7.12 Key Terms

Autonomy is the degree to which the person has the freedom to decide how to perform tasks.

Balanced Scorecard is a focused set of key financial and nonfinancial indicators. These indicators include leading, pacing, and lagging measures.

Benevolents are individuals who give the expectation of something in return.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the manner by which companies manage their business processes to produce an overall positive effect on society.

Continuous schedules describe reinforcement that occurs when rewards are provided following all instances of positive behavior, such as providing a sales commission every time a sale is made.

Distributive justice refers to the degree to which the outputs received from the organization are fair.

Esteem needs refer to the desire to be respected by one’s peers, feeling important, and being appreciated.

ERG theory modifies Maslow’s hierarchy of five needs into three categories that can impact an individual at the same time, namely existence, relatedness and growth.

Existence needs as part of ERG theory correspond with Maslow’s physiological and safety needs.

Equity theory is based on the idea that individuals are motivated by a sense of fairness determined by comparisons; specifically, we compare our inputs and outputs with those of a referent (someone else’s inputs and outputs). Perceptions of inequity create tension within us and drive us to action that will reduce perceived inequity.

Equity sensitivity individuals expect to maintain equitable relationships so experience distress when they feel they are over rewarded or under rewarded.

Entitleds who expect to receive a lot without giving much in return.

Expectancy is the perception that high levels of effort will lead to desired outcomes.

Extinction is a method of reducing the frequency of undesired behaviors by ignoring the behavior with the expectation that the  behavior will cease as a result of receiving no reinforcement.

Feedback is communication about our behavior and its effects on others, including ourselves, colleagues, clients and the organization itself.

Fixed ratio schedules describe reinforcement that occurs when rewards are provided after a specific number of times that the right behavior is demonstrated, such as giving a sales bonus once sales hit a $10,000.

Fixed interval schedules describe reinforcement that occurs when rewards are provided after a specified period of time, such as a monthly sales bonus.

Feedback refers to the degree to which the person learns how effective he or she is at work and may come from other people such as supervisors, peers, subordinates, customers, or from the job itself.

Goals are outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish, both programmatically and organizationally.

Growth needs as part of ERG theory correspond with Maslow’s esteem and self actualization.

Hygiene factors are elements of a job causing dissatisfaction of workers and include company policies, supervision, working conditions, salary, safety, and security on the job.

High need for affiliation is an individual who wants to be liked and accepted by others.

Interactional justice refers to the degree to which people are treated with respect, kindness, and dignity in interpersonal interactions.

Instrumentality is the degree to which the person believes that performance is related to secondary outcomes such as rewards.

Job specialization entails breaking down tasks to their simplest components and assigning them to employees so that each person would perform few tasks in a repetitive manner.

Job rotation involves moving employees from job to job at regular intervals to build skills, crosstrain, and relieve the monotony and boredom prevalent in repetitive jobs.

Job enlargement refers to expanding the tasks performed by employees to add more variety.

Job enrichment is a job redesign technique that allows workers more control over how they perform their own tasks, giving them more experience and responsibility.

Job characteristics model describes five core job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) leading to three critical psychological states (meaningfulness, responsibility and knowledge of results), which can result in positive work-related outcomes related to motivation, performance, satisfaction, absenteeism and turnover.

Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) is a group of ethical consumers of goods and services focused on health, the environment, social justice, personal development, and sustainable living and demand the necessary data to make informed decisions.

Measures are the actual metrics used to gauge performance on objectives.

Motivation is the process whereby an individual is moved to action to accomplish their goals.

Motivators are elements of a job causing satisfaction of workers and encouraging them to increase their performance such as achievement, recognition, interesting work, increased responsibilities, advancement, and growth opportunities.

Need for power is an individual with the desire to influence others and control their environment.

Negative reinforcement is a method of increasing the frequency of desired behaviors by removing negative consequences.

Objectives are very precise, time-based, measurable actions that support the completion of a goal.

Organizational Behavior Modification (or OB Mod) is a systematic application of reinforcement theory to modify employee behaviors consisting of five stages: (1) identifying the behavior that will be modified(2) measuring the baseline level of behavior, (3) determining the behavior’s antecedents and outcomes, (4) implementing an intervention, and (5) evaluating and maintaining the behavior.

Performance management systems include a continual process of improvement through which organizations assist employees to create performance plans and assist them in achieving their goals.

Performance evaluation is a constructive process to acknowledge and provide feedback on an employee’s performance.

Physiological needs refer to the need for air, food, and water.

Procedural justice refers to the degree to which fair decision-making procedures are used.

Positive reinforcement is a method of increasing the frequency of desired behaviors by rewarding positive behavior with positive consequences.

Punishment is a method of reducing the frequency of undesired behaviors by presenting negative consequences (imposing a penalty and taking away something desirable) following unwanted behaviors.

Reinforcement Schedules is the idea that the timing or schedule on which reinforcement is delivered has a bearing on behavior.

Relatedness needs as part of ERG theory correspond with Maslow’s social needs.

Referent in terms of equity theory, is the comparison person or group of people used to determine the input-to-output ratio in a given situation.

Reinforcement theory is based on the idea that behavior is a function of its consequences and describes four interventions to modify employee behavior: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction and punishment. Two of these are methods of increasing the frequency of desired behaviors while the remaining two are methods of reducing the frequency of undesired behaviors.

Safety needs refer to feeling safe from anything that would threaten one’s security.

Social needs refer to the need to bond with other human beings, to be loved, and to form lasting attachments.

Self-actualization refers to “becoming all you are capable of becoming.”

SMART goals are considered most effective because they ensure that goals are “S” specific, “M” measurable, “A” achievable, “R” realistic, and “T” timely.

Skill variety refers to the extent to which the job requires the person to use multiple high-level skills.

Triple bottom line (TBL) measures an organization’s economic, social, and environmental performance (people, planet, profit) and is related to its corporate social responsibility.

Task identity refers to the degree to which the person completes a piece of work from start to finish.

Task significance refers to whether the person’s job substantially affects other people’s work, health, or well-being.

Valence the anticipated satisfaction of the value of the rewards that will result from an outcome.

Variable ratios describe reinforcement that occurs when rewards are provided in a random pattern, such as giving a sales bonus every time the manager is in a good mood.