motivation for facilitation
DESCRIPTION
A summary of theories about work motivation as they relate to behaviour in meetings. Part of a module on Workshop Facilitation on MSc Agile Software ProjectsTRANSCRIPT
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