Motivating Employees.pdf

Motivating Employees
Ma. Corazon P. Rodriguez
Edited January 2023

What is motivation
• Behavior is caused?
• “Motivation is a process by which a person’s
effort is energized, directed and sustained
toward attaining a goal.” “Energy, direction
and persistence. How can these be described
in Pilipino?

William Bredderman. “Virus Outbreak in Meat Plants Is
Getting Worse—Just as Trump Makes Them Stay
Open.” thedailybeast.com, 05.01/2020
• “Among workers,
socioeconomic challenges
might contribute to working
while feeling ill, particularly if
there are management
practices such as bonuses that
incentivize attendance,” the
report continues. (The CDC
previously found that a
Smithfield Foods pork
processing plant in Sioux
Falls offered a bonus of $500
to employees who showed up
to work amid a coronavirus
outbreak.)

PETER BEINART. “We’re All Michael Cohen.”
theatlantic.com, accessed o8/02/2018
• For years, Michael Cohen
delighted in doing an awful
job. He cleaned up Donald
Trump’s messes. Cohen first
came to President Trump’s
attention more than a
decade ago when a group of
apartment owners in Trump
World Tower, a glass
skyscraper across from the
United Nations, accused
Trump of “financial
impropriety.”

• Cohen, who was
the treasurer of the board,
took Trump’s side against
his fellow owners and
helped quell the revolt.
Since then, Cohen has taken
pride in declaring himself
“the fix-it guy,” and “the
guy who would take a
bullet for the president.”
• In that role, Cohen has
reportedly worked with
the National
Enquirer to buttress Trump’
s phony charges that Barack
Obama wasn’t born in the
United States, he
has threatened journalists
who reported on the claim
that Trump raped his
ex-wife Ivana, and he’s
allegedly used his own
money to pay off Stormy
Daniels, who claims she and
Trump had an affair.

• The pattern is clear.
Trump acts in some
reckless, selfish, sordid,
irresponsible, or ugly
way. Then Cohen
comes along to make
sure Trump doesn’t
suffer the
consequences.
• What’s striking about
all this is that Trump,
by becoming president,
has turned a great
many federal
employees into the
functional equivalent
of Michael Cohen.

• Last month, after
Trump refused to
acknowledge Russian
electoral interference
during his meeting with
Vladimir Putin, the
Cohen role fell to
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, whose
testimony before the
Senate Foreign
Relations Committee,
• according to The New
York Times, “amounted
to an elaborate cleanup
effort by the United
States’ top diplomat for
Mr. Trump’s
performance in
Helsinki.”

• Sometimes, Trump’s messes
are so large that vast numbers
of federal employees are
drafted into the Cohen role.
Trump did not consult the
Department of Health and
Human Services before
adopting the “zero tolerance”
policy that separated
undocumented immigrant
children from their parents.
• Nor did he and his top aides
create a plan for how to
reunite these fractured
families. But when a federal
judge ordered the
administration to meet a
deadline to reunite them, “the
leadership of the Department
of Health and Human Services,
which shelters the children and
must now undertake
reunifications, sent out a plea
to federal public health
workers for help with an
exhaustive manual search of
records,”

• Cohen himself is now out
of the game. He’s no
longer cleaning up after
Trump. Instead, he’s
trying to prevent all that
cleaning up from landing
him in jail. The whole
experience, it turns out,
didn’t end well. It’s not
likely to end well for his
fellow Americans either.
• HOW MANY OF YOU
WILL WANT TO PLAY THE
ROLE OF COHEN AND
OTHER TRUMP FIXERS
WHEN YOU START
JOINING
ORGANIZATIONS?
• WHAT ARE THE PERKS OF
THIS ROLE
• WHAT COULD BE
UNDESIRABLE
UNINTENDED RESULTS?

What happened to Michael Cohen?
A federal judge on Wednesday
sentenced President Trump’s former
attorney Michael Cohen to three years
in prison for financial crimes and
lying to Congress, as the disgraced
“fixer” apologized but said he felt it
was his duty to cover up the “dirty
deeds” of his former boss.
Source: Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett.
“Michael Cohen sentenced to three years in prison
for crimes committed while working for Trump.”
washingtonpost.com, 12/12/2018

Monica Torres. “Is It Possible To Work Under A Bad
Boss Without Becoming Bad Yourself?”
huffingtonpost.com, 03/04/2019
• Michael Cohen,
President Donald
Trump’s former
personal lawyer and
longtime fixer, told a
congressional
committee last
week that his better
judgment had been
compromised due to his
former boss.
• It was “painful to admit
that many times I
ignored my conscience
and acted loyal to a
man when I should not
have,” Cohen testified.
• I was willing to do
things for him that I
knew were absolutely
wrong.”

• Cohen, who once said he
would take a “bullet” for
Trump, publicly
denounced the
president’s character
after he was sentenced to
three years in prison on
charges including crimes
committed as Trump’s
lawyer during the 2016
election.
• In a 2013 survey from
the nonprofit Ethics
Resource Center, 41
percent of employees
said they had observed
ethical misconduct at
their jobs, and 9 percent
said they felt
organizational pressure
to compromise their
ethics.

• Bosses set the tone at
work, modeling what is
acceptable and valued
in an organization.
When bosses are good,
they can be role
models of how to treat
each other with
respect.
• But when bosses
behave badly or even
become abusive, this
process of social
learning can backfire,
and we can internalize
behaviors and
emotions we might not
otherwise display or
feel.

• On a more destructive
level, unethical behavior
such as stealing, cheating
and lying can also
become contagious when
the perpetrating
colleague is someone you
see as a peer, according
to a 2009 study published
in the
journal Psychological
Science
• This is because their
actions reinforce social
norms of what is
acceptable and expected
behavior.
• How is this related to our
discussion on
organization culture?

• An individual’s unethical
behavior “does not depend
on the simple calculations
of cost-benefit analysis,”
the study’s authors wrote,
“but rather depends on the
social norms implied by the
dishonesty of others and
also on the saliency of
dishonesty...
• In these ways, a bad
manager’s major and
minor behaviors can
model the expectations of
how business gets done,
and spread that behavior
to others.
• The “script” perpetuated
in the office once
accepted legitimizes bad
behavior and practices of
bosses.

• Employees who may feel
initial discomfort about
adopting a boss’
unethical behavior can
engage in cognitive
dissonance to make the
mental leap necessary to
take actions against their
values, said Jared
Montoya, an associate
professor of leadership
studies at Our Lady of the
Lake University.
• “To deal with that
discomfort, they change
their value or their belief.
That’s when you see a
value that would become
more in line with this
terrible boss’ behavior,”
he said. “It’s not an
entirely conscious
process.”

No author. “From the Great Resignation to Lying Flat, Workers
Are Opting Out.” Bloomberg Businessweek. 12/08/2021
• Around the world, millions of
people are rethinking how they
work and live—and how to
better balance the two.
• The Great Resignation has U.S.
workers quitting their jobs
in record numbers—more than
24 million did so from April to
September this year—and
many are staying out of the
labor force. Germany, Japan,
and other wealthy nations are
seeing shades of the same
trend.

• surveys showing an
increase in feelings of
burnout and a
deterioration in mental
health in many nations.
• the pressure has been
building in developed
countries for decades.
Incomes have stagnated,
job security has become
precarious, and the costs
of housing and education
have soared, leaving
fewer young people able
to build a financially
stable life.

• the Great Resignation is a
phenomenon among those
who are younger than 40,
it’s also reverberating across
the economy and forcing a
broader conversation about
work. Millennials (born
between 1980 and the late
1990s) and Generation Z
(the demographic cohort
after them)
• China’s “lie flat” movement,
jump-started by a social
media post from which it
got its name, is also about
opting out. It’s a reaction
against a system in which a
grueling “996” work
schedule—9 a.m. to 9 p.m.,
six days a week—is common
in industries like technology.
So is unrelenting pressure
from family, society, and
even the government to
keep climbing the ladder.

• It’s about how the economy
has become overheated and
unsustainable, both in an
environmental sense and in
a mental sense.”
•
• Almost half of the world’s
workers
are considering quitting,
according to a Microsoft
Corp. survey. About 4 in 10
millennial and Gen Z
respondents say they’d
leave their job if asked to
come back to the office full
time, a global survey by
advisory company Qualtrics
International Inc.
found—more than any
other generation.

• the reality is that working
hours have been
dropping in richer
countries for decades
across all age brackets.
• In the face of existential
threats such as the
pandemic and climate
change, the Great
Resignation and lie flat
have the potential to
spark a deeper discussion
about the relentless
pursuit of wealth, at the
individual level and for
nations as a whole.

• “People are looking at work
through a very different
lens. The lens is things like,
‘I am not working for a
paycheck. That’s not what
this is about. I need to be
fulfilled.’”
• The booming technology
hub is home to giant
electronics factories and
companies such as Huawei
Technologies
Co. and Tencent Holdings
Ltd.—as well as 18 million
people, many of whom have
moved there from other
parts of China to chase their
dreams of affluence. Now,
as the economy slows, some
are wondering if those
dreams are worth the effort.

• In October thousands of
employees at companies
including Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd. and TikTok owner ByteDance
Ltd. participated in an online
campaign branded “Worker Lives
Matter” by posting information on
when they start and end their
workdays on a public spreadsheet.
ByteDance has since mandated a
shorter workweek.
• In memes and online posts,
younger Chinese people call their
generation “mouse people” and
“salted fish.” (In Cantonese a
salted fish is a metaphor for a
corpse, but it can also mean
people lacking ambition or drive.)
If such attitudes become
pervasive, they could accelerate
population
decline: China’s birthrate
dropped to a record low in 2020, a
major concern because the labor
force is already shrinking.
•

• Li’s attitude suggests the lie
flat movement may be a
symptom of a new stage in
China’s economic
development: As a nation
gets richer, its workers can
afford to be more choosy. In
the U.S. and Europe, the
formation of a large middle
class was key to the rise of
1960s counterculture and,
later, the so-called slacker
generation of the ’90s.
• “We all know Jack Ma and
those CEOs. But if everyone
pursued that kind of career,
of course there will be more
competition and
depression,” she says over
drinks at an upscale
teahouse. “Some people
give up and lie flat.”

• In the U.S. the financial
anxieties of millennials
long predate Covid-19.
Because of the
combination of an
explosion in student debt
and the plodding recovery
from the Great Recession,
this generation is likely to
be the first in U.S. history
to be less wealthy than
their parents.
• The pandemic appears to
have brought these
concerns to a head.
Two-thirds of millennials
who left their jobs in 2021
cited mental health
reasons, according to a
Mind Share
Partners survey, and the
proportion for Gen Z was
even higher, at 81%.

• The human and
economic carnage
caused by Covid has
also left many young
people questioning
their priorities.
• Although the Great
Resignation is often
thought of as a youth
movement, at least one
study shows employees
from age 30 to 45 are
also quitting at high
rates.
•

• In Japan the conversations
taking place in China and
the U.S. about how to
balance work and other
pursuits sound familiar. In
the 1990s the media
painted an unflattering
portrait of youthful
“freeters” who rejected
Japan’s demanding office
culture, with its rigid
hierarchies and 15-hour
workdays, in favor of
working odd jobs.
• Young people said their
lifestyle had been forced on
them by a stagnant
economy and a deregulation
of the labor market that
resulted in fewer salaried
positions and more job
insecurity.

• By 2010 freeters had
acquired a less
disparaging label as part
of a bigger
phenomenon—the
“satori
generation”—referring
to a state of
enlightenment in
Japanese Buddhism
achieved by giving up
material desires.
• Kairu Taira, 22, works
for a consumer-goods
company in Kobe and
runs a satori generation
blog. While not a
freeter, he considers
himself a minimalist,
with a limited wardrobe
that includes only four
T-shirts and four
long-sleeved shirts.

• The growing acceptance of
the satori generation may
reflect that lower growth
rates and less stable
employment are here to
stay. The number of
newborns in the country,
already in decline for
decades, fell to a record
low in 2020.
• Even in more
welfare-minded Europe,
where employment
retention programs
prevented pandemic layoffs
on the scale seen in the
U.S., many people are
rethinking their careers.
Across the euro area
about 2 million
fewer people are in
employment than before
the coronavirus struck.
•

• The vast number of people
quitting their jobs in the U.S.
and Europe is a sign of a
structural, psychological
shift, according to
Qualtrics’s Granger. He says
people are being driven to
“work on something that’s
going to be meaningful,
have a higher purpose.
We’ve seen a lot of
evidence for that.”
• “Lying flat and the Great
Resignation are raising
difficult questions, without
making specific demands for
change. This is good
momentum,” says Xiang of
the Max Planck Institute.
“This can be energy to push
for new growth
paradigms.”—Allen Wan,
Amanda Wang, Tom
Hancock, Katia Dmitrieva,
Carolynn Look, Yuko Takeo,
and Samson Ellis

MAX KIM. “The Unbelievable Story of North Korea's
Most-Celebrated Propagandist.” theatlantic.com,
accessed 08/12/2018
• How could “belonging
needs” be interpreted
using this article?
• Oh Young Jae, -wept as he
sang Bandal [or ‘Half
Moon’]”—a song he sang
with his brothers during
their childhood. The poet
also mentioned the name
of his mother, Kwak Aeng
Soon.

• Hyung Jae learned that
his brother had become
one of North Korea’s
most venerated
ideologues, the author
of long socialist epics
and hagiographies of
the supreme leaders.
• from his
autobiographical
writings, poetry, and
testimonies from those
who met him emerges a
story about the
complexities of national
identity, and the ways
in which family bonds
can defy ideological
divides.

• Young Jae had little
interest in schoolwork or
books, much to the
dismay of his strict father,
a school principal.
• “The young North Korean
soldiers would come to
the village every night to
teach us military songs
and the North Korean
anthem.” The festive
gatherings included
singing competitions and
performances of “plays
about a poor farmer
being exploited by an evil
landowner,”

• By the time the North
Korean forces had
reached Gangjin, they had
secured a number of
decisive victories against
the South Korean army.
To the villagers, a North
Korean victory seemed
imminent. The
propaganda officers “told
us a new era had come,”
Hyung Jae said.
• Egged on by his
classmates and teachers,
Young Jae, only 15 years
old, stepped forward, and
was soon taken to a
village 20 miles away for a
week of basic training
before marching out to
the front.

• When his mother learned of
his decision, she rushed to
stop him, walking 20 miles
on a winding mountain dirt
path with her infant
daughter on her back. But
Young Jae rebuffed her, his
brothers recalled. “Why did
you come? You’re making
me lose my nerve. Just go
home,” he said. His mother
gave him one last smile. “I
got to see you, and that’s all
I needed,” she said.
• Decades later, Young Jae
would say that he never
forgot that image of his
mother, walking away into
the sunset for what would
be the last time he saw her.
• Keun Jae and Hyung Jae
speculated that their
brother’s decision was
motivated not by ideology,
but by a desire to escape
from an unhappy home life,
one where he felt excluded
from his parents’ affection.

• in 1951, passing
through a farming
village in Gangwon
province, Oh Young Jae
came across a charred
book of North Korean
poetry, published for
the soldiers.
• Sitting atop munition
crates, he began writing
his own poems. “I
began to write poetry
because I was
constantly overcome
with the desire to cry
out, to express
something,”

• His work, printed in
newspapers and literary
journals, eventually caught
the eye of the central party,
which sponsored his college
education and put him
through a poetry training
program. By 1965, Oh was a
state-propaganda poet
working for the central
party.
• “North Korea puts a lot of
weight on everyday
experiences,” Noh said. “So
they often send writers out
to the field in person, be it a
mine shaft or a farm.”
• The party’s Propaganda and
Agitation Department
“gathered the writers every
week or so and gave us the
topics we were to write
about, and issued threats if
you didn’t comply,”

• After clearing the censors,
finished works were sent
to Supreme Leader Kim
Jong Il, who would
evaluate them on the
basis of their ideological
merit.
• In 1989, Oh received the
prestigious Kim Il Sung
Prize, and was named
poet laureate. In 1995, he
was declared a Labor
Hero, one of North
Korea’s highest civilian
honors. As Noh’s essay on
Oh Young Jae recounts,
Kim Jong Il praised him as
“someone who walked
the path of revolution
alongside us.”

• Our “mother was
overjoyed, just to hear
he was alive,” Keun Jae
said. Young Jae hadn’t
forgotten about his
family, saying in the
1990 interview that he
dreamed of his mother
“at least once every
four days.”
• By 2000, South Korea
had embarked on a
campaign of
reconciliation with the
North. …a 64-year-old
Young Jae was the first
to enter, and the Ohs
collided in a tearful
embrace.

• As the siblings reminisced,
“it seemed as though all
[Young Jae] was thinking
about was our mother,”
Seung Jae wrote in his
memoir. When they
handed him his childhood
report cards, essays, and
drawings that their
deceased mother had
saved, Oh Young Jae
wept.
• The brothers set up a
makeshift memorial in a
hotel room…. he poured
her a ceremonial offering
of liquor, using a
ceremonial shot glass
given to him by Kim Il
Sung. He delivered a
soliloquy in front of his
mother’s portrait, where
he expressed his hopes
for reunification

• “When we reunified and I
embarked on the road
heading to South Korea, I
was going to start shouting
your name from miles away
as I ran toward you,” Oh
said. “Now whose name will
I call as I open the doors to
my childhood home?
• When it came time to part,
Hyung Jae promised his
brother that they would
meet again. “He wouldn’t
believe me, and left crying,”
Hyung Jae said. “I think he
knew that we would never
meet again.” In 2011, his
brothers learned from
an obituary published by
North Korea’s state news
agency that Young Jae had
died of thyroid cancer.

Paul Harrison. What Makes Us Want Mega-Expensive Stuff.”
thedailybeast.com, 12/24/2016
• these products may not
be considered by you to
be luxury products, but
they are certainly a
product of desire.
• In reality, nobody “needs”
a $700 pair of shoes, or a
retro $2000 fridge, but
these products seem to
transcend their rational
utility. They have meaning
beyond their function.

• They are objects of
desire that help us to
communicate to
ourselves and others
who we are.
• Desire, status and
luxury are concepts that
have been explored for
hundreds of years.
Probably one of the
best known books
about this topic was by
sociologist and
economist, Thorstein
Veblen, published in
1899

• Veblen suggested the
act of buying expensive
things was a means for
people to communicate
their social status to
others.
• He suggested that the
purchase of luxury
goods, expensive
houses, or attending
exclusive soirees was a
form of “wealth
signaling”, or what
others have called
“peacocking”.

• French
philosopher Pierre
Bourdieu took this
interpretation a step
further in 1979, by
suggesting that what
we buy is a product of
our social conditioning.
• He argued that the
objects and things we
consume are a means
of communicating to
others a symbolic
hierarchy, as a means
to enforce our distance
or distinction from
other classes of society.

• Consumption does not
occur in a vacuum. The
things we buy, the things
we do, the people we
associate with, the places
we live and the places we
visit all possess meaning
for us as human beings.
• Researchers Hudders and
Pandelaere found that
purchasing designer
handbags and shoes was
found to be a means for
women to express their
style, boost self-esteem,
or even signal status.
Their research suggested
that some women also
seek these luxury items to
prevent other women
from stealing their man.

• A surprising finding in
their work was that
feelings of jealousy
triggered a desire for
luxury products, not
just for women in
committed
relationships, but also
for single women.
• Many single women
obviously want designer
products, but instead of
these products saying
“back off my current
man”, the single woman
is saying “back off my
future man”.

• It seems humans will
always want something
that others in our groups
don’t have. The fact that
we are exposed to, and
seek out stories about,
success and wealth, has
been shown to actually
influence how badly we
want luxury items.
• The desire for luxury
brands only seemed to be
present when the
participants read a
success story about
people that they saw as
similar to themselves. The
researchers found the
participants only desired
products and outcomes
that they could see
themselves achieving.

• In one study, the
researchers found that
people who watched
more television assumed
higher estimates of the
average level of wealth
and affluence in the US.
This also led them to
believe they were missing
out on the tennis courts,
private planes and
swimming pools they saw
represented in the media.
• But even for those on low
incomes, products are
more significant than
their simple utilitarian
capacity. We buy goods to
enhance our lives, to fit
in, but also to remind
ourselves that we are just
a little better than most
of our group.
• “Ma, bilhan mo nga ako
ng Reebok!”

Characteristics of self actualized
persons (Google)
• 1) Self-actualized
people embrace the
unknown and the
ambiguous.
• 2) They accept
themselves, together
with all their flaws.
• 3) They prioritize and
enjoy the journey, not
just the destination.
• 4) While they are
inherently
unconventional, they
do not seek to shock or
disturb.
• 5) They are motivated
by growth, not by the
satisfaction of needs.
• 6) Self-actualized
people have purpose.

Characteristics of self actualized
persons cont’d
• 7) They are not troubled by
the small things.
• 8) Self-actualized people
are grateful.
• 9) They share deep
relationships with a few,
but also feel identification
and affection towards the
entire human race.
• 10 ) Self-actualized people
are humble.
• 11) Self-actualized people
resist enculturation- make
up their own minds, come to
their own decisions, are
self-starters, are responsible
for themselves and their
own destinies
• 12) Despite all this,
self-actualized people are
not perfect.

Noah Michelson. Ina Garten Tells All: Anthony Bourdain,
Secrets Of ‘The Barefoot Contessa,’ And More.
huffingtonpost.com, 10/22/2018
• The celebrity TV cook is
better known as “The
Barefoot Contessa,”
originally the name of a
specialty foods store
she bought in the
Hamptons in 1978 and
ran for 18 years before
selling it to two of her
employees.

• She embodies a
particularly irresistible
mix of humor, humility,
confidence and just the
slightest touch of self
deprecation ― a combo
that makes her feel like
she’s one of your oldest,
dearest friends instead of
just another affable
stranger talking at you
from the other side of
your television screen.
• It’s exactly that familiarity
and authenticity ― and
the trust they inspire ―
that has made the
self-taught cook one of
the most popular stars on
the Food Network and
regularly catapults her
cookbooks to the top of
the New York Times
best-seller list.

• I probably make most
recipes at least 10 times
and sometimes even 20
before it goes into a
book.
• “You’re the only star
I’ve ever met who
didn’t want to be
famous.” I love doing
what I do. I’m really
happy that people
appreciate it, but being
well-known doesn’t
really mean anything to
me.

• When you’re young you
think, If only I were
famous I’d be happy, but I
don’t think it’s a goal
worth striving for.
• In the ’70s, when I looked
at the organizations that I
was in, I would think to
myself, Could I ― or did I
want to ― be the head of
this organization? and the
answer was always no. I
don’t like being in a
situation where there’s a
man in charge — or a
woman in charge — who
gets to choose if I get to
succeed or not

What could be enablers of engagement in an
organizations?(Source: mindtoolsbusiness.com)
According to MacLeod and Clarke, organizations
that have good engagement achieve it by:
Strategic narrative (where the organization has
been, where it is now and where it is heading;
engaging managers; employee voice and
integrity. This is how integrity was defined:
● Setting, enforcing and reinforcing the
behavioral expectation of staff. That
means rewarding desired behavior
and punishing those that show bad
behavior, such as discrimination or
bullying.
● Encouraging all staff to tell the truth.
For instance, by sharing information,
or sharing credit with those who
deserve it. And by making sure that
messages and actions taken are
● Reporting back. Providing
regular feedback on goals,
priorities, and promised actions.
● Going back to the shopfloor-
senior leaders spending time
with junior employees to gain a
first hand view of the challenges
they face.

Asian hierarchy of relations
• the Western need for
self-actualization is
replaced in the Asian
context by the needs of
status, admiration and
affiliation. Autonomy and
independence are not as
important, or at the very
least do not have the
same connotations as in
the West,

Highlights of Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs Theory
• To motivate employees, managers must know
what the pressing needs of employees are
• A satisfied need loses its potency for
motivation
• A satisfied need gives rise to higher level
needs
• There are no empirical studies to support the
validity of this theory

McGregor’s Theory X, Theory Y

Highlights of McGregor’s theory
• There are two kinds of people in organizations
• Motivation depends on the type of people in
organizations.
• McGregor believed that Theory Y “should
guide management practice and proposed
participation in decision making, responsible
and challenging jobs and good group
relations.”

Anastacia Galani, Michel Galanaki. “Organizational
Psychology on the Rise—McGregor’s X and Y Theory: A
Systematic Literature Review.” scrip.org, vol 13 No. 5 May
2022
In this paper, a review was
conducted in order to address the
contribution and current findings of
the theory in the modern workplace.
A number of recent studies were
identified and concluded with
ambiguous findings which later on
lead to other studies in constructing
a valid scale for evaluating X and Y
attitudes-behaviors and job
performance. Even though this
theory has not gathered substantial
empirical support, it may prove to
be an important framework for a
better understanding of human
behavior in the workplace.
For many years the research on
McGregor’s theory has been limited.
Lawter and colleagues (2015)
supported that the theory did not
have empirically supported by
research with regard to job
performance. And that is that there
has been a failure to distinguish
between the attitudes and behaviors
of the Theory X and Y.
Only three attempts have been
undertaken to determine the
association between management X/Y
attitudes/behaviors and work
performance, with reference to the
critical dependent variable (job
performance) to date.

-Split level reliability
coefficients
-Attitudinal and
behavioral information to
be communicated non
verbally
-The importance of
construct validity of the
measurements used
-The measure is content
valid, reliable and performs as
predicted to a theoretical
nomological system
-internal consistency reliabilities
(alpha) in two subsamples were 0.74
and 0.76, and test-retest stability was
0.73. The main focus of these studies
were solely to develop and provide a
construct valid scale for X and Y
attitudes and behaviors. The
methodological approach used by
earlier studies examined incorrect unit
of analysis. Without a construct valid
scale it is impossible to test a theory
whether is correct and applicable,
therefore, for so many years we did
not know whether McGregor’s theory
could be applicable in the workplace.

However, new research came to
light. The study of Lawter et al.
(2015) was the first empirical test
of the theory. They linked
management attitudes to
individual and group work
performance, offering theory of
empirical confirmation. Using a
multilevel technique, the study
demonstrated high support
among management X and Y
attitudes, managerial actions and
performance,
Despite the restricted statistical
power, the results were
statistically significant in terms of
both individual and group
performance. These findings
support the belief held by
some managers that people
have a limitless capacity for
high performance if properly
managed. Not only do
management attitudes matter,
but how managers treat their
people has an impact on both
individual and collective
performance (Lawter et al.,
2015).

Another recent research was
conducted in order to examine the
relationship between perceived
personality traits, managerial
style using McGregor’s (1960)
Theory X and Y and managerial
likeability. According to the
findings, ‘disliked’ managers
were classified as having a
Theory X orientation, higher
neuroticism scores, and lower
openness, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness scores.
Positively viewed managers
were defined as having a Theory
Y orientation, with greater
extraversion ratings.
Employees who loved their
manager were also more likely
to rank their
intrinsic/extrinsic motivation,
productivity, job happiness,
and intention to stay at work
higher than those who didn’t
like their manager. These
findings underline the
importance of managing style
and managerial personality in
terms of employee outcomes
and attitudes about their
supervisors and their job
(Johnson, 2018).

Despite the absence of early
scientific evidence, McGregor’s
theory is well recognized and
accepted on an intuitive level. As
a result, valid measurements of
Theory X and Theory Y
assumptions and actions may
serve as effective instruments for
management and organizational
growth. Managers may benefit
from utilizing these tools to
evaluate their beliefs and
practices.

Educators who believe in Theory X would agree
with the following statements:
● The instructor is responsible for actively
sharing their knowledge with the students.
● Students are not motivated to learn new
information.
● Students prefer to have the instructor direct
their learning and not take on that
responsibility themselves.
● The instructor must ensure a controlled
learning environment to prevent cheating
and necessitate student learning; the
students prefer to have the material
summarized for them.
● Students find learning inherently
challenging and are only expected to have
limited success in the course.
Educators who believe in Theory Y would have
different assumptions:
● Students are naturally predisposed to learn.
● Responsibility for their own learning will
be as natural to the students as other
responsibilities.
● Students experience self-satisfaction when
they learn and this is enough to motivate
them to meet their learning goals.
● It is not necessary to threaten students with
lower grades; they are not naturally lazy.
● Traditional classrooms do not enable the
potential of almost all students.
● Students have large amounts of creative
thinking and innovation that is applied
throughout their learning journey.

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Charlotte Nickerson. “Herzberg’s Motivation Two-Factor Theory.”
simplypsychology.org. 11/16/ 2021
Influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs (Jones, 2011), Herzberg
concluded that satisfaction and
dissatisfaction could not be measured
reliably on the same continuum and
conducted a series of studies where he
attempted to determine what factors
in work environments cause
satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
Herzberg and his colleagues explored
the impact of fourteen factors on job
satisfaction and dissatisfaction in
terms of their frequency and duration
of impact (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd,
2005).
In the first of these studies,
Heizberg asked 13 labourers,
clerical workers, foreman, plant
engineers and accountants to
describe, in detail, situations
where they felt exceptionally
good or bad about their jobs
(Robbins and Judge, 2013).

Generally, respondents, when
describing situations where they
felt good about their jobs, cited
factors intrinsic to their work
while those describing situations
where they felt bad about their
jobs cited extrinsic factors.
Herzberg (1959) considers two types
of factors that can add to or detract
from job satisfaction: hygiene and
motivation factors.
These two separate continua of job
satisfaction and job dissatisfaction
support the possibility that someone can
be content with certain aspects of their
jobs but discontent with others.
Perhaps more pessimistically, this also has
the implication that simply eliminating
“dissatisfiers” would not necessarily lead
to job satisfaction so much as placation
(motivational concepts).
These so-called “satisfiers” (motivational
factors) and “dissatisfiers” (a lack of
hygiene factors) are dynamic, constantly
interacting, highly subject to change, and
relative to the employee (Misener and Cox,
2001).

The two-factor theory has not been well
supported by research. Generally,
criticisms of the theory focus on
Herzberg’s methodology and
assumptions.
Critics have also noted that if hygiene
and motivational factors are equally
important to a person, then both should
be capable of motivating employees
(Robbins and Judge, 2013).
Herzberg conducted his formative
motivation theory research at a time when
organizations tended to be rigid and
bureaucratic. As organizations shifted
away from focusing on mass-production
and toward innovation, new theories of
motivation, such as those based in
behaviorism, evolved (Bassett-Jones and
Lloyd, 2005).
A large number of replication studies
emerged following Herzberg’s results.
Those using Herzberg’s methodology —
the critical incident framework — were
consistent with his original results, while
research that used methods such as
surveys supported the traditional idea that
job satisfaction and dissatisfaction exist on
the same continuum

David McClelland’s Three Needs
Theory

every individual has these three types of motivational needs irrespective of their
demography, culture, or wealth. These motivation types are driven by real-life
experiences and the views of their ethos.

McClelland’s Three Needs Theory
McClelland suggested that regardless of our gender,
culture, or age, we all have three motivating drivers,
and one of these will be our dominant motivating
driver.
This dominant motivator is largely dependent on our
culture and life experiences.
Need for achievement
Some people have a compelling drive to succeed.
They are striving for personal achievement rather
than the rewards of success per se. This drive is the
achievement need (nAch).
McClelland found that high achievers differentiate
themselves from others by their desire to do things
better;
Features of people with Need for achievement
(nAch);
● They seek personal responsibility for finding
solutions to problems.
● They want to receive rapid feedback on their
performance so they can tell easily whether
they are improving or not.
● They can set moderately challenging goals.
High achievers are not gamblers; they dislike
succeeding by chance.
● High achievers perform best when they
perceive their probability of success as
50-50.
● They like to set goals that require stretching
themselves a little.

Need for Power (nPow)
The need to make others behave in a way that they
would not have behaved otherwise.
Need for power (nPow) features are;
● The desire to have an impact, to be
influential, and to control others.
● Individuals high in nPow enjoy being “in
charge.”
● Strive for influence over others.
● Prefer to be placed into competitive and
status-oriented situations.
● Tend to be more concerned with prestige
and gaining influence over others than with
effective performance.
Need for Affiliation (nAfl)
The desire for friendly and close interpersonal
relationships.
Features of Need for affiliation (nAfl) are;
● This need has received the least attention
from researchers.
● Individuals with a high affiliation motive
strive for friendship.
● Prefer cooperative situations rather than
competitive ones.
● Desire relationships involving a high degree
of mutual understanding.

People who possess high
achievement needs are people who
always work to excel by particularly
avoiding low reward low-risk
situations and difficult to achieve
high-risk situations.
Such people avoid low-risk
situations because of the lack of a
real challenge and their
understanding that such
achievement is not genuine. They
also avoid high-risk situations
because they perceive and
understand it to be more about luck
and chance and not about one’s
own effort.
The need for power is the desire within a
person to hold control and authority over
another person and influence and change
their decision in accordance with his own
needs or desires. The need to enhance their
self-esteem and reputation drives these
people and they desire their views and ideas
to be accepted and implemented over the
views and ideas over others.
If they are a personal power motivator they
would have the need to control others and
an institutional power motivator seeks to
lead and coordinate a team towards an end.

The individuals motivated by the
need for affiliation prefer being
part of a group. They like
spending their time socializing
and maintaining relationships and
possess a strong desire to be
loved and accepted. These
individuals stick to basics and play
by the books without feeling a
need to change things, primarily
due to a fear of being rejected.
someone who always takes charge of
the team when a project is assigned.
The one who speaks up in meetings to
encourage people, and delegates
responsibilities in order to facilitate
achieving the goals of the group.
Someone who likes to control the final
deliverables. This team member is likely
being driven by power.
Another team member who does not
speak during meetings, and is happy
agreeing with the team thoughts, is
good at managing conflicts and may
seem uncomfortable while someone
talks about undertaking high-risk,
high-reward tasks. This team member is
likely being driven by affiliation.

Highlights of McClelland’s theory
• Entrepreneurs are said to have high levels of
nAch.
• Robbins and Coulter described good managers
as individuals with high need for power and
low need for affiliation. What do you think is
the logic of this statement?
• High nAch can be developed in organizations
through the design of motivating jobs, training
and empowered employees

Designing motivating jobs
• Designing jobs that motivate
• Difference between job enlargement
(enlarging the scope of work) and job
enrichment (enlarging the depth of work)

Goal Setting Theory of Motivation
Premises of Goal-Setting Theory
Below are the premises of goal-setting
theory:
● Clear and Challenging - Goals should be
specific and challenging. Such goals
relate to higher performance in
completion. Clear, unambiguous goals
avoid misunderstanding.
● Realistic - Goals should realistic and
capable of being achieved.
● Feedback - Employees should receive
feedback that directs their behavior.
● Participation - Employee participation in
goal setting facilitates accepts and
increased involvement.
Result of Goal-Setting Theory
The anticipated result of goal setting is:
● Self-Efficacy - This concern employee
self-confidence in a performance task.
Generally, self-efficacy leads to higher
performance through increased effort.
● Goal Commitment - This assumes that
individuals will become committed to the
goal and be reluctant to leave it. This is
true for goals that are openly
communicated, self-set by the
employee, and consistent with
organizational goals.

Goal Setting Theory (value of specific
goals)

Goal Setting Theory cont’d
• Difficult goals motivate employees for
excellent performance.
• Goals that are made public are goals that
motivate
• Goals that are accepted by employees and
which are jointly made by boss and
subordinates are goals that motivate
• Cultural values have important influences in
the potency of goal setting

Goals Setting Theory cont’d
• Self efficacy is another consideration. If
employees feel that goals are achievable –
they become more motivated to achieve the
goal
• Feedback is an important element in the
process of motivation. Self feedback is better
than feedback given by supervisors.
• Goal-setting theory was proposed by Edwin Locke in
the 1960s.

Reinforcement Theory
• Behavior that is rewarded is behavior that is
reinforced. People stop undesirable behavior
because it is either ignored or rewarded
negatively.

Equity Theory (J. Stacy Adams)

● Inputs: Inputs include all the rich and diverse elements that employees
believe they bring or contribute to the job – their education, experience,
effort, loyalty, commitment.
● Outcomes: Outcomes are rewards they perceive they get from their
jobs and employers’ outcomes include- direct pay and bonuses, fringe
benefit, job security, social rewards and psychological.
● Overrewarded: if employees fell over-rewarded equity theory predicts
then they will feel an imbalance in their relationship with their
employee and seek to restore that balance.
● Equity: if employees perceive equity then they will be motivated to
continue to contribute act about the same level.
● Unrewarded: unrewarded who feel they have been unrewarded and
seek to reduce their feeling inequity through the same types of
strategies but the same of this specific action is now reverse.

Equity Theory
• “Evidence indicates that employees compare
themselves to others and that inequities
influence how much effort employees exert”
• “If an employee perceives her ratio to be
equitable in comparison to those of relevant
others, there is no problem.”

Equity Theory
• “However if the ratio is inequitable, he/she
views himself/herself as over/under
rewarded.”
• “This results to higher/lower productivity,
improved/reduced quality of work, increased
absenteeism or voluntary resignation.”
• People usually compare themselves with
co-employees, neighbors,

the referent that an employee selects adds to the
complexity of equity theory. There are four referent
comparisons that an employee can use:
● Self-inside: An employee’s experiences in a
different position inside his or her current
organization.
● Self-outside: An employee’s experiences in
a situation or position outside his or her
current organization.
● Other-inside: Another individual or group of
individuals inside the employee’s
organization.
● Other-outside: Another individual or group
of individuals outside the employee’s
organization.
The theory establishes the following
propositions relating to inequitable pay:
1. Given payment by time, over-rewarded
employees will produce more than will
equitably pay employees.
2. Given payment by the quantity of
production, over-rewarded employees
will produce fewer, but higher quality,
units that will equitably pay
employees.
3. Given payment by time,
under-rewarded employees will
produce the less or poorer quality of
output.

Demerits of Equity Theory
(simplinotes.com)
1. Difficulty measuring
perception of people
about output/ input
ratios
2. The theory doesn’t
consider all motivation
factors, only personal
perception.
3. No standard
measurement of inputs
and rewards so no exact
comparison with others
4. An individual hardly
accepts that he/she is
getting more rewards
compared to others.
Most problems are of low
return - the negative
inequality

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
• Effort –performance linkage – what is the
probability at a given amount of effort will
lead to a desired level of performance.
• Performance-reward linkage – what is the
probability that performing at a certain level
will lead to the desired reward?
• Valence – what is the worth of the reward

Implications of Expectancy Theory of
Motivation
Make sure your promises to your
team align with company policy
Always deliver on your promises so
you can establish and continue to
build trust with your team. When
you offer your team members
specific rewards for their work,
consider checking your employer's
policies to ensure you can provide
them. For example, if you want to
provide cash bonuses to your team
members, you may ensure that
your employer allows managers to
give cash bonuses, and if so, check
the maximum allowance for each
team member.
Create challenging but achievable
goals
Trust your team to handle the tasks you
give them, and challenge them to reach
their full potential. At the same time,
remember to keep expectations achievable
to help keep your team members motivated
and confident in their work. For example,
you may track the sales metrics for a sales
team and create weekly sales goals that are
similar to the best-performing weeks while
remaining achievable.

Ensure the assigned tasks match the
team member's skill set
Part of motivating your team includes
understanding the unique skills they bring to the
company and seeing how they can use those
skills to meet their goals. When you assign an
employee a task based on their skills, they're
likely to have more confidence in their ability to
finish it. For example, if you know a team
member who has a strong background in giving
public presentations, you may assign this type of
work to them instead of assigning it to more
introverted team members.
Set clear connections between
performance and reward
Always communicate your expectations and
rewards clearly. The more transparent you are,
the more your team can trust they're going to
receive rewards for their work. For example, you
may provide a clear structure for bonuses that
includes quantitative or numerical goals that
team members can easily track to see how
they're performing.

Make reward distribution fair and
logical
When you distribute rewards for
performance on a project or task, make
sure that they match the levels of effort put
in and performance achieved. It's also
important to distribute rewards to team
members fairly. For example, you may
ensure that all team members have the
same sales quotas, regardless of their
past sales performance.

Application of motivation theories to
current situations
• Motivating in tough economic circumstances
• Cross cultural issues – American values related
to accomplishment and individualism may not
be applicable to other countries. What if the
perception of equity involves the ratio of work
inputs as well as the needs of their family
members? Is this true in the Philippine
context?

Application cont’d
• How should managers deal with core group of
workers in virtual organizations? With
temporary, contingent workers?

Joe Keohane, In Praise of Meaningless
Work”
• This article is about how meaningless jobs have
become as a result of productivity metrics that
owe its origins from people like Frederick Taylor
• Gallup’s much-cited, 2013 State of the American
Workplace report, which found that companies
whose employees are comparatively more
engaged generate 147 percent higher earnings
per share. Workers who are emotionally invested
in their work also tend to be less motivated by
earthlier enticements, such as pay, vacations,
flextime, and good hours.

• It wasn’t until Frederick Winslow Taylor and
Henry Ford effectively replaced the artisan
economy with assembly lines and so-called
scientific management in the early twentieth
century that the tug of war between
companies who treat workers like numbers
and workers who insist on being treated like
people began in earnest. (Amazon employees
went on strike during Prime Time!)

• Toiling under the stopwatch, workers began to
complain of stress. Profits soared and
antagonism bloomed. Marx’s theory of
alienated labor, in which workers inevitably
become commodities themselves, began to
bear out.

In Praise of Meaningless Work
• at least according to two new books. Mindful
Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business
from the Inside Out, by New York Times
business reporter David Gelles, looks at
corporate America’s increasing interest in
meditation to enhance productivity and
ameliorate stress. And The Business Romantic:
Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create
Something Greater Than Yourself, by
marketing executive Tim Leberecht….

• His (Leberecht) “Rules of Enchantment”
“prioritize joy over optimization,” and he
contends that workplaces that follow these
dictums will be abloom with sensitivity,
self-discovery, generosity, ambiguity,
vulnerability, and “an appreciation for the
sublime … and secretive
• What does this mean if we apply it to
classroom activity and performance?

• .” In order to “engender an ‘institutionalized’
romance,” he has called on companies to
marshal the neglected humanities—poetry,
art, music—and establish themselves as
“arbiters of meaning” (and also “maintain
profit margins”).

Anna Moro. “The humanities are becoming more
important. Here's why.” World Economic Forum
atweforum.org, 06/14/2018
• Communication,
observation, empathy and
logical thinking: These
precious and frequently
undervalued skills have
everyday names.
• Research shows that
exposure to the
humanities is linked to
higher empathy and
emotional intelligence
among trainee doctors.
• They are the foundational
skills that allow us to
learn and live and work
productively with other
people. They are the skills
that determine our
chances of succeeding.
They are the skills of
leadership.

• These essential skills are the
ones most sought by some
of the largest, most
successful organizations.
Those blue-chip employers
recognize that their future
leaders are people who can
understand and
communicate about the
world around them, who
can see the whole picture
and find ways to fit into it.
• People learn to do this by
studying the humanities,
the academic fields that
have somehow fallen from
the nest of subjects
considered most worth
studying.
• Increasing demand for
foundational skills such as
critical thinking,
coordination, social
perceptiveness, active
listening and complex
problem-solving.

• Investor Mark Cuban says
the employment market
of the near future will
demand fewer hard skills
since technical tasks are
increasingly being
performed by computers.
Instead, he says, we’ll
need more people who
can put information into
human context.
• Steve Jobs, the late
co-founder and CEO of
Apple, once said: “It is in
Apple’s DNA that
technology alone is not
enough — it’s technology
married with liberal arts,
married with the
humanities, that yields us
the results that make our
heart sing.”

• Leberecht adds: “Our lives are already so
encroached upon by the normative values of
capitalism, that our only choice is to reveal our
fullest selves within this mainstream market
culture.”
• Gelles cites studies showing that meditation can
reduce stress, increase compassion, and foster a
healthier state of mind. He speculates that by
institutionalizing mindfulness, companies will
become better, less polluting, less exploitative
corporate citizens

• …Google, where employees can enroll in a
“course in mindfulness” called “Search Inside
Yourself.” The man behind Search Inside
Yourself is a senior Google executive named
Chade-Meng Tan, who gave himself the title
“Jolly Good Fellow.” During a seminar on the
importance of self sacrifice, humility, and
compassion in the workplace,

• The author reacts: I see Leberecht’s advice
for people who do not love their jobs, writ
large across the land: “Pretend to be a
Business Romantic,” he proposes, “fake it until
you make it!” Is this advice anything more
than corporate incentives dressed up in office
memo? Will meaning-mongering be the new
greenwashing?

• Maybe the problem isn’t meaningless work. Most
modern work, like it or not, is inherently
meaningless beyond the paycheck…. No, the
problem is that work has so monopolized our lives
that there are ever fewer opportunities to find
meaning outside of the office.
• The broader culture is hopelessly
workaholic—not raging against the emptiness of
life, but actively emptying it, and filling the hole
with more work dressed up as life.

• we should embrace not the meaningfulness of
work, but its meaninglessness. The cold,
unromantic transaction. The part that keeps
food in our bellies and a roof over our heads.
The part that, theoretically, gives us our
nights and weekends. Let’s demand that
recompense, first and foremost, and deal with
the rest later.

• With unemployment falling to pre-recession
levels, employees are hopefully gaining the
leverage to say enough. The prayer is that the
line will be drawn, and managers will then see
that the way forward is actually very simple:
Hire good people. Treat them well. Help
them succeed. Compensate them fairly. Let
them go home!

Sean Illing. ”Bullshit jobs: why they exist and why you
might have one.” vox.com, 06/25/2018
• David Graeber….a
professor at the London
School of Economics and
a leader of the
early Occupy Wall
Street movement,
Graeber has written a
new book called Bullshit
Jobs: A Theory.
• He argues that there are
millions of people across
the world — clerical
workers, administrators,
consultants,
telemarketers, corporate
lawyers, service
personnel, and many
others — who are toiling
away in meaningless,
unnecessary jobs, and
they know it.

• Graeber says-
….Technology has
advanced to the point
where most of the
difficult, labor-intensive
jobs can be performed
by machines. But
instead of freeing
ourselves from the
suffocating 40-hour
workweek,
• we’ve invented a whole
universe of futile
occupations that are
professionally
unsatisfying and
spiritually empty.
• how we got to this
place, if there are any
real alternatives, and
what, if anything,
people can do about it.

• Bad jobs are bad
because they’re hard or
they have terrible
conditions or the pay
sucks, but often these
jobs are very useful. In
fact, in our society,
often the more useful
the work is, the less
they pay you.
• Whereas bullshit jobs
are often highly
respected and pay well
but are completely
pointless, and the
people doing them
know this.
• Ano ang ibig sabihin
nito?

What are examples of bullshit jobs?
• Corporate lawyers.
Most corporate lawyers
secretly believe that if
there were no longer
any corporate lawyers,
the world would
probably be a better
place.
• The same is true of
public relations
consultants,
telemarketers, brand
managers, and
countless
administrative
specialists who are paid
to sit around, answer
phones, and pretend to
be useful.

• A lot of bullshit jobs are just
manufactured
middle-management
positions with no real
utility in the world, but
they exist anyway in order
to justify the careers of the
people performing them.
• But if they went away
tomorrow, it would make
no difference at all.
• If we suddenly eliminated
teachers or garbage
collectors or construction
workers or law
enforcement or whatever,
it would really matter.
We’d notice the absence.
• But if bullshit jobs go away,
we’re no worse off.

• But the truth is that a lot
of people are being
handed a lot of money to
do nothing. This is true
for most of these
middle-management
positions
• I’m talking about, and
the people doing these
jobs are completely
unhappy because they
know their work is
bullshit.
• Most people really do
want to believe that
they’re contributing to
the world in some way,
and if you deny that to
them, they go crazy or
become quietly
miserable.

• You expect this outcome
with a Soviet-style
system, where you have
to have full employment
so you make up jobs
whether a need exists or
not. But this shouldn’t
happen in a free market
system.
• there’s huge political
pressure to create jobs
coming from all
directions. We accept the
idea that rich people are
job creators, and the
more jobs we have, the
better. It doesn’t matter
if those jobs do
something useful; we just
assume that more jobs is
better no matter what.

• Rich people throw
money at people who
are paid to sit around,
add to their glory, and
learn to see the world
from the perspective of
the executive class.
• Many of the
non-bullshit jobs, the
jobs that are truly
useful and necessary,
have been lost to
automation, and the
truth is that they were
far more difficult and
tedious than the
bullshit jobs of today.

• What if we just spent
more time doing what
we actually want rather
than sitting in [an] office
pretending to work for 40
hours a week?
• I want a world where
basic needs are provided.
I call for basic income, but
it doesn’t have to be basic
income. I simply want
people to be free to
decide for themselves
how they want to
contribute, and I
obviously want fewer
bullshit jobs.

• I think we need a
rebellion of what I call
the “caring class,”
people who care about
others and justice. We
need to think about
how to create a new
social movement and
change what we value
in our work and lives.

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant
by David Graeber (Strike Magazine, August 2013
• In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes
predicted that, by century's end, technology
would have advanced sufficiently that
countries like Great Britain or the United
States would have achieved a 15-hour work
week. There's every reason to believe he was
right. In technological terms, we are quite
capable of this. And yet it didn't happen.

• Instead, technology has been marshaled, if
anything, to figure out ways to make us all work
more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be
created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge
swathes of people, in Europe and North America
in particular, spend their entire working lives
performing tasks they secretly believe do not
really need to be performed. The moral and
spiritual damage that comes from this situation is
profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet
virtually no one talks about it.

• Over the course of the last century, the
number of workers employed as domestic
servants, in industry, and in the farm sector
has collapsed dramatically. At the same time,
‘professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and
service workers’ tripled, growing ‘from
one-quarter to three-quarters of total
employment.’

• While corporations may engage in ruthless
downsizing, the layoffs and speed-ups invariably fall
on that class of people who are actually making,
moving, fixing and maintaining things; through some
strange alchemy no one can quite explain, the number
of salaried paper-pushers ultimately seems to expand,
and more and more employees find themselves, not
unlike Soviet workers actually, working 40 or even 50
hour weeks on paper, but effectively working 15 hours
just as Keynes predicted, since the rest of their time is
spent organizing or attending motivational seminars,
updating their facebook profiles or downloading TV
box-sets.

• The answer clearly isn't economic: it's moral and
political. The ruling class has figured out that a
happy and productive population with free time
on their hands is a mortal danger (think of what
started to happen when this even began to be
approximated in the '60s). And, on the other
hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in
itself, and that anyone not willing to submit
themselves to some kind of intense work
discipline for most of their waking hours deserves
nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.

• For instance: in our society, there seems a
general rule that, the more obviously one's
work benefits other people, the less one is
likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective
measure is hard to find, but one easy way to
get a sense is to ask: what would happen were
this entire class of people to simply
disappear?

• Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or
mechanics, it's obvious that were they to vanish in a
puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and
catastrophic. A world without teachers or
dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one
without science fiction writers or ska musicians would
clearly be a lesser place. It's not entirely clear how
humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs,
lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers,
bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many
suspect it might markedly improve.) Yet apart from a
handful of well-touted exceptions (doctors), the rule
holds surprisingly well.

• Real, productive workers are relentlessly
squeezed and exploited. The remainder are
divided between a terrorised stratum of the,
universally reviled, unemployed and a larger
stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in
positions designed to make them identify with the
perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class
(managers, administrators, etc.)—and particularly
its financial avatars—but, at the same time, foster
a simmering resentment against anyone whose
work has clear and undeniable social value.

The Algorithms that tell Bosses how
Employees are Feeling.
• Sentiment analysis has bloomed into a large and
lucrative industry. Dozens of startups now focus
exclusively on providing these services to other
companies…. and many bigger tech corporations
have developed their own software.
• Large companies like Accenture, Intel, IBM, and
Twitter have started using the software to
understand how their own employees feel about
their jobs, and identify problems that might
escape a harried supervisor during annual-review
time.

• Twitter, for example, hired a company called
Kanjoya to analyze employees’ responses to
regular surveys about their workplace
experiences. The surveys used to be
administered twice yearly, and included just
one or two open-ended questions…. Kanjoya’s
analysis tools ran through the narrative
answers, extracting patterns that were then
shared with executives.

• IBM has for years been scooping up employees’ posts
and comments on the company’s internal social
networking platform.
• That platform, called Connections, is available to all of
IBM’s 380,000 employees in 170 countries. It
functions like Facebook, Dropbox, and Wikipedia
bundled into one package, allowing employees to
publish posts, comment on others’, or collaborate in
smaller groups. (IBM also sells a version of
Connections to other companies.) An internally
developed sentiment-analysis tool called Social Pulse
monitors posts and comments for trends and red
flags.

• Last year, IBM used the program to engage
its employees in a revamp of its
performance-review system. Its HR
department set up a forum to solicit
feedback on proposals for a new system, and
received tens of thousands of responses.
Instead of assigning a team of analysts to
comb through the reams of feedback, IBM
set Social Pulse loose on the data.

• The software helped surface a widespread
complaint: Employees were unhappy that their
performances were graded on a curve.
• The human element still remains an important
check on emotion-sensing algorithms. Even IBM’s
3-year-old Social Pulse software is bolstered by
human eyes: A small team of analysts routinely
examine the trends it identifies to make sure it
got them right before sending them up the chain
to management.

• A pair of computer scientists at Sathyabama
University in India published a paper last year
that proposed a new way of determining
employees’ attitudes and well-being: facial
scans. The system they created captures
images of employees’ faces every time they
enter the building to determine whether
they’re happy, sad, depressed, or angry, with
the intention of using that data to optimize
productivity and employee performance.

Motivating Employees.pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Motivating Employees.pdf

Similar to Motivating Employees.pdf (20)

More from KhatVillados

More from KhatVillados (11)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Motivating Employees.pdf