Download National Context and Work Motivation

Chapter 14
Motivation in Multinational
Companies
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Learning Objectives
• Know how people from different nations perceive the
basic functions of working
• Know how people from different nations view the
importance of working
• Understand how the national context affects the basic
processes of work motivation
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Learning Objectives
• Be able to apply common theories of work motivation
in different national context
• Be able to design jobs for high motivational potential in
different national cultures
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Motivation in Multinationals
• Multinational managers must understand how to
motivate international employees
• Multinationals face an array of challenges to motivate a
workforce in the face of a rapidly changing labor
market
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How Important is Work in
People’s Lives?
• Work centrality: overall value of work in a person’s life
- Work compared to other activities such as leisure
and family
- Higher levels of work centrality match average
number of hours worked per week
- High levels of work centrality may lead to dedicated
workers
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Exhibit 14.1: Differences in Work
Centrality in Seven Countries
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How Important is Work in
People’s Lives?
• Work obligation norms
- Societies that have high work obligation norms
expect their citizens to view work as an obligation or
a duty
- These societies are more likely to have individuals
adhering to this norm by working longer
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Exhibit 14.2: Levels of Work
Obligations in Various
Societies
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What Do People Value in
Work?
• Extrinsic work values: individuals express preference
for security from their jobs with such aspects as
income, job security, and less demanding work
• Intrinsic work values: express preferences for
openness to change, the pursuit of autonomy, growth,
creativity, and the use of initiative at work
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Exhibit 14.3: Extrinsic Work
Values for Selected Countries
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Exhibit 14.4: Intrinsic Work
Values for Selected Countries
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Exhibit 14.5: Priorities Given to
Different Job Characteristics in
Selected Countries
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What Do People Value in
Work?
• In some societies, work is very central and absorbs
much of a person’s life
• All people hope to receive certain benefits from work
• Societies differ in the degree to which they regard work
as an obligation to society
• Many of the emerging economies that value extrinsic
work values such as income and job security also
place high value on intrinsic work values
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What Do People Value in
Work?
• The first key to successful motivational strategies is
understanding the differences regarding how people
view work among countries
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The Basic Work-Motivation
Process
• Motivation: a psychological process resulting in goaldirected behavior that satisfies human needs
• Need: feeling of deficit or lacking
• Goal-directed behavior: one that people use with the
intention of satisfying a need
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Work Motivation and the
National Context
• Reinforcement: reactions to a person’s behavior that
encourage the person to continue the behavior
• E.g., bonus pay to encourage behavior
• Punishment: consequences of a person’s behavior that
discourage the behavior
• E.g., docking pay to discourage behavior
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Exhibit 14.6: The Basic Work
Motivation Process and the
National Context
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National Context and Work
Motivation
• Culture and social institution influence
- They influence the priority people attach to work
- They define what behaviors are legitimate ways to
satisfy goals
- National context also influences reactions to goaldirected behaviors at work
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Theories of Work Motivation in
the Multinational Context
• Two basic types of motivational theories
- Need theory: assumes that people can satisfy basic
human needs in the work setting
- Process theory: arising from needs and values
combined with an individual’s beliefs regarding the
work environment
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Theories of Work Motivation in
the Multinational Context
• Four need theories of motivation
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- ERG theory
- Motivator-hygiene theory
- Achievement motivation theory
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Exhibit 14.7: Need Theories of
Motivation
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Theory
• States that people have five basic types of needs
- Physiological, Security, Affiliation, Esteem, and
Self-actualization
• The needs follow a basic hierarchy
• People first seek to satisfy lower needs
• Once lower need is satisfied, it no longer motivates
• People try to satisfy higher needs
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Exhibit 14.8: Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs and Country Level Measures
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Alderfer’s ERG Theory
• Simplified hierarchy of needs, including existence
needs, relatedness needs, and growth needs
- Frustration of a need motivates behavior to satisfy
the need.
- People seek to satisfy higher and lower level needs.
- If people cannot satisfy higher needs, they will try to
satisfy lower level needs.
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Motivator-Hygiene Theory
• Assumption that a job has two basic characteristics:
motivators and hygiene factors
- Job content—motivating factors
• E.g., challenging job
- Job context—hygiene factors
• E.g., good benefits
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Achievement-motivation
Theory
• Suggestion that only some people have the need to
win in competitive situations or to exceed a standard of
excellence
- Three key needs: achievement, affiliation, and power
- High achievement people have needs to win and to
set own goals and seek challenging situations
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Needs and the National
Context: Lessons
• People from different nations do not give the same
priorities to the needs that might be satisfied at work
• Even with similar needs, they may not give the same
level of importance of satisfying these needs
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Exhibit 14.9: Rankings of the
Importance of Job-Related Sources of
Need Satisfaction for Seven Countries
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Exhibit 14.10: Hofstede’s Dimensions
of National Culture and Motivators at
Work
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Applying Need Theories in
Multinational Settings
• Identify the basic functions of work in the national or
local culture
• Identify the needs considered most important by
workers in the national or local culture
• Sources of need fulfillment may differ for the same
needs
• Understand limitations of available jobs to satisfy
needs
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Process and Reinforcement
Theories of Motivation:
Expectancy Theory
• Expectancy theory
- Assumes that part of motivation is an individual’s
desire to satisfy needs
- People’s beliefs regarding how much their efforts at
work will eventually satisfy their needs
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Expectancy Theory
• Three factors
- Expectancy: an individual’s belief that his or her
effort will lead to some result
- Valence: the value attached to the outcome of efforts
- Instrumentality: the links between early and later
results of the work effort
• Motivation = Expectancy x Valence x Instrumentality
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Applying Expectancy Theory
in Multinational Settings
• Two key issues
- Identify valued outcomes of work
- Use culturally appropriate ways to convince
employees that their efforts will lead to desirable
ends
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Equity Theory
• Focuses on the fairness that people perceive in the
rewards that they receive for their efforts at work
- There are no absolute standards for fairness in the
input/output (effort/reward) equation.
- People compare themselves to others and adjust
their input (effort).
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Applying Equity Theory in
Multinational Settings
• Equity norms vary
• Three principles of allocating rewards
- The principle of equity (based on contributions)
• Prevails in individualistic cultures
- The principle of equality (based on equal division of
rewards)
• More likely in collectivistic cultures
- The principle of need (based on individual needs)
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Exhibit 14.11: Rewards from Peers for
Contributions to a Student Group
Project
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Goal Setting Theory
• Assumption that the mere existence of a goal is
motivating
• The principles of goal setting
- Set clear and specific goals
- Assign difficult but achievable goals
- Increase employee acceptance of goals
- Provide incentives to achieve goals
- Give feedback on goal attainment
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Applying Goal-Setting Theory
in Multinational Settings
• Goal setting works to some degree, regardless of
location.
• Cultural expectations vary—managers must know
- Is it better to set goals for groups or for
individuals?
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Exhibit 14.12: Cultural Effects on
Performance by the Degree of
Participation in Goal Setting
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Reinforcement Theory
• Operant conditioning: model proposes that behavior is
a function of its consequences
• Positive reinforcement—response with rewarding
consequence
- Pleasurable consequence = behavior continues
• Punishment—negative consequence
- Unpleasant consequence = behavior stops
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Exhibit 14.13: Management Examples
of Operant-Conditioning Process and
Types of Consequences
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Applying Reinforcement
Theory in Multinational
Settings
• Positive reinforcement works
• Difficulty is in identifying appropriate rewards as
reinforcers
• National context defines acceptable and legitimate
rewards
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Exhibit 14.14: Effects of Positive
Reinforcement and Types of Rewards
in a Russian Cotton Mill
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Multinational Applications of
Process/Reinforcement
Theories
• Expectancy theory: key is identifying nationally
appropriate rewards that have positive valence
• Equity theory: assess meaning and principle of equity
in national context
• Goal-setting theory: should goals be assigned to
groups or individuals?
• Reinforcement theory: what people value at work will
influence the types of reinforcers that can be used
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Motivation and Job Design:
U.S. Perspectives
• The job-characteristic model approach
- Work is more motivating when managers enrich core
job characteristics, such as by increasing number of
skills a job requires.
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Job-Characteristics Model
• Three critical psychological states as motivating
- A person must believe that his or her job is
meaningful.
- A person must believe that he or she is responsible
or accountable for the outcome of work.
- A person must understand how well he or she has
performed.
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Core Characteristics of Job
•
•
•
•
•
Skill variety
Task identity
Task significance
Autonomy
Feedback
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Exhibit 14.15: A Motivating Job in the
Job-Characteristics Model
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Motivation and Job Design:
European Perspective
• Sociotechnical systems (STS) approach: focuses on
designing motivating jobs by blending the social
system with different technologies
• Autonomous work group: team or unit that has nearly
complete responsibility for a particular task
• Team’s task rather than individual task is focus of job
enrichment
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Choosing Job-Enrichment
Techniques in Multinational
Settings
• Distinction between individualistic and collectivist
cultures should determine the choice of job-enrichment
- U.S.—individual
- Japan—team
• Social loafing: term used when people expend less
effort when they work in groups
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Exhibit 14.16: Comparing the
Performance of Chinese, U.S., and
Israeli Managers Working Alone and in
Groups
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Conclusion
• Motivating workers in diverse cultural settings is a constant
challenge for multinational managers
• Chapter addresses several important issues related to
motivation
• Chapter first examines basic differences in how people view
various work aspects
• Chapter reviews basic processes and classic theories of
motivation
• Each multinational must find ways to motivate their workers to
stay competitive
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