Content and process theories of motivation

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Content and process theories of motivation

Introduction into motivation

In this essay the writer is going to explore the concept of motivation, this is hopefully going to be achieved through exploration of the complex and variable nature of needs and expectations. Formal and informal theories of motivation will be discussed, focussing on the former. Mainly but this will involve mainly the formal theories because these are the ones that content and process theories fall under. Content and process theories of motivation will be evaluated with particular emphasis on the links between motivation and leadership. The writer will compare the various content theories and process theories. Finally writer also aims to compare the various content theories and process theories this will be done by brief illustration of the main ones and analysis of the most influential ones since some of the theories are similar in nature.

Motivation is one of the most crucial skill that a manager needs to have it is the reason why it has to be studied it could be described as a leadership skill because a good leader has to be able to motivate their staff; firstly we need to know what motivation is. Motivation is " a set of processes that moves a person towards a goal, thus motivated behaviours are voluntary choices controlled by the individual employee." The reason an employer motivates their employees is to get the most out of them as in better work quality because there is a link between motivation and performance better motivated staff will put in more effort. The reason they will do this is because they are after something content theories will argue that individuals are motivated mainly because they want to satisfy their needs. On the other hand process theories will argue that the reason staff are motivated in a work situation is because they have expectations that effort will result in a satisfying outcome I will explain the exceptional theories later these are the basis of the process theory.

There are two main overall categories of theories of motivation these are formal and informal theories of motivation informal theories are based on assumptions of managers these are the assumptions on what motivates staff. These are theory X and theory Y types of management the basis of these is that theory X managers believe staff are not motivated enough and dislike work and responsibility, theory Y managers believe the opposite that staff are motivated and seek responsibility. The other assumption-based theory is the social assumptions. The Fredrick Taylor theory of motivation also falls under the assumption based theories it is assumed that by Taylor money is the only motivator and the last main assumption based theory was the hawthorn studies about the impact of social relations on motivation. The Hawthorne studies are very important because Fredrick Herzberg (1969) who did a formal theory to motivation based some of his ideas from the Hawthorne studies.

The formal theories of motivation

The formal theories of motivation fall under three main headings these are content theories, process theories and reinforcement theories.

Content theories consist of four major theories that are going to be evaluated to give a deeper understanding to what content theories are all about. These theories are Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Alderfer's modified need model Herzberg's two factor theory and McClelland's motivational theory. These are described in Mullins (2005) as theories as concerned with identifying people's needs and their relative strength, and the goals they purse in order to satisfy those needs people's needs. These content theories of motivation are need-based theories. A need is an individual's desire.
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Knowledge of the theories is not enough we also have to understand how they are applied in an organisation; the best way to motivate staff is from having a leader. When we think about it you can either be self motivated this is motivation from within as an individual or someone else can help in motivating us this is where a leader comes in it is their job to motivate their staff in an organisation, in a leadership sense it is one of the main functions or skill a good leader has to have this ability to motivate ...

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