EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
same time as you did. Your determina- tion of the fairness of the situation would depend on how you felt you compared to the other person, or referent. Employees evaluate their own out- comes (e.g. salary, bene ts) in relation to their inputs (e.g. number of hours worked, education, and training) and then compare the outcomes-to-inputs ratio to one of the following: 1. Employee’s own past experience in a different position in the current company; 2. Employee’s own past experience in a different company; 3. Another employee’s experience inside the current company; and/or 4. Another employee’s experience out- side the company. According to equity theory, if employees perceive that an inequity exists, they will make one of the following choices: • Change their work habits (exert less effort on the job). • Change their job bene ts and income (ask for a raise, steal from the employer). • Distort their perception of themselves (“I always thought I was smart, but now I real- ise I’m a lot smarter than my colleagues.”). • Distort their perceptions of others (“Joe’s position is really much less exible than mine.”). • Look at the situation from a different perspective (“I don’t make as much as the other department heads, but I make a lot more than most brewers.”). • Leave the situation (quit the job). Managers can use equity theory to improve worker satisfaction. Knowing that every employee seeks equitable and fair treatment, managers can make an effort to understand an employee’s perceptions of fairness and take steps to reduce concerns about inequity. 3: Goal-setting Theory This is based on the premise that an indi- vidual’s intention to work toward a goal is a primary source of motivation. Once set, the goal clari es for the employee what needs to be accomplished and how much effort will be required for completion. The theory has three main components: 1. Speci c goals lead to a higher level of performance than do more generalised goals; 2. More dif cult goals lead to better performance than do easy goals; and 3. Feedback on progress toward the goal enhances performance.
Individual needs
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Figure 1: How expectations can lead to motivation
sation. This can cause resentment and lead to dissatisfaction. • Job enrichment: Job enrichment is the vertical expansion of an employee’s job. Whereas job enlargement addresses the breadth or scope of a job, enrichment attempts to increase job depth by provid- ing the employee with more autonomy, responsibility, and decision-making authority. In an enriched job, the employee can use a variety of talents and skills and has more control over the planning, execution, and evaluation of the required tasks. In general, job enrichment has been found to increase job satisfaction and reduce absenteeism and turnover. • Job rotation : Also called cross-training, job rotation is the shifting of workers from one job to another. This may be done to broaden an employee’s skill base or because an employee has ceased to be interested in or challenged by a particular job. The company may bene t from job rotation because it increases exibility in scheduling and production and because employees can be shifted to cover for absent workers or changes in production or operations. It is also a valuable tool for training lower-level managers in a variety of functional areas. Drawbacks of job rotation include an increase in training costs and decreased productivity while employees are getting up to speed in new task areas. Work-scheduling options As companies try to meet the needs of a diverse workforce and retain quality employees while remaining competitive and nancially prosperous, managers are challenged to nd new ways to keep work- ers motivated and satis ed. Increasingly popular are alternatives to the traditional work schedule, such as exitime, com- pressed workweek, four-day workweek, telecommuting, and job sharing. • Flexitime : Allows employees to decide what their work hours will be. Employees are generally expected to work a certain number of hours per week but have some discretion as to when they arrive at work and when they leave for the day. •Compressed workweek : Another option for employees who want to maximise their leisure hours, indulge in three-day
the gap between the real (the actual performance) and the ideal (the desired outcome de ned by the goal). Given the trend toward employee empow- erment in the workplace, more and more employees are participating in the goal-setting process. 4: Reinforcement Theory This theory states that behaviour is a func- tion of its consequences. In other words, people do things because they know other things will follow. So, depending on what type of consequences follows, people will either practice a behaviour or refrain from it. There are three basic types of consequences: positive, negative, and none. In general, we think of positive consequences as rewards, but a reward is anything that increases the particular behaviour. By contrast, punishment is anything that decreases the behaviour. Motivating with the reinforcement theory can be tricky because the theory is functional. All of its components are de ned by their function rather than their structure. That is, consequences can operate differently for different people and in different situations. What is considered a punishment by one person may, in fact, be a reward for another. Nonetheless, managers can successfully use reinforcement theory to motivate workers to practice certain behaviours and avoid others. Often, managers use both rewards and pun- ishment to achieve the desired results. Motivational job design How might managers redesign or mod- ify existing jobs to increase employee motivation and performance? The following three options have been used extensively in the workplace: • Job enlargement: The horizontal expansion of a job, increasing the num- ber and variety of tasks that a person performs, is called job enlargement. Increasing task diversity can enhance job satisfaction, particularly when the job is mundane and repetitive in nature. A potential drawback to job enlarge- ment is that employees may perceive that they are being asked to work harder and do more with no change in their level of responsibility or compen-
Feedback is particularly important because it helps the individual identify
october 2019 I BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 35
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