Deck 5: Foundations of Employee Motivation

Question 1

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

Answer 1

False
Explanation: According to Maslow, we are motivated simultaneously by several primary needs, but the strongest source is the lowest unsatisfied need at the time.

Question 2

In the context of motivation, drives are also called primary needs.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: Drives, also called primary needs, are defined as hardwired characteristics of the brain that attempt to keep us in balance by correcting deficiencies.Drives accomplish this task by producing emotions that energize us to act on our environment.

Question 3

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

Answer 3

False
Explanation: People with a high need for affiliation tend to be less effective at allocating scarce resources and making other decisions that potentially generate conflict.

Question 4

Employee engagement is on the minds of many business leaders these days because it seems to be a strong predictor of employee and work unit performance.

Question 5

A need for achievement is when people want to accomplish extremely challenging goals and do not want any feedback outside of recognition for their success.

Question 6

The concept of employee engagement is related to motivation, but not to role clarity.

Question 7

Maslow's needs hierarchy theory incorporates only five basic categories.

Question 8

The typical employee is very engaged with the organization.

Question 9

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

Question 10

Drives are innate, universal, and are the "prime movers" of behavior because they generate emotions, which put people in a state of readiness to act on their environment.

Question 11

According to learned needs theory, people with a high personalized need for power desire power as a means to help others.

Question 12

Motivation is closely related to the concept of employee engagement.

Question 13

According to the needs hierarchy theory, the concept of self-actualization suggests that people are naturally motivated to reach their potential.

Question 14

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

Question 15

Studies have concluded that people progress through Maslow's Needs Hierarchy as predicted.

Question 16

Self-concept and past experiences regulate a person's motivated decisions and behavior, but social norms have little to no influence on them.

Question 17

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

Question 18

Successful entrepreneurs tend to have a high need for achievement.

Question 19

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

Question 20

Everyone has the same drives, but they develop different intensities of needs in a particular situation.

Question 21

According to four-drive theory, the drive to acquire, bond, and learn are proactive.

Question 22

According to four-drive theory, when observing something that is inconsistent with or beyond our current knowledge, we experience tension that causes us to block out the discrepancy.

Question 23

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 24

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

Question 25

In expectancy theory, E-to-P expectancies are influenced by the individual's belief that he or she can successfully complete the task.

Question 26

Antecedents are events preceding the behavior, informing employees that a particular action will produce specific consequences.

Question 27

The most effective reinforcement schedule for learning new tasks is variable ratio schedule.

Question 28

Antecedents cause behavior.

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

The expectancy theory of motivation states that people naturally direct their effort towards behaviors they believe are most likely to lead to desired outcomes.

Question 32

Compliments or teasing received from co-workers when an employee wears safety goggles are referred to as consequences.

Question 33

Four-drive theory states that everyone has the drive to acquire, bond, learn, and defend.

Question 34

Behavior is learned only through personal interaction with the environment.

Question 35

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

Question 36

In expectancy theory, the P-to-O expectancy is the perceived probability that a specific behavior or performance level will lead to a particular outcome.

Question 37

A way to increase a person's P-to-O expectancy is to measure his or her job performance more accurately and distribute more valued rewards to those with higher job performance.

Question 38

According to four-drive theory, the drive to acquire is the foundation of competition and the basis of our need for esteem.

Question 39

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

Question 40

A 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 41

Multisource feedback is information about an employee's performance, collected from a full circle of people, including subordinates, peers, supervisors, and customers.

Question 42

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

Question 43

The outcome/input ratio is the value of the inputs you provide divided by the value of the outcomes you receive in the exchange relationship.

Question 44

Distributive justice refers to fairness of the procedures used to decide the distribution of resources.

Question 45

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

Question 46

People learn not only by observing others but also by imitating and practicing those behaviors.

Question 47

According to equity theory, the equity principle operates when we believe everyone in the group should receive the same outcomes.

Question 48

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

Multisource feedback tends to provide more complete and accurate information than feedback from a supervisor alone.

Question 51

Feedback can be more frequent when employees perform jobs with short rather than long cycle time.

Question 52

Self-reinforcement is when people reward and punish themselves for exceeding or falling short of their self-set standards of excellence.

Question 53

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

Question 54

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

Question 55

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

Question 56

Appreciative coaching is the approach to feedback where employee's potential is maximized by focusing on their strengths rather than weaknesses.

Question 57

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

Question 58

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

Question 59

Balanced scorecard goals are rarely weighted, but are scored to create a composite measure of goal achievement across the organization each year.

Question 60

Combining goal setting with monetary incentives motivates many employees to set difficult goals that are hard to achieve.

Question 61

Over-reward inequity occurs whenever other people receive less money than the comparison others.

Question 62

Which of these theories states that we are motivated by several needs, but the strongest source is the lowest unsatisfied need?

A)Four-drive theory
B)Needs hierarchy theory
C)Equity theory
D)Distributive justice theory
E)Learned needs theory

Question 63

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

Question 64

A significant discovery in equity theory research is that people tend to keep one specific comparison other throughout their working lives.

Question 65

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

Question 66

Employee engagement is often described in terms of:

A)self-esteem.
B)self-concept.
C)self-efficacy.
D)self-enhancement.
E)self-verification.

Question 67

Which of the following is a major criticism of Maslow's needs hierarchy theory?

A)The safety and physiological needs do not arise due to human drives.
B)The need for love and esteem do not apply for many of the individuals.
C)Physiological needs of a person are often considered a weaker need than the other needs.
D)People do not progress through the hierarchy as the theory predicts.
E)The theory gives more importance to the satisfied needs than the unsatisfied needs.

Question 68

Which of the following needs is the strongest according to Maslow's needs hierarchy theory?

A)Need for food
B)Need to socialize
C)Need for self-actualization
D)Need to be secure
E)Need for love

Question 69

Under-reward inequity occurs when an individual's outcome/input ratio is lower than the outcome/input ratio of a comparison other.

Question 70

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

Question 71

Which of the following statements is true about the innate drives of people?

A)Drives refer to the secondary needs of individuals.
B)Emotions that energize individuals to act on their environment produce drives.
C)Drives include only the basic physiological essentials of individuals.
D)Drives are the secondary sources of employee motivation.
E)Drives are innate and universal to human beings.

Question 72

Procedural justice is higher when the decision maker is perceived as unbiased.

Question 73

Self-concept, social norms, and past experiences help us to:

A)have a fixed level of drive-based emotions.
B)fully regulate our decisions and behaviors.
C)minimize cognitive dissonances.
D)make unemotional decisions based on reason and logic.
E)have stronger or weaker needs by amplifying or suppressing emotions.

Question 74

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

Question 75

The _____ of human beings are also called primary needs.

A)beliefs
B)values
C)attitudes
D)drives
E)thoughts

Question 76

What are some of the drivers of employee engagement discussed in the text?

A)goal setting, self-esteem, self-efficacy.
B)organizational comprehension, sufficient resources, the company vision.
C)organizational justice, punishment, rewards.
D)an appealing company vision, employee involvement, employee development opportunities.
E)affiliation, achievement, power.

Question 77

Which of the following does Maslow's needs hierarchy theory include?

A)Domination
B)Frustration-regression
C)Desire to know
D)Aesthetic beauty
E)Self-actualization

Question 78

_____ are the motivational forces of emotions channeled toward particular goals to correct deficiencies or imbalances.

A)Needs
B)Thoughts
C)Beliefs
D)Values
E)Strategies

Question 79

Which of the following is the highest level need in Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

A)Esteem
B)Safety
C)Power
D)Belongingness
E)Self-actualization

Question 80

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