Motivation science presentation

Motivation in organizations: everyday actions

How to motivate by giving feedback, setting goal targets, and applying the right incentives.

By Jack Lin and Kendra Zhang

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

Strategies used to increase motivation:

1. Giving feedback

2. Setting goal targets

3. ​Providing incentives

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

Goal of paper

How can we identify when these common strategies work versus fail?​

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#1. Giving feedback

A. Positive feedback - accomplishments, strengths, and correct response

B. Negative feedback - lack of accomplishments, weaknesses, and incorrect responses

Multiple Choice

According to the paper, when is positive feedback effective?

• When it signals the goal is completed

• When it signals a lack of goal progress

• When it signals how productive you are

• When it signals a boost in commitment

Multiple Select

According to the paper, who is positive feedback motivating for? (you can pick 1 or more answers)

• Novices

• Experts

• Distant relationships

• Close relationships

Multiple Choice

According to the paper, when is negative feedback effective?

• When it signals the goal is completed

• When it signals a lack of goal progress

• When it signals how productive you are

• When it signals a boost in commitment

Multiple Select

According to the paper, who is negative feedback motivating for? (you can pick 1 or more answers)

• Novices

• Experts

• Distant relationships

• Close relationships

Poll

Poll: Do you agree with the proposition that positive feedback is most effective for novices or those with distant relationships, and vice versa, that negative feedback is more effective for experts or those with close relationships?

• Yes

• No

Poll

Poll: In general, are you more motivated by positive feedback or negative feedback?

• Positive feedback😊

• Negative feedback 😰

• It depends! 🤔

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#2. Setting goal targets

Setting goal targets is common practice for anyone who would like to motivate performance.​

• Goal setting theory​

• When is there greater motivation? (tbd...)

Multiple Select

According to the paper, when do we feel greatest motivation? (3 correct answers)

• Impact is high

• Right before starting a task

• When we focus on completed progress at the beginning

• When we focus on lack of progress at the end

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#3. Providing incentives

Offering a reward for doing a task, like providing salary in exchange for doing work.​

• Immediate vs delayed incentives​

  • Child marshmallow test (link)​

Multiple Choice

True or False:  The single largest operating cost for an organization is employee compensation.

• True

• False

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#3. Providing incentives

Certain vs. uncertain incentives

• People prefer certain incentives and uncertain losses

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#3. Providing incentives

Extrinsic vs. intrinsic incentives

• People tend to believe they are more motivated by intrinsic incentives than are others

Poll

Poll: Are more motivated when a goal is more certain or uncertain? Would you prefer a set bonus of $15,000 or a performance-based amount between $10,000 and $20,000?

• Certain ($15000 bonus)

• Uncertain ($10,000 to $20,000 bonus)

• No preference

Schroeder & Fishbach, 2015

#3. Providing incentives

Incentives video - link

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Clip from The Office

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Reading 2: Selections from Get it Done (2022)

Poll

Poll: Which one would you rather have?

• 10-stamp stamp card, no stamps are stamped

• 12-stamp stamp card, 2 stamps are pre-stamped

Fishbach, 2022

Progress increases impact

Progress encourages us to work harder and makes it less likely that we quit

• This is for all-or-nothing goals!​

Fishbach, 2022

Accumulative goals

• Marginal value declines

  • In a week, the difference between 0 to 1 workout is greater than 6 to 7

• Progress increases commitment​

• Sunk cost fallacy​

Fishbach, 2022

A few more theories...

• Cognitive dissonance theory: we tend to adopt goals that match our past actions and abandon goals that are a mismatch

• ​Self-perception theory: we learn about ourselves by observing and explaining our own actions to ourselves

• Foot in the door persuasion theory: Signing people up for a small task makes them more inclined to perform larger tasks in future

Fishbach, 2022

A few more theories...

• Negative reinforcement: Continuing a habit because it prevents consequence

Open Ended

What are situations in which lack of progress increases motivation?

Fishbach, 2022

When lack of progress increase motivation

• Discrepancy between ideal state and present state signals that you need to take action

• For a highly important goal, it may be more important to frame your progress based on what you havent accomplished yet

Fishbach, 2022

Emotions cue goal progress

• The positive feelings on the road to reaching a goal can exceed the experience of reaching the destination

• By providing feedback on our rate of progress, our feelings inform our motivational system

Multiple Choice

In the study by the author among college students, what did new dieters do after doing well in their diet for the next day?

• Continue dieting the next day

• Reward themselves by taking their diet more easily the next day

Fishbach, 2022

Monitoring progress and sustaining motivation

• Sometimes progress is better at motivating action and sometimes the lack of progress is better, it depends on the person and circumstances

• Some follow commitment-promotes-consistency, others follow progress-promotes balancing​

Poll

Poll" Do you generally follow commitment-promotes-consistency or progress-promotes balancing?

• Commitment-promotes-consistency

• Progress-promotes balancing

Fishbach, 2022

Two choices...

Poll

Poll: Where do you go?

• I wait on the long bagel line.. it must taste good if everyone's waiting!

• I go to the shortest line... a bagel is a bagel.

Fishbach, 2022

When lines are good

• People are more motivated when they look back at the line behind them instead of looking forward at all the people ahead of them

Fishbach, 2022

Aspiration / ambition

• Ambition varies across goals: you can aspire to advance in your career but have little desire to advance in a hobby (e.g. sports)

• ​Reflecting on what you would like to achieve in the future makes you more ambitious

  Those who consider past achievements and feel like they enjoy it are committed to their present level

Fishbach, 2022

Representation of actions

1. Focusing on completed actions to increase commitment

2. Focusing on missing actions to increase motivation by signaling lack of progress

Multiple Choice

If there is a large work goal, should a manager focus on completed actions to increase commitment or should the manager focus on missing actions to increase motivation?

• Completed actions

• Missing actions

• It depends

Fishbach, 2022

Representation of actions

The best choice depends on the situation and one strategy is not better than the other​

​To determine which half of the glass will motivate you , consider both the context and importance of your goal

• Do you feel like an expert or novice?

• Do you have to achieve it or would it just be nice to reach?

​

Multiple Choice

When are people most likely to cheat during an assignment?

• At the start

• At the middle

• At the end

Fishbach, 2022

The middle problem

• "Doing it right​"

• Who celebrates the middle child?

• Small area principle​

​

Fishbach, 2022

Conflicting goals

When a goal conflicts with other goals, you can expect difficulty​

Fishbach, 2022

Principle of Maximizing attainment

We choose actions that make as much positive impact on as many goals as possible while minimizing the negative impact on our other goals

Multiple Choice

What is a multifinal goal?

• A number of goals that all serve the same goal

• A goal that they serves several goals simultaneously

Fishbach, 2022

Multifinal goals vs equifinal goals

Multiple Choice

If a means serves several goals or if a goal has several means, the means-goal link is...

• Strengthened

• Diluted

Fishbach, 2022

Multifunctional products

Open Ended

Describe a multi-functional product you can think of. Is it useful?

Multiple Choice

According to the author, when we sense we’ve made *sufficient* progress on a goal, we tend to...

• Motivate ourselves to finish the goals

• Compromise and work less hard

Multiple Choice

People who tend to _________ see their actions as reflecting who they are as a person

• Prioritize

• Compromise

Fishbach, 2022

Goal trade-offs: Prioritizing and compromising

• People who prioritize see their actions as reflective of who they are, compromising = sending mixed signals about who you are

• When a moral dilemma is presented, we tend to prioritize and prefer the more moral solution

• ​When actions substitute, people tend to compromise

• Order​ of attending to goals

Draw

That's all!! Thanks for listening! Draw something that motivates you :)