Motivation Theory - Similarity of Maslow Motivational Needs and Lockes and Lathams Goal Setting theory

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Introduction to motivation

We all need some a psychology/mental drives to achieving set of needs. This drives could be our reactive responses to situations, the incentive that drives people to behavioural response are sometime innate or acquired as a result of their experiences.  The stimulants are our motive of doing whatever we doing at a particular point in time. These motives vary from individual, teams and organisations. For some people, their motives (drives) for going to work is to earn plenty of money; for some it is basically for job satisfactions and the working environments. In management term this drive is also called motivation.

“Motivation is the result of the interaction between an individual and situation. Motivation can be defined as the process that form individual intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal” (T.R Mithell 1997).

From the above definitions, motivation is defined simple as our interaction with what we are engaged in. What drives us to doing it, what make us more persistence in doing it and what goals we set out to achieve in the situation. Motivation is our inner enforcement that constantly drives us on towards achieving set-out goals and objectives.

In work environment motivation is the extent to which individual/group engaged by their job roles. From the study of different motivation theories, it is a known fact that work performances are directly linked to the psychological satisfactions derived from his/her engagement with the tasks at hand or situation.

Prominent writers on the field of management and psychology such as Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor, Stacey Adams, Vroom, Nohria dedicated some of their work to explaining the meaning of motivation and its effects on work environments and daily occurrences/situations.

Due to words count constraint, this essay will be dedicated to explaining just the Maslow’s theory (contest theory) and Locke’s Goal-setting theory (process theory) of motivation. Comparison will be making and there functionalities/effectiveness in work or real life situation will be dealt with later.

Content Theory of Motivation (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

Content motivation theory is based on drives and needs. It is called content theory because it deals with the substance that motivates behaviours. This theory focused on what drives us to behaving the way we behave. Unless stated by the individual concerned, the drive is often concealed from others; it is hard to quantify what motivated people.

The hierarchy of needs was developed by American psychologists Abraham Maslow in the 1940s. This hierarchy of needs is popularly known as Maslow’s needs theory of motivation. It is the most frequently mentioned content theory by academia, motivations speech writers, managers etc.

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Influenced by human relations school, Maslow argued that human beings are “wanting” animals: They have the desires to satisfy a given set of needs (Ricky W. Griffin and Gregory Moorhead, p.86).  Maslow viewed human needs as climbing a ladder from the bottom to the top and he concluded that once one set of needs is satisfied, human unconsciously moved to the next step of the hierarchy ladder. For example, once the needs for food are satisfied, human tends to be energised and motivated enough to pursue the safety needs.

Maslow’s also believed that needs ceased to be a motivator once ...

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