80 Part 1 Understanding the Workplace Values Watch on MyManagementLab Is capital punishment right or wrong? Is a person's desire for power good or bad? The Honest Tea-Ethics-Company answers to these questions are value-laden. Mission and Values Values represent basic convictions that "a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. " They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual's ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute says a mode of conduct or end-state of exis- tence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. When we rank an individual's values in terms of their intensity, we discover that person's value system. All of us have a hierarchy of values according to the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, and equality. Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring.* Most of our values are formed in our early years-with input from parents, teachers, friends, and others. As children, we were told that certain behaviours or outcomes are always desirable or always undesirable. There were few grey areas. It is this absolute or "black-or-white" characteristic of values that more or less ensures their stability and endurance. Below we examine two frameworks for understanding values: Milton Rokeach's terminal and instrumental values, and Kent Hodgson's general moral principles. Rokeach Value Survey 1 Contrast Rokeach's ter- Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), which consists of two sets of ninal and instrumental values, each containing 18 individual value items. One set, called terminal values, values. refers to desirable end-states of existence. These are the goals that individuals would like to achieve during their lifetime. They include . A comfortable life (a prosperous life) . An exciting life (a stimulating, active life) A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution) . Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all) * Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict) . Happiness (contentedness)" The other set, called instrumental values, refers to preferred modes of behaviour, or means for achieving the terminal values. They include . Ambitious (hard-working aspiring) values Basic convictions that a * Broad-minded (open-minded) specific mode of conduct or and-state of existence is personaly or socially . Capable (competent, effective) preferable to an opposite of converse * Courageous (standing up for your beliefs) mode of conduct or end-state of . Imaginative (daring creative) value system A hierarchy based on . Honest (sincere, truthful)? a ranking of an individual's values in terms of their intensity Each of us places value on both the ends (terminal values) and the means (instru- terminal values Goals that indi- mental values); a balance between the two is important. Which terminal and instrumental victuals would like to achieve during their Wetime values are especially key vary by the person. instrumental values Preferable ways of behaving. Hodgson's General Moral Principles ethics The study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour Ethics is the study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour and inform and inform us whether actions are us whether actions are right or wrong. Thus, ethical values are related to moral judg right or wrong. ments about right and wrong.Chapter 5 Motivation in Action 199 found that children rewarded for drawing with felt-tip reach the goals. Incentives might not motivate employees to pens no longer wished to use the pens at all when rewards take a more active role in managing their health in any case. were removed, whereas children who were not rewarded As David Anderson, vice-president and chief health officer for using the pens were eager to use them. And neuro- at StayWell Health Management, says, "An incentive itself B at Work imaging researchers found that when incentives reached a doesn't necessarily buy engagement. It buys compliance." certain threshold, the brain's reward centre began to shut However, the majority of research cited in this and the down and people became distracted. According to Vikram previous chapter shows that individuals given rewards for Chib, the lead researcher on the project, people begin to behaviour will be more likely to engage in the rewarded worry about losing the carrot when the stakes get too behaviours. It's also unlikely that individuals engaged high, which leads to failure. in very boring, repetitive tasks will lose their intrinsic Rewards can also lead to misbehaviour by employees. motivation if the task is rewarded because they never Psychologist Edward Deci notes, "Once you start making had any intrinsic motivation to begin with. The real issue people's rewards dependent on outcomes rather than for managers is finding an appropriate way to reward behaviors, the evidence is people will take the shortest behaviours so that desired behaviour is increased while route to those outcomes. " Consider factory employees paid less-desired behaviour is decreased. purely based on the number of units they produce. Because only quantity is rewarded, they may neglect quality. Questions Executives rewarded strictly on the basis of the quarterly stock price will tend to ignore the long-term profitability 1. Do you think that, as a manager, you should use and survival of the firm; they might even engage in illegal incentives regularly? Why or why not? or unethical behaviour to increase their compensation. Some rewards may also have legal implications. An 2. Can you think of a time in your own life when the increasing number of companies, such as Whole Foods, are possibility of receiving an incentive reduced your providing financial rewards to employees who meet health motivation? goals or participate in wellness programs, but such efforts 3. What employee behaviours do you think might be raise concerns about discrimination against those unable to best encouraged by offering incentive rewards? FROM CONCEPTS TO SKILLS Designing Enriched Jobs How does management enrich an employee's job? The following suggestions, based on the JCM, specify the types of changes in jobs that are most likely to lead to improving their motivating potential (also see Exhibit 5-9), 164 1. Combine tasks. Managers should seek to take existing and fraction- alized tasks and put them back together to form a new and larger module of work. This increases skill variety and task identity 2. Create natural work units. The creation of natural work units means that the tasks an employee does form an identifiable and mean- Ingful whole. This increases employee "ownership" of the work and improves the likelihood that employees will view their work as mean- ingful and important rather than as irrelevant and boring. 3. Establish client relationships. The client is the user of the product or service that the employee works on (and may be an * internalEXHIBIT 5-9 Guidelines for Enriching a Job Suggested Action Core Job Dimensions Combine tasks Skill variety Form natural work units Task Identity Establish client relationships Task significance Expand jobs vertically Autonomy Open feedback channels Feedback Source: J. R. Hackman and J. L. Suttle, eds. Improving Life at Work (Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear Publishing, 1977), p. 138. customer" as well as someone outside the organization). Wherever possible, managers should try to establish direct relationships between employees and their clients. This increases skill variety, autonomy, and feedback for the employee. 4. Expand jobs vertically. Vertical expansion gives employees responsibili ties and control that were formerly reserved for management. It seeks to partially close the gap between the "doing" and the "controlling" aspects of the job, and it increases employee autonomy. 5. Open feedback channels. By increasing feedback, employees not only learn how well they are performing their jobs, but also whether their performance is improving, deteriorating, or remaining at a constant level. Ideally, this feedback about performance should be received directly as the employee does the job, rather than from management on an occasional basis. For instance, at many restaurants you can find feedback cards on the table to indicate the quality of service received during the meal. ng You own and manage Sunrise Deliveries, a small freight transportation ills company that makes local deliveries of products for your customers. You have a total of nine employees-an administrative assistant, two ware- house personnel, and six delivery drivers. The drivers' job is pretty straightforward. Each morning they come in at 7:30 a.m., pick up their daily schedule, and then drive off in their preloaded trucks to make their stops. They occasionally will also pick up packages and return them to the Sunrise warehouse, where they will be unloaded and redirected by the warehouse workers. You have become very concerned with the high turnover among your drivers. Of your current six drivers, three have been working for you less than two months and only one's tenure exceeds six months. This is frus- trating because you are paying your drivers more than many of the larger delivery companies like UPS and FedEx. This turnover is getting expen- sive because you are constantly having to spend time finding and training replacements. It's also hard to develop a quality customer-service pro- gram when customers constantly see new faces. When you have askedChapter 5 Motivation in Action 201 departing drivers why they are quitting, common complaints include: "There's no room for advancement, " "The job is boring," and "All we do is drive. " What should you do to solve this problem? OB at Work 1. Think of the worst job you have ever had. Analyze the job according Reinforcing to the five dimensions identified in the JCM. Redesign the job to make Skills it more satisfying and motivating. 2. Spend one to three hours at various times observing employees in your college dining hall. What actions would you recommend to make these jobs more motivating