuse an argumentBlowing off afterwards to colleagues or familyFeeling like altruistic service providersThinking up better strategies for next time

Strategies for FACILITATORS

Facilitation requires emotional labour

• The best facilitators are always considerateThey seem to not to experience dissonancePerhaps this is what makes them betterThey still feel angst about their mistakes

• How can we manage our emotional labour?Use limited dissonance to practice behavioursRepeat, to feel these behaviours more genuinelyAir genuine concerns to the group, constructively

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

Albert Bandura • Focussed on individual’s conscious experience• Used introspective research methods

Emphasised:• Reciprocal determinism

e.g. our environment influences us AND we influence our environment

• Self-efficacy = our belief in our ability to achieve

• Vicarious learning = we learn from observing others

• Self-reflection = we make sense of our experience,

explore our thoughts and adapt accordingly

TRIADIC DETERMINISM

APPLICATION OF BANDURA’S THEORY

Bandura’s theories:Model the reality of motivation at work rather well

Used to help individuals change unhelpful habits

Always quoted in lists of motivation theories

Advice to managers:Increase employees’ self-efficacy

Increase employees’ job satisfaction

Reduce employees’ role conflict and ambiguity

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Recently, research into motivation has declined.

New working conditions will require new theories

For a summary of recent work, see:Academy of Management Review volume 29, number 3

Perhaps the term ‘motivation’ is falling into disuse,

replaced by creativity, quality of working life, etc.

BACK TO EARLIER THEORIES

Early theories tell us what mistakes were being made.What are these mistakes?What outcomes could we expect?

Such mistakes are still made.Assume that you are a facilitator,

your delegates are being mismanaged as below what can you do

to minimise the effect on your workshop?

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Before the modern theories, behavioural psychologists promoted operant conditioning

• Positive reinforcement strengthens a behaviour by giving a reward for doing a good job

• Negative reinforcement strengthens a behaviour by removing a stressor when a job is well done

• Extinction weakens a behaviour by withholding a reward even if the employee has put in extra effort

• Punishment weakens a behaviour by punishing people who exhibit that behaviour

HAWTHORN EFFECT

Researching effects of lighting level on productivity:

Turn the lights up > productivity increases then slowly declines

Turn the lights down > productivity increases then slowly declines

Conclusion: The effects are due to the researchers paying attention to employees’ needs

EQUITY THEORY

People experience distress:

if they are under-rewarded

AND if they are over-rewarded

If overpaid on hourly-rate > people produce more widgets

If overpaid on piece-rate > people produce better widgets

EQUITY THEORY

People experience distress:if they are under-rewarded > anger

if they are over-rewarded > guilt

If overpaid on hourly-rate > people produce more widgets

If overpaid on piece-rate > people produce better widgets

If underpaid on hourly-rate > fewer widgets, accidents, sick …

If underpaid on piece-rate > worse widgets, accidents, sick …

EQUITY THEORY

People experience distress:if they are under-rewarded > anger

if they are over-rewarded > guilt

If overpaid on hourly-rate > people produce more widgetsIf overpaid on piece-rate > people produce better widgets

If underpaid on hourly-rate > fewer widgets, absenteeism, sickness, ‘accidents’

If underpaid on piece-rate > worse widgets, absenteeism, sickness, ‘accidents’

EXPECTANCY THEORY

Expectancy Theory (Vroom)Motivation =

expectancy (perceived probability that effort performance success)

times instrumentality (perceived probability that success reward)

times valence (strength of preference for outcome)

Advises:• Tie rewards to performance• Ensure rewards are deserved and wanted• Provide training to ensure that effort productivity

TWO FACTOR THEORY

Hertzberg found two very different types of effect

1. Hygiene factors – if missing will de-motivatestatus, job security, salary

2. Motivating factors – give positive satisfactionchallenging work, recognition, responsibility

So, managers don’t gain from improving hygiene factors above moderately acceptable levels

We usually satisfy lower level needs first.

Once lower levels are satisfied, we work for next level up

Sometimes we forget about lower needs, or aspire to higher needs

HIEARACHY OF NEEDS

NEEDS (McClelland)

Each individual experiences many needs, notably:• Need for achievement• Need for affiliation• Need for power (control over environment)• Need for autonomy

The strength of each different need is a different personality factor.

Not necessarily constant over time, but very different for different people

16 BASIC DESIRES (Reiss)

Acceptance = need for approval Curiosity = need to learn Eating = need for food and drinkFamily = need to raise children Honour = need to be loyal to the traditional values of one's clan/ethnic group Idealism = need for social justice Independence = need for individuality Order = need for organized, stable, predictable environmentsPhysical activity = need for exercise Power = need for influence of will Romance = need for sex Saving = need to collect Social contact = need for friends (peer relationships) Status = need for social standing / importance Tranquillity = need to be safe Vengeance = need to strike back / to win