The Nature of Work Motivation

The Nature of Work Motivation

1. What is the core position of the author?

This chapter discusses the nature of work motivation. First, the author exams the work motivation, it is a kind of psychological forces that makes people to determine the direction of that person’s behavior in an organization, effort level, and persistence in the face of obstacles.

We can see the difference between the motivation and performance and between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The motivation is one of the factors that can influence people’s performance and can not determine the level of performance. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades. And extrinsic motivation makes people to perform to acquire material or social rewards or to avoid punishment.

The author introduces four theories of work motivation. The first one is need theory that is actually not only one theory. However its main message is that people have needs that they are motivated to satisfy during working. The author introduces Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Alderfer’s ERG Theory and research them.

Furthermore, the author introduces expectancy theory. It means that people are motivated to choose the behavior due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be. Valence, instrumentality and expectancy are three major factors that determine an employee’s motivation. In order for an employee to be motivated to perform desired behaviors and to perform them at a high level, the level of valence, instrumentality and expectancy must be high.

Next author makes us familiar with equity theory. It tells that employees will be motivated by the fairness of their work outcomes and inputs. Equity exists when an individual’s outcome/input ratio equals the outcome/input ratio of the referent. Inequity exists when outcome/input ratios are not proportionally equal, and employees will try to restore equity.

Finally, the forth theory is organizational justice theory. Employees’ motivation, attitudes and behaviors are determined by the overall fairness in their organization. And the form of organizational justice includes distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice. The author also tells us the consequences of organizational justice. Employee motivation, attitudes and behaviors can be influenced by perceptions of organizational justice.

2. What is your own evaluation of this position?

In my opinion, the author sufficiently analyzed the nature of wok motivation in a certain extent. The author let us familiar with the definition of work motivation and the distinction between the motivation and performance. Most people confuse about the work motivation and performance and