Motivation. Douglas McGregor in his book; The Human Side Of enterprise, examined theories on behaviour of individuals at work, and he has formulated 2 models, which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.

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AS and A Level Business Studies

Alix Dash

Motivation

Its often said that the best businesses have the best motivated workers, because well-motivated employees are usually characterised by: Higher productivity, better quality work with less wastage, a greater sense of urgency, more employee feedback and employees working at 80-95% of their ability. De-motivation can lead to low productivity, poor production, strikes/industrial disputes and complaints about pay and work.  There are many theories that are available to businesses to improve the performance of their workers; I have looked at these below:

Douglas McGregor

Douglas McGregor in his book; “The Human Side Of enterprise”, examined theories on behaviour of individuals at work, and he has formulated 2 models, which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X Assumptions:

  • People inherently dislike work
  • People must be controlled to do work to achieve objectives
  • People prefer to be directed

Theory Y Assumptions:

  • People view work as being as natural as play and rest
  • People will exercise self direction and control towards achieving objectives they are committed to
  • People learn to accept and seek responsibility

McGregor realises that some of his theories he has put forward are unrealizable in practice, but wants managers to put into operation the basic assumption that; Staff will contribute more to the organisation if they are treated as responsible and valued employees.

Frederick Herzberg

Frederick Herzberg, contributed to human relations and motivation with 2 theories of motivation as follows:

  • Hygiene Factors
  • Motivation Factors

Herzberg analysed the job attitudes of 200 accountants and engineers who were asked to recall when they had felt positive or negative at work and the reasons why.

Herzbergs’ first component in his approach to motivation theory involves what are known as hygiene factors and includes the work and organizational environment. These hygiene factors include:

  • The organisation
  • It’s policies and administration
  • The type of supervision people receive while on the job
  • Interpersonal relations
  • Salary
  • Status
  • Job Security

These factors do not lead to higher levels of motivation, but without them there is dissatisfaction.

The second component in Herzbergs’ approach to motivation theory is related to what people actually do on the job. The motivators are:

  • Achievement
  • Recognition
  • Growth/Advancement
  • Interest in their job

Both these approaches must be done simultaneously; treat people as best as you can so they have a minimum of dissatisfaction.

There is a similarity between Herzbergs’ and Maslow’s models. They both suggest that needs have to be satisfied for the employee to be motivated. However Herzberg argues that only the higher level of Maslows’ hierarchy (e.g esteem needs), act as a motivator.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who originally studied the way in which monkeys behaved and then applied these studies to an examination of how humans behaved and what motivated them. He saw a hierarchy of needs, where it was generally necessary to meet one set of needs before the next higher need and created a pyramid to illustrate this.


For employers and managers, recognising and providing these needs was the way to motivate workers and increase productivity and efficiency and improve the working environment.

The needs at bottom need to be satisfied before you can progress up the pyramid.


Elton Mayo

Between 1924 and 1933, Elton Mayo, an Australian undertook a series of studies into staff productivity at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in Chicago at the request of the company. They developed into one of the largest investigations into motivation and employee attitudes at work that has ever been undertaken. Four major studies were carried out by Mayo and other researchers from Harvard University.

Flowing from the findings of these investigations he came to certain conclusions as follows:

  • Work is a group activity
  • There is need for recognition, security and sense of belonging
  • The worker is a person whose attitudes and effectiveness are conditioned by social demands from both inside and outside the work plant.
  • Informal groups within the work plant exercise strong social controls
  • Group collaboration does not occur by accident; it must be planned and developed.

Victor Vroom

Vroom's theory assumes that behavior results from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The key elements to this theory are referred to as Expectancy (E) and Value (V).

  • Value- The satisfaction that an individual derives from a particular activity- the value that an individual associates with a particular outcome.
  • Expectation- Will the employee be rewarded for the outcome? The expectation that the employee has about the outcome of the particular activity.

Taylor

Taylor developed his theory of "scientific management" as he worked his way up from a labourer to a works manager in a US steelworks.

From his observations, Taylor made three key assumptions about human behaviour at work:

  • Man is a rational economic animal concerned with maximising his economic gain;
  • People respond as individuals, not as groups
  • People can be treated in a standardised fashion, like machines

Taylor had a simple view about what motivated people at work - money. He felt that workers should get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and that pay should be linked to the amount produced. Workers who did not deliver a fair day's work would be paid less. Workers who did more than a fair day's work/exceeded targets would be paid more.

The implications of Taylor's theory for managing behaviour at work were:

  • The main form of motivation is high wages, linked to output
  • A manager's job is to tell employees what to do
  •  A worker's job is to do what they are told and get paid accordingly

Motivation in the workplace

Join now!

I will now look at how some of these motivational strategies are used within organisations today.


I have chosen to research the company Egg…..

Egg is the world’s largest pure online bank, established in 1998. It has a reputation for innovation in financial services and was set up in the demand for a more flexible approach to banking. Today, it has more than 3.7 million customers; offering credit cards, loans, saving accounts, investments, mortgages and insurance.

Egg knows its performance will determine its success in winning and keeping the confidence of its customers; Motivated and happy ...

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Motivation. Douglas McGregor in his book; The Human Side Of enterprise, examined theories on behaviour of individuals at work, and he has formulated 2 models, which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.
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    AS and A Level
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    Business Studies
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