Deck 5: Motivation in the Workplace

Question 1

Maslow's needs hierarchy theory takes a holistic approach by condensing the long list of needs into a hierarchy of five basic categories.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

ERG theory recognizes three learned needs: achievement,affiliation and power.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

According to ERG theory,if a person's existence needs have been satisfied but relatedness needs are blocked,the blockage would cause existence needs to emerge again as the dominant source of motivation.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The stronger your needs,the less motivated you are to fulfill them.

Question 5

Needs hierarchy theory explains how people develop perceptions of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources.

Question 6

According to four-drives theory,social norms,past experience,and personal values translate emotional signals into goal-directed effort.

Question 7

Two of the drives identified in four-drives theory are the drive to acquire and the drive to bond.

Question 8

According to four-drive theory,three drives are proactive (i.e.we actively seek to fulfill them)whereas the drive to defend is reactive (activated only in reaction to threat).

Question 9

In four-drive theory,the drive to bond does not produce any emotional markers.

Question 10

Motivating employees today is much easier than 30 or so years ago.

Question 11

Four-drive theory states that people have a hierarchy of needs that they progress through as lower level needs are fulfilled.

Question 12

Growth needs consist of a person's self-esteem through personal achievement as well as self-actualization.

Question 13

Abraham Maslow considered the concept of self-actualization far more important than his needs hierarchy theory.

Question 14

Younger generations of employees have somewhat different needs than their baby-boomer counterparts.

Question 15

A person's hierarchy of needs is influenced by his or her values.

Question 16

ERG theory and Maslow's needs hierarchy theory have largely failed to explain the dynamics of employee needs because they falsely assume that everyone has the same need hierarchy.

Question 17

Human needs cluster more neatly around the three needs categories in ERG theory than the five needs categories in Maslow's needs hierarchy.

Question 18

One advantage of ERG theory over Maslow's needs hierarchy theory is that the ERG model does not assume that everyone has the same needs hierarchy.

Question 19

According to needs hierarchy theory,the satisfaction-progression process does not apply to the fulfillment of self-actualization needs.

Question 20

Maslow's needs hierarchy theory states that people are motivated by only one need at a time.

Question 21

An important implication of needs/drives-based theories of motivation is that employees who perform their jobs well should be offered a choice of rewards.

Question 22

Goal setting potentially improves employee performance by increasing motivation and clarifying role perceptions.

Question 23

According to four-drive theory,organizations maximize motivation by focusing employees on opportunities to fulfill only one of the four drives.

Question 24

Expectancy theory of motivation states that people naturally direct their effort towards desired outcomes.

Question 25

People with a high need for affiliation tend to be more effective in jobs that mediate conflicts.

Question 26

In expectancy theory,the performance-to-outcome expectancy represents the anticipated satisfaction or dissatisfaction that an individual places on an outcome.

Question 27

According to expectancy theory,employee motivation will remain high even when the P-to-O expectancy falls to zero.

Question 28

According to learned needs theory,companies should hire leaders with a strong need for personalized power.

Question 29

David McClelland's research on need for achievement concluded that all needs are instinctive and fixed for life.

Question 30

People with a high need for achievement avoid risks and prefer working in teams.

Question 31

Expectancy theory identifies emotions as a key component of employee motivation.

Question 32

Employee motivation is explained reasonably well by the expectancy theory model.

Question 33

One way to increase an employee's E-to-P expectancy regarding a specific task is to increase the person's self-confidence through counseling and coaching.

Question 34

One of the main problems with expectancy theory of motivation is that it does not identify the 'comparison other' in the motivation process.

Question 35

People with a high need for affiliation tend to be more effective in jobs that allocate scarce resources among employees.

Question 36

Four-drive theory recommends keeping all four drives in "balance"; that is,organizations should avoid too much or too little opportunity to fulfill each drive.

Question 37

According to expectancy theory,communicating the existence of a performance-based reward system motivates employees by increasing their outcome valences.

Question 38

Needs/drives-based theories of motivation encourage organizations to rely on financial rewards rather than non-financial rewards to motivate employees.

Question 39

One way to increase a person's P-to-O expectancy is to measure his or her job performance more accurately.

Question 40

People with a high need for achievement make better entrepreneurs.

Question 41

The main problem with executive coaching is that the feedback tends to be biased and too general.

Question 42

Feedback to employees is most effective when it is frequent,credible,and general.

Question 43

To determine the fairness of pay or other outcomes,people almost always rely on the equity principle.

Question 44

Feedback is a source of motivation as well as learning.

Question 45

Equity theory research indicates that chief executive officers tend to compare themselves against lower level employees within the same organization rather than against people in other organizations.

Question 46

To learn about their progress towards goal accomplishment,employees usually prefer feedback from supervisors and other people.

Question 47

Goal setting is more effective when employees can easily complete the goals assigned to them.

Question 48

When employees want to improve their self-image,they seek out positive feedback from social sources.

Question 49

The distributive justice principle states that everyone should receive the same rewards in life.

Question 50

Feedback can be more frequent when employees perform short rather than long job cycles.

Question 51

The idea behind 360-degree feedback is that employees should receive feedback for 360 continuous days.

Question 52

According to equity theory,employees feel inequity only when other people receive higher salaries than they do.

Question 53

Combining goal setting with monetary incentives motivates many employees to set up difficult goals.

Question 54

Participation in goal formation tends to increase performance when employees lack commitment to assigned goals.

Question 55

Evidence suggests that executives who work with an executive coach perform better than those who do not.

Question 56

Research suggests that feedback originating only from the supervisor provides more complete and accurate information than feedback received through a 360-degree process.

Question 57

The optimal level of goal difficulty occurs where the goal has more than a low level but less than a moderate level of goal difficulty.

Question 58

Goal setting tends to be more effective when the goals are specific rather than general.

Question 59

Employees consider feedback from non-social sources to be more accurate than feedback from social sources.

Question 60

Compared to supervisor-only feedback,360-degree feedback tends to produce more ambiguous and conflicting feedback.

Question 61

Which of these motivation theories has the LEAST research support?

A) Maslow's needs hierarchy theory
B) Expectancy theory
C) Goal setting theory
D) Equity theory
E) Learned needs theory

Question 62

Motivating employees is more challenging today than two decades ago because:

A) employers have difficulty understanding the different needs and expectations that younger generation employees bring to the workplace.
B) there are more layers of management today, which makes it more difficult to motivate everyone in management positions.
C) corporate downsizing and reduced job security have damaged the levels of trust employees need to work beyond minimum levels.
D) all of the above.
E) 'A' and 'C' only.

Question 63

Equity theory research has found that employees who feel overrewarded tend to alter their perceptions of inputs and outcomes rather than attempt to actually change them.

Question 64

The highest level need in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is:

A) esteem
B) safety
C) power
D) belongingness
E) self-actualization

Question 65

In the equity theory model,a 'comparison other' is an individual or group of people against whom the person compares his or her outcome/input ratio.

Question 66

Underreward inequity occurs when your outcome/input ratio is lower than the outcome/input ratio of a comparison other.

Question 67

Maslow's needs hierarchy explicitly names the following needs EXCEPT:

A) power.
B) self-actualization.
C) safety.
D) esteem.
E) belongingness.

Question 68

Cultural diversity in the workplace has:

A) made employee motivation less relevant as an influence on job performance.
B) made it less difficult to motivate employees using financial rewards.
C) made it more difficult to identify what motivates employees.
D) made it impossible to use any form of goal setting.
E) had no effect on employee motivation.

Question 69

Feelings of inequity occur when employees receive less than others,but not when they receive more than others.

Question 70

'Benevolents' and 'Entitleds' represent opposing ends of the equity sensitivity continuum.

Question 71

One of the most significant discoveries in equity theory research is that people tend to keep the same comparison other throughout their working lives.

Question 72

Research indicates that procedural justice is as important as distributive justice in our feelings of justice in the workplace.

Question 73

One feature of Maslow's needs hierarchy theory that continues to have support is that:

A) everyone has the same needs hierarchy.
B) no one ever experiences self-actualization.
C) motivation is caused by the environment, not by internal thoughts or emotions.
D) motivation theories should consider need gratification, not just need deprivation.
E) everyone compares themselves to other people when determining what is fair.

Question 74

Feelings of procedural injustice produce anger,which,in turn,generates either withdrawal or aggression.

Question 75

Distributive justice increases directly with the extent that the decision allows voice,can be appealed,and has an unbiased decision maker

Question 76

Overreward inequity occurs whenever other people receive less money than you do.

Question 77

Research indicates that giving employees an explanation for a negative decision has no effect on procedural justice.

Question 78

One of the most common consequences of overreward inequity is that overpaid employees try to increase their inputs by working harder.

Question 79

Procedural justice is influenced by the policies and practices that decision makers follow as well as their standards of interpersonal conduct.

Question 80

One problem with equity theory is that it incorrectly assumes people are individualistic,rational,and selfish.