MOTIVATIONAL METHODS AND

PROGRAMS
Four motivational methods and programs:
1. Motivation through job design
2. Organizational behavior modification
3. Motivation through recognition and pride; and
4. Motivation through financial incentives

MOTIVATION THROUGH JOB DESIGN

Job Design
- One way of motivating employees is to make their job challenging so that the worker who is
responsible for it enjoys doing it.
- Defined as the way the elements in a job are organized
Three concepts that are important in designing jobs:
1. Job enrichment
2. Job characteristics model
3. Job crafting

JOB ENRICHMENT
- Refers to the practice of building motivating factors like responsibility, achievement,
and recognition into job content.
- Provides the worker with a more exciting job and it increases his job satisfaction and
motivation

An enriched job has any or all of the following characteristics:

1. Direct feedback Employees receive an immediate evaluation of their work
2. Client An employee is given a chance to serve an external or
internal client
relationships
3. New learning The employee acquires new knowledge while doing his
work
4. Control over The employee has some control over which method to
choose to accomplish a task
method
5. Control over The employee can schedule his work
scheduling
6. Unique The job has unique qualities or features, like the
opportunity to see the world
experience
7. Direct The job provides the employee the opportunity to
communicate directly with people who use their output
communication
authority
 8. Control over The employee has some control over resources such as
money, materials, or people
resources
9. Personal The employee is responsible for his or her result. He
accepts credit for doing a good job, and blame for a poor
accountability
job

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL

 Refers to the method of job design that focuses on the task and interpersonal demands
of a job.
 This method emphasizes the interaction between the individual and the specific
attributes of the job
When the five core job characteristics are high, the job is said to be enriched. These are as
follows:
1. Skill Variety
- The degrees to which there are many skills to perform
2. Task Identity
- The degree to which one worker is able to do a complete job, from beginning to end,
with the tangible and possible outcome.
3. Task Significance
- The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other
people
4. Autonomy
- The degree to which the job gives the employee substantial freedom, independence,
and discretion in scheduling the work and determining the procedures used in
carrying it out.
5. Feedback
- The degree to which a job provides direct information about performance

JOB CRAFTING
 Refers to the physical and mental changes workers make in the task or relationship aspect
of their jobs
The common types of job crafting are:
1. Changing the number and type of job tasks
2. Changing the interaction with others on the job; and
3. Changing one’s view of the job

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION (OB Mod)

- It is actually the application of reinforcement theory in motivating people at work
Reinforcement theory

- Defined as the contention that behavior is determined by its consequences.

- Simply stated, a person tends to repeat behavior that is accompanied by favorable consequences and
tends not to repeat behavior that is accompanied by unfavorable consequences.
FIVE-STEP PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL:
1. Identifying critical behaviors that make a significant impact on the employee’s job performance
2. Developing baseline data which is obtained by determining the number of times the identified
behavior is occurring under present conditions
3. Identifying behavioral consequences of performance
4. Developing and implementing an intervention strategy to strengthen desirable performance
behaviors and weaken undesirable behaviors; and
5. Evaluating performance improvement
Among the benefits of OB Mod are:
1. Improvement of employee productivity
2. Reduction of errors, absenteeism, tardiness, and accident rates; and
3. Improvement of friendliness toward customers

MOTIVATION THROUGH RECOGNITION AND PRIDE

Recognition is a natural human need and it is a strong motivator. To make it an effective motivator, the
following steps are necessary:
1. Identify a meritorious behavior
2. Recognize the behavior with an oral, written, or material reward.
For a better understanding and implementation of reward and recognition programs, the following points must
be considered:
1. Feedback is an essential part of recognition
2. Praise is one of the most powerful forms of recognition
3. Reward and recognition programs should be limited to organizational goals
4. Identification of the type of reward and recognition that the workers will value; and
5. It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the reward and recognition program
Pride is also a motivator, but one that is intrinsic. Workers who achieve outstanding performance experience
the emotion of pride.

MOTIVATION THROUGH FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

Financial incentives are powerful tools of motivation. They are monetary rewards paid to employees
because of the output they produce, skills, knowledge, and competencies or a combination of these factors.
Financial incentives take the form of any or a combination of the following:
1. Time rates
2. Payment by results
3. Performance and profit related pay
4. Skill/competency-based pay
5. Cafeteria or flexible benefits system

TIME RATES
- Use the number of hours worked as a means of determining rewards.
 - It may be classified as hourly rate, or weekly wage or a monthly salary.
ADVANTAGES
1. Open to inspection and equitable because employees doing the same job will be on the
same grade level
2. Encourages the retention of human resources by stability and this is because of the gradual
increases in rewards within the given grades
3. Relatively easy to administer and allows labor cost to be predicted
4. Does not emphasize quantity of output to the detriment of quality

The main disadvantage of time rates is that it does not motivate employees to become more
productive.

PAYMENT BY RESULTS
- Links pay to the quantity of the individual’s output.
ADVANTAGES
1. Employee is motivated to put in extra effort because he or she will receive additional
income
2. There is fairness because the level of reward is related to the level of output; and
3. Likely to have cost advantages since wages are directly linked to production and less
supervision is required.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Outputs in certain jobs cannot be easily measured
2. Safety standards may be compromised
3. Workers may view payment by results as a device to obtain greater effort from them
without commensurate rewards.

PERFORMANCE RELATED PAY

- Considers results or output plus actual behavior in the job
- The bonus is a reward given to employees for recent performances rather than historical
performance
ADVANTAGES
1. Increases employee beliefs (instrumentality) that reward will follow high performance
2. Those that perform better are rewarded more; and
3. Comparatively objective and verifiable

DISADVANTAGES
1. Cost rises along with the rewards
2. The system is complex
 3. Employees with declining energy may experience a decrease in total pay
4. The union may resist the incentive idea
5. There is delay in the payment of incentives
6. The system is rigid
7. Difficult to motivate higher performance across a broad range of employees

PROFIT RELATED PAY

- An organization wide scheme where pay is linked to company profits
- Takes the form of direct cash outlay, or allocation of stock options
STOCK OPTION
- A financial incentive that gives employees the right to purchase a certain number of company
shares at a specified price, generally the market price of the stock on the day the option is
granted
ADVANTAGES
1. Employees identify more closely with the success of the organization
2. Breaking down or removal of the communication barrier between management and
employees
3. Cooperation and working together for mutual benefit is encouraged
4. Awareness of the link between performance and organizational profitability leads to a
greater awareness of costs and their impact on performance
5. When profits fall, the decline in pay is a preferable alternative to laying off employees; and
6. Group pressure could raise the performance levels of poor performers

DISADVANTAGES
1. Profits are not directly related to an employee’s effort on the job
2. Employees must wait for their reward, and the delay diminishes its impact; and
3. Total worker income may vary from year to year that’s why some workers may prefer the
stability of a fixed wage or salary

SKILL BASED PAY

- Competency based or knowledge-based pay
- This is a pay plan that sets pay levels on the basis of how many skills employees have or how
many jobs they can do
ADVANTAGES
1. Provides strong motivation for employees to develop their work-related skills
2. Reinforces an employee’s sense of self-esteem; and
3. Provides the organization with a highly flexible workforce that can fill in when someone is
absent
 DISADVANTAGES
1. Average hourly pay rate will be greater than normal for higher-level jobs
2. Substantial investment in employee training must be made
3. Not all employees like skill-based pay because it places pressure on them to move up the
skill ladder; and
4. Some employees will qualify themselves for skill areas that they will unlikely use, causing
the organization to pay them higher rates than they deserve

CAFETERIA OR FLEXIBLE BENEFIT SYSTEM

- A benefit plan that allows each employee to put together a benefit package individually
tailored to his or her own needs and situation
ADVANTAGES
1. Enables employees to choose options that best fit their own needs
2. Deciding among the various options makes employees more aware of the benefits
3. Flexible benefit plans can lower compensation costs because employers no longer have to
pay for unwanted benefits
4. Employers and employees can save on taxes

DISADVANTAGES
1. Creates an administrative burden
2. Can lead to the increased insurance premiums