Premium Essay

Why Do Managers Study Motivation and Behavior

In:

Submitted By tkelley3
Words 2072
Pages 9
Exam Questions 2:

Due May 19, 2011

50 Points

1. Why do managers study motivation and behavior?

I believe that managers study motivation and behavior to learn to control their staff without actually studying the staff’s behavior and self motivation. I personally think that mangers who are successful communicators are those who actually communication and empathize with their staff. Staff motivation directs behavior toward a particular goal. Workers, who set goals for themselves with sales or personal goals for that day, direct their behavior accordingly to accomplish this goal. Motivation may also lead to increased effort and energy. For example, motivation for me at my job increases the amount of effort and energy that I will expend in work activities directly related to my customers needs and goals at my restaurant. This will determine whether I pursue a task enthusiastically, apathetic or lackadaisical. Manager’s direct motivation also determines which consequences are working and also used for punishing. The more your staff is motivated to achieve success, the more that will be proud of their goal and upset by low sales, especially in my job. The more learners want to be accepted and respected by peers, the more they will value work with the popular group and be distressed by the ridicule of coworkers. Conversely, workers who have little interest in work achievement are at high risk for dropping out of the work race even before they really begin.

2. What is cognitive dissonance? Give some examples of situations that might create dissonance in an individual. What does cognitive dissonance have to do with blocked need satisfaction?

Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. An example in which a situation might create dissonance in an

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Business

...Welcome to VangoNotes for Organizational Behavior, 13th edition by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy Judge. Chapter 1: What Is Organizational Behavior? Section 1: Big Ideas Do you ever wonder why people at work behave the way they do? Or why you act as you do? Chapter 1 sets the stage for learning what Organizational Behavior is, how it will help you understand yourself and others at work, and what some of the organizational behavior issues are that people are talking about today. Let’s start with interpersonal skills. Practicing managers have long understood the importance of people skills for organizational success in today’s competitive and demanding workplace. Who do we mean by managers? Managers get things done through other people. They do it by planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers also fill interpersonal roles, such as being a leader, a liaison, or a figurehead. They serve in informational roles such as monitor, disseminator of information, or spokesperson. Finally, in their role as decision maker they might be entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. All these roles are important to the functioning of the organization and its people. Who’s the best manager you’ve ever known? Think about the special skills that helped this person to be effective. Researcher Robert Katz has identified three essential sets of management skills. The first set includes technical skills, the ability to apply specialized...

Words: 2189 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Motivation

...Motivation in the Healthcare Environment HCA 310 Health Care Strategic Management Introduction “Many business managers today are not aware of the effects that motivation can (and does) have on their business, and it is therefore important they learn and understand the factors that determine positive motivation in the workplace.” (ROK connect unlimited 2006) Why is this important? Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive which can help maintain efficiency. It takes hard work and insight to motivate employees to join the company, perform well and stay with the company. To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform. Of all the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably the most complex and important. (Dunham 2004) This is due, in part, to the fact that what motivates employees changes constantly. For example, research suggests that as employees' income increases, money becomes less of a motivator and as employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator. (Dunham 2004) This paper attempts to look at theories of motivation, determine what implications they have on the healthcare industry and demonstrate why it is such an important consideration for managers. Why is motivation important? “Employee motivation has a direct impact on a health services organization’s...

Words: 3053 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Relevance of Psychology to the Business Operator

...administrators or managers? If yes justify your answer and if no justify your answer. Yes, psychology is of relevance to business administrators or managers. Psychology was coined in the 16th century from 2 Greek words. Psukhe/psyche which means “breath” or “soul” and logos which means “word” or “reason” and its initial meaning was “study of the soul”. Later the definition changed to “science of mental life” when it became a science in 1879. Also in the 1920s it was commonly defined as “the scientific study of behavior”. From the 1960s till date it has taken a broader definition “the science of behavior and mental processes. Psychology also refers to the application or usage of understanding knowledge and skills to a number of areas of human activity, involving issues concerning with daily activities such as education, events, people and their task, employment, association, relationship as well as the treatment of mental-health problems. Importance of psychology Psychology is important as it is concerned with the study of behavior and mental processes and at the same time, it is also applied to many different areas of human life. Everything we do is very much related to psychology. Psychology primarily studies who and what we are, why we are like that, why we act and think like that and finally how we can improve ourselves. Psychology is important in many different ways. For example, there have been a large number of studies conducted on various...

Words: 1033 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work

...Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work by Alfie Kohn Harvard Business Review Reprint 93506 I N Q U E S T I O N When reward systems fail, don’t blame the program – look at the premise behind it. Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work By Alfie Kohn It is difficult to overstate the extent to which most managers and the people who advise them believe in the redemptive power of rewards. Certainly, the vast majority of U.S. corporations use some sort of program intended to motivate employees by tying compensation to one index of performance or another. But more striking is the rarely examined belief that people will do a better job if they have been promised some sort of incentive. This assumption and the practices associated with it are pervasive, but a growing collection of evidence supports an opposfailure of any given incentive program is due less to a glitch in that program than to the inadequacy of the psychological assumptions that ground all such plans. thinking – those who promote teamwork, participative management, continuous improvement, and the like – urge the use of rewards to institute and maintain these very reforms. What we use bribes to accomplish may have changed, but the reliance on bribes, on behaviorist doctrine, has not. Moreover, the few articles that appear to criticize incentive plans are Temporary Compliance Most managers too often believe in the redemptive power of rewards. ing view. According to numerous studies in laboratories, workplaces...

Words: 4865 - Pages: 20

Premium Essay

Organizational Behavior

...LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1 2 3 Describe the three key elements of motivation. Identify early theories of motivation and evaluate their applicability today. Apply the predictions of selfdetermination theory to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. 4 5 6 Compare and contrast goalsetting theory and management by objectives. Contrast reinforcement theory and goal-setting theory. Demonstrate how organizational justice is a refinement of equity theory. 7 8 9 Apply the key tenets of expectancy theory to motivating employees. Compare contemporary theories of motivation. Show how motivation theories are culture bound. ISBN 0-558-97987-4 202 Organizational Behavior, Fourteenth Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. Motivation Concepts Luke: “I don’t believe it.” Yoda: “That is why you fail.” —The Empire Strikes Back 7 THE BIG BROKER EXODUS T ISBN 0-558-97987-4 he global recession has upended the status quo in many areas of business, and nowhere is that more evident than in the financial sector. Former Wall Street icons—Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns—have been absorbed by other companies or vanished altogether. Other stalwart companies, such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, American International Group (AIG), and Morgan Stanley, were forced to become wards of the state. Said one business writer, “It’s been...

Words: 20911 - Pages: 84

Premium Essay

Motivation, Satisfaction, and Performance Plan

...(Mehra, 2001) Studies have shown by connecting employees socially work performance goes up. Additionally, I would fund programs on self-awareness especially the concept of self-monitoring. High and low self-monitoring behavior has a direct correlation to workplace success. Educating my staff to recognize and practice high self-monitoring behavior and workplace performance would be a high priority in my training in the first couple months of the new hires training. I’d also implement a performance measurement program. Use quote to support using it. “As part of their overall management strategy, public managers can use control, budget, and performance measures to evaluate, motivate, promote, celebrate, learn and improve. (Behn, Why Measure Performance? Differant purposes require differant measures, 2003) Working closely with my staff, motivation would come from me directly, although outcome data would serve as a significant measure although delayed. “Organizations don’t produce outcomes, organizations produce outputs. And to motivate an organization to improve its performance, managers have to motivate it to improve what it actually does. Consequently, although managers want to use outcome data to evaluate their agency is performance; they need to motivate it to improve what it actually does.” (Behn, Why Measure Performance? Differant purposes require differant measures, 2003) Motivation Satisfaction and Performance plan LDR 531 February 13, 2012 Motivation Satisfaction...

Words: 1440 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Sdjvi9Afm

...Objectives 1. Define human relations and determine why its study is important. 2. Summarize early studies that laid the groundwork for understanding employee motivation. 3. Compare and contrast the human-relations theories of Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg. 4. Investigate various theories of motivation, including Theories X, Y, and Z; equity theory; and expectancy theory. 5. Describe some of the strategies that managers use to motivate employees. 6. Critique a business’s program for motivating its sales force. Key Terms and Definitions |behavior modification |Changing behavior and encouraging appropriate actions by relating the consequences of behavior to | | |behavior itself. | |classical theory of motivation |A theory that suggests that money is the sole motivator for workers. | |compressed workweek |A four-day (or shorter) period in which an employee works 40 hours. | |equity theory |An assumption that how much people are willing to contribute to an organization depends on their | | |assessment of the fairness, or equity, of the rewards they will receive in exchange. | |esteem needs |The need for respect—both self-respect and respect...

Words: 8260 - Pages: 34

Premium Essay

Individual, Group Behaviour

...Chapter 2 Organizational behavior Perception and Personality DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Organizational behavior (often abbreviated as OB) is a field of study that investigates how individuals, groups, and structure affect and is affected by behavior within organizations. Behavior refers to what people do in the organization, how they perform, and what their attitudes are. Because the organizations studied are often business organizations, OB is frequently applied to address workplace issues such as absenteeism, turnover, productivity, motivation, working in groups, and job satisfaction. Managers often apply the knowledge gained from OB research to help them manage their organizations more effectively. What is organizational behavior? organizational behavior A field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behavior within organizations; the aim is to apply such knowledge toward improving organizational effectiveness .OB is for everyone It may seem natural to think that the study of OB is for leaders and managers of organizations. After all, they often set the agenda for everyone else. However, OB is for everyone. For instance, many employees have informal leadership roles. They are often expected to move beyond simply providing labor to playing a more proactive role in achieving organizational success. As well, managers are increasingly asking employees to share in their decision-making processes...

Words: 13411 - Pages: 54

Premium Essay

Comunition in Organziations

...This study explores the positive effects of effective communication on employee motivation and performance. Specifically, in intends to compare the results between service employees and manufacturing employees in terms of communication as a motivating factor. The theories used in this study to create a conceptual framework are Herzberg Two factor theory, Goal Theory, and the circular theory of communication. The concept is that when hygiene and motivator factors are high, goals can be developed, but can only be effective only if the message was disseminated effectively. The study uses quantitative research on service and manufacturing employees. They were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire with ranking questions and some open-ended questions. The study found that there were only slight differences in the motivator factors for both set of respondents but there service employees are higher in hygiene. Both industries, however, see communication as an important factor in motivation. However, they only experience high hygiene, but less motivator, which means that they are not fully motivated. It has been suggested that the companies of the employees surveyed should invest on improving the motivator factors within the working environment and improve communication flows.        CHAPTER 1     THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND                This study examines the importance of communication on the performance and motivation of employees. The target samples of the...

Words: 11323 - Pages: 46

Free Essay

Analysis

...Motivation Concepts Analysis Anna Parks PSY/320 4-29-14 Kelly Louis Motivation Concepts Analysis Employee motivation has always been a central problem for leaders and managers. Unmotivated employees are likely to spend little or no effort in their jobs, avoid the workplace as much as possible, exit the organization if given the opportunity and produce low quality work. On the other hand, employees who feel motivated to work are likely to be persistent, creative and productive, turning out high quality work that they willingly undertake. There has been a lot of research done on motivation by many scholars, but the behavior of groups of people to try to find out why it is that every employee of a company does not perform at their best has been comparatively unresearched. Many things can be said to answer this question; the reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated. Employers need to get to know their employees very well and use different tactics to motivate each of them based on their personal wants and needs. The dictionary Webster's defines motivation as something inside people that drives them to action. This motivation varies in different people. We can also say that motivation is the willingness to work at a certain level of effort. Motivation emerges, in current theories, out of needs, values, goals, intentions, and expectation. Because motivation comes from within, managers need to cultivate and direct the motivation that their employees...

Words: 1866 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Case

...The field of HRD or Human Resource Development encompasses several aspects of enabling and empowering human resources in organization. Whereas earlier HRD was denoted as managing people in organizations with emphasis on payroll, training and other functions that were designed to keep employees happy, the current line of management thought focuses on empowering and enabling them to become employees capable of fulfilling their aspirations and actualizing their potential. This shift in the way human resources are treated has come about due to the prevailing notion that human resources are sources of competitive advantage and not merely employees fulfilling their job responsibilities. The point here is that the current paradigm in HRD treats employees as value creators and assets based on the RBV or the Resource Based View of the firm that has emerged in the SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) field.The field of HRD spans several functions across the organization starting with employee recruitment and training, appraisals and payroll and extending to the recreational and motivational aspects of employee development. | Indeed, one reason for the emergence of the RBV or the SHRM paradigm is that with the advent of the service sector and the greater proportion of companies in the service sector, employees are not merely a factor of production like land, labor and capital but in fact, they are sources of competitive advantage. This is characterized by many CEO’s calling employees...

Words: 1407 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Motivaton

...SAS institute Employee Motivation Ashley Smith MGT/312 04/27/2015 SAS Institute: Employee Motivation Keeping employees motivated has never been as significant as during the current economic we live in today. Motivation is what energizes, maintains, and controls behavior. As such, it is clear why it plays an imperative role in the workplace. With over 11,000 employees, SAS Institute has been named Fortune Magazine Best Company in America to work for (“Closing Case Motivating Employees at the SAS Institute”).. Bringing in approximately $2.3 Billion in revenue, SAS Institute is the biggest privately owned software company in the world (“Closing Case Motivating Employees at the SAS Institute”). In this case study, we will take a look at, how does SAS Institute motivate its employees? What factors are likely to contribute to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? And lastly, how might SAS long term focus affect employee motivation. How Does SAS Motivate its Employees? SAS Institute plays a big part in motivating its employees. It has always been their top priority to make sure that, their employees enjoy coming to their workplace each and every day. Even more so, motivated to do a good job on their work, that they are given. At SAS Institute managers want employees to feel that the contribution, which they are making is important to the company, and that the company appreciates the work they are providing to them. SAS believes in keeping business inside the company (“Closing...

Words: 1104 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Leadership and Management Theories

...controls the behavior and work of the subordinates to accomplish the organizational goals. It is an unique combination of some qualities that transforms potentials to reality. Leadership acts as the catalyst that makes all other elements work together. Without leadership, all other resources of a concern remain dormant. Characteristics of Leadership Leaders and leaderships are in every level of an organization. There are some generally known qualities of leaders but some unique characteristics make them great leaders. The characteristics include - Dedication: Dedication means spending whatever time or energy is needed to complete the task in hand to proceed towards the goal. By setting an excellent example, a leader can show the followers that one must do whatever it takes to achieve something great. Flexibility: Not everything goes as per the plans. Sometimes, the competitors change their tactics, the Government may force new regulations on business, inflation may take place. A leader should have the adaptability to take things normally and be flexible to handle situations easily. Communication Skills: A leader should be a great listener and a speaker also. A good leader can communicate with all his subordinates. Great leaders show their strengths and personal character through communication with the employees and empower them. Confidence: A leader must possess confidence, courage, tenacity and patience. Sometimes the situation becomes worse and plans do not work. Then...

Words: 8179 - Pages: 33

Premium Essay

A Study of Motivation: How to Get Your Employees Moving

...A Study of Motivation: How to Get Your Employees Moving SPEA Honors Thesis Spring 2012 Indiana University Kelli Burton Management May 2012 Faculty Advisor: Cheryl Hughes May 2012 Page | 1 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Personal Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4 Topic Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 Research Methods ........................................................................................................................... 5 Definition of Motivation ................................................................................................................. 6 Theories of Motivation ................................................................................................................... 7 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs .................................................................................................... 7 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory .................................................................................................. 9 The Four Motivations ............................................................................................................... 11 PERMA Model .............

Words: 9515 - Pages: 39

Premium Essay

Organizational Behavior Final Assignment

...Organizational Behavior Final Assignment By: Colette Gillespie Class: Organizational Management Teacher: Prof. Missy Santman What is Organizational Behavior Practice (Question 1) Organizational Behavior Practice is a field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups and structures upon behavior within an organization. Organizational Behavior Practices focus on many different areas like for work behavior (Group Behavior, Individual Behavior, and Collective behavior). Organization Behavior Practice is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication, and management. Organization Behavior Practice is designed to help manager better understand work out come (job satisfaction, learning, and commitment). Organizational Behavior Practice helps a manager better understand work behavior, perceptions, personalities, motivation, and attuide. When Organization behavior Practice is used it will give the manager a better understanding on a lot of different area when it comes to work behavior, and why an employee might be acting a certain way. Where I have seen Organizational Behavior Practice used (Question 1) I have seen Organizational Behavior Practice used before when I worked for Production Line. There was a problem going on with the employee performance and everyone was starting to get very negative, which was affecting the work they were doing. Our totals were going down along with the speed of quality...

Words: 1490 - Pages: 6