6.4. REWARDS AND MOTIVATION

A variety of factors can be used to motivate an individual. Nonetheless, individuals will be just that when it comes to personal motivations. In a case study of nine large software developers, Baddoo, Hall, and Jagieska (2006) found that developers' motivations for performance were based around pay and benefits, recognition, and opportunities for achievement. They concluded that motivations are dependent upon the employees and are likely to change within differing industries. Therefore the individual, company, and industry must be taken into account when motivators are applied.

Foa and Foa (1974) have analyzed the motivation that is provided by different resources. They have identified six resources, with money, of course, as an obvious one. However, a person can be motivated by the services the organization provides, such as (a) a good benefit package and (b) assistance in finding housing or day care. There are a number of other activities (some of which may sound paternalistic) that could be included under "services."

Still another factor is status. People often make very fine distinctions about status. For example, in a study of a restaurant (Whyte, 1948), it was found that different kinds of cooks had radically different statuses. Foa and Foa (1974) also mentioned love as a motivator. An individual can be motivated by having a very good relationship with a supervisor who provides emotional support and help in solving personal problems. This kind of motivator is used much more in Japan than in the United States and is consistent with other aspects of Japanese culture. Still another reward is information. For instance, training or the opportunity to grow can be a very important reward. Goods are important motivators in some organizations. For instance, special discounts for particular products that are produced by the organization or gifts given on certain occasions can be motivating, at least for some people.

The variety of rewards is not exhausted by the ones just mentioned. For example, giving time to an employee can also be a reward. The superior can accomplish this by paying attention to an employee's problems or by granting time off when there is a family crisis or when the employee needs to get away from it all. Allowing the employee to work at home is yet another form of reward.

An analysis of the way these various rewards function suggests that there are hierarchies of such rewards. Maslow (1992), for example, has argued that there are some basic physiological needs—for example, for food, water, and sleep—that have to be fulfilled before the next higher needs can be activated. After these basic needs are met relatively well, the next higher level needs—protection from danger, threat, and deprivation—become important. These are followed by social needs that include the need for love and for acceptance. The next level includes ego needs, which, according to Maslow, involve the need for self-confidence, for achievement, for competence, and for knowledge. Finally, the highest need, self-actualization, can be activated. This is the need to develop one's own potential and to maximize self-development.

Maslow has conceived of these needs as hierarchically structured. Although the evidence for a multilevel hierarchy of needs is very weak, physiological needs are the basis for all others. If physiological needs are not satisfied, then other needs do not become activated. The evidence for this point comes from studies of hunger that were done during the Second World War (Guetzkow and Bowman, 1946). In these studies, volunteers agreed to live on 900 calories a day. This starvation diet resulted in an extremely disturbing experience for the participants. They stopped functioning as normal adults; they no longer had any interest in development, in sex, or in interpersonal relationships. Their only concern was obtaining food. Food dominated their thoughts, their dreams, and their everyday life. This example supports Maslow's thesis and suggests that at least a two-level hierarchy is valid. Some other theorists, such as Alderfer (1972), have argued that a three-level hierarchy can be identified. He called them existence, relatedness, and growth needs (the ERG theory). Existence includes physiological and safety needs, relatedness includes membership and self-esteem needs, and growth includes self-actualization needs.

The presence of a goal can create a need. As indicated above, there is evidence that individuals who have been given specific, difficult, but attainable goals are much more motivated to work hard to obtain them than those individuals who have not been given any goals or who have been given goals that are too easy or too difficult (Locke, 1968). Thus, management by objectives—where specific, difficult, but attainable goals are established for a research project and where the manager and researcher discuss and agree on specific goals and later review the extent to which these goals have been reached—is an approach to motivation.

Another factor that is very helpful in motivating people is receiving feedback. Feedback takes many forms. It can include evaluation by the supervisor, formal recognition by the organization, receiving data of various kinds about how well one is doing, and comparisons with others or comparisons with the self at different points in time. Here information regarding scheduled versus actual specific goals' completion rate can be used as one mechanism for such feedback.

The research shows that at least in some organizational settings, certain kinds of feedback are more effective than others. For example, Herold and Parsons (1985) have found that formal recognition is the most powerful form of feedback. Other forms of effective feedback are positive supervisory behavior, positive comparisons with the self at another point in time, and positive comparisons with internalized standards.

Some feedback can be ineffective because it makes people defensive. For example, negative comparisons with others, along with negative evaluations by co-workers, may do more harm than good.

The evidence generally indicates that managers need to provide both goals and feedback. One without the other is unlikely to be effective (Becker, 1978). To be most effective, feedback should be given by the person who knows the most about the employee, with the least delay possible. It should be positive and relevant to the job, referring specifically to the goals, and be frequent enough to be noticed (Brickman et al., 1976; Ilgen et al., 1979). If individuals are allowed to set their own goals when the assigned goals are easy, they are likely to set difficult ones; and when the assigned goals are difficult, individuals are likely to set easier ones (Locke et al., 1984; Murphy et al., 1985). Goal setting is more effective than instructions such as "do the best you can." It becomes even more effective when the person is aware that he or she will be evaluated and when the person receives positive cues (e.g., when somebody says, "This is a fun job, it is a challenging job"). The combination of these variables is most effective (White et al., 1977). Providing a challenge can be particularly effective with a researcher.