Week 4 Learning Journal: What Drives People at Work

Based on Chapters 4 and 5 of McShane and Warner’s Canadian Organizational Behaviour, 12th Canadian Edition.

This Week 4 learning journal brings together two connected parts of Organizational Behaviour: emotions, attitudes, stress, and employee motivation. Read together, these chapters show that workplace behaviour is rarely simple. People do not perform well only because they are told to perform, and they do not become committed simply because an organization says commitment matters. Behaviour comes from a mix of emotion, thinking, needs, fairness, stress, rewards, and the meaning a person attaches to the work.

From a Standing on the Ledge perspective, that matters because rebuilding after pressure, conflict, or workplace collapse requires more than willpower. It requires understanding what is happening underneath the behaviour. Low effort, withdrawal, frustration, or burnout may look like personal failure from the outside, but Organizational Behaviour asks a better question: what conditions are producing the behaviour?

Learning Objectives for Chapter 4

• Explain how emotions and cognition, including conscious reasoning, influence attitudes and workplace behaviour.
• Describe emotional labour and discuss strategies for displaying expected emotions at work.
• Define emotional intelligence and discuss its importance in the workplace.
• Explain how job satisfaction and dissatisfaction affect work behaviour, including job performance and customer service.
• Summarize affective, continuance, and normative commitment, and discuss strategies to increase affective commitment.
• Discuss the dynamics of work-related stress, including stressors, the stress process, stress outcomes, and ways to manage work-related stress.

Learning Objectives for Chapter 5

• Define motivation and explain how drives and emotions influence employee motivation.
• Explain, through four-drive theory, the process of human motivation, and summarize Maslow's needs hierarchy, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and learned needs theory.
• Outline the expectancy theory model and prescribe how to improve employee motivation through the elements of this model.
• Describe organizational behaviour modification and social cognitive theory, and explain their relevance to employee motivation.
• Discuss the characteristics of effective goal setting and feedback.
• Explain how equity theory, procedural justice, and interactional justice influence employee motivation.

Opening Reflection

The practical lesson for me is that organizations often try to manage behaviour at the surface level. They may focus on attendance, performance, customer service, or productivity without asking what emotional and motivational conditions are producing those outcomes. Chapter 4 explains what people feel and how those feelings influence attitudes. Chapter 5 explains what gives people energy, direction, and persistence. Both chapters point to the same idea: if an organization wants better behaviour, it must understand the person behind the behaviour.

Chapter 4: Emotions, Cognition, Attitudes, and Behaviour

Chapter 4 shows that emotions and cognition are not separate worlds. Emotions are part of how people interpret what is happening around them. Cognition, including conscious reasoning, helps people evaluate those emotions and decide how to respond. In the workplace, this matters because an employee may react to a supervisor, customer, policy, or co-worker based not only on facts, but also on feelings such as trust, fear, pride, frustration, hope, or resentment.

Attitudes are evaluations that include beliefs, feelings, and behavioural intentions. For example, an employee who believes that a workplace is fair may feel more positive about the organization and may be more willing to help others, serve customers well, or stay with the employer. On the other hand, an employee who believes that management is unfair may feel frustrated or detached, and that attitude can show up in lower effort, poor service, withdrawal, or turnover intentions.

The important point is that conscious reasoning can influence behaviour, but it does not erase emotion. A person may understand that a policy is necessary and still feel angry about how it was communicated. A person may know they should remain professional with a customer and still feel worn down by repeated disrespect. This is why communication, fairness, and emotional awareness matter in management. People behave better when they can make sense of what is happening and when they feel respected in the process.

Emotional Labour and Emotional Intelligence

Emotional labour is the effort required to display emotions that the organization expects, even when the employee does not naturally feel those emotions. Customer service work is one of the clearest examples. A worker may be expected to remain calm, friendly, and helpful even when a customer is impatient, rude, or unreasonable. This can be useful for service quality, but it can also be draining if employees are always expected to suppress what they feel.

The distinction between surface acting and deep acting is useful. Surface acting means changing the outward expression while the internal feeling remains the same. Deep acting means trying to shift the actual feeling so the displayed emotion is more genuine. Deep acting is usually healthier, but it still requires effort. Strategies for managing emotional labour include clear service expectations, supportive supervisors, breaks after difficult interactions, training in de-escalation, realistic staffing, and permission to step away from abusive situations. Employees should be expected to be professional, but professionalism should not mean absorbing unlimited disrespect.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions in oneself and others. In the workplace, emotional intelligence matters because people rarely deal only with tasks. They deal with pressure, conflict, customers, uncertainty, and different personalities. An emotionally intelligent employee can notice when they are becoming defensive, regulate their response, read the tone of a conversation, and choose a more constructive way forward. For supervisors, emotional intelligence is especially important because their emotional reactions can shape the climate of an entire team.

Job Satisfaction, Commitment, and Work Stress

Job satisfaction affects more than whether a person likes their job. It can influence performance, customer service, absenteeism, turnover intentions, and organizational citizenship behaviour. A satisfied employee is more likely to invest effort, speak positively about the organization, and treat customers or co-workers with care. Dissatisfaction does not always create poor performance immediately, but over time it can lead to withdrawal, lower energy, resentment, or a decision to leave.

Organizational commitment has three main forms. Affective commitment is emotional attachment to the organization. Continuance commitment is based on the cost of leaving. Normative commitment is based on a sense of obligation to stay. Affective commitment is generally the strongest and healthiest form because the employee stays because they want to, not only because they feel trapped or obligated. Organizations can build affective commitment by creating trust, recognizing contribution, supporting growth, communicating honestly, and aligning daily work with meaningful values.

Chapter 4 also makes it clear that work-related stress is not just a personal weakness. Stress comes from stressors, which may include workload, role conflict, role ambiguity, interpersonal conflict, job insecurity, lack of control, or emotionally demanding work. The stress process involves how the person perceives the stressor, what coping resources they have, and what outcomes follow. Stress outcomes may include burnout, reduced performance, health problems, irritability, absenteeism, or turnover.

Five practical ways to manage work-related stress are to reduce unnecessary stressors, increase employee control where possible, strengthen social support, build recovery time into work, and use personal coping strategies such as exercise, sleep routines, breathing techniques, time management, and asking for help early. The important balance is that stress management should not be pushed entirely onto the individual. Organizations also have responsibility for the conditions they create.

Chapter 5: Foundations of Employee Motivation

Chapter 5 shifts the focus from attitudes and emotional conditions to motivation. Motivation refers to the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behaviour. Direction is where effort is aimed. Intensity is how much effort is invested. Persistence is how long the effort continues. This definition is useful because motivation is not just about working hard. A person can work hard in the wrong direction, or start with energy but lose it quickly if the work environment blocks progress.

Drives and emotions influence motivation because they create internal energy. People are moved by needs, goals, fears, values, rewards, belonging, curiosity, and fairness. Emotion gives motivation its urgency. A person who feels proud of their work may keep improving. A person who feels ignored may reduce effort. A person who feels anxious about job security may work harder for a time, but may also burn out or disengage if the pressure continues.

Four-Drive Theory and Need-Based Motivation

Four-drive theory explains human motivation through four basic drives: the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend, and the drive to defend. The drive to acquire includes the desire for resources, status, achievement, and recognition. The drive to bond involves relationships, belonging, and connection. The drive to comprehend involves curiosity, learning, and making sense of the world. The drive to defend involves protecting oneself, others, values, and territory.

This theory is useful because it shows why motivation is rarely one-dimensional. A pay increase may satisfy the drive to acquire, but if the workplace destroys trust and belonging, motivation may still suffer. A strong team may satisfy the drive to bond, but if the work is confusing or meaningless, the drive to comprehend may be unmet. A workplace that constantly feels threatening may activate the drive to defend, which can lead to resistance, conflict, or withdrawal.

Maslow's needs hierarchy is another way to think about motivation. It organizes needs from basic physiological needs through safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. While the strict hierarchy may not always apply in real workplaces, the model is still helpful because it reminds managers that employees are not motivated only by money. Safety, respect, belonging, growth, and purpose also matter.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation also help explain employee effort. Intrinsic motivation comes from the work itself, such as interest, enjoyment, meaning, pride, or mastery. Extrinsic motivation comes from outcomes outside the task, such as pay, bonuses, grades, praise, or promotion. Both can matter. The challenge for organizations is to use extrinsic rewards without destroying the intrinsic meaning of the work.

Learned needs theory focuses on needs that people develop through life experience, especially the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. An employee with a strong need for achievement may want challenging goals and clear feedback. An employee with a strong need for affiliation may value harmony and relationships. An employee with a strong need for power may want influence, responsibility, or leadership. Understanding these differences helps managers avoid assuming that the same reward motivates everyone.

Expectancy Theory and Improving Motivation

Expectancy theory explains motivation as a process of personal calculation. Employees are more motivated when they believe their effort can lead to good performance, good performance will lead to valued outcomes, and those outcomes are worth having. The three key elements are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.

Expectancy is the belief that effort will lead to performance. To improve expectancy, organizations need to provide training, tools, time, clear instructions, coaching, and reasonable workloads. If employees do not believe they can perform successfully, motivation drops even if the reward is attractive.

Instrumentality is the belief that performance will lead to outcomes. To improve instrumentality, organizations need reliable links between performance and reward. Employees need to see that good work is noticed and that rewards, recognition, promotion, or opportunities are not random or political. When employees believe outcomes are disconnected from performance, motivation becomes weaker.

Valence is the value the employee places on the outcome. To improve valence, organizations need to understand what employees actually value. Some may value pay. Others may value schedule flexibility, recognition, learning opportunities, stability, or respect. A reward only motivates when the person sees it as worth the effort.

Behaviour Modification, Social Cognitive Theory, Goals, and Feedback

Organizational behaviour modification focuses on how consequences shape behaviour. Behaviours that are reinforced are more likely to continue. Positive reinforcement can be powerful when it is specific, timely, and connected to the behaviour the organization wants to encourage. Punishment may stop behaviour in the short term, but it can also create fear, resentment, or avoidance if used poorly. This makes reinforcement and feedback more useful than relying mainly on discipline.

Social cognitive theory adds that people learn not only through direct consequences, but also by observing others, developing self-efficacy, setting goals, and regulating their own behaviour. Self-efficacy is especially important. If employees believe they are capable, they are more likely to accept challenges and persist. Managers can build self-efficacy through coaching, modelling, training, encouragement, and opportunities for early success.

Effective goal setting gives motivation a clear target. Goals work best when they are specific, challenging, accepted by the employee, connected to meaningful work, and supported by feedback. Vague goals such as "do better" are weak because they do not tell the employee what success looks like. Specific goals help focus attention and effort. Feedback then tells the employee whether they are on track, what needs to change, and where progress has already been made.

Feedback should be timely, respectful, and useful. Feedback that only criticizes can reduce motivation, especially if the employee does not know how to improve. Feedback that is clear and constructive can increase learning and confidence. The best feedback helps the employee connect effort, performance, and improvement.

Equity, Procedural Justice, and Interactional Justice

Equity theory explains motivation through perceptions of fairness. Employees compare their inputs and outcomes with others. Inputs can include effort, skill, experience, loyalty, time, and emotional labour. Outcomes can include pay, recognition, opportunities, respect, security, and workload. When employees perceive inequity, they may reduce effort, ask for change, become resentful, or leave.

Procedural justice focuses on the fairness of the process used to make decisions. Even when employees do not get the outcome they wanted, they are more likely to accept the decision if the process seems consistent, unbiased, accurate, correctable, and respectful of employee voice. This matters because process fairness builds trust.

Interactional justice focuses on how people are treated during the process. Respectful communication, honesty, clear explanations, and dignity matter. A technically correct decision can still damage motivation if it is communicated carelessly or disrespectfully. In real workplaces, employees often remember not only what decision was made, but how they were spoken to when the decision was made.

For me, the justice theories connect Chapter 5 back to Chapter 4. Fairness affects motivation, but it also affects emotion, attitudes, satisfaction, commitment, and stress. A workplace that ignores fairness may still get compliance for a while, but it will struggle to build trust and long-term commitment.

Closing Reflection

The overall lesson from Chapters 4 and 5 is that employee behaviour is shaped by both emotional experience and motivational conditions. Chapter 4 explains how emotions, attitudes, satisfaction, commitment, and stress affect how people respond to work. Chapter 5 explains how drives, needs, expectancy, reinforcement, goals, feedback, and fairness influence the energy people bring to work.

These chapters also challenge the idea that motivation is only about pay or discipline. Pay matters, but it is not the whole story. People also need respect, fairness, role clarity, meaningful goals, emotional safety, useful feedback, belonging, and a sense that effort has a real connection to outcomes. When those pieces are missing, motivation becomes fragile.

For my own learning, Week 4 reinforces the importance of looking underneath behaviour before judging it. Low effort may not mean laziness. It may mean unclear goals, poor feedback, unfair treatment, low expectancy, burnout, or emotional exhaustion. Strong performance may not come only from personal discipline. It may also come from good leadership, meaningful work, fair processes, emotional intelligence, and a workplace that helps people direct their energy in a productive way.

The most useful takeaway is that good Organizational Behaviour practice requires both structure and humanity. Employees need clear goals, fair processes, and reliable consequences. They also need respect, emotional awareness, support, and room to recover from stress. When organizations understand both sides, they are more likely to build workplaces where people can perform well and stay well.

References

McShane, S. L., & Warner, M. A. Canadian Organizational Behaviour (12th Canadian ed.), Chapter 4, pp. 89-119.

McShane, S. L., & Warner, M. A. Canadian Organizational Behaviour (12th Canadian ed.), Chapter 5, pp. 120-148.