1. MOTIVATION
for Workshop Facilitation

2. 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?

3. Work Motivation
• Lots of credible theories
• A tangle of issues
• Vested interests
• Circular arguments
+
long what-if chains

4. LOTS OF THEORIES
Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow 1954)
Equity Theory (Adams 1965)
Expectancy Theory (Vroom 1968)
Two-factor Theory (Herzberg 1968)

5. HIEARACHY OF NEEDS
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

6. EQUITY THEORY
People experience distress:
if they are under-rewarded > anger
AND
if they are over-rewarded > guilt
If overpaid on hourly-rate, they produce more widgets
If overpaid on piece-rate, they produce better widgets

7. LOTS OF THEORIES
Expectancy Theory (Vroom)
Motivation = expectancy (effort ⇒ performance ⇒ outcome)
times valence (strength of preference for outcome)
times instrumentality (1st level outcome ⇒ 2nd level outcome)
Advises:
• Tie rewards to performance
• Ensure rewards are deserved and wanted
• Provide training to ensure that effort ⇒ productivity

8. TWO FACTOR THEORY
Two very different types of effect
1. Hygiene factors – if missing will de-motivate
status, job security, salary
2. Motivating factors – give positive satisfaction
challenging work, recognition, responsibility

9. Job Diagnostic Survey
Hackman + Oldham (1976) did first significant empirical work
Job Characteristics Model:
• contains 21 variables
• including most ideas from previous theories
Job Diagnostic Survey measures these 21 variables
• Depends on people answering (mederately) truthfully
• All the measures are different, but not independent
• The results are replicable
• They were calibrated over 6,000 people, in a wide range
of jobs
• They demonstrated moderate predictive validity

10. Motivating IT Staff
1985 Couger + Zawaki surveyed software developers
• Most motivation problems were in software maintenance
1996 Warden + Nicholson’s surveyed UK IT staff
• Problems were more widespread
• Perhaps due to a less buoyant job market

11. Motivation Improvement
MOTIVATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
Diagnosis
• Explain improvement process and agree confidentiality
• Administer JDS 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
• Longitudinal review includes re-measuring with a repeat JDS
• Problem: a second JDS isn’t an identical process

12. JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL

13. • Demographic Variables
• Source of information > reasons for completing survey
• Job title > function / seniority
• Job function: software/operations/customers/hardware/network/database
• Discipline: development/service/maintenance/qa/testing
• Seniority: trainee/qualified/supervisor/manager/senior manager
• Location: country, postcode/zip code
• Industry sector: manufacturing/service/retail/public/energy/transport/it
• Gender: m/f
• Age: in years
• Education: school, college, first degree, higher degree
• Company: organisation culture
Core Job Dimensions
• Skill variety - different activities
• requiring different skills
• Task identity - a whole identifiable piece of work
• with visible outcomes
• Task significance - impact on the lives and work of others
• Autonomy - freedom, independence and discretion
• in scheduling own work and designing own procedures
• Feedback - two measures:
• job feedback – in the process if carrying out work, person gets
• information about performance
• people feedback - supervisors, co-workers and others
• give information about performance
•
• Aggregate Measures
• Person’s GNS (Growth Needs Strength)
• Person’s SNS (Social Needs Strength)
• Job’s MPS (Motivating Potential Score) = S(core job dimensions)
•
Employee Needs
• Strength of desire to obtain growth satisfaction from work
• would-like needs - absolute
• job - choice needs - relative
• social needs - not in published JDS
•
Psychological States
• Experienced meaningfulness:
• How worthwhile/important is the product/service in workers’ view?
• Experienced responsibility:
• Do workers believe they are personally responsible for outcomes?