what are the 3 main theories of motivation? What do they each say about motivation (and what are their limits)?
- Maslow theory of needs
- Herzberg 2 factor theory
- self-motivation theory (autonomy, relatedness, competence)
What factors affect motivation in Gemma’s team during COVID?
individual level : idiosyncratic situations for each employee eg social isolation, childcare, anxiety, mental health issues
organisational level: massive layoffs and uncertainty impact motivation: survivor guilt, dampened creativity, low trust, hampered identification
What are the extrinsic forces of motivation?
- rewards in proportion to output eg commissions, bonuses
- direct incentive for performance
What are the limits for extrinsic sources of motivation?
-incentive life cycles means that individuals get to know how to trick the system and do as little while still getting the rewards
- performance can’t be easily measured eg how do we measure team performance
-impact on unethical behaviour eg rogue traders
When does extrinsic motivation actually work?
-when it can be objectively and easily measured
- routine and repetitive tasks
- when performance is easily controllable by employees and they feel they can realistically achieve that performance
-when the presence of other motivators is low -so individuals have real interest in the task
-behaviour is easily monitored and opportunity for cheating is low
What are intrinsic sources of motivation? Examples?
- genuine interest in the task
-feeling challenged by the work
-being praised for your work - desire to learn
- task meaningfulness
-status
In what ways can we manage the content of work?
- emphasise the sense of accomplishment at work by:
-making the work more meaningful
- make it challenging just enough but still achievable eg moderately difficult tasks are more motivating than easy tasks and significance of rewards is also greater
-providing positive feedback and quantitatively tracked performance
- setting goals is a good motivational technique - emphasise autonomy:
- increases feelings of responsibility + motivation
-autonomy is a primary predictor of stress
-organisations that provide autonomy grow 4 times faster
3.meaningfulness eg non profit and volunteer work
How does Google motivate interns?
Google internship video: it plays on intrinsic levers like passion, impact, there is no hierarchy, learning curve, full-time hiring offer⇒ content and design of the work is used a intrinsic lever here
What can we do to address motivation in difficult contexts ie COVID for Gemma’s team?
-goal setting and power of small wins
-maintain social relatedness
-sense of purpose and identity of org
- 2 factor theory: impact on remote work/hygiene factors
