The Effort-Net Return Model of Employee Motivation: Principles, Propositions, and Prescriptions

Written for human resources and training professionals, this book addresses a recurring problem for managers and corporations: how can we efficiently, cost effectively, and humanely motivate employees to work at or near their top potential? Arguing that opportunities to heighten employee motivation are often missed when managers rely on overly simplistic theories of human motivation, Grant develops his own multifaceted Effort-Net Return Model and offers a sampling of over 200 prescriptions for motivating employees that can be derived from the model. The model itself is based upon four basic principles, each grounded in research and each of which has supporting propositions which determine the motivational prescription to be employed. Because the motivational prescriptions indicated can be easily tailored to the recipient's own personal value system, the model is applicable across a broad spectrum of employee groups. Grant introduces and describes the Effort-Net Return Model in Chapter One, demonstrating its superiority over previous models which rely on the application of restrictive formulas and constructs to determine motivational strategies. The next four chapters address in turn each of the four principles upon which the model is based and their supporting propositions. In these chapters, Grant also provides a representative inventory of the kinds of avenues managers can pursue to enhance employee motivation. Throughout, Grant emphasizes the impact of individual differences on the end results to be expected from a given motivational prescription, cautioning the reader to take these differences into account when beginning to put together a motivational plan. The final chapter presents real-world case problems, together with analyses and suggested prescriptive packages, to enable the reader to move from theory to actual practice. Numerous exercises and application instruments are also included to help the manager apply the Effort-Net Return Model in the workplace.