This theory is more of continuum, where more than one need may be activated at the same time. Alderfer believed frustration could occur. This is where regression happens. If a person is frustrated while attempting to satisfy a need, other needs may become more important to the person.
Results for this theory show that unlike with Maslow, lower level needs don’t need to be satisfied before higher-level needs become influential.
Herzberg’s motivation – Hygiene theory
Herzberg studied 203 accountants and engineers, asking for reasons and descriptions for why they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs at specific times. It turned out there are separate factors effecting motivation - Hygiene factors
- Motivators
These make up Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation.
Hygiene Factors – If these are absent they cause dissatisfaction. They are concerned with the job environment and content. They prevent dissatisfaction. Dealing with the Hygiene factors however does not give you satisfaction or motivate you in any way. (2)
Motivators – These motivate the person to superior effort and performance and are related to the job content and work itself. The strengths of these will affect feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction (1)
This theory is more directed towards work and therefore is more relevant. His conclusion however is only one of the theories that could have been drawn from the results. What could cause job satisfaction with one person could cause dissatisfaction with another, so his theory is seen as an oversimplification.
McClelland’s Achievement motivation theory
He investigated the relationship between hunger needs and the extent to which imagery of food dominates the thought process. He identified for main arousal based motivators.
-Achievement motive
-Power motive
-Affiliative motive
-Avoidance motive
The intensity of each one is different for each person. Managers have been found to be higher in Power motivation than affiliation. (2)
A person with strong achievement needs normally has the following characteristics. (1)
Task difficulty and goals – Having moderately difficulty tasks to do proves that they can do better. A difficult task is too risky as it reduces their chance of success in achieving their satisfaction. However if it is too easy, there is no challenge and so little satisfaction is gained.
Personal responsibility for performance – gaining satisfaction through their abilities and efforts rather than through teamwork.
Clear and unambiguous feedback – knowledge of results is necessary for self-evaluation. The feedback a person receives can determine success or failure.
More innovative – Always moving towards something a little more challenging to achieve satisfaction. However people here are likely to cheat.
This knowledge helps to understand the attitude of high achievers.
Process Theories of motivation
Process theories attempt to identify relationships between variables, which make up motivation. People want to see what actions are required to influence behavior.
There are four main theories:
-Expectancy based models
-Equity theory
-Goal Theory
-Attribution theory
Expectancy Theory
People are influenced by what they expect to receive from their actions – the expectation of reward. Performance therefore depends on their expectations. There are three main theorists for expectancy theory.
-Vroom
-Porter and Lawler
Vroom – He was looking at work motivation and found three key variables, valence, instrumentally and expectancy. His theory is that people prefer certain outcomes rather than others. Different things receive different valences. However the anticipated satisfaction is different from the actual outcome. He found differences between first and second level outcomes. First level outcomes are related towards performance whilst second level outcomes are related to needs.
Tests however show little support for the model
Porter and Lawler – They developed vroom’s theory. They consider performance as a whole. They believe that effort does not lead to performance and so introduce rewards as variables. They see satisfaction and performance as separate variables and so attempt to explain relationships through this. They believe that it is performance that leads to job satisfaction rather than the other way around.
Tests do support the theory however they also find many problems and faults. One of these is that it is a hard theory to apply, as there are so many variables which effect behavior. Expectancy theory draws attention to the difficulties of work motivation. It does however show certain points that managers should pay attention to.
-Using reward appropriate for the performance
-Establish clear relationships between effort, performance and rewards.
-Explain clearly how evaluation will take place
-Pay attention to variables
-Minimize undesirable outcomes
(1)
Equity theory of motivation
Equity theory is applicable to the work situation and it is normally associated to the work of Adams.
It focuses on people’s feelings and how they compare their treatment from superiors and colleagues to other people’s treatment. It concentrates on the premise that people expect certain outcomes in return for certain inputs and also that people’s relationships can depend highly on this concept.
A person determines what they deserve for their performance and their feeling about their actual rewards is affected by how they feel others are received.
When the perceived outcome is equal to the received outcome then a person has equity, however when there is a difference between the perceived and received then there is inequity.
Inequity causes tension and unhappiness. Therefore the presence of inequity motivates the person to remove the level of tension. The level of tension you are at effects how strong the motivation is. Adams has identified six different types of behaviour that could be caused by inequity. (1)
-Changes to inputs – e.g. a person might alter the level of outputs through the amount of work they do
-Changes to outcomes – e.g. a person may try to change their pay without changing their input.
-Cognitive distortion of inputs and outcomes – e.g. people might try to distort their inputs or outputs to achieve the result.
-Leaving the field – e.g. a person might try to find a new situation rather than try to restore the problem
-Acting on others – e.g. a person may try to change and distort the performance of others.
-Changing the object of comparison – e.g. changing the group with which you are making reference.
The manager would want to remove tension to ensure equity is present and ensure the correct output is received.
Goal theory
This theory is based on the studies done by Locke. The idea is that people’s goals affect their behaviour. He states that the perceived value affects the experience of emotions and by reaching these goals they can fulfil their emotions and desires. How well they achieve their goal is effected by the difficulty of the goal and the commitment the person has. People who have difficult goals will often work better than people having easier goals.
It has been proved that goal setting is useful in work motivation and people who set goals work better and achieve them better than those who have no goals.
The goals have to be realistic and challenging but not too difficult so that the person cannot do them and they then becomes a de-motivator.
Attribution theory
This is concerned with the premise that people attribute characteristics to people and that we judge people by observing their behaviour and past knowledge of the person. The main theorist was Heider who suggested we judge people by our perception of their perceived internal and external forces.
Internal forces – personal attributes such as skill, effort and ability
External forces – environmental factors such as rules and polices
Kelly says that there are three basic criteria for determining whether an attribution is internal or external: (1)
-Distinctiveness – How distinctive this behaviour is from other situations
-Consensus – Is the behaviour different from other people’s behaviour.
-Consistency – Is the behaviour associated with a personality feature over time or just a
one off situation
Kelly hypothesised that people attribute behaviour to internal forces when they see low distinctiveness, consensus and consistency and external forces when they see high distinctiveness, consensus and consistency.
Another consideration is whether the cause of the behaviour is due to stable or unstable factors.
Stable factors are the ease or difficulty of the task whereas unstable factors are the luck involved or the effort exerted.
The combination of these four factors allows for possible interpretations of a person’s behaviour.
Tests support this theory, however the theory does suggest that managers who use internal forces to control workers are more effective than managers who use external forces, and this is not always true.
This all shows that content theory look at what motivates a person to do their work at their best performance and explains why different things motivated different people in different ways. It explains why people need to fulfil certain needs before others and how if managers used this knowledge, they could ensure a productive efficient workforce.
This also shows that process theory is different because it examines how a person is motivated and what a manager needs to do to motivate a person. It looks at the relationship between effort and performance and how to examine a person’s behaviour to see how best to motivate them.
Using both of these theories will help ensure a productive, effective workforce, who are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities. However it is essential to always remember that what motivates one person might not motivate another person, and that what motivates a person at one point in time could change and become a de-motivator as their needs and desires change.
Bibliography
L.J.Mullins (1999-5th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour, Financial Times/Pitman Publishers: London
Handy, C. (1999) Understanding Organisations, Penguin.
E.Mckenna (1994) Business PSYCHOLOGY AND ORGANISATIONAL studies –A Students’ handbook, Lawrence Erlbaun Associates
References
(1)= L.J.Mullins (1999-5th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour, Financial Times/Pitman
Publishers: London
(2) = Handy, C. (1999) Understanding Organisations, Penguin.
