Motivational Implications of Construction Work

A survey was conducted of unionized construction workers in a major midwestern city to collect data on their perceptions of the jobs and environment within which they perform their jobs. Construction workers have growth needs that are similar in strength to other blue collar workers. The individuals with stronger needs should respond to jobs that are high in motivating potential. Contractors need to improve worker satisfation with job context. The qualifications of the workers appears to be more than adequate for the great majority of construction tasks. Contractors need to structure jobs to improve their motivating potential. As currently structured, construction jobs are low in motivating potential.     

Motivational Climate of Construction Apprentice

A survey of construction apprentices was conducted in a midwestern city using the expectancy model as a framework. The findings indicated a need for an improved motivational climate for apprentices. Their overall motivational score was low. The study suggests that contractors are not providing a variety of rewards to apprentices. It also indicates that little is done to help the apprentice in learning and staying in the trade. As a result, it provides researchers with a starting point in studying how to maintain a balanced motivational climate for an apprentice.     

Influence of extrinsic and ego incentive value on persistence after failure and continuing motivation.

We examined the hypotheses that (a) extrinsic rewards avert attention from ego threat, enhancing persistence after failure; (b) performance impairment after failure is greater when tasks have high ego value; and (c) extrinsic rewards reduce ego concern and thereby enhance continuing motivation on high ego-involving tasks, but undermine continuing motivation on other tasks. 131 college students completed 15 solvable or unsolvable (failure) matching tasks followed by 15 anagrams. Students gave up more frequently after failure except when they received rewards or were told the anagram task was very difficult. The extrinsic rewards reduced continuing motivation in the low ego-value condition and enhanced it in the high ego-value condition. Findings suggest that extrinsic incentives reduced ego involvement and threat, thereby minimizing performance impairment and increasing continuing motivation after failure on ego-relevant tasks. More generally, it is argued that exogenous incentives may be used to negate maladaptive motivational states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating interdependent teams: Individual rewards, shared rewards, or something in between?

The primary purpose in this study was to extend theory and research regarding the motivational process in teams by examining the effects of hybrid rewards on team performance. Further, to better understand the underlying team level mechanisms, the authors examined whether the hypothesized benefits of hybrid over shared and individual rewards were due to increased information allocation and reduced social loafing. Results from 90 teams working on a command-and-control simulation supported the hypotheses. Hybrid rewards led to higher levels of team performance than did individual and shared rewards; these effects were due to improvements in information allocation and reductions in social loafing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and competence as determinants of young children's reward allocation.

Young children's failure to use the rule of equity in situations involving reward allocation has led researchers to conclude that they lack the requisite level of cognitive sophistication. The present study examined the effects of allocation instructions and self-interest on the use of equity by 126 preschool children. Ss served either as workers on a task with another (fictitious) child or as "supervisors" for 2 other (fictitious) children. They were given allocation instructions in which the social demand for equity was or was not explicitly stated. When Ss were given allocation instructions with no explicit demand, there was no evidence of equity. When the demand for equity was explicit and self-interest was removed by assigning the child the role of supervisor, all Ss used equity in allocating rewards. In view of the demonstrated ability of preschoolers to apply equity, developmental differences in the motivational and social determinants of its use are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Untangling the performance appraisal dilemma: The influence of perceived organizational context on evaluative processes.

Previous laboratory studies found that the presence of a noncompliant worker, who deliberately refused to obey orders, resulted in an increased number of rewards and higher performance evaluations assigned by managers to compliant workers. The present study investigated whether these laboratory based findings could be detected in an ongoing work situation. 50 supervisors of clerical workers indicated that number of noncompliant workers in their work unit and evaluated the performance of their remaining compliant workers. Information on pay raises given these compliant workers was also obtained. The greater the proportion of noncompliant workers in a unit, the more favorable the supervisor's judgments of his or her compliant workers. Recommendations for promotion, pay raises, and actual pay raises given to compliant workers were also predicted as a function of the proportion of noncompliant workers, with correlations ranging from .25 to .48. Implications for understanding supervisory judgments are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee customer orientation in context: How the environment moderates the influence of customer orientation on performance outcomes.

This empirical study evaluated the moderating effects of unit customer orientation (CO) climate and climate strength on the relationship between service workers’ level of CO and their performance of customer-oriented behaviors (COBs). In addition, the study examined whether aggregate COB performance influences unit profitability. Building on multisource, multilevel data, the study’s results suggest that the influence of employee CO on employee COB performance is positive when the unit’s CO climate is relatively high and that the constructs are unrelated when unit CO climate is relatively low. In addition, the data reveal that unit COB performance influences unit profitability by enhancing revenues without a concomitant increase in costs. The study’s results underscore the theoretical importance of considering cross-level influencers of employee-level relationships and suggest that managers should focus on creating a climate that is supportive of COBs if their units are to profit from the recruitment, hiring, and retention of customer-oriented employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagining the future: Degraded representations of future rewards and events in schizophrenia.

Over the course of life, most people work toward temporally distant rewards such as university degrees or work-related promotions. In contrast, many people with schizophrenia show deficits in behavior oriented toward long-term rewards, although they function adequately when rewards are more immediately present. Moreover, when asked about possible future events, individuals with schizophrenia show foreshortened future time perspectives relative to healthy individuals. Here, we take the view that these deficits are related and can be explained by cognitive deficits. We compared the performance of participants with schizophrenia (n = 39) and healthy participants (n = 25) on tasks measuring reward discounting and future event representations. Consistent with previous research, we found that relative to healthy participants, those with schizophrenia discounted the value of future rewards more steeply. Furthermore, when asked about future events, their responses were biased toward events in the near future, relative to healthy participants' responses. Although discounting and future representations were unrelated in healthy participants, we found significant correlations across the tasks among participants with schizophrenia, as well as correlations with cognitive variables and symptoms. Further analysis showed that statistically controlling working memory eliminated group differences in task performance. Together these results suggest that the motivational deficits characteristic of schizophrenia relate to cognitive deficits affecting the ability to represent and/or evaluate distant outcomes, a finding with important implications for promoting recovery from schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of reward contingency and performance feedback on intrinsic motivation.

93 high school students were offered performance or task-contingent rewards or no reward for doing hidden-figures puzzles. Ss offered performance-contingent rewards all received positive feedback concerning performance, and half the Ss in task-contingent and no-reward conditions received the same positive feedback. Performance-contingent rewards were found to undermine intrinsic motivation more than task-contingent ones, which produced decrements relative to control conditions of no reward, supporting E. Deci's (1972, 1975) control model. Positive feedback enhanced intrinsic motivation; this effect was independent of reward effects. A recall measure indicated that Ss receiving performance-contingent rewards remembered fewer performance-irrelevant details about the task, suggesting that rewards may affect the process of task involvement as well as its motivational outcomes. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher motivational strategies and student self-determination in physical education.

Physical education teachers can influence students' self-determination through the motivational strategies they use. In this study, the authors examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of class average self-determination, the teachers' self-determination, and their reported use of 3 motivational strategies: autonomy support, structure, and involvement. They examined the relationship between the 3 motivational strategies, students' perceptions of psychological need satisfaction, and students' self-determination. They also investigated the relationship between teachers' and students' self-determination. Multilevel and standard regression analyses revealed that teachers' perceptions of class average self-determination predicted their reported use of the motivational strategies, and this relationship was mediated by their own self-determination. Student perceptions of the three strategies had a positive effect on their own self-determination, and this relationship was mediated by their reported satisfaction of autonomy and competence. Finally, teachers' self-determination did not predict students' self-determination. The importance of promoting an adaptive motivational climate for both teachers and students is discussed with reference to self-determination theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The study of compensation systems through the lens of self-determination theory: Reconciling 35 years of debate.

Although compensation specialists generally argue for incentive systems that link rewards to performance, self-determination theory argues that such contingent rewards can have detrimental effects on autonomous motivation. The authors present a model of the motivational effects of compensation systems that attempts to reconcile the self-determination theory view and the literature on compensation. This model evaluates how compensation system characteristics, such as the amount and variability of pay, can influence the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn influence autonomous work motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job expectations and valences of job rewards for culturally disadvantaged and advantaged clerical employees.

Compared the job expectancies of 76 culturally advantaged and 74 disadvantaged female civil service clerical workers concerning whether effective job performance would lead to certain job rewards and the relative importance or valences of these rewards to the 2 groups. The disadvantaged group saw for themselves, as opposed to the advantaged group, less likelihood that effectiveness in their jobs would lead to advancement or to the use of one's own judgment. The disadvantaged group also indicated that a high salary was more important to them than to the advantaged group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal-directed instrumental action: contingency and incentive learning and their cortical substrates

Instrumental behaviour is controlled by two systems: a stimulus-response habit mechanism and a goal-directed process that involves two forms of learning. The first is learning about the instrumental contingency between the response and reward, whereas the second consists of the acquisition of incentive value by the reward. Evidence for contingency learning comes from studies of reward devaluation and from demonstrations that instrumental performance is sensitive not only the probability of contiguous reward but also to the probability of unpaired rewards. The process of incentive learning is evident in the acquisition of control over performance by primary motivational states. Preliminary lesion studies of the rat suggest that the prelimbic area of prefrontal cortex plays a role in the contingency learning, whereas the incentive learning for food rewards involves the insular cortex.     

Themes from the frontlines: hospital social work with people with AIDS

There is little in the literature that specifically explores challenges and perceived rewards faced by direct care social work practitioners who work with an inpatient AIDS population, although there are hints (Egan, 1993, Oktay, 1992, and Gilmann, 1991). This article, based on a study of 20 designated inpatient AIDS social workers at four large inner-city voluntary hospitals, will focus on challenges and rewards as perceived by social work practitioners working with the HIV infected population. The study will report commonly identified themes which include unique stressors, rewards and challenges experienced by social work practitioners working with those living with AIDS.     

Promoting Forgiveness Among Co-Workers Following a Workplace Transgression: The Effects of Social Motivation Training.

Forgiveness is one construct that is beginning to demonstrate promise as a health and relationship promoter within the workplace. The primary aim of this research was to examine the effects of one psychological intervention (social motivational training) that was developed to promote forgiveness among co-workers. In the first of two studies, workers were randomly assigned to one of two intervention conditions (i.e., job satisfaction training, social motivational training). Participants read a vignette in which they were to imagine themselves as victims of a co-worker transgression. Judgments of responsibility and co-worker forgiveness were then measured at two intervals: before and after training. In Study 2, workers recounted an actual critical incident involving a co-worker transgression, completed a pretraining questionnaire measuring judgments of responsibility, self-image, and forgiveness, received either a one-on-one job satisfaction training or social motivational training session, and completed a post-training questionnaire. Results from both studies indicated that social motivational training enhanced participants' forgiveness of a hypothetical and actual co-worker. In addition, Study 2 showed an increase in workers' self-image following social motivational training, suggesting affirmation of the self as a possible mechanism for the effects of social motivational training on forgiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A latent curve model of parental motivational practices and developmental decline in math and science academic intrinsic motivation.

A longitudinal approach was used to examine the effects of parental task-intrinsic and task-extrinsic motivational practices on academic intrinsic motivation in the subject areas of math and science. Parental task-intrinsic practices comprise encouragement of children’s pleasure and engagement in the learning process, whereas task-extrinsic practices comprise parents’ provision of external rewards and consequences contingent on children’s task performance. A conditional latent curve model was fit to data from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study (A. W. Gottfried, A. E. Gottfried, & D. W. Guerin, 2006), with academic intrinsic motivation in math and science assessed from ages 9 to 17 and parental motivational practices measured when children were age 9. The results indicated that task-intrinsic practices were beneficial with regard to children’s initial levels of motivation at age 9 as well as with regard to motivational decline through age 17. Conversely, parents’ use of task-extrinsic practices was adverse with regard to children’s motivation both at age 9 and across the 8-year interval. Theoretical implications of the findings with regard to academic intrinsic motivation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching mental health and law: A reply to Goldenberg.

In a recent article Goldenberg (1978) indicated that Shealy (1977), in his presentation of a format for teaching mental health workers basic forensic procedures and issues, failed to specify the potential rewards and costs of courtroom participation. Having participated as clinical psychology interns in a forensic psychology seminar led by and modeled after Shealy's (1977) format, the authors felt they could offer a meaningful rejoinder based on their personal experiences with both the rewards and potential pitfalls of such judicial participation, and on our understanding of the basic adversary nature of the legal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrinsic motivational drivers in medical networks from a neuroscientific perspective.

The relationship between motivation, performance, and incentives in the context of health care delivery is of high interest for the rising number of networks and other provider groups under pay-for-performance programs. Because recent literature suggests that intrinsic motivation plays a decisive role, this study analyzes the intrinsic motivational factors that drive physicians' behavior and performance by examining various motivational dimensions derived from neuroscientific approaches. The aim was to determine the existence of different motivational groups in a sample of 117 German network physicians. The motivational groups were established based on the individuals' combination of three neuroscientifically based personality traits. The cluster analysis identified four distinct clusters in the sample that allowed for the assumption that different motivational clusters of physicians do exist. Relating to the clusters, there also were clearly differing attitudes toward different forms of incentives. These results should help in finding more appropriate incentives, for example, in pay-for-performance schemes, in order to motivate network physicians and enhance their performance and effectiveness, and they partially explain the weak evidence of recent pay-for-performance evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of worker orientation differences on job attitude correlates.

Investigated correlations between various worker attitudes and job motivation, performance, and absenteeism for 290 skilled and semiskilled papermakers. The hypothesis that significant relationships occur more frequently for those employees who are least job involved was supported, inasmuch as they accounted for 84% of the significant correlations. Further analyses disclosed twice as many associations for skilled as for semiskilled employees. Thus, highly involved employees, more intrinsically oriented toward their job, did not manifest satisfactions commensurate with company evaluations of performance; they depended more on intrinsic rewards. Employees more detached from the job itself were more extrinsic in orientation and experienced gratifications more in line with company performance assessments due to their greater dependence on extrinsic rewards. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational influences on the use of power.

Varied kind of subordinate problem encountered and number of subordinates supervised in a study of the use of supervisory power. Ss were 48 male undergraduates appointed to oversee the production of simulated workers. It was found that problems of discipline evoked Ss' use of coercive powers, while problems of ineptness evoked Ss' use of expert powers. Variations in the number of subordinates supervised influenced the amount of attention Ss could give to any 1 worker. This resulted in less time spent with poor workers and fewer pay raises given to satisfactory workers, when Ss were supervising large numbers of workers. Ss with little confidence in their leadership ability relied mainly on formally proscribed powers to correct poor performance, while more confident Ss used both informal persuasion and formally proscribed powers. It was also found that the nature of the problem manifested by a problem worker influenced the frequency of pay raises given to satisfactory workers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)