Human Resources and Organizational Behavior
People questions blend motivation, leadership and measurement. Know the motivation theories and their limits: Maslow's hierarchy is intuitive but weakly supported; Herzberg separates hygiene factors (pay, conditions - they only prevent dissatisfaction) from motivators (achievement, recognition, growth); Vroom's expectancy theory links effort to performance to outcome through expectancy, instrumentality and valence; Adams' equity theory says people compare their input-output ratio with a referent; Locke's goal-setting theory requires specific, challenging goals with feedback. On leadership, distinguish transformational from transactional, and know situational and servant leadership. Teams move through forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. In HR practice, structured interviews and work samples predict performance better than unstructured interviews; use 360-degree feedback and calibration; distinguish engagement from satisfaction; and watch for halo, recency and similarity bias.
Traps: assuming pay is the top motivator; reading correlation between engagement and performance as causation; confusing overall turnover with regrettable turnover; expecting a hygiene improvement to create motivation.
Worked rule: replacement cost of an employee is commonly estimated at 50 to 200 percent of annual salary, so a retention program costing less per leaver is usually justified.
Example: an employee who believes effort reliably produces performance but sees rewards go to a favourite has low instrumentality - fix the reward link rather than sending the person to training.