Motivation Theories

• Advancement
• Type of work
• Company – proud to work for

Surprisingly, factors such as pay, benefits and working conditions were given a low priority by both the groups. Hence from this example we can conclude that there are some weaknesses in Taylor's Approach such as:

Firstly the most evident weakness in Taylor's approach is that it ignores the many differences between people. There is no guarantee that a "best way" will suit everyone.

Secondly, it is not important for every one that motivation at work is money. Taylor neglected the fact that people work for reasons other than financial reward.So, after all, and contrary to common belief, money is not the prime motivator. (Though this should not be regarded as a signal to reward employees poorly or unfairly).

Motivation is divided into two different types. The first one is called Intrinsic motivation which means that people engage in an activity in its own stake, for example pursuit of responsible activities or personal department potentialities. The second one is Extrinsic motivation is used by third party, for example supervisors or managers to motivate employees with either tangible rewards (payment, promotion, punishments) or intangible rewards (praise, public commendation).

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

“Theories of motivation fall into two categories: content theories and process theories. Content theories centre on the elements within the individual or person that energize, direct, sustain, and stop behaviour. They try to find the specific needs that motivate people. Process theories on the other hand, describe and analyze how behavior is energized, directed, sustained, and stopped by factors primarily external to the person.” The content theories are implicated with the recognition of important internal elements and they explain how these elements may be prioritized inside the individual; on the other hand process theories focus on certain psychological processes to outlay action and place heavy emphasis on describing the functioning of the individual’s decision system as it relates to behavior. Both categories have important implications for managers, who by the nature of their jobs are involved with the motivational process.  http://etd.rau.ac.za/theses/available/etd-09012006-105759/restricted/Finaldissertation.pdf

CONTENT THEORIES

(Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 176) describes content theories of motivation attempt to expound the things that actually motivate people in their job. These theories stress the goals to which people aspire and focus on the factors within a person that direct, energize or stop behaviour. They provide a framework for managers to gain insights about their employees’ internal state.

The major content theories of motivation include:

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of need model.

2. Aderfer’s modified need hierarchy model.

3. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory

 

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

In 1943 an important humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, published his now – famous need hierarchy theory of motivation. (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 177)   “Maslow proposed that motivation is a function of five basic needs – physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization (see figure). An advantage of this theory is that it is built upon human behaviour, whereas the reinforcement theories of motivation were inferred from lab rat experiments.” (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 177) “He identifies that with the most basic need emerging first and the most sophisticated need last. People move up the hierarchy one level at a time. Satisfied needs lose their strength and the next level of needs is activated. As basic or lower-level needs are satisfied, higher-level needs become operative. A satisfied need is not a motivator. The most powerful employee need is the one that has not been satisfied.  

Level I - Physiological needs are the most basic human needs. They include food, water, and comfort. The organization helps to satisfy employees' physiological needs by a paycheck.
Level II - Safety needs are the desires for security and stability, to feel safe from harm. The organization helps to satisfy employees' safety needs by benefits.

Level III - Social needs are the desires for affiliation. They include friendship and belonging. The organization helps to satisfy employees' social needs through sports teams, parties, and celebrations. The supervisor can help in fulfilling social needs by showing direct care and concern for employees.

Level IV - Esteem needs are the desires for self-respect and respect or recognition from others. The organization helps to satisfy employees' esteem needs by matching the skills and abilities of the employee to the job. The supervisor can help fulfill esteem needs by showing workers that their work is appreciated.

Level V - Self-actualization needs are the desires for self-fulfillment and the realization of the individual's full potential. The supervisor can help fulfill self-actualization needs by assigning tasks that challenge employees' minds while drawing on their aptitude and training.” 

LIMITATIONS OF MASLOW’S HIERARCHY - CRITICISM

Although Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is still very popular among professionals but yet “there are exclusions to every rule, so one main criticism concerning Maslow’s hierarchy is that there is little empirical evidence to support Maslow’s assumptions. A second, and more logical point, is that though Maslow predicts that human beings will move up the hierarchy, satisfying one need before moving on.”

ALDERFER’S ERG-THEORY

To address some of the issues of Maslow's theory, “Clayton Alderfer, a Yale psychology professor developed the ERG-theory, a needs-based model that is more consistent with empirical findings. According to him the middle level of Maslow’s hierarchy are overlapping. Alderfer addressed this issue by reducing the five dimensions to three. The letters of ERG-theory represent three types of needs.” (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 180).

“The most important contribution of the ERG -theory is the addition of the frustration-regression hypothesis, which means that when individuals are frustrated in meeting higher level needs, the next lower level needs reemerge.

Existence needs are the desires for material and physical well being. These needs are satisfied with food, water, air, shelter, working conditions, pay, and fringe benefits.

 Relatedness needs are the desires to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships. These needs are satisfied with relationships with family, friends, supervisors, subordinates and co-workers.

Growth needs are the desires to be creative, to make useful and productive contributions and to have opportunities for personal development.”

HERZBERG’S TWO – FACTOR THEORY 

Frederick Herzberg examined motivation in the light of job content and contest. His dual process theory is a job enrichment theory of motivation. It describes needs in terms of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It is a two-step process. First provide hygiene’s and then motivators. One time ranges from no satisfaction to satisfaction. The other time ranges from dissatisfaction to no dissatisfaction. (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 186). Therefore, Herzberb’s theory is also known as “two-factor motivation theory”.

“Satisfaction comes from motivators that are intrinsic or job content, such as achievement, recognition, advancement, responsibility, the work itself, and growth possibilities. Herzberg uses the term motivators for job satisfiers since they involve job content and the satisfaction that results from them.

Dissatisfaction occurs when the following hygiene factors, extrinsic or job context, are not present on the job: pay, status, job security, working conditions, company policy, peer relations, and supervision. Herzberg uses the term hygiene for these factors because they are preventive in nature. They will not produce motivation, but they can prevent motivation from occurring.

Motivation comes from the employee's feelings of accomplishment or job content rather than from the environmental factors or job context. Motivators encourage an employee to strive to do his or her best. Job enrichment can be used to meet higher-level needs. To enrich a job, a supervisor can introduce new or more difficult tasks, assign individuals specialized tasks that enable them to become experts, or grant additional authority to employees”.

According to him these two factors must be present in every organization. Prior to his study psychologist assumed that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are just opposite to each other and dissatisfaction factor should not be presented in the organization. But he overcome the traditional view and said that both factors can co-exist.

LIMITATIONS OF HERZBERG’S TWO – FACTOR THEORY - CRITICISM

“Criticism of Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene factor theory revolves around:

(1) Other researchers think that Herzberg oversimplifies the nature of job satisfaction, leading to the assumption that a manager can easily change hygiene factors or satisfiers and thus produce job satisfaction. This is not a right view of how complex and difficult motivation and job satisfaction are in terms of workplace manipulation.

(2) The other criticism is a time factor and he ignores subconscious factors. Herzberg’s methodology requires people to remember critical incidences in their past that made them happy or unhappy.

(3)  Herzberg offered no explanation as to why the various extrinsic and intrinsic

job factors should affect performance.

(4)  The two continua of Herzberg’s theory, presents a problem in terms of interpreting job satisfaction. For example, when one has low job satisfaction, does one simultaneously experience high job dissatisfaction? When one has low job dissatisfaction, does one simultaneously experience high job satisfaction?”

PROCESS THEORIES

According to (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 177) process theories are concerned with answering questions of how individual behaviour is energised, directed, maintained and stopped.

The major process theories of motivation are:

1. Equity theory.

2. Expectancy theory.

3. Goal setting theory.

EQUITY THEORY

(Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 207)

refers to “equity theory is a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships”. According to this theory people are motivated to maintain body between their cognitive beliefs and behaviour. In this theory o motivation employees camper their efforts and rewards with others people who are also working in the same environment. In this theory it is assumed that individuals who workin exchange of rewards are motivated by desire that they are treated equally at the place of work. The theory is based on four important terms:

(1) ”Person: the individual for equity or inequity is perceived;

(2)  Comparison other: any individual(s) or group used by Person as referent regarding    

       the ratio of inputs and outcomes.

(3)   Inputs: the individual characteristics brought by Person to the job. These may be

        achieved (e.g. skills, experience and learning) or ascribed (e.g. age, sex,

        race).

(4)  Outcomes: what Person received from the job (e.g. recognition, fringe benefits, pay)?

CRITICISM OF EQUITY THEORY

 “It firstly, questioned the extent to which inequity that results from overpayment (rewards) leads to perceived inequity. Simply because employees are seldom told they’re overpaid.

Secondly, equity research focuses on short term comparisons. What about long term comparisons?

Equity theory ignores reactions to experienced inequity. It’s not likely that two people will react somewhat differently to the same magnitude of inequity if they believe different things caused the inequity”.

EXPECTENCY THEORY

“The concept of expectancy was originally contained in the valency- instrumentality-expectancy (VIE) theory which was formulated by Vroom (1964). Valency stands for value, instrumentality is the belief that if we do one thing it will lead to another, and expectancy is the probability that action or effort will lead to an outcome”.

According to Vroom, he comes down the decision that how much effort to exert in a specific task situation. As this choice is based on three-stage sequence of expectations:

(1) “First, motivation is affected by an individual’s expectation that a certain level  

       will produce the intended performance goal.

(2)  Motivation is also effected by the individual’s perceived chances of getting

       various outcomes as a result of accomplishing his or her goal.

 (3) Finally, individuals are motivated to the extent that they value the outcomes

       received”.

 (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 215)

The expectancy theory is explained in terms of four concepts:

(1) “First and second level outcomes – the first level outcomes resulting from behavior is

       or punishments) that the first level outcomes are likely to produce, such as merit pay

       increase, group acceptance or rejection and promotion.

 (2)  Instrumentality refers to the individual’s perception that first level outcomes are

       associated with second level outcomes.

(3)  Valance is the preference for outcomes as seen by the individual.

(4)  Expectancy refers to the individual’s belief concerning the likelihood or subjective

       probability that a particular behavior will be followed by a particular outcome such

       as level of performance”.

CRITICISM OF EXPECTENCY THEORY

There is no systematic approach is being used across investigations. The theory does not specify which outcomes are relevant to which individual in which situation. Expectancy theory creates an unquestioning assumption that all motivation is witting. Individuals are assumed to consciously calculate the pleasure or pain they expect to attain or avoid; then a choice is made.

GOAL SETTING THEORY

 

This theory is often quite successful in improving motivation and job performance. It is effective with employees as diverse as managers and professionals, salesperson, and hourly workers. (Fisher Cynthia D, Schoenfeldt Lyle F., Shaw James B., 1990, p: 385)Four characteristics of goal setting theory are:

(1) “The goals must be difficult but not impossible to accomplish.

(2)   The goals must be specific and measurable.

(3)   The goals must be accepted by he employee who must work hard or try to

        achieve them.

(4)   Feedback is necessary for the goal setting to be effective over time.

CRITICISM OF GOAL SETTING THEORY

Some of the criticisms of goal setting theory are:

(1)  Goal setting is rather complex and difficult to sustain.

(2)  Goal setting works well for simple jobs (clerks, typists, loggers, and

       technicians), but not for complex jobs.

(3)  Goal setting encourages game playing. Setting low goals to look good later is

       one game played by subordinates who don’t want to be caught short.

(4)  Goal setting is used as another check on employees. It’s a control device to  

       monitor performance. Goal accomplishment can become an obsession”.

PUTTING MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES TO WORK

From the above discussion it is clear now that motivating people is an important task which is difficult to implement and issue for most of the organizations. Organizations can not simply pick up a theory any into their organizations. Moreover, although various theories exist that try to explain motivation but there are not ready made or clear cut solutions available to deal effectively with employee motivation. It is also very difficult to make ready made motivation solutions for the organization.

It is now clear from various motivation theories that people are not motivated by the same aspects. Like some people are more attach to value of money, some are motivated by growth opportunities. People also differ in their intensity and motivation behaviour. Organizations are advised to develop employees so that have the ability and job knowledge to perform their job efficiently and effectively. In addition attempts should be made to increase positive employee characteristics such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, positive emotions, a learning goal orientation and need for achievement. As motivation is goal oriented, the process of developing and setting goals should be consistent. In addition to this the method used for evaluating performance should also needs to consider. Organizations need to keep this in mind that both equity and expectancy theory suggest that employee motivation is crushed by inaccurate ratings. Ratings these inaccurately also make it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of any motivational programme. Organizations should also make reward contingent on performance. For this accuracy and fairness of the reward system is important. Feedback also needs to be liked with performance. Finally, an organizational culture significantly influences employee motivation and behaviour. (Buelens M., Broeck H., Vanderheyden K., Kreitner R. & Kinicki A., 2006, p: 237)

Motivation is the set of processes that moves a person toward a goal. Thus, motivated behaviors are voluntary choices controlled by the individual employee. The supervisor (motivator) wants to influence the factors that motivate employees to higher levels of productivity.

Factors that affect work motivation include individual differences, job characteristics, and organizational practices. Individual differences are the personal needs, values, and attitudes, interests and abilities that people bring to their jobs. Job characteristics are the aspects of the position that determine its limitations and challenges. Organizational practices are the rules, human resources policies, managerial practices, and rewards systems of an organization. Supervisors must consider how these factors interact to affect employee job performance.

For managing the employees in a modern knowledge organisation “manager’s main task is to develop a productive work force with the employees he or she is working. The manager should motivate his team members, both individually and collectively so that a productive work place is maintained and developed and at the same time employees derived satisfaction from their jobs. This may appear to be some what contradictory, but it seems work. The main tools in the manager’s kitbag for motivating the employees are:

• Approval, praise and recognition.
• Trust, respect and high expectations.
• Loyalty.
• Removing organizational barriers that stand in the way of individual and group performance.
• Job enrichment.
• Good communication.
• Financial incentives.

These are arranged in order of importance and it is interesting to note that cash is down the ladder of motivators.”

Motivation is closely related to the performance of human resources in modern organizations but it must be kept in mind that although the motivation process may be the same across cultures, the content of what motivates people is often different. In modern management there is a multitude of concepts which aims at the attitudes of employees and managers. These concepts not only provide motivation in the sense of increasing performance but also the loyalty and commitment of employees to the organization. Most of the modern concepts concerning human resource management are founded on motivation basics. In today’s economic situation the survival and the success of the organization depend on efficiency and innovative ability. Therefore, the employee is the   most crucial source because if he is able to identify himself with the aims and objectives of the company, productivity and innovation will be increased.

http://books.google.com/books?id=uFz6EHIjhU0C

Classical Motivation Theories - Similarities and Differences between Them

 by Stefanie Hoffmann

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion, it is evident that motivation plays important key role in a knowledge-based organisation and that an employee’s efficiency increases when individuals is being motivated. Since motivation effects productivity, supervisors need to understand what motivates employees to reach peak performance. The challenge for such organisations is to keep employee motivation consistent with organisational goals. Motivation is a challenge for managers because employees respond in different ways to their jobs and their organizational practices.

Manager’s responsibility is to help employees meet their needs and at the same time attain organisational goals. For example: if a secretive refuse to provide employees with the tools they believe they need, it’s natural for employees to interpret this as a sign that you don’t care about them, which leads them to care less about the company, which hurts their performance. Then as a manager he need to ask a question from him that, “Am I positively or negatively influence my employees’ motivation?”

For motivating the employees managers should also need to be smart like they need to remember, that one way or the other, they are going to effect employee’s motivation to perform. Often managers are nearly forgetful to this fact. But if they understand and acknowledge this reality, then managers can act in ways that positively effect their motivation to perform at higher levels and work more effectively with others. In all to  conclude, as we need to eat daily to live in the same way an organisation need employees for existence and if the organisation wants to  achieve their goals effectively and efficiently  then employees need to be motivated regularly and it should also be a never ending process.

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