Motivation & Performance

Full course description

Performance and motivation are central themes in the field of work and organizational psychology. For organizations, it is important that employees can perform in an optimal way, and in this course we will address factors that influence the performance and motivation levels of employees, while at the same time also taking the perspective of the employee by also focusing on the link between performance and wellbeing. Hence, this course focuses on the factors that affect employee performance and motivation in the work environment. Students will learn about different factors that influence performance and motivation and they will develop an understanding of different topics with a focus on the underlying models and theories, and the employed methodologies and measurement instruments.
The first part of this course focuses on motivation and effort regulation. Different types of motivation will be discussed, as well as motivational theories. Related to this, the role of mental effort and resources will be discussed. Next, the focus will be on (interruptions on) work flow and the role of concentration. We will also discuss different types of performance (such as organizational citizenship behaviour and  counterproductive work behaviour). Students will study the concept of job performance not only as a static construct, but also as a dynamic process, in which we will focus on learning and adaptation. Lastly, the link between performance and wellbeing at work will also be discussed.