Operant conditioning theory
people will do things for which they are rewarded and will avoid doing things for which they are punished. (a strong nurture argument)
Neutral operant
responses from the environment that don’t affect a behaviour
Reinforcers-
responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behaviour being repeated.
Punishers
Responses from the environment that decrease the probability of a behaviour being repeated.
Positive reinforcement
adding something to increase the likelihood of a behaviour.
Negative reinforcement
Removing something to increase the likelihood of a behaviour
Punishment
Adding or removing something to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour
Effective feedback is
- Timely, Relatively Frequent, Relevant, Credible
Job Rotation
periodic shifting of workers from one task to another.
Job enlargement
Increasing the number and variety of tasks performed.
Job Enrichment
Applying the Job characteristics model to make the job more meaningful & motivating.
Relational job design
Designing work so employees are motivated to promote the well-being of the organization’s beneficiaries.
-Relate stories from customers who have benefited from the company’s products of services
-Connect employees directly with beneficiaries.
Job sharing
-can increase workforce
-can increase motivation/satisfaction
-Hard to find compatible employees
-employee image costs
-High administrative involvement
Flextime
Reduces absenteeism.
Increases productivity.
Good for work-family only for certain industries
Telecommuting
Relevant to knowledge work
Good for remote locations
Reduce environmental impact
Larger labour pool
Lower overhead costs
Less direct supervision
Coordination concerns
Pay transparency- Pros
There’s a positive link between pay transparency, task performance, and employee retention.
When pay is secret people can still infer unfairness in pay decisions.
Pay transparency can reduce pay discrimination.
Pay transparency - Cons
Pay transparency could increase conflict and reduce collaboration.
Pay transparency made employees more envious of their higher-paid colleagues and it made them less likely to help them
Implications: we don’t need to publish specific numbers, but publishing how pay is decided could be helpful
Using pay to motivate
Major strategic rewards decisions:
- What to pay employees
- How to pay individual employees
- What benefits to offer?
- How to construct employee recognition programs
Establishing a pay structure, a balance between:
- Internal equity- the worth of the job to the organization
- External equity- the external competitiveness of an organization’s pay relative to pay elsewhere in its industry
- A strategic decision with trade- offs
Variable-Pay programs
Base a portion of the payment on a given measure of performance.
Seven types of variable pay
- Piece-rate pay plan: Fixed sum for each unit.
- Merit-base pay: Based on performance appraisal.
- Bonuses: Based on recent performance
- Skill-based pay: Based on acquired skills or jobs.
- Profit-sharing plans: Based on company profitability.
- Gainsharing: Based on group productivity and waste reduction
- Employee-stock ownership plan (ESOP)
Improving reward effectiveness
- Link reward to performance
- Ensure rewards are relevant and valued.
- Use team rewards for interdependent jobs.
- Watch out for unintended consequences.
- Make things fair (Distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
1.Physiological and survival needs.
2.Safety and security needs.
3.Social needs.
4.Ego and esteem.
5.Self-actualization.
