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UNIT-II: Perception and Motivation - Perception - Factors – Motivation – Nature; Theories of Motivation – Hierarchy Needs Theory – Two-Factor Theory – Expectancy Theory; Applications of Motivation.

Perception and Motivation

Perception

Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

Why is this important to the study of OB?

• Because people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

Factors Influencing Perception1. Factors that shape (and can distort perception):

• Perceiver• Target• Situation

2. When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics of the individual perceiver.

3. The more relevant personal characteristics affecting perception of the perceiver are attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.

4. Characteristics of the target can also affect what is being perceived. This would include attractiveness, gregariousness, and our tendency to group similar things together. For example, members of a group with clearly distinguishable features or color are often perceived as alike in other, unrelated characteristics as well as novelty, motion, sounds, size, background, proximity, similarity.

5. The context in which we see objects or events also influences our attention. This could include time, heat, light, or other situational factors or work setting, social settings.

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Motivation

Motivation is a general term applying to entire class of derives, desires, needs, wishes & similar forces.

Definition: Motivation is “the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.”

1. We will narrow the focus to organizational goals in order to reflect our singular interest in work-related behavior.

2. The three key elements of our definition are intensity, direction, and persistence:• Intensity is concerned with how hard a person tries. This is the

element most of us focus on when we talk about motivation. • Direction is the orientation that benefits the organization.• Persistence is a measure of how long a person can maintain his/her

effort. Motivated individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal.

Theories of MotivationHierarchy Needs Theory• This is theory was put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow.• Maslow saw human needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from

the lowest to the highest; and he concluded that, when one set of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases to be motivator.

The basic human needs placed by Maslow in an ascending order of importance and shown in figure below.







1. Physiological needs: These are the basic needs for sustaining human life itself, such as food, water, warmth, shelter and sleep. Maslow took the position that, until these needs are satisfied to the degree necessary to maintain life, other needs will not motivate people.

2. Security or Safety Needs: People want to be free of physical danger and of the fear of losing a job, property, food, or shelter.

3. Social or Affiliation or Acceptance Needs: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship

4. Esteem Needs: Includes internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and achievement; and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention

5. Need for Self-actualizations: The drive to become what one is capable of becoming; includes growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment.

Theory X and Theory Y

1. Douglas McGregor concluded that a manager’s view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and he or she tends to mold his or her behavior toward employees according to these assumptions.

2. Theory X assumptions are basically negative.

• Employees inherently dislike work and, whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it.

• Since employees dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled, or threatened with punishment.

• Employees will avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction whenever possible.

• Most workers place security above all other factors and will display little ambition.

3. Theory Y assumptions are basically positive.

• Employees can view work as being as natural as rest or play.• People will exercise self-direction and self-control if they are

committed to the objectives.• The average person can learn to accept, even seek, responsibility.• The ability to make innovative decisions is widely dispersed throughout

the population.







4. What are the implications for managers? This is best explained by using Maslow’s framework:• Theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals. • Theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals. • McGregor himself held to the belief that Theory Y assumptions were

more valid than Theory X. • There is no evidence to confirm that either set of assumptions is valid.• Either Theory X or Theory Y assumptions may be appropriate in a

particular situation.

Two-Factor Theory1. The Two-Factor Theory is sometimes also called motivation-hygiene theory.

2. Proposed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg when he investigated the question, “What do people want from their jobs?” He asked people to describe, in detail, situations in which they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs. These responses were then tabulated and categorized.

3. From the categorized responses, Herzberg concluded:

• Intrinsic factors, such as advancement, recognition, responsibility, and achievement seem to be related to job satisfaction.

• Dissatisfied respondents tended to cite extrinsic factors, such as supervision, pay, company policies, and working conditions.

• The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction.• Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily

make the job satisfying.

4. Job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from job dissatisfaction factors. Managers who eliminate job dissatisfaction factors may not necessarily bring about motivation.

5. When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; neither will they be satisfied. To motivate people, emphasize factors intrinsically rewarding that are associated with the work itself or to outcomes directly derived from it.

6. Criticisms of the theory:

• The procedure that Herzberg used is limited by its methodology.• The reliability of Herzberg’s methodology is questioned. • No overall measure of satisfaction was utilized.• Herzberg assumed a relationship between satisfaction and

productivity, but the research methodology he used looked only at satisfaction, not at productivity.







6. Regardless of criticisms, Herzberg’s theory has been widely read, and few managers are unfamiliar with his recommendations.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Vroom’s expectancy theory is that people will be motivated to do things to reach a goal if they believe in the worth of that goal and if they can see that what they do will help them in achieving it.

It states that

Force = Valence x Expectancy

Where force is the strength of a person’s motivation, valance is the strength of an individual’s preferences for an outcome and expectancy is the probability that a particular action lead to a desired outcome.

When the person is indifferent about achieving a certain goal, a valence of zero occurs; there is negative valence when the person would rather not achieve the goal.

A person would have no motivation to achieve a goal if the expectancy were zero or negative. The force exerted to do something will depend on both Variance and Expectancy.

(Optional)

1. Expectancy theory is one of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory has its critics but most of the research is supportive.

2. Expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.

3. It says that an employee will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when he/she believes that:• Effort will lead to a good performance appraisal.







• That a good appraisal will lead to organizational rewards.• That the rewards will satisfy his/her personal goals.

4. Three key relationships (See Exhibit 6-7).

• Effort-performance relationship: the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance

• Performance-reward relationship: the degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome

• Rewards-personal goals relationship: the degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual

5. Expectancy theory helps explain why a lot of workers merely do the minimum necessary to get by. For example:

• If I give a maximum effort, will it be recognized in my performance appraisal?

No, if the organization’s performance appraisal assesses nonperformance factors. The employee, rightly or wrongly, perceives that his/her boss does not like him/her.

• If I get a good performance appraisal, will it lead to organizational rewards?

Typically many employees see the performance-reward relationship in

their job as weak.

• If I am rewarded, are the rewards ones that I find personally attractive? It is important the rewards being tailored to individual employee needs

6. The key to expectancy theory is the understanding of an individual’s goals and the linkage between effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and finally, between the rewards and individual goal satisfaction.

7. As a contingency model, expectancy theory recognizes that there is no universal principle for explaining everyone’s motivations.







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