Page 359 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

358 Part 4 • Leading
Watch It 1!
If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments section of mymanagementlab.com to
complete the video exercise titled Rudi’s Bakery: Motivation.

How Do the Contemporary Theories Explain Motivation?

At Electronic Arts (EA), one of the world’s largest video game designers, employees put
11-3 Compare in grueling hours developing games. However, EA takes care of its game developers by

and contrast providing them with workday intramural sports leagues, pinball arcades, group fitness
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contemporary classes, and an open invite to pets at work. With a little over 8,000 workers in more than
20 countries, EA’s managers need to understand employee motivation.
theories of The theories we look at in this section—goal-setting, job design, equity, and
motivation. expectancy—represent current explanations of employee motivation. Although maybe not as
well known as those we just discussed, these are backed by research. 17

What Is Goal-Setting Theory?

Goals CAN be powerful motivators!

Before a big assignment or major class project presentation, has a teacher ever encouraged
goal-setting theory
The proposition that specific goals increase you to “Just do your best”? What does that vague statement “do your best” mean? Would
performance and that difficult goals, when your performance on a class project have been higher had that teacher said you needed to
accepted, result in higher performance than do score a 93 percent to keep your A in the class? Research on goal-setting theory addresses
easy goals
these issues, and the findings, as you’ll see, are impressive in terms of the effect that goal
specificity, challenge, and feedback have on performance. 18
Substantial research support has been established for goal-setting theory, which says
that specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals, when accepted, result in
higher performance than do easy goals. What does goal-setting theory tell us?

Working toward a goal is a major source of (a) Working toward a goal is a major source of job motivation. Studies on goal setting
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motivation for Mary Kay Cosmetics beauty have demonstrated that specific and challenging goals are superior motivating forces.
consultants who set their own sales goals and Such goals produce a higher output than does the generalized goal of “do your best.”
earn rewards for achieving them. Consultants
Shannon Nelson (center) and her sister and The specificity of the goal itself acts as an internal stimulus. For instance, when a sales
mother are shown here with a Mustang rep commits to making eight sales calls daily, this intention gives him a specific goal
Shannon earned for meeting an ambitious to try to attain.
sales goal.
(b) Will employees try harder if they have the opportuni-
ty to participate in the setting of goals? Not always. In
some cases, participatively set goals elicit superior per-
formance; in other cases, individuals performed best
when their manager assigned goals. However, par-
ticipation is probably preferable to assigning goals
when employees might resist accepting difficult
challenges. 20
(c) We know that people will do better if they get
feedback on how well they’re progressing toward
their goals because feedback helps identify dis-
crepancies between what they’ve done and what
ZUMA Press, Inc/Alamy effective. Self-generated feedback—where an
they want to do. But all feedback isn’t equally
employee monitors his or her own progress—has
been shown to be a more powerful motivator than
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feedback coming from someone else.