Identify the four things that the basic model of work motivation suggests managers can use to motivate employees. Explain how each of these strategies might be used to motivate a 55-year-old tenured professor whose teaching performance has become very

Question

weak over the past three years. Briefly explain the relevance of the industrial psychology formulation of the relationship between performance and motivation to the analysis you provide. Be sure to clarify any assumptions that you are making.

Answer 1

The basic model of motivation suggests that managers can motivate employees by (1 ) asking them what their needs are, (2 ) satisfying lower-order needs first, (3 ) expecting people's needs to change, and (4 ) satisfying higher-order needs through intrinsic rewards. Effective answers to this question could be provided in a variety of ways. One example is provided below. In general, better student answers will provide a workable diagnostic and intervention plan within realistic budgetary and policy guidelines.

(1 ) Identify the professor's needs. Get to know his/her interests and tastes so that rewards can be individualized to give the employee what is desired. Asking the professor what he/she would like in return for effective performance can help identify need deficiencies that might not be apparent. In many cases, simply recognizing and praising effective performance can be a strong motivator. (2 ) Satisfy lower-order needs first. Ascertain that the working conditions and compensation for the professor are able to satisfy his/her lower-order needs. In practice, this means providing the equipment, training, and knowledge to create a safe workplace free of physical risks, paying him well enough to provide financial security, and offering a benefits package that will protect him and his family through good medical coverage and health and disability insurance. If pay and benefits at the school have not kept pace with inflation and/or market levels, this may be a significant source of perceived inequity for the professor. Similarly, if specific equipment is needed to perform effectively, and the school's budget will not allow the purchase, situational constraints may be hindering performance. (3 ) Expect people's needs to change. Given the fact that this is a relatively recent performance problem that has developed over the past three years, and that his performance was satisfactory prior to that time (this is an assumption, based upon the professor's tenure status), it is likely that something has changed in the interim. This could be a change in the professor's needs or a change in the reward structure at the institution. Either way, old motivational strategies will rarely work indefinitely. Advice at this step is similar to that at step 1: identify the professor's needs and develop strategies to provide acceptable rewards to the professor within the realistic constraints of budget and policy at the university. Finally, (4 ) satisfy higher order needs through intrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards such as accomplishment, achievement, learning something new, and interacting with others are the natural rewards associated with performing a task or activity for its own sake. With the exception of influence (power), intrinsic rewards correspond very closely to higher-order needs that are concerned with relationships (belongingness, relatedness, and affiliation) and challenges and accomplishments (esteem, self-actualization, growth, and achievement). Therefore, one way for managers to meet employees' higher-order needs is to create opportunities for them to experience intrinsic rewards by providing challenging work, encouraging them to take greater responsibility for their work, and giving them the freedom to pursue tasks and projects they find naturally interesting. For the professor in question, a joint goal-setting plan for performance improvement based upon changes in work responsibilities might be effective. For example, if the professor has become bored teaching the same courses year after year, he or she may be invigorated by the opportunity to develop a new course in an area of personal interest.

In industrial psychology, job performance is frequently represented by the equation: Job Performance = Motivation × Ability × Situational Constraints. Since job performance is a multiplicative function of motivation times ability times situational constraints, job performance will suffer if any one of these components is weak. In the present case, we can probably assume that the professor has the ability to teach effectively, since tenure was awarded. (However, a thorough analysis of causes of the professor's performance decline might consider possible disability effects on performance.) Most likely, the performance decline is a result of problems with either or both motivation and situational constraints. Examples of both are provided in the analysis above.