The article aims to offer relevant insights into the mindset about intelligence that influences students motivations toward learning. This article aims to change students perceptions of their potential in learning (Wiersema et al., 2014). In this case, the article helps students to change their narratives towards their subjects and find them easy to learn. This is a research article that helps explain how students can change their mindsets about intelligence. The article studies how learners can change their perceptions of what they think could be their most challenging classes (Mrazek et al., 2018). The research methodology in this article involves primary and secondary data sources. In addition, the study also utilizes both quantitative and qualitative forms of data. Some quantitative data includes information on eleven items with a six-point rating scale that measured how some particular learners thought they knew about mindset (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2022). Some of the significant results of this article include increased self-reported knowledge regarding the effects of intelligence mindsets on learners. In addition, the outcome of this research identified changes in behaviors and attitudes concerning students perceptions of learning.
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the articles strengths is its usefulness in providing learners subjective feelings, beliefs, and thoughts regarding learning and school activities. In addition, educational experiences generate an upward spiral where the pattern of enhanced academic performance emanating from tremendous effort creates a positive impetus with lasting impact (Wiersema et al.,2014). However, this process of measuring student learning experiences has a weakness in that there is no detection of a change in learners knowledge regarding what gets in their learning process.
Usefulness
The article demonstrates a change in students perceptions of their learning effectiveness. In this case, the students could tackle what they perceived as their most challenging subjects because of a change in their mindsets (Wiersema et al., 2014). Therefore, the change in such mindsets positively affected their abilities to learn. There were self-reported changes in behaviors and attitudes as learners practiced their work of the mind that was necessary for learning (Campbell et al., 2019). Students could explore the various types of thinking necessary for the learning process.
Major Flaws and Recommendations
One of the significant things that the article could improve is that of asking questions on behalf of responsible learners, but no answers are provided. If the article answered such questions, it would further help the learners to develop their reflective thinking (Mrazek et al., 2018). Another flaw is that there is nowhere that students are asked to mention what did not work well in the research. In this case, it is assumed that everything regarding mindsets toward learning worked perfectly, which is inaccurate.
Although this article offers a broad articulation of student perceptions of their learning process, there is a need for a more detailed analysis of the issue by answering the questions asked. Therefore, the topic needs to be expanded to cover other relevant areas, such as the phenomenological study of the issue (Van Themaat, 2019). In this case, there is a need to further identify from the learners what was the best and worst thing during the time they worked on the research questionnaire. In addition, future research should identify from the students what made a difference to them.
Conclusion
The future direction is that there is a need to continue the sequence of learning experiences in collaboration with communities and monitor the outcome (Campbell et al., 2019). Leaders of other communities could also utilize the practice to form occurrences that benefit their learners, and it will eventually pay off.
Low motivation in the English language and the washback effect of examinations are two crucial factors that can hinder teachers in cultivating a stimulating English learning community, especially in the secondary school context in Hong Kong. The importance of these issues is twofold: first, they can prevent teachers from effectively creating a stimulating English learning environment, and second, they can limit students ability to become proficient in the language. This paper will discuss the causes and effects of low motivation, the washback effect of examinations, and possible solutions. It could be claimed that although the consequences of low motivation and the washback effect hamper Hong Kongs language-rich environment program due to the lack of parental support, materials, stress, and examinations pressure leading to low focus and memorization.
In the context of SLA, motivation can be defined as enthusiasm or interest in a particular activity. According to Akbarov (2022), low motivation can manifest in various ways, such as disinterest in the learning process, lack of effort in language tasks, and avoidance of English language activities. On the other hand, the washback effect of examinations refers to the unintended consequences of high-stakes tests on teaching, learning, and curriculum (Toti, 2022). Conversely, the washback effect of examinations refers to the unintended consequences of high-stakes tests on teaching, learning, and curriculum (Toti, 2022). This phenomenon can include an over-emphasis on specific aspects of the language tested, a lack of attention to other language aspects that are not tested, and the potential for increased pressure or anxiety in students taking the tests.
Furthermore, it is useful to analyze the SLA motivation of the target students, which are the secondary school students in Hong Kong. As such, the environment of the target students is characterized by a competitive academic environment and high expectations for students. English is a mandatory subject in all secondary schools, and the publicly-administered Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination is a vital component of the assessment process (Wang, 2020). Schools in Hong Kong are expected to create a language-rich environment for their learners, and the Curriculum and Development Council (CDC) provides detailed guidelines for teachers to follow (Wang, 2020). This document outlines several suggestions for teachers in the classroom and school, such as providing resource materials, decorating classrooms, and fostering a lively atmosphere through daily routines and special occasions (The Hong Kong CDC, 2004). Hence, English is seen as a necessary skill for success, which influences the motivation of the target students significantly. As a result, implementing recommendations by the CDC may be hindered by students low motivation in the English language, while HKDSE might cause the washback effect of examinations.
The causes of low motivation in SLA students can be attributed to a number of factors. According to Krashens (1982) Affective Filter Hypothesis, an effective language-learning environment should be both relaxed and stimulating in order to reduce the affective filter and promote successful language learning. This thought can be noticed in Schumanns (1978) The Acculturation Model of Second Language Acquisition, which states that successful language learning depends upon the degree of acculturation of the learner. In other words, successful language learning requires an environment that is both comfortable and stimulating in order to facilitate successful acculturation. Thus, parents, teachers, and schools need to create a language-rich environment in order to reduce the affective filter and promote successful language learning.
Moreover, lack of parental support, resources, and pressure from examinations are identified by the literature as the most common reasons of low motivation. Parents play a significant role in their childrens education, and when they are not actively involved or supportive of their childrens learning, it can have a dramatic impact on a students level of motivation (Silinskas & Kikas, 2019). It is also not uncommon for students to feel discouraged when their parents are not supportive of their academic pursuits, leading to feelings of inadequacy and frustration (Silinskas & Kikas, 2019). Additionally, a lack of parental support can impede teachers implementation of the recommendations from the Hong Kong CDC (2004). With parental involvement and support, teachers may find it easier to promote a language-rich environment where students are encouraged to interact with each other and the NETs in English and are provided with an English-rich environment in the classroom and at home.
Furthermore, inadequate resources and materials can impede learning and lead to decreased motivation. This problem can be especially challenging for students who do not have access to technology or the internet or who lack access to a library or other learning resources (Regmi & Jones, 2020). Moreover, students from lower-income households may be disadvantaged due to the lack of availability of these types of resources (Regmi & Jones, 2020). This issue can lead to an inability to engage in the learning process, which can cause them to become discouraged and unmotivated. Furthermore, the lack of resources can make it difficult for teachers to implement the recommendations from Hong Kong CDC (2004). These include providing learners with an English-rich environment in the classroom and at home and fostering a lively and encouraging school and classroom atmosphere.
In addition to the lack of parental support and inadequate resources, the pressure from examinations can negatively impact students motivation in English language learning. Examinations and assessments can cause a large amount of stress and anxiety to students, thus leading to a decrease in motivation and morale (Pascoe et al., 2019). This effect can have a huge toll on the physical and mental well-being of the student, leading to a sense of helplessness and lack of control over their own life. In addition, the fear of failure can lead to students losing their self-confidence and feeling inadequate to complete the tasks at hand (Pascoe et al., 2019). The pressure from examinations can significantly impact the implementation of the recommendations from the Hong Kong CDC (2004). Excessive focus on examination scores can lead to students feeling overwhelmed, decreasing motivation and engagement in the learning process.
Furthermore, the effects of low motivation can be seen in several areas. Poor academic performance is one of the most common consequences, as students who are not motivated to learn are less likely to succeed in their studies (Tokan & Imakulata, 2019). Additionally, students with low motivation may suffer from a decrease in self-esteem and confidence as they are not able to meet their own academic goals. Finally, low motivation can lead to reduced engagement in learning activities, as students may become disinterested in the material or find it too difficult to comprehend (Tokan & Imakulata, 2019). Conclusively, the consequences of low motivation are far-reaching and can be seen in academic performance, self-esteem, and engagement in learning activities.
Moreover, the washback effect of examinations can be detrimental to the teaching and learning process. For example, Shih (2009) discussed the washback effect of the GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) on teaching in two applied foreign language departments at two universities in Taiwan. Shih found that the GEPT requirement had a minor and teacher-specific impact on teaching practices and that the degree of washback was determined by the objectives of the course, the relation of the course to the schools policy, and teacher factors such as beliefs in the role of formal schooling and perceptions of the test. Shih also proposed a tentative model to schematize the washback of tests on teaching, which integrated contextual factors, test factors, and teacher factors.
Furthermore, research suggests that teachers may be more likely to focus on teaching to the test rather than teaching the material in a meaningful and engaging way due to the washback effect. This strategy can lead to rote memorization and a lack of critical thinking skills, as students are not encouraged to explore the material in depth or to apply it to real-life situations (McKinley & Thompson, 2018). In addition, the pressure from examinations can lead to an overemphasis on specific aspects of the language that are tested, a lack of attention to other language aspects that are not tested, and a lack of time for teachers to engage in activities that foster student motivation and engagement (McKinley & Thompson, 2018). In my school context, I have observed that the use of examinations has led to an increased focus on memorization and rote learning, rather than critical thinking and problem solving skills. This has been particularly evident in my schools English classes, where the focus has shifted to memorization of vocabulary and grammar rules rather than the development of writing skills.
Additionally, research has also suggested that examinations can have a negative impact on student motivation. The study found that students often become disengaged from their studies when examinations are used as a tool for assessment, as they become focused on the grade rather than on the learning process (McKinley & Thompson, 2018). This issue is evident in my school context, where students are often more focused on getting a good grade in the examinations than on developing their learning. Finally, research by Ha (2020) has found that examinations can lead to a change in the way students approach their studies. The research found that when examinations are used, students tend to focus on memorization and rote learning, rather than on deeper understanding and application of knowledge. This is evident in my school context, where students often focus on memorizing facts and grammar rules rather than on developing a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
In conclusion, low motivation and the washback effect of examinations can significantly impact the teaching and learning process in secondary schools in Hong Kong. The students suffer from low motivation due to the lack of parental involvement, availability of resources, and stress from assessments. The literature supports the idea that examinations can have a negative washback effect on teaching and learning. In my school context, I have observed that the use of examinations has led to an increased focus on memorization and rote learning, a decrease in student motivation, and a change in the way students approach their studies.
Key Points of the Article: The Importance of Customer Value
In the article, The new science of customer emotions by Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon (2015), scientists reveal the importance of buyer emotions in the process of choosing a product and making a purchase, and evaluating customers loyalty and value. The authors of the article found that each brand has its group of purchasers with the highest customers value, which is determined by the fact that these customers are ready and spend the most money on the companys products. Scholars also found that among the four stages of customer engagement (not interested, highly satisfied, perceived brand differentiation, and fully connected), the latter group spends twice as much as the second. Therefore, Magids, Zorfas, and Leemon opened up new ways to implement the companys marketing strategy. In particular, the scientists suggested focusing on increasing the size of the last group and not the second, as was traditionally done.
Fully Connected Customers and Emotional Motivators
Scientists found that emotional connection is the main metric that characterizes a group of fully connected customers. In this regard, to increase their number, scientists have proposed the introduction of some marketing practices based on the creation of an emotional connection between brands and buyers. To do this, the authors asked the company to study which emotions for example, a sense of belonging, a sense of confidence in the future, or a sense of the well-being are decisive in choosing a brand and making a purchase decision. The authors conducted a study examining the behavior of shoppers in one apparel store and helped the stores management develop a marketing campaign that focused on attracting a group of fully connected customers the Flourishers, who were the primary source of the companys income. This group included female, young urban people and was characterized by high cultural diversity.
Developing a New Marketing Strategy for Flourishers
After the company opened several stores in the Flourishers concentration locations, these stores revenues were 20% higher than all historical figures. Besides, the groups online behaviour and preferences were studied, after which the store increased its presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The store also improved the functioning of the mobile website, which led to an increase in online shopping. The girls were encouraged to share photos on Instagram, some of which were used for advertising the store. This new advertising practice gave the girls sense of belonging. Service was also proposed where girls could buy a product online and then pick it up at a store to fulfil the request for a sense of freedom. In conclusion, the authors of the article summarized that working with fully connected customers and using emotional motivators is an excellent opportunity to increase ROI when developing a marketing strategy.
Article Analysis: Strengths
The strength of the article is that the authors presented a study that examined the phenomenon of emotional decision making. According to the theory of Haidt (2006), a persons consciousness can be divided into a rational and an irrational or subconscious part. In making decisions, people are usually guided by both sides of their personality or both parts of their consciousness. The rational part, which is located in the neocortex, in the framework of evolution, appeared much later. The irrational part, which is in the limbic system, appeared earlier. Besides, Haidt (2006) gives an example of an elephant and a rider, explaining that a person cannot easily control the irrational part of consciousness. Therefore, emotional motivators are a new term that characterizes the process of irrational decision-making.
Article Analysis: Options for Further Research
There are several factors influencing consumer behaviour, namely cultural, social, personal and psychological. These factors can be considered when developing a strategy to increase the segment of fully connected customers. Moreover, each of these factors creates an opportunity to classify emotional motivators. It is especially true for psychological factors since, through social media, brands gain access to direct communication with customers.
It is noteworthy that psychological factors include motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes. Motivation can be based both on rational beliefs and irrational or emotional desires. The level of rationality or irrationality can also be related to Maslows pyramid of needs. It is highly likely that the satisfaction of basic needs will be characterized by more rationality. The implementation of higher needs such as love, esteem and self-actualization may be less rational. Magids et al. (2015) gave examples of emotional motivators associated with the satisfaction of the basic need for safety, particularly the feeling of well-being and confidence in the future.
Article for Comparison, Summary
In his article for the Harvard Business Review Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers Needs? Sunil Gupta (2020) covered the topic of customer needs satisfaction. The scientist suggested that not all companies are genuinely customer-oriented even though they may think they are. The scholar gave four prime examples of customer-oriented companies that built their business by putting themselves in customers shoes. These are Filld and Booster companies, who deliver gasoline on demand, Rivigo, who invented new logistic rules for Indian truck drivers, and Hointer, who reinvented in-shop clothing purchases. Another example is DBS bank, which developed an app helping customers choose a house of their dream and then take out DBSs mortgage. All these companies have become successful by recognizing their customers and employees actual needs rather than implementing product- or service-centric marketing practices.
Comparing the Articles
The intersection point for articles by Magids et al. (2015) and Gupta (2020) is their focus on customers needs. Magids et al. (2015) revealed the importance of emotional motivators in attracting and retaining fully connected customers, highlighting them as a group, most important for increasing profits. In contrast, Gupta (2020) wrote an article from the customers perspective and presented the relationship between the company and the customer more clearly. Then, Magids et al. (2015) defined current marketing practices of utilizing emotional appeal when encouraging purchases and created an array of emotional motivators applicable to a great variety of products and customers. Guptas (2020) article is unique with his idea of rejecting far-fetched marketing techniques and moving towards the buyers true desires.
Conclusion
Thus, a review of the article The new science of customer emotions by Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon was provided. The articles main topic is the research based on the implementation of the strategy developed by the authors aimed to increase sales by expanding the group of fully connected customers. This research is consistent with Haidts (2006), Kahnemans (2011), and Solomon et al.s (2017) economic theories. In particular, the authors reveal ways to attract buyers based on their behaviour from a behavioural influence perspective on decision-making. The scientific article by Magids et al. (2015) was also compared with Guptas (2020) popular article. Both pieces are educative and innovative since they reveal a new perspective on customers needs.
Explain how Maslows hierarchy of needs works in detail. What type of needs did Hyundai target?
The need can be defined as physical or psychological scarcity. The needs encourage individuals to action. According to Maslow, the need that stays higher in the hierarchy can be fulfilled only when the lower needs are satisfied. In this way, the need for self-realization, self-esteem, belonging can be fulfilled in case the physical needs and needs for safety are met. In this way, the needs may be regarded as the motivational factors for the formation of human behavior.
Hyundai Motor Company targets the human needs that are placed on the top of the hierarchy esteem and self-realization. A car purchase is not a fundamental need; it is rather associated with psychological fulfillment and convenience. Hyundais Brand is focused on emotional elegance ( Brand Slogan par. 3). Therefore, the company targets consumers non-physical demands.
Distinguish between low-involvement and high-involvement buying decisions. Give an example for each of them
The level of involvement is defined by the level of individuals interest (Tanner and Raymond 95). The concept of involvement in buying decisions is related to the consumers behavior while the product is irrelevant to it. The low-involvement decisions are those that do not require a difficult or extensive thinking process from the individual. The routine and daily purchases are characterized by a low level of involvement: food, stationary, and toiletry. However, buying the same items may be regarded as high-involvement purchasing in case a person has a strong determination for it, or when he/she decided to buy a product through the process of critical thinking.
Explain in detail what marketing professionals can do to make situational factors work to their advantage
The situational or physical factors are related to the facility location, design, and layout. Physical factors such as temperature, light, atmosphere, etc. also influence human behavior to a large extent (Tanner and Raymond 73). marketing professionals may encourage consumers spending by creating a favorable climate and conditions in the stores. It is also important to pay attention to the layouts because a consumer may purchase more goods while wandering around the shop.
Why do culture, subculture, social class, and family affect buying behavior? Explain in detail
Each culture has its complex needs and commonly accepted norms that influence the behaviors of the community members. The needs and social norms may be regarded as the main motivational factors that inevitably influence buying behavior. The macro- (society as a whole) or micro-social (family, subculture, etc.) values are perceived by individuals from early childhood. Since the cultural values differ from culture to culture, some products will be more popular in one society and less demanded in another. For the increase of the marketing strategy efficiency, the professionals need to consider various cultural and social preferences of consumers and research multiple cultural factors. It is especially important for international marketing specialists.
Define subliminal advertising. Do you believe that companies attempts to implant subliminal messages in their advertising are deceptive practices and unethical
Subliminal advertising techniques promote the products while the recipients are not aware that they receive the advertising messages ( Subliminal Advertising par. 1). The companies may place the photos or ads in the movies or videos for a few milliseconds, and the audience may even not realize it. The effectiveness of the given technique is controversial because people perceive information in different ways, and its influence on the consumers behavior wasnt proved scientifically. Based on this, subliminal advertising can hardly be regarded as deceptive. Nevertheless, by advertising the products openly a company shows more respect to its customers by addressing them as conscious and smart individuals who make their buying decisions and choices in a reasonable and aware manner.
Works Cited
Tanner, John, and Mary Anne Raymond. Principles of Marketing, v. 2.0. Washington: Flat Knowledge, 2010. Print.
When we speak of humans having behaviours it means that humans have certain dispositional tendencies that, when activated, give rise to behavioural experience. Thus people have a dispositional tendency for the behaviour of excitement, but the behavioural experience of excitement has to be aroused if it is to be meaningful in peoples lives. Hence there are behaviours as latent dispositions to have certain types of experience and behaviours as the experiences themselves that affect peoples behaviour. Behaviours as dispositional tendencies are part of a persons makeup, while behaviours as experiences are apt to be short-lived. In this book we are not concerned so much with behaviours as dispositions; we focus on behaviours as experiences.
Whenever consumers are encouraged to have high expectations about a product, they are concerned when such expectations are not fulfilled hence the anger accompanying disappointment. If the anger is unexpressed, resentment can fester. A mental state can be pleasant (e.g., joy) or unpleasant (e.g., fear). These alternative states are the hedonic tone of behaviour. On the other hand, behavioural bodily processes are states of arousal, from calm to excite.
If we are to really understand the consumers behaviour, the object of the behaviour needs to be identified and analyzed to establish what attribute, characteristic, or property of the object is responsible for the arousal of behaviour. Consumer behaviour arises from highly negative or positive appraisals. We generally think of appraisals as highly cognitive, that is, as being thought generated and based on beliefs and wants. But there is a preconscious processing of inputs to the mind that screens for what interests and concerns us. If there is something that concerns us, there is an immediate nonconscious appraisal that gives rise to a reflex behaviour.
The process is perception behavioural experience, with no conscious cognition in between. If nothing in the processing of inputs concerns us, that is, does not relate in any way to what we value, there is nothing to activate the behaviours.
Behaviours are associated with autonomic physiological activity experienced (if at all) as feelings. It is typically assumed that having highly unpleasant or pleasant feelings involve high arousal. This need not be so, in that boredom, for example, can be very unpleasant when arousal is low. It may be, however, that for a behaviour to be motivating there must be high arousal accompanied by high pleasantness or unpleasantness. Although we talk of feeling happy, angry, guilty, embarrassed, frightened, or sad, we can have feelings of pain, nausea, and so on without these things being in any way connected to the behaviours. Feelings include bodily feelings, like feelings of stress, and feelings toward, like the warm feelings toward the object of love.
Literature Review
The output of a highly positive or negative appraisal always gives rise to feelings toward the object of concern. A consumers highly positive appraisal of a product is accompanied by a positive feeling toward the product. Without feelings toward the object, there would be no behaviour. When it is argued that behaviours need not involve feelings, the reference is typically to bodily feelings and not feelings toward the object of the behaviour. Of course, people are not always conscious of either their bodily feelings or feeling towards. Thus, as Goldie (2000) says, we can be afraid without being reflectively conscious at the time of our thoughts or feelings.
A traditional view is to treat behaviour as felt experience. Many writers talk about the need for marketers to create the right customer experience. This can be another way of discussing (behavioural) experiences. This has the advantage of being less abstract and more reality-focused than merely talking about behaviours and behavioural reactions. Barlow and Maul (2000) talk of experience providers providing behavioural value which they define as the monetary worth of feelings when customers experience an organizations product/services positively. However, there is always a need to fall back on behavioural concepts and what we know about behaviour if explanatory depth is to be achieved.
Behaviours give rise to a tendency to action. The feeling of anger gives rise to a tendency to aggression, though in the case of sadness the behaviour may simply be expressive, as in an expression of grief. Behaviours express themselves in involuntary facial displays and other physiological expressions like body posture. Thus an appraisal giving rise to fear can register on the face before the conscious mind can act to control the reaction. Hence we speak of reading someones face, and if we are political animals we need to acquire considerable expertise in this.
The most significant division in the behaviours is that between the universal, biologically driven behaviours of fear, anger, surprise, disgust, and sadness and the higher cognitive, culturally molded behaviours such as embarrassment, guilt, pride, and envy. There are a number of distinct approaches to conceptualizing and studying the behaviours that reflect this basic division, but a discussion of these approaches is not necessary for our purposes. One debate, though, is important for what we discuss later. In psychology and the consumer behaviour literature, there is debate about the primacy of affect over cognition versus that of cognition over affect.
Zajonc (1980) argues for the primacy of affect over cognition. By this he means that we experience behaviours before any conscious appraisal of the triggering stimuli has occurred, though beliefs about the triggering stimuli may happen in parallel with, or even as a direct result of, the behaviour arising. Behaviour on this view can arise through a simple reflex process. The work of neurologists like Damasio and LeDoux demonstrates that the initial appraisal of things that are tied to our values or core concerns is nonconscious and may be at variance with the more reflective (conscious) appraisal that occurs subsequently.
Damasio (1994) claims is that if a person is unable to attach positive or negative behaviours to his or her mental representations of proposed courses of action, then there can be no behavioural appraisal of the possible courses of action. Without such behavioural appraisal, people cannot decide what most concerns them. As a result there is an inability to reach a decision in serious cases. The idea that there is pure rational thought devoid of feeling is a myth. It is in fact commonly an insult to suggest that someone is this rational; one politician called another, to insult him, a desiccated calculating machine. The political consultant Roger
Ailes dismissed Michael Dukakis as that little computer heart who isnt going to know what hit him. Behind all this rhetoric is the same idea, the stigmatization of the unfeeling rationalist. This is not surprising, as our rational economic models tend to focus on technical and economic criteria, which, when deployed exclusively in the choice of policy, can alienate people.
One argument of those stressing the primacy of affect is that in our evolutionary past, conscious appraisal came too late for appropriate action; better first a nonconscious appraisal to fight or flight. From a marketing point of view, this idea coheres with the old adage that First impressions count, in that consumers, in the absence of other information in the immediate view, are apt to go along with a first gut reaction. What immediately resonates with the consumer behaviourally has a big impact on subsequent action. Popular expressions evoke this kind of unexamined visceral response, as in phrases such as kneejerk reaction or rush of blood. Thus consumers can be strongly swayed by brand image or associated factors.
Every conscious mental state has a qualitative character that we refer to as mood. We are always in a mood that is pleasurable or unpleasurable to some degree. It may be that bad moods relate to their being too little positive reinforcement in a persons current life and too many punishments. In any case, moods are distinguished from behaviours proper by not being tied to any specific object. But, as Goldie (2000) says, this distinction is not watertight, in that behaviours need not be directed at objects that are completely specific (we can be angry just at people generally) while there is always a sense of a mood having a general objective like the state of the world at large.
Moods manifest themselves in positive or negative feelings that are tied to health, personality, or perceived quality of life. Moods can also relate to the behaviours proper, as in the aftermath of an behavioural incident such as the failure to secure a loan. A mood on this basis is the minds judgment on the recent past. For Goldie, behaviour can bubble up and down within a mood, while an behaviour can involve characteristics that are non-object specific.
People generally can feel down or feel good as a result of happenings in the world around them. This represents the national mood. People feel elated when the national soccer team wins an international match or depressed when their team has lost. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are deeply influenced by the prevailing social climate. Marketers recognize the phenomenon and talk about the national mood being, say, for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change, though. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Toqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by the ostentation of material display; in the Gilded Age, sixty years later, many were only too eager to embrace a materialistic vulgarity.
The problem lies in anticipating changes in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from the buying of equities to the buying of houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should be interested in national events that are likely to produce a move toward a tense-tiredness state or toward a calm-energy state, since these are the polar extremes and so are more likely to influence behaviour. Artists sensitive to national moods express the long-term changes.
Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered. Under such conditions the mind falls into dwelling on the unpleasant, with a negative mood developing. Csikszentmihalyi argues that humans have a need to keep consciousness in an ordered state, and this experiential need to keep consciousness fully active is what influences a good deal of consumer behaviour. 45 Sometimes it does not matter what we are shopping for the point is to shop for anything, regardless, as consuming is one way to respond to the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.
To have a sentiment toward a brand or product is to have a strong positive feeling of liking for that brand. Strong brand loyalty involves behavioural sentiment. Having a choice makes for the expression of loyalty, as it provides an opportunity to be against alternatives disliked. If the product has attributes that are unique and of central importance to the consumer, together with risks attached to buying, the product is termed a high-involvement product, as being most likely to engage the consumer in deliberations when choosing. This is because high-involvement products are those that generate the most consumer concern.
Trust and sentiment are the ingredients of brand loyalty. In contrast to moods (but in line with behaviours), sentiments are not persistent conscious states but are dormant until aroused by the object of the sentiment. Behavioural sentiment ties into behavioural memory, in that memories have sentimental content. Every firm catering to the consumer should seek to develop an behavioural sentiment for the firms brand by fixing it in the consumers memory as part of a valued way of life. It is the vestiges of behavioural sentiment that allow the successful resurrection of old brand names, such as the revival of the name Buggatti.
It is ignorance of the behavioural sentiment that can attach to eminent brand names that leads to many such brands being dismissed as worthless assets. The behaviour still attached to the name Pan Am is not simply that arising from the Lockerbie air bomb atrocity.
Choices in real life are always the result of both individual preferences and situational pressures. This is one reason why it is easier to explain consumer behaviour after the event than to predict it in the first place. The survey method has the additional limitation of being ill equipped to measure variation across contexts; yet the researcher often needs to appraise responses in contrasting situations. Contexts and background are important. This is why Underhill criticizes store designers for skimping on dressing rooms which operate as an effective selling tool by providing an attractive background.
One prediction that can be made is that behavioural experiences will be the ones remembered. This is why we may act purely to savour behavioural experience. Entertainment is the classical example, but shopping for something new and exciting is an behavioural experience in itself. Impressionist painters focus attention on the experiences they have had with objects rather than on the objects themselves, and it is this that resonates with audiences. And behavioural experiences do influence actions.
Orthodox social psychology has an interest in folk psychology and studies it under the general label of social cognition. It claims people make inferences not just about the reasons or causes of behaviour but also about anothers personality. We agree that knowledge of a persons character in the circumstances can be important for prediction. But in folk psychology, it is commonly argued that certain traits seem to go together. This gives rise to a tendency to ascribe anothers actions to a character trait rather than circumstances.
Cognitive psychologists tend to be supportive of the theory-theory view of folk psychology because it fits their paradigm of internally represented knowledge structures, typically a body of rules or propositions. But Goldman (1995) points out that the knowledge-rich procedures in cognitive psychologys information-processing approach do not constitute the only paradigm, since cognitive science also posits knowledge-poor procedures, as when the mental processes posited are simply heuristics (rules of thumb). The simulation approach fits this knowledge-poor paradigm very well. Hence cognitive psychology supports both the theory-theory view and the simulation view.
The question of the nature of folk psychology cannot be resolved by a priori reasoning. There is a need for empirical investigation, and development psychologists have taken a lead in this, though the evidence so far is equivocal. Thus Gopnick and Wellman (1995) show that children over the age of five answer action questions in terms of wants and beliefs, not in terms of fears, fantasies, pains, and sensations, as we would expect if the simulation approach was valid.
And Perner and Howes conclude, from their studies, that the developmental evidence suggests that it is unlikely that children come to understand mental concepts like wants and beliefs by means of simulation but that these concepts are acquired by the formation of the prerequisite mental representations. On the other hand, Harris argues that children improve their grasp of folk psychology by means of a simulation process.
While agreeing that we routinely make attributions to others of beliefs, desires, behaviours, and other mental concepts, Harris argues that this does not imply any use of theory about the relationships between mental states themselves and mental states and action. While he also agrees that simulation could not anticipate that position effect would influence the consumers brand choice, he claims that this is because this influence is not governed by the decision-making process but arises through the right visual field exerting an unconscious dominance over the motor system.
Referent-seeking behaviour
It is argued on occasion that consumers live in a world of wishes and imaginings. For some postmodernists, ads that evoke images of satisfaction aim at filling the consumers mind with pure fantasy to stimulate buying in line with the fantasy. Baudrillard argues that our situation today is one of hyper reality, where distinctions are dissolved between objects and their representations, so we are left with only simulacra that refer to nothing but themselves.
For Baudrillard, a simulacrum is a copy of a copy for which there is no original. In the world of hyper reality, the only reality is TV ads and other signifiers, so media images become the reality, and any distinction between the real world and that of the pervasive media becomes eroded. Baudrillard argues that the use-value and exchange-value of products has given way to sign-value, where products become primarily symbols to be consumed and exhibited. Thus, for example, the consumer, through designer labels, consumes the symbols of power, status, and prestige. Baudrillard sees consumer society as a constellation of sign values that constitute a hierarchy of prestige.
He claims that the distinction between reality and unreality, as a consequence, has been eradicated. There is a breakdown of the distinction between the real and the imaginary, as the consumerist society, and the technology that goes with it, creates its own reality for marketing purposes. Rejecting any stable relationship between the signifier (e.g., product) and the signified (symbols of prestige), signs do not have a distinct referent to any reality. There remains only simulacra, as signs (e.g., in ads) lose contact with the things signified. Consumers are said to create their own reality. The world of the consumer is seen as composed of pure simulacra, or the hyper real, where just the signs themselves constitute the realm of experience. In a situation of strong hyper reality, the consumer is unable to separate reality from illusion.
On the other hand, in a situation of weak hyper reality, the consumer separates the two but prefers to remain with the illusion, with no distinction between the real and the representation. Poster claims that ads tend to mirror the fantasies of social groups, so the academic analysis of consumption needs to shift from the analysis of technical/economic factors to the linguistic categories of sign and signifiers. As TV controls the context of its message, even heroes can be created of villains.
We have no difficulty in seeing the role of fantasy in the life of the consumer. Womens magazines (and many mens) are all about fantasy and escapism. However, it is doubtful that readers are unable to separate the reality from the fantasy or that they read these magazines for their correspondence to the reality. If people could not distinguish between, say, the science fiction fantasies in films and reality, they would quickly find that life outside the cinema was impossible. And advertisers are not as influential as critics think, even among school children. There are always rival sources of information.
Studies discussed by The Economist (January 6, 2001, p. 65) found that children as young as six years of age understood the purpose of commercials and distinguished them from entertainment, while fantasy was distinguished from reality.
Many would agree that modern media can help to form as well as to mirror realities, but this does not result in a situation in which sign or image is everything. It cannot all be done with mirrors. In addition, as Velleman makes clear, our imaginings are typically accompanied by countervailing beliefs, embodying knowledge of the facts one is imagining to be otherwise. These countervailing beliefs are in constant competition with imaginings, as is the recognition that wishes are not in the realm of the attainable. It is just not true that consumer behaviour approaches being psychotic. But, of course, fantasies and wishes can lead to self-persuasion and action that is self-deceptive. One simple example is that of top designers putting small sizes on large clothes. The customer, pleased at finding she can get into a much smaller size of dress, is behaviourally driven into purchase.
Antecedence and Motivational Factors
Behaviours are triggered by the arousal and appraisal of anything that impacts on values. Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1988) view behaviours as valenced reactions to stimuli, that is, as reactions tied to appraisals or evaluations of desirability. This is much the same as saying that behavioural arousal arises from emotive stimuli being very positively or very negatively appraised against values. Ortony, Clore, and Collins distinguish three types of emotive stimuli, viewed typically as the object of the behaviour, that is, what the behaviour is about, as follows.
Anything that boosts self-esteem adds to pride. Obtaining what is perceived as a bargain can also give rise to a sense of pride, and so can finally managing, say, to obtain the status symbol of a sports car. In addition, there can be the behaviour toward others of admiration or of reproach. Admiring others, we seek that admiration ourselves through imitative behaviour. Similarly, there is a desire to distance from those we would reproach, and they become a negative reference group in buying. Actions are thus appraised in terms of their praiseworthiness. As praiseworthiness assumes some standard for assessment purposes, it relates to achievement as against expected performance.
Aspects, properties, attributes of objects. Whenever the consumer appraises some behavioural aspect or attribute of an object, like a product, there is a gut reaction of like or dislike. If an objects attributes are of concern to the consumer, there is no such thing as a neutral view but inevitably a judgment of liking or not.
Ortony et al. are obviously talking about first-level appraisals, as the consumer can be interested in the aspects, properties, or attributes of objects because they give rise to certain consequences. But Ortony et al. would rightly argue that the interest lies in the immediate reaction to consequences, actions, or aspects of objects. The more important the values against which consequences are appraised, the greater the intensity of the behaviour aroused (with intensity being a function of the size of the behaviour times its duration. )
Taylor focuses on belief rather than belief plus wishes (wants/desires) because she claims that wishes are reflected in the beliefs themselves. Gordon (1987) denies that this is soon the legitimate ground that it presupposes that desiring is always equivalent to believing desirable, which is just not so. As pointed out earlier, beliefs refer to how the world actually is, while wishes relate to how we would like the world to be. This is important for marketing.
For example, consumers desire to eat many food products that they do not believe are wholly desirable. A problem, therefore, is to ensure that customers see what they desire as also desirable, as when the candy manufacturer reduces the calories in a chocolate bar. This is at one with trying to get the consumer to buy without reservations so that there is no post purchase dissonance. Finally, Taylors focus on beliefs would presumably treat fantasies as perceived beliefs, though this ignores the claim that the biological function of belief is to track the truth.
When consumers experience the behaviour of pride, they feel they shine in the reflected glory of what they are proud of, because they believe that it is something esteemed in their social milieu. On the other hand, taking great pleasure in a possession does not mean necessarily taking pride in it. Something can give a great deal of pleasure (e.g., certain types of films or magazines) while one feels ashamed about the purchase. This means that one is buying with reservations. Goldie (2000) argues that pride involves feelings toward but not desires; this is just not so, since to take pride in something means we desire that state of affairs, as it is tied to self-esteem, in that whatever supports self-esteem is something of which to be proud. Ads that boost self-esteem are very common.
Pride is involved in securing a bargain. Obtaining what is perceived as a bargain is behavioural. Consumers feel pride in having come out on top beaten the system. There is also the excitement of shopping for a bargain. Similarly, when consumers obtain something that is scarce, they take pride in achievement. The more a seller suggests that something is scarce or unavailable, the more attractive it is. Some consumers will buy anything that appears to be only one left. Scarcity enhances desirability. Football tickets and the new, not-yet-generally-available car can increase their perceived value by seeming to be scarce.
The recognition of scarcity as a selling point leads to the practice by retailers of ensuring that display boxes of merchandise are never actually full. As Cialdini says, opportunities are more valuable to us when their availability is limited. As he illustrates, an imperfect postage stamp would have no value were it not for stamp collectors prizing scarcity. The behavioural focus is on the loss, as we are more concerned with losses than corresponding gains.
Thus it is much more effective to emphasize the loss from not insulating a home than to say how much could saved by insulating. Cialdini points out that when an item is scarce, we want it even more if there is competition to get it; witness the battles when department stores first open their doors at sale time. What is particularly interesting is Cialdinis claim that the joy lies not in experiencing the scarce product but in possessing it. In other words, the pleasure lies purely in possession, with the consumption experience very much secondary. This is an important caveat to the general rule stressing the consumption experience only.
When a consumer has pride in a possession, others are thought to envy him or her. Williamson claims that advertising often induces consumers to imagine themselves transformed by the product into an object of envy by others, which, in turn, justifies the buyer loving him- or herself! Veblens theory of the leisure class held that the desire to be wealthy arose because wealth helps one achieve esteem and the envy of others. This, of course, is not universally true. There are many wealthy people who go out of their way to avoid envy; they do not want to put themselves in a position of superiority to others and incur dislike and resentment. Elster (1999) regards envy as unique in being the only behaviour that no one wants to admit to others, as envy generates the suspicion: I am less because I have less.
For Elster, the cognitive antecedent of envy includes the belief that someone has something I want, together with the counterfactual belief that it could have been me. If this is so, what does Elster make of the sayings How I envy you or Im green with envy, which are common usages of the term envy ? He would argue that the meaning of any word is tied to context and that in these contexts the sayings are simply suggestive of admiration and not the behavioural state of envy. An alternative is to make a distinction between malicious and nonmalicious envy, as Goldie (2000) does. Elster is, however, right to argue that many cut off their nose to spite their face by excluding the most competent from holding once because of envy. On the other hand, many consumers do seek to attract nonmalicious envy: it is good for promoting a sense of self-worth.
Pride as a behaviour, as opposed to being a character trait (as when we speak of someone being a proud person), when excessive, leads to conceit or arrogance. A conceited person, for example, contrasts his or her achievements with what he or she believes to be the typical achievement of others within his or her social milieu and feels superior as a result. If one just takes such superiority for granted without seeing any need for evidential support, one is regarded as arrogant.
An arrogant person may resent praise as implying that he or she went beyond what others might have expected him or her to accomplish. Thus we have Sartre refusing the Nobel Prize with undisguised contempt for those who felt themselves in a position to do him honour. Advertising that is directed at our conceits and arrogance takes the form of assuming that its target audience knows what constitutes the best and takes it for granted as their due.
To feel shame is to feel exposed to condemnation by some real or imagined audience for breaking a taboo that people feel obligated to uphold. Such taboos are tied to culture. As Elster (1999) says, the Greeks felt shame over losing any competition and felt little shame in inducing shame in others in circumstances that would not be justified today. Elster points out that in shame, the tendency is to hide or run away. With guilt, the tendency is to make repairs, though it could be argued that this only occurs if the guilt is accompanied by remorse.
The alleged difference between Western culture and that of Japan has often been stressed in terms of the difference between guilt and shame cultures. In Japan the behaviour of shame is potentially pervasive, and the radical act of hara-kiri, or ritual suicide, is associated with it. When former taboos are no longer taboos (e.g., children outside marriage), there is no longer any sense of moral obligation or shame. To feel shame is the reverse of feeling proud. However, both behaviours view the situation as it is imagined that others might view it: as circumscribed by social norms. And what lies behind all social norms?
Elster argues that social norms are enforced by the behaviour of shame. People are indoctrinated to act in accordance with the social norms of society, or at least the norms of their social milieu, or otherwise feel shame. Elster gives the key role to shame in bringing about compliance with social norms. This is important, as Lal claims that non-Western countries, like those in Asia, can import the best of American technology and practices without undermining cultural values, as has occurred in Western societies. This is because Eastern cultures like Hinduism, Islam, and Confucianism are shame cultures with cultural mores enforced by social norms.
If advertising wishes to remove a sense of shame in the use of a product, the strategy is to show relevant reference groups indulging in the activity without shame. This was the strategy of the American cigarette ads in the 1920s that showed cigarettes being endorsed by the most socially prominent women in Europe. But commercial advertising is not generally involved in arousing feelings of shame, though it is common in not-for-profit and public service advertising that seeks (say) to stop abortion, cruelty to animals, drug-taking, and so on. Yet commercial advertising can be slanted toward triggering shame, as when ads make ethical claims about what constitutes responsible behaviour, like taking out a life insurance policy, with the implicit suggestion that the target audience should feel shame at not having done anything so far.
The desire to avoid embarrassment through being socially maladroit lies behind many actions. Even the so-called principle of reciprocity, whereby people feel an urge to repay any form of social debt, may be based on a desire not to be embarrassed. Embarrassment is commonly exploited in commercial ads, as it is intimately tied to personal morality, respect, and a sense of integrity. Shame is the deeper and more disturbing behaviour. While a person can feel both shame and embarrassment at the same time, embarrassment is always tied to a social context. As a consequence, embarrassment requires a socially appropriate response to remove it.
It is this failure to respond appropriately that perpetuates the embarrassment, since it is essentially a failure in perceived image management. Ads recognize this by suggesting ways of responding appropriately. In contrast, shame is not localized to any particular social context. And whereas embarrassment arises from someone perceiving that an action will be judged by others as socially maladroit, in the case of shame there is the feeling that ones self as a whole would be condemned.
Advertisers trade on the desire to avoid being judged as foolish by, say, smelling bad or wearing the wrong clothes. Entire industries have arisen to alleviate embarrassment that advertising has done much to arouse in the first place. Deodorants are a case that readily comes to mind. It is not that advertising created the want for deodorants. This would suggest that people had no underlying appetite for such a product or were motivationally empty until advertising came along to promote deodorants.
Advertisers simply persuaded consumers to give more weight to the problem. Advertising highlighted and dramatized the function a deodorant could perform in removing smells that could cause potential embarrassment ( Even your best friend might not tell you ). Advertising has been very adept at exploiting the social consequences of bad breath, acne, body door, and so on. And advertising can dramatize the worst social nightmares, such as the ex-girlfriend marching into a restaurant and pouring a plate of spaghetti over the head of the former lover and his new paramour!
The brand image, as a set of ideas conjured up by the brand name, can be very vague and even, on occasions, not adequate to determine a reference. In other words, it can be analogous to a mental image of gold that never gets beyond an image of a yellow metal that is precious, which is a poor guide to actually identifying gold. 1 Not all brand images have force to affect brand choice. There is a need to generate a memorable image, preferably revolving around the competitive or critical advantage of the brand.
The different facets of a brand image may have no coordinating core, just as the image of someone we know may evoke ideas of voice, dress, walk, eyes, and hair with no coherent picture. The image of a brand can be fragmented, not constituting a coherent whole in the mind of the consumer. Yet the consumer needs to have a grasp of the brand as a unitary whole that serves the functions for which the product is bought.
Although the memory of a product is an image, this image may be derived from actual experience of the real product. The behavioural aspects of that experience will dominate the image; hence the importance of ensuring that all experiences with a brand are highly positive.
A brand image can speak to the imagination in a way that drowns out whatever speaks for substance. This is because it can symbolize a promise to meet or exceed expectations while, at the same time, stressing what values the brand stands for. An old established brand with a fine image is like a habitual buy; it suggests less risk in buying and lots of credibility. The image of a successful brand is a promise of performance in the functions for which it is being bought.
The promise need not be in terms of superior performance in the core use function but in terms of enhancing self-identity or other intangible benefit. And not only products have brand images; celebrities do. Mick Jagger has registered his name as a trademark embracing 20 products. This goes beyond mere licensing deals, allowing celebrities to exploit their names in building businesses. If we accept that possessions project a social identity and assert something about the buyers themselves, signaling where buyers stand and what values they are attracted to, the concept of a celebrity being marketed as a brand is not surprising.
Trust in a brand is assessed by asking how much customers think they can trust the brand to fulfill the functions of interestalways most of the time some of the time almost never But the most basic question of all relates to loyalty: which buyers buy which brands and do so because they both trust the brand and have an behavioural attachment to it With what degree of commitment For what functions A loyal customer is not only devoted to the brand but sticks with the brand when it is at a competitive disadvantage, because there is faith that things will improve over the long term. In this sense, loyalty is a normative goal for brand managers rather than something routinely attainable. In fact, the consumer can be loyal to a cluster of brands. While this reduces the sentiment of consumers for any one brand, it does not necessarily lead to a reduction in trust for a brand.
Barlow and Maul claim (rightly) that the most important aspect of customers experience is behavioural, rather than satisfaction as measured in surveys of consumer satisfaction. They point out that such surveys do not provide the breadth or depth of information needed to assess performance or guide the company. Satisfaction simply suggests no serious complaints rather than an behaviourally pleasing experience, which needs to be the goal if loyalty is to be achieved. Surveys need to capture something more akin to the behavioural meaning or experiential significance the customer associates with the brand.
Conclusion
In practice, selling is an amalgam of persuasive skills and tacticsfor example, learning how to disagree without being disagreeable. We could teach sales trainees all that is known about the interpersonal influence process, but this would not necessarily make someone a good salesperson, since selling, like all skills, needs to be practiced. On the other hand, knowing something about the psychology of selling does provide the foundations for developing an overall strategy, even if success is tied to skills in implementation.
We have made no direct reference to physical beauty. Yet good looks are what most people think of when referring to someone being attractive. The attractiveness of physical beauty is a good illustration of the like ability heuristic and of acting on instant appeal. As Setoff points out, beauty is powerfully pleasing, and when we see someone beautiful, we typically stop evaluating, selecting, and criticizing so as to simply revel in the sight for just a moment. 31 In other words, we act on the behaviour of gut liking without cognitive evaluation. People are more likely to help the good-looking but less likely to ask them for help!
Consumers are satisfied with a promise if they feel confident that it will be honoured. This in turn depends on the credibility of those making the promise. A lack of credibility means a lack of trust, an absence that implies more risk. The credibility of an information source is important, whether that source is an individual, product, or company. Credibility and believability are often used as synonyms, though a communication source can be believable without being credible, as credibility suggests general believability. Credibility goes with persuasion, and a credible claim is one that consumers believe will be honoured. Usually a massive advertising campaign does provide some credibility, since it is perceived as the company putting its money where its mouth is. The aim is always to avoid a credibility gap : a disparity between what is being claimed and the facts on the ground.
Every promise in marketing, whether in an ad or on a package, has some company or human face behind it. For a person or an institution to have credibility, it must be perceived as trustworthy and as having the relevant expertise or capability needed to deliver on the promise. The way a sales or service person fields questions and the apparent sincerity of expressed views operate as indicators of credibility. Sincerity is assumed to go with trustworthiness and is the counterpart of authenticity in products.
In the literature on persuasion, persons with high credibility have more persuasive impactthat is, find an audience that is more predisposed to believe the claims they make. This is not so much an empirical proposition as a conceptual truth, since a source of high credibility must have more persuasive impact than a source of low credibility as a matter of definition. However, saying what is involved in establishing credibility is something different. A brands reputation supports its credibility, while integrity is part of credibility, as it implies trustworthiness and honesty. Unethical conduct, poor service, exaggerated promises, poor quality, and tacky marketing hurt credibility. On the other hand, a high reputation increases trust, and trust is an essential element in credibility.
Credibility and attractiveness are not completely independent, since attractiveness casts a halo over credibility. In any case, the reputation of many brands has more to do with its image than with performance. When a speaker in an ad relies on dogmatic assertion or assertive rhetoric, the appearance of sincerity is essential, as there may be little else to go on. To come across as insincere is to be judged by others as not presenting a true (authentic) self, which carries over into the belief that what is being asserted is also likely to be untrue.
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Vegetarianism has turned into a widely-spread philosophy within the past decades, engaging more and more people in a new lifestyle pattern. To understand the reasons underpinning the popularity of this movement, it is important to distinguish the triggers that make people turn into vegetarians. As such, it is suggested that vegetarians can be divided into flowing groups by their motivation: health-conscious, environmentally conscious, animal lovers, and trend followers. Each group has its own vision of vegetarianism that shapes its diet and other lifestyle attributes.
Health-related motives are among the most popular drivers that make people shift to vegetarianism. As such, it has been empirically evidenced that cutting down on the animal fats consumed helps to prevent such negative outcomes as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure, to name but a few (Weinstein 12). Therefore, vegetarian diets keep gaining popularity statistics reveals that 12% of the U.K. population follows a vegetarian diet, while many more people try to reduce consumed meat although they do not exclude it completely from the menu (Young-Powell and Gil par. 2). Thus, health-conscious vegetarians consider this movement as an effective way to improve their health.
Environmental motives are less evident than health-related concerns although they remain a powerful driver for some people. As such, environmentally conscious vegetarians believe that they help to prevent the destruction of natural resources, such as water and land, by refusing to consume meat (Weinstein 13). Otherwise stated, they aspire to impede the progress of cattle breeding that is associated with soil destruction. According to recent research, environment-related motivation, along with concerns about health, are the top triggers that make people turn vegetarians (Young-Powell and Gil par. 2). Unlike the previous group, environmentally conscious vegetarians associate this movement with a lifestyle philosophy rather than merely a diet.
Animal lovers are driven by similar motives as environmentally conscious vegetarians. However, while the latter is against cattle breeding because it destroys natural resources, the former strive to prevent the violence this industry implies. As such, they regard vegetarianism as a way to show their protest toward killing animals for food. Likewise, they aspire that their refusal to eat meat will gradually reduce the cost-effectiveness of cattle breeding. This group receives active support from Green parties that approve vegetarianism for the idea of sustainability that it translates to the world population (Young-Powell and Gil par. 4). Therefore, this group of vegetarians considers this movement as a way of expressing their social position.
Finally, some people resolve to become vegetarians because they are attracted by the growing popularity of this movement. The desire to follow modern trends commonly relates to young people who are open to new impressions and experiences. As such, trend-followers adopt the new lifestyle in order to keep up with their friends and acquaintances and to examine this philosophy from within. It is rational to suggest that this group of vegetarians is less likely to adopt this lifestyle for the long haul.
The review of the motivation classification helps to understand the essentials of vegetarians life patterns. It shows that their attitude toward this philosophy can vary significantly in accordance with the reasons underpinning their choice. As such, for some people, vegetarianism limits to a healthy diet, while others regard it as a way of helping the environment.
Works Cited
Weinstein, Jay. The Everything Easy Vegetarian Cookbook, New York, New York: F+W Media, Inc, 2015. Print.
Young-Powell, Abby and Natalie Gil. Should Everyone Become Vegetarian? 2015. Web.
Workplace motivation is one of the major determinants of the success of a business organization. Generally, a motivated workforce is associated with high productivity, commitment to the organization and creativity. This improves the competitiveness of the company (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88).
However, motivating employees is often a serious challenge in most companies. At my workplace, low motivation is attributed to high stress levels among the employees. The main causes of the stress include job insecurity, unmanageable workload and lack of growth opportunities. Even though the employees have fulltime work contracts, they are likely to be retrenched if the company is underperforming.
There are very few opportunities for promotion because nearly everyone in my department is a gifted engineer, and senior positions are limited. Thus, the competition for promotion is very high. In some cases, the employees work for long shifts but they are not paid for the extra time. The resulting increase in workload causes frustrations and stress among the employees. In this paper, a motivational plan will be developed to address this problem. The plan will be based on four workplace motivational theories.
The Motivational Plan
A quota-based program will be used to enhance the employees motivation. This program involves rewarding the employees who are able to meet or exceed their performance goals. Financial incentives and formal recognition will be used to reward the employees for achieving their goals.
The managers will collaborate with the employees in order to set high but achievable goals. These goals will be used as the metrics for measuring the employees performance. Periodic performance appraisals will be done through manager-to-peer reviews and peer-to-peer reviews. The employees who are not able to meet their goals will benefit from on-the-job training programs in order to improve their performance. This plan will work as follows.
Maslows Theory
According to Maslows theory, each employee has unique needs which can be met through appropriate incentives. Maslows need hierarchy include physiological needs, safety needs, love needs, esteem needs and self actualization (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88). An employees motivation improves if he or she is able to move from a lower level of need to a higher one.
In this regard, setting achievable goals will reduce the employees workload. Hence, the physiological needs will be fulfilled due to the fact that the employees fatigue will reduce. The financial rewards will motivate the employees to increase their productivity. The resulting improvement in the companys financial performance will guarantee job security (safety needs).
By supporting the underperforming employees through training programs, the social needs will be met. Concisely, the employees are likely to develop a sense of belonging if they are helped to overcome their weaknesses (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 193-207). Finally, formal recognition of excellent performance will boost the employees esteem. Consequently, the employees will realize their potential and strive to achieve challenging goals.
Alderfers Theory
Alderfer improved Maslows theory by classifying human needs into three groups namely, existence, relatedness and growth (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88). In this context, the physiological and safety needs belong to the existence need category. The social (love) needs belong to the relatedness need category. Finally, the esteem and self-actualization needs belong to the growth need category.
According to this theory, employees can be motivated if they are able to achieve the next higher or lower level of need (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88). In this regard, the quota-based program will help in reducing the dissatisfaction that is attributed to limited growth opportunities. There are only a few managerial positions which the employees are competing for. In this case, motivation can not be achieved through promotions due to the inadequacy of senior positions.
Thus, encouraging the employees to focus on the next lower need level is the best way to enhance motivation. In a nutshell, training programs will be used to improve the employees skills so that they can become experts in specific fields. Financial incentives will encourage creativity and skill improvement. Consequently, self-actualization and high motivation will be attained.
McClellands Theory
McClelland identified three types of needs namely, achievement, power and affiliation. The importance of these needs varies from employee to employee. Additionally, these needs determine the employees behavior.
The need for achievement is associated with excellence, competition and ambitious goals (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88). It is against this backdrop that the quota-based program will use formal recognition and financial incentives to facilitate excellence and competition. Furthermore, the high performers will be able to set challenging goals for themselves.
Regular performance appraisals will enable the employees to obtain feedback on their performance in regard to goal achievement. The need for power is characterized by the desire to change others. Thus, the employees who value this need will be identified as the change agents whose main responsibility will be to influence their colleagues to develop a positive attitude towards their work and the new motivational plan.
The need for affiliation is characterized by the desire to establish strong relationships with other employees. In this context, the training programs will be an opportunity for strengthening interpersonal relationships. The employees will be assigned to specific teams through which they will interact and learn from each other. Moreover, mentorship programs will be provided in these teams.
Herzbergs Theory
Herzberg categorized human needs into two groups; these include the need to avoid pain and the need for psychological growth. Fulfillment of these needs depends on the work conditions that exist in a given organization (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88). Work conditions that reduce pain lead to job satisfaction and high motivation among employees. In this regard, the proposed motivational plan will alleviate the employees pain by reducing their workload through achievable goals.
Additionally, the performance based incentive system will ensure that the employees are compensated according to their efforts. Recognition is also a motivational factor that will encourage the employees to improve their productivity. This will involve acknowledging the employees achievements and praising them for their efforts. Consequently, their motivation will improve.
Conclusion
Motivation helps in improving productivity through its positive effects on employees psychological health. Motivational theories identify the human needs that must be fulfilled in order to facilitate high motivation among employees. These needs are often met through motivational factors such as financial incentives, recognition and promotions (Nelson & Quick, 2012, pp. 75-88).
In the proposed workplace motivational plan, recognition and financial rewards will be used to improve the employees motivation by alleviating their work-related stress. These motivational factors will be complemented by training programs that will enable the employees to achieve their goals.
References
Nelson, D., & Quick, J. (2012). ORGB 3 Student Edition. New York: South-Western Collage Pub.
Every day we wake up and engage in various activities aimed at achieving different goals using different strengths. This is made possible by motivation which is defined as the force which energises, sustains and directs behaviour of human beings or animals to specific goals. These forces are known as motives or drives underlying human behavior.
Motivation is also the process of influencing or guiding the behaviour of people in order for them to achieve certain results which they may not achieve without the influence or guidance. Motivation takes place in various settings and sectors such as in education and sports as well as in service organizations. A person who is motivated is able to achieve better results and overcome certain challenges which a person who is not motivated may not (Health tree, 2010).
There are two types of motivations. Intrinsic motivation comes from a persons psych while extrinsic motivation comes from external sources such as rewards (Health tree, 2010).
Psychologists have been in disagreement as to whether extrinsic motivation interferes with intrinsic motivation, with some arguing that the two are independent and others arguing that extrinsic motivation can adversely affect intrinsic motivation (Tauer, 2009). The complexity of motivation has resulted into different theoretical explanations majority of which tend to focus on the biological, cognitive and social factors that influence human behaviour.
There are four categories of motivation theories and they include classical theories, the human relations theories, the neo human relations theories and the systems theory. Classical theories include the scientific management theory by Taylor, the bureaucratic theory by Max Weber and the administrative theory by Fayol.
Human relations theories constitute mainly of the Hawthorns studies by Elton Mayo while neo human relations theories comprise mainly the Maslow hierarchy of needs theory, MacGregors theory X and theory Y and the hygiene theory by Herzberg. The systems theory constitutes the human relations theory, situational or contigency theory, the social technical theory and the goal setting theory.
Among all these theories, the goal setting theory which falls under the systems approach is the best suited to describe employee motivation at Infosys, a software company based in India since 1981. The company was established on the philosophy of professionalism in the companys operations and service delivery as well as motivating employees through proper remunerations.
After its formation, the company experienced some challenges in picking up but with the resilience and persistence of the cofounders, it started growing in an exponential manner. The company was consequently ranked as the best employer in India. This was due to the fact that it paid the employees well and also included other incentives for employees motivation. A lot of training was also undertaken by the company so as to add value to the employees (DeLong, Tandon & Rengaswamy, 2005).
As the company grew and expanded, the management saw the need to change its human resources management from collective employees motivation to motivation based on individual employees performance. This was necessary for the company to meet the ever increasing demand of services and competition from multinational corporations, which were offering better packages than Infosys (DeLong, et al, 2005).
The company introduced variable pay, which involved giving incentives to employees based on their performance. This was aimed at maximizing the potential of hard working employees while adequately motivating them as well as saving on the incentives initially given to low performing employees.
The idea was to enable hard working employees to earn as much as they could, which was believed to reduce employee turnover. It also introduced promotion based on the rationale of the promotion, individuals performances as well as the employees abilities.
As explained in the above case, the theory is applicable in form of variable pay. This is a situaion in which employees are remunerated based on their performance. I can apply the theory by having a basic uniform salary for all employees as well as by introducing other incentives like working overtime or the combination of more than one task by employees at any given time.
One advantage of the theory is that it enables employees to increase their wages and complete their work in an efficient and effective manner. Due to high levels of employee motivation, organizations are able to improve on quality because employees dedicate all their efforts in the tasks allocated to them.
One disadvantage of the theory is that it may lead to conflict between the management and the employees especially when employees goals and those of management are not compatible. Employees may lack specific skills and competencies to perform some complex tasks. In such situations, the employees may engage in risky or unethical behaviours in an attempt to achieve those goals.
This may in turn compromise the quality of services offered by an organization. Lastly, there is no research which has proved that goal setting increases job satisfaction, meaning that the employees do not get the intrinsic value of work.
One of the motivational perspectives reflected in the London based BSG Electrical Ltd is teamwork. The management gives the employees the leeway to divide their work into small achievable tasks which are undertaken by a group of employees.
The idea is to replace the persons culture (characterized by a feeling of superiority among the employees who think that they are very valuable to the organization) with task culture (characterized by the formation of groups of people with some expertise or knowledge to perform some specific tasks) (Lundy & Cowling, 1996).
The other motivational perspective used by BSG Ltd is encouraging employees to work responsibly without any supervision. It also welcomes and encourages employee flexibility, creativity and innovations as they discharge their duties. The organization abolished all rules and regulations which emphasized more on procedures and regulations and replaced them with rules which emphasized more on the end product of work irrespective of the means and procedures used to arrive at a particular result.
BSG Ltd also revised the remunerations of the employees upwards so as to increase their motivation. This reduced employee turnover which was very costly especially in terms of recruitment. High employee turnover meant that the organization was losing resources used in training and coaching the employees who ended up leaving the organization with the knowledge and training (Shim, 2010).
BSG Ltd also focuses on the work environment by ensuring that it is more conducive and attractive to the employees. The organization has in place some social benefits schemes like payment of various forms of insurance like medical cover, provision of a loaning system for advancement of employees education, career and training as well as other benefits like provision of leave allowances or taking the employees for paid holidays. These increases the employees loyalty and commitment to the organization and consequently reduces the turnover rates (Furnham & Gunter, 1993).
The use of corporate incentives has the implication of increasing the levels of motivation among employees. This happens as a result of increased wages which employees get through various incentive plans within organizations. Through the use of corporate incentives, organizations are abe to increase productivity among the employees which helps them to attain their goals in an efficient and effective manner.
References
DeLong, T.J., Tandon,J & Rengaswamy, G. (2005). Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resource Management. Harvard Business School. Web.
Furnham, A., & Gunter, B. (1993). Corporate culture: definition, diagnosis and change. In Cooper, C.L., Robertson, I.T. (Eds), International Review of Organizational Psychology,John Wiley, Chichester, 8, pp. 233-234.
Health tree. (2010). Science of Motivation. Web.
Lundy, O., & Cowling, A. (1996). Strategic human resource management. London,UK: Routledge.
Shim, M. (2010). Factors influencing child welfare employee s turnover: focusing onorganisational culture and climate. Children and Youth Services Review,32, pp.847-849.
This project will analyse findings of an investigation on how PGL, a freight company, employs deferent aspects of motivational aspects to maintain its efficacy in maintaining optimum organizational performance.
Organizational performance depends on the efficacy and competency of each employee of the organization who collectively form the organization. Employees depend on a right combination of stimuli to be effective.
Management is mandated with the task of motivating employees and this depends on the knowledge and execution method of the management practice. The main tasks of management include reducing employee turnover in the company to retain the organizational knowledge that is important for its competitiveness.
With this retrospection, managers seek to deploy the best stimuli strategy that will keep their employees motivated and committed to the organization for a long-term. The project will use the Decision Making Process as a methodology.
This approach has eight distinctive stages namely problem identification, identification of decision criteria, allocation of weights and criteria, development of alternatives, analysis of the alternatives, selection of alternatives, implementation of alternatives and evaluation of the decision process.
The project will have primary and secondary data categories. Primary data will comprise interview records. The interviews shall be in depth and will be complemented by questionnaires and personal observations.
Secondary data shall be obtained from a literature review study, company records, and theories on motivation available offline and online on the internet. This project will offer a definition and a discussion to aid the reader in understanding the motivational problem that is present in the PGL workspace.
Secondly, it shall offer a Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Timeliness (SMART) breakdown of PGL management objectives that relate to motivation and retention of staff.
Introduction
This project deliberates the effectiveness of the stimuli used by Pacific Gate Logistics Ltd (PGL) management in motivating its employees. Pacific Gate Logistics Ltd is an international freight forwarding company located in Airport Oaks, Auckland.
It is a small company but has other offices in Australia, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia. This project focuses on the New Zealand office. The project is a research that will incorporate theories of Maslow and Herzberg among others to present the theoretical background of motivation and employee performance in organization.
The project aims to present a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats (SWOT) analysis of the motivational strategy that is used by management at PGL. In addition, the project will provide a discussion on the SMART approach aspects that are incorporated into the motivational strategy of PGL.
Specifics involve actual training and development initiatives that PGL management uses as the stimuli for staff motivation. Measurability will highlight the instance of review of the management strategies and the parameters measured to evaluate the effect of the motivational strategy.
Achievability looks at the viability of the timeframe given for the implementation of motivational strategies. The aspect will also evaluate PGL managers understanding of limitation of their objectives. Realistic examines the pragmatisms of the objectives PGL motivational strategy in relation to the companys resources.
Time-bound will look at the urgency of the instances of progress measurement as outlined in the PGL motivational strategy (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter, 2006).
A theoretical background of the organizational motivation theory and its relation with employee effectiveness and commitment will be provided to link the findings of the study with the present literature on the subject. The review will also identify research gaps that will be focused on in this study.
This study is informed by the need to provide empirical evidence of the motivational theory as outline by Maslow and Herzberg, in addition the study findings of this project will confirm the hypothesis that there is a motivational strategy implemented by the management of PGL. The project will uncover factors that validate the hypothesis in the positive or negative.
Reference
Robbins, S. P., Bergman R., Stagg I. and Coulter M. (2009).Foundations of Management (3rd.ed.). Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.
Employees are a significant asset to the organization; therefore, it is crucial to motivate employees and resolve conflicts wisely within an organization to achieve remarkable performance. Different organizations apply motivation theories differently to stimulate the interest of employees.
It is essential to understand the theories of motivation first, before determining their application in different organizations. Abraham Maslow explains that employee motivation comes through a hierarchy of needs. The highest point of motivation for employees is the point where management meets the self-actualization needs of employees (Cofer, & Appley, 1967, p.231).
On the other hand, the lowest needs are the physiological needs. Theory X assumes that people do not want responsibility and try to avoid work. In contrast, theory Y assumes that people are anxious to take responsibility and strive to work. There is also the two-factor theory by Herzberg that explains motivation.
Some organizations motivate employees by giving challenging tasks that enable them to develop. Employees value challenges and freedom to perform difficult tasks than their salaries. Although money is a strong motivator, organizations that provide challenging work to employees motivate them better.
Other organizations motivate employees by providing self-actualization needs according to the hierarchy of needs theory. Employees get their ultimate motivation at their self-actualization point and, therefore, organizations that use this motivation method get commendable performance from employees.
Organizations also use motivators and hygiene factors to improve performance. Motivators include responsibility and challenging work, which lead to job satisfaction and eventually exemplary performance in work (Cofer, & Appley, 1967, p.313).
The hygiene factors consist of salaries and bonuses even though they do not necessarily cause motivation if present; however, their absence causes lack of satisfaction. Organizations apply this theory to motivate employees and improve performance.
Organizational Trends
High performance organizations and traditional organizations differ regarding operational effectiveness. Operational effectiveness refers to the number of practices that an organization uses to produce intended results. High performance organizations use practices such as benchmarking to determine their level of performance compared to other organizations of the same level (Robbins, & Judge, 2009, p.111).
These organizations also use total quality management and the balanced score card to determine their performance. These are best practices that high performance organizations use to stay at the top in their organization. In contrast, traditional organizations use old strategies to operate effectively. These organizations hardly achieve effectiveness in their operations because the strategies cannot work in the contemporary society.
To reduce workplace stress, high performance organizations use a variety of mechanisms. These organizations give employees opportunities to give opinions on matters affecting their job so that they can reduce stress. These organizations also use a participative style of leadership where employees discuss their problems and get help.
This provides an opportunity for employees to interact and share their problems reducing workplace stress. In contrast, traditional organizations hardly care about their employees. They do not discuss employee problems thereby leading to lack of motivation for these employees. In the end, the organization performs poorly in its operations.
High performance organizations are dynamic in their operations. They incorporate effective communication, conflict management, and motivation methods to deal with issues in the organization (Robbins, & Judge, 2009, p.145). These organizations eventually perform better and achieve their goals.
In contrast, traditional organizations are not diverse in their policies. They could have effective conflict management methods but fail in their way of communication. This way, they cannot achieve high performance in their operations. It is necessary for an organization to be dynamic to ensure employee motivation and high performance in the overall organization.
References
Cofer, C.N., & Appley, M. H. (1967). Motivation: Theory and Research. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational behavior. (13th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.