Deck 12: Motivating Employees: Achieving Superior Performance in the Workplace

Question 1

According to Alderfer's ERG theory, when one's higher-level needs are frustrated, he or she will seek more intensely to fulfill lower-level needs in what is called the frustration-regression component.

Answer 1

True
Explanation: Alderfer held that if our higher-level needs (such as growth needs) are frustrated, we will then seek more intensely to fulfill our lower-level needs (such as existence needs).This is called the frustration-regression component.

Question 2

In managing for motivation, you should think about employees as capital assets.

Answer 2

False
Explanation: In managing for motivation, managers need to be thinking about employees not as human capital or capital assets, but as people who are investors; they are investing their time, energy, and intelligence in your organization, for which they deserve a return that makes sense to them.

Question 3

Employers need only focus on fulfilling the bottom two levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: To the extent the organization permits, managers should first try to meet employees' level 1 and level 2 needs, of course, so that employees won't be preoccupied with them.Then, however, they need to give employees a chance to fulfill their higher-level needs in ways that also advance the goals of the organization.

Question 4

Feedback in the simple motivation model serves to tell you if you have demanded appropriate benefits.

Question 5

When GE paid employee smokers up to $750 to quit and stay off cigarettes, it was an extrinsic reward.

Question 6

According to McClelland's theory, people are born with their needs for power, achievement, and affiliation.

Question 7

According to Maslow, a person who is deprived in both physiological and love needs will attempt to satisfy his or her love needs first.

Question 8

Though research does not clearly support Maslow's theory, it reminds managers that employees have needs beyond earning a paycheck.

Question 9

ERG theory assumes that three basic needs influence behavior: esteem, relatedness, and growth.

Question 10

According to Maslow's theory, friendship and affection are esteem needs.

Question 11

Having a best friend at work is one factor that is characteristic of the best workplaces.

Question 12

Content perspectives of motivation emphasize the emotions that employees feel in the workplace.

Question 13

Alderfer's ERG theory is a need-based perspective on motivation.

Question 14

An intrinsic reward is the payoff a person receives from others for performing a particular task.

Question 15

One difference between it and Maslow's theory is that ERG theory suggests that more than one level of needs may be activated at one time.

Question 16

Managers use motivation to get talented people to come work for them.

Question 17

According to Maslow's theory, safety needs are the most basic, at the lowest level in the hierarchy of needs.

Question 18

In McClelland's acquired needs theory, the desire to excel at challenging tasks is part of the need for power.

Question 19

Unfulfilled needs are a part of the simple motivation model.

Question 20

Motivation can be directly observed in another's behavior.

Question 21

In expectancy theory, a person's expectancy is her belief that a particular level of effort will lead to a particular level of performance.

Question 22

In Herzberg's theory, the lower-level needs are known as security factors, and the higher-level needs are called motivating factors.

Question 23

Process perspectives try to explain why employees have different needs and what behaviors they select to satisfy them.

Question 24

According to Herzberg's two-factor theory, a worker's salary is not a possible source of job satisfaction.

Question 25

Those with a high need for affiliation may not be the most efficient managers because they resist making decisions that make others resent them.

Question 26

According to equity theory, increasing their inputs is one way that employees deal with perceptions of inequity.

Question 27

If you are happy with accomplishment of a task being its own reward, you may have a high need for achievement.

Question 28

Inputs, outputs, and comparisons are the essential elements in goal-setting theory.

Question 29

Specificity of goals can often be improved by making them quantitative.

Question 30

Management's assessment of fairness is most important under equity theory.

Question 31

Janice has been difficult for some of her teammates to work with.According to equity theory, if she were to receive a raise so as to be compensated similarly to her peers, she would be more likely to cooperate in a group setting.

Question 32

Emilio's sales manager just told his group about this year's contest, the winner of which will take a lavish trip to France.Emilio does not like to travel to places where he can't speak the language, so he is not very enthusiastic.Here, Emilio's instrumentality is low.

Question 33

In equity theory, employees are most motivated to make a change under circumstances in which they perceive all parties to have the same ratios.

Question 34

According to Herzberg, motivating factors are the only factors associated with job satisfaction.

Question 35

Expectancy theory suggests that people are motivated by how much they want something and how likely they think they are to get it.

Question 36

Expectancy theory is considered a reinforcement perspective on motivation.

Question 37

In two-factor theory, hygiene factors include achievement, recognition, and responsibility.

Question 38

Equity theory focuses on how fairly employees think they are being treated compared to others.

Question 39

McClelland identifies the need for personal power as positive and involving problem solving to further mutual goals.

Question 40

According to expectancy theory, for a person's motivation to be high, he or she must be high on all three elements: instrumentality, expectancy, and valence.

Question 41

Job enlargement by itself does not have a significant and lasting positive effect on job performance.

Question 42

Reinforcement theory suggests behavior tends to be repeated if it has positive consequences and tends not to be if it has negative consequences.

Question 43

To be most motivating, goals should be set to be very difficult, just out of the reach of workers, so that they never stop pushing themselves.

Question 44

Job enrichment requires some vertical loading rather than just horizontal loading.

Question 45

Task significance describes the extent to which a job affects the lives of other people, whether inside or outside the organization.

Question 46

Job design that fits jobs to people is based on the assumption that people are underutilized at work and that they want more variety and responsibility.

Question 47

Job design works even when the affected employees have no desire for personal growth.

Question 48

Something that inhibits a given behavior can be called reinforcement.

Question 49

In the job characteristics model, feedback is one of the five core job characteristics.

Question 50

The extent to which a job allows an employee to make choices about scheduling different tasks and deciding how to do them is known as task identity.

Question 51

Job enrichment consists of increasing the number of tasks in a job to increase variety and motivation.

Question 52

A manager should reward only desirable behavior, and should do so as soon as possible after the behavior appears.

Question 53

The use of reinforcement theory to change human behavior is called behavior alteration.

Question 54

According to the job characteristics model, job characteristics directly affect the work outcomes.

Question 55

Negative reinforcement is the process of weakening behavior by presenting something negative.

Question 56

In reinforcement theory, both extinction and punishment reduce the likelihood that a given behavior will be repeated.

Question 57

Job design involves the division of an organization's work among its employees and the application of motivational theories to jobs to increase satisfaction and performance.

Question 58

A job diagnostic survey can be used to identify problems with a job's motivational characteristics and help determine if a job redesign is appropriate.

Question 59

Job simplification increases job satisfaction by allowing workers to become expert at a fewer number of tasks.

Question 60

According to reinforcement theory, workers will be more motivated and perform better when they experience their work as meaningful, feel responsible for results, and know how well they are doing.

Question 61

Craig's sales manager has just told the group that all sales in the month of September will earn an extra 5% commission.The team gets right to work, being motivated by a(n)

A)intrinsic reward.
B)physiological need.
C)high need for power.
D)extrinsic reward.
E)hygiene factor.

Question 62

For managers, the importance of Maslow's contribution is that he showed that workers

A)are only interested in compensation that helps them fulfill physiological needs.
B)are as complex as their organization.
C)have needs that cannot be understood by their employer.
D)expect an employer to fulfill every level of their hierarchy of needs.
E)have needs beyond that of just earning a paycheck.

Question 63

A manager should administer punishment in public because the embarrassment amplifies the punishment and therefore its effectiveness.

Question 64

Stock options allow certain employees to buy stock at a future date for a discounted price.

Question 65

According to the acquired needs theory, the desire to influence others is part of the need for

A)affiliation.
B)power.
C)self-actualization.
D)relatedness.
E)achievement.

Question 66

Arianna's management professor just told her class that the final exam is optional for students like her who currently have an A.She decides to take the exam anyway, since she likes the subject and wants to master the material.Here, Arianna is motivated to take the exam by a(n)

A)intrinsic reward.
B)physiological need.
C)high need for power.
D)extrinsic reward.
E)hygiene factor.

Question 67

Even when he started his first job, Galen was not content to be just one of the employees.His boss noticed that he often coached his coworkers about ways to improve their work, even when it wasn't his job.Galen probably has a

A)high need for achievement.
B)high need for affiliation.
C)high need for power.
D)low need for achievement.
E)high need for leadership.

Question 68

______ assumes that three basic needs influence behavior and that they may be activated concurrently.

A)Maslow's theory
B)Expectancy theory
C)Alderfer's ERG theory
D)Hertzberg's theory
E)Equity theory

Question 69

After a series of bus accidents, one of which resulted in a critical injury to a driver, Inland Shuttle drivers received additional training and buses were retrofitted with new braking systems.This helps to satisfy which of Maslow's needs?

A)Self-actualization
B)Esteem
C)Love
D)Safety
E)Physiological

Question 70

An accounting firm provides employees with educational reimbursements if they complete job-related coursework with a B or better, which helps them meet which of Maslow's levels of needs?

A)Self-actualization
B)Esteem
C)Love
D)Safety
E)Physiological

Question 71

A simple model of motivation does not include which of the following?

A)Unfulfilled need
B)Behaviors
C)Reactions
D)Motivation
E)Rewards

Question 72

Maslow's levels of needs, in order from lowest (most basic) to highest level, are

A)self-actualization, esteem, love, safety, and physiological.
B)safety, love, esteem, self-actualization, and physiological.
C)physiological, safety, self-actualization, esteem, and love.
D)physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
E)safety, physiological, esteem, love, and self-actualization.

Question 73

Research shows that the cubicle is a motivational environment for most employees.

Question 74

Anne has excelled as a consultant for a large financial institution.She loves building mutually beneficial relationships and is extremely well liked by her clients.Anne likely has a

A)low need for affiliation.
B)low need for power.
C)low need for achievement.
D)high need for affiliation.
E)high need for achievement.

Question 75

Janet is very aggressive at her job, and her coworkers complain that she often manipulates them and her boss in order to get ahead.She attempts to direct everything and everyone, regardless of the consequences to others or even the organization itself.Janet is expressing what type of need for power?

A)Personal
B)Destructive
C)Legitimate
D)Organizational
E)Compensatory

Question 76

Pay for performance compensation plans base employee pay on the number of job-relevant skills or academic degrees they earn.

Question 77

The need for status, reputation, and recognition are part of

A)self-actualization.
B)esteem.
C)love.
D)safety.
E)physiological.

Question 78

Which of the following is a need in Alderfer's ERG theory?

A)Esteem
B)Existence
C)Realization
D)Rating
E)Generalization

Question 79

______ is defined as the psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-directed behavior.

A)Stimulus
B)Productivity
C)Enticement
D)Motivation
E)Incented action

Question 80

Which of the following is a need-based perspective on motivation?

A)Expectancy theory
B)Herzberg's two-factor theory
C)Job characteristics model
D)Goal-setting theory
E)Equity theory