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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research has repeatedly shown that when individuals anticipate they are capable of achieving positive outcomes, see outcomes as important, and feel they are on-track toward achieving desired outcomes they are more likely to have higher motivation and approach those tasks. Pleasant mood states have also been shown to influence behavioral motivation outcomes. Organizations have recognized the importance of managing and motivating employees in the workplace. In the current study, mood states were either manipulated in one of two experimental conditions or remained baseline in a control condition for 253 participants. Participants were randomly assigned into one of the three conditions, but all participated in a business game simulation whereby they assumed the role of the President of a Hollywood movie studio. Individuals that reported more pleasant mood states were more likely to approach tasks with the perception that they could achieve positive outcomes. They were also more likely to devote more effort and sustain effort devoted to tasks longer than participants that reported more negative affective states. Several mediating implications for the influence of mood states on behavioral outcomes were noted. Overall, the results did not suggest significant support that mood or affect influenced performance above and beyond motivation. Future research aims and implications are discussed.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Engineering/Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering. September 2018 / Leadership, even though very difficult to define, is a process by which an individual tries to influence others to achieve a holistic organisational goal. Literature categorises leadership into three common styles namely, transactional, transformational and laissez-faire leadership, with transformational leadership and transactional leadership being the most domineering. Literature also proposes that leadership styles influence job satisfaction. The first objective of this study was to determine the leadership style within FNB Business: Projects and Operations and thereafter to investigate the effect of that leadership style on job satisfaction within the business. A descriptive research study using qualitative and quantitative methods was done. Questionnaires were distributed to all employees and the results were analysed. The results of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire showed that a transformational leadership style, specifically inspirational motivational, prevailed within the department. The MLQ also showed that employees were very satisfied with their jobs. The Job Satisfaction Survey outlines the specific factors, namely, supervision and nature of work that lead to employees being satisfied in their work place. Finally, the Minnesota Satisfaction Survey solidified the high job satisfaction rate within FNB Business: Projects and Operations highlighting minimal variance between extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction. The results, however, challenge the initial problem statement stating that there was job dissatisfaction due to leadership. This could be due to employees being afraid of being honest, employees not taking the survey or employees moving teams. Therefore, a recommendation is that the survey should be executed again and tracked at a team level. For example, respondents should answer which team they belong to. This field should also be a multiple-choice question as opposed to free text. In this way, leadership style and responses from individuals would be traceable to a specific leader. This would highlight the outliers for more accurate results and actions post this research survey. / MT 2019

This study investigated the relationships between several work motivational process variables and work-life-conflict (WLC) and how these variables contribute to job related outcomes such as work performance, job satisfaction and life satisfaction. This survey study identified several correlations which suggest that a more comprehensive model of motivation should include variables such as energy pool and direction toward organizational objectives. Results also suggest that WLC contributes to the amount of energy pool available to workers and the amount of motivation exhibited by workers. WLC also impacts important job and life attitudes directly and through the above mentioned motivation process variables. The basis for a comprehensive work motivation model will be posited and theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Data were collected by an external company for a healthcare service firm interested in learning the job-related attitudes of their employees. Thus, archival data from 1,287 employees were collected for a different purpose. The survey consisted of 117 questions covering a broad range of constructs. Consequently, the items were used to derive effective measures of employee engagement and behavioral outcomes, as well as the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures were used to create scales reflecting these four factors. Interestingly, six scales emerged, logically linking to and further specifying the initial dimensions. These were Organizational Linkage, Manager Relationship, Job Fit, Job Clarity, Work Pressure, and Meaningful Work. To test the hypotheses, six separate regression equations were calculated, which statistically supported modification by each of the dimensions. However, statistical significance of the interactions resulted from having a large sample, given the actual association was too small to be meaningful (e.g., a contribution of 0.6% of the variance). As each of the dimensions had a main effect on the behavioral measure during hypothesis testing, exploratory regression equations were calculated to further understand the interrelationships. Of most interest was finding that in the presence of Engagement, the main effects of only Organizational Linkage and Job Fit reached significance. However, when Engagement was not included, four of the six dimensions made a significant contribution to Behavioral Outcomes. Overall, there was support for previous conceptualizations. From the scientist-practitioner perspective, the six factors identified in this study may be more useful than the four initially proposed. The distinctions give practitioners additional information to use in interventions to improve employee behavior and retention.

The current pandemic infused by the covid-19 virus has changed the world we once knew. To prevent the spread of the disease, many countries have implemented restrictions involving social distancing, which has resulted in millions of employees that have started to work remotely from their homes. Previous studies highlight mainly the positive consequences of remote work due to the rising popularity of remote work before the virus hit. However, the pandemic has forced companies and employees to apply these new working methods, creating unfamiliar conditions. Therefore, it is of great interest to analyze how these changes have affected employees, mainly their motivation. This study aims to evaluate how working remotely, as a consequence of the pandemic, have affected the motivation among the employees of a Swedish company within the power industry. The authors did it by conducting a literature review to understand the definition of motivation and how certain needs affect motivation. By interviewing ten employees, the authors of this study were given insights regarding how the employees have experienced remote work during the pandemic, how it has affected their personal needs, and if it has had any implications on their motivation. The results show that the interviewees share several of the advantages mentioned in the literature, such as flexibility and autonomy, and disadvantages, such as fewer social interactions and relatedness. However, most interviewees had not experienced that their motivation has changed, which is partly due to increased autonomy—those who do experience a loss in motivation attribute it to lacking relatedness and fewer opportunities for self-development. / Rådande pandemi och covid-19 har förändrat den värld som vi en gång kände till. För att minska smittspridningen har länder infört restriktioner gällande social distansering, vilket orsakat att flera miljoner anställda börjat jobba på distans. Tidigare studier betonar de positiva aspekterna med distansarbete på grund av dess ökade popularitet innan pandemin slog till. Pandemin har tvingat företag och anställda att börja jobba på distans, vilket skapar främmande förutsättningar. Därför är det av stort intresse att undersöka hur dessa förutsättningar har påverkat anställda, framförallt deras motivation. Syftet med denna studie är att evaluera hur distansarbete som en konsekvens av pandemin har påverkat motivationen bland anställda inom ett svenskt företag som verkar inom elindustrin. Detta genomfördes genom en litteraturstudie för att förstå hur motivation definieras och hur mänskliga behov påverkar motivation. Genom att intervjua 10 anställda har författarna av denna studie fått insikter gällande de anställdas upplevelse av distansarbete, hur det har påverkat deras behov samt om det har haft någon inverkan på deras motivation. Reslutaten visar att intervjuobjekten delar flera av de fördelar som nämnts i tidigare studier så som flexibilet och autonmi, men också nackdelar så som avsaknade av sociala interaktioner samt tillhörighet. Majoriteten av intervjuobjeketen upplever inte att deras motivation har försämrats, vilket delvis beror på ökad autonomi. De som upplever att deras motivation minskat antyder att det beror på försämrad samhörighet samt mindre möjligheter för självutveckling.

A review of the literature on Hackman and Oldham's (1975) job characteristics model of job design found that laboratory research of the five job characteristics was wanting. An experimental study was conducted in which each of the five job characteristics was independently manipulated. Subjects were 120 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology and marketing/management courses. All subjects performed the same job; that of a data entry clerk. Treatment consisted of increasing either a single or all five of the job characteristics under study. After completing the job, all subjects completed a 61-item questionnaire designed to determine subjects' perceptions of the presence of the five job characteristics, and designed to measure subjects' satisfaction with the work itself (SWI). Computerized data files created by the subjects served as the database from which performance measures were taken. No significant differences were found between a control condition and each of experimental treatment conditions on the dependent variable of quantity of performance. However, there were significant increases in quality of performance and SWI in those treatment conditions in which feedback was increased. Further analyses demonstrated significant relationships between perceptions of the job characteristics and SWI. Discussion centers on support which this study provides for the job characteristics model's predictions with regard to the relationship between perceptions of the job characteristics and SWI, and a possible weakness of the job characteristics model to adequately predict performance. Recommendations are made for further research. / M.S.

Current goal setting studies are working in two directions. The first direction is to identify the cognitive processes of goal setting and the second direction is to examine the moderating effect of task complexity on the goal-performance relationship. The objective of this paper is to integrate the two current directions by examining the moderating effects of two types of task complexity, component complexity and coordinative complexity, on the cognitive processes of goal setting. Two hundred and sixty-seven undergraduates who were taking upper level management courses participated in the study and 226 subjects were included in the final analysis. Subjects performed a stock prices prediction task on computer. Goals were assigned after the subjects have finished the pretest and the subjects were asked to answer questions on their specific self efficacy and performance valence perceptions. Subjects were also asked to set personal goals before performing the test. The cognitive processes models of goal setting for different task groups were compared with the multi-sample analysis of LISREL VII. It was found that subjects who performed the task with low component - low coordinative complexity used a simple motivation mechanism. They motivated their behaviors directly with specific self-efficacy. On the other hand, subjects who performed the more complex tasks used a more rational motivation mechanism that required more cognitive processing. The subjects set personal goals by considering performance valence and specific self efficacy, and they used personal goals to motivate their behaviors. Unlike the simple task for which specific self-efficacy directly affected performance, personal goals were found to mediate the effect of specific self-efficacy on performance for the complex tasks. / Ph. D.

The study examined the number of significant factors in the Hackman and Oldham (1980) job characteristics model. The original factors were: Skill Variety, Task Significance, Task Identity, Autonomy, and Feedback. Scores on these dimensions for 84 employees of the University of Central Florida (21 supervisory and 63 non-supervisory subjects) were used as the basis for this study through a mail administration of the Hackman and Oldham Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and their Job Rating Form (JRF). It was hypothesized that: (a) only four significant job dimensions would emerge from factor analysis of the data; (b) that the motivating potential ratings from job incumbents would be significantly different from those provided by supervisors; and (c) that these motivating potential scores would be significantly lower than the norm for the job families into which those positions fell. the data failed to lend support to any of the preceding hypotheses. First, only one significant factor (Skill Variety) was extracted from the non-supervisory data while two factors (Skill Variety and Task Identity) were extracted from the supervisory data. Second, incumbents' ratings were not significantly different from those of their supervisors and third, the motivating potential scores of incumbents were found to be higher than the norm for most of the job families sampled in the study.

This study investigates individual perceptions of work related attributes during the employment search process. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate: 1) the relationship of job seeker work experience to the importance placed on work-related attributes, and 2) the relationship of job seeker gender to the importance placed on work-related attributes. Six hundred and ninety-four graduating baccalaureate hospitality students from eleven nationwide universities with accredited hotel-restaurant programs participated in this study. Hypotheses proposed in this study were largely unsupported. Methodological difficulties associated with survey instrumentation and administration rendered the findings of this study inconclusive. / Ph. D.