What motivates people to do their job?

Motivation is about how keen and committed a person is in performing a task or job. In this essay I going to investigate what makes people work and why. I have researched this topic thoroughly and I have learnt about different motivation theories. I have asked a number of people why they work and I have found which motivation theory is the nearest to my findings. But why are businesses interested in staff motivation?

Keeping staff motivated is good for business. Here are some examples why:

Motivated workers are more productive and higher productivity usually means higher profits.
In a service industry, workers who are well motivated will provide a better level of customer service, keeping the customers happy.
Staff who are well motivated are more likely to stay with the company. They grow in experience and become even more valuable to their employer.
If a business successfully keeps the staff it has, the cost of recruiting and training new staff is reduced.

Most people feel the need to work. Many will work to ensure that their standard of living is higher than it would be if they were on benefits. Some will work very hard to get a high standard of living. But the link between money and motivation is complicated. Besides money, there are other things that can help to motivate people to work efficiently. However, money is still an important factor for most people. One way to motivate people is with performance-related pay. Another approach is to pay commission; this usually applies to sales staff, who may be paid according to the level of sales they achieve. In general, we think of performance-related pay as giving a person an incentive to work hard or well. Incentives need to be designed in such a way that they do not become automatic but actually make people try harder

There are various theories of motivation. I researched these theories using primary research and secondary research. These included: the library, Internet, newspapers, radio, television and magazines. The first one I investigated was Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow

Maslow classified people’s needs into a hierarchy of 5 levels. He arranged these levels in the order of importance. Level 1 is the most important and level 5 is the least. Maslow believed that the next level on his hierarchy would motivate people. I.e. If at level 4 you would be motivated by level 3. People move up one step at a time. The size of the levels reflects how many people would get to each level. At level one you are self-motivated

Level 1 represents the need for self-actualisation or a desire for self- fulfilment, which is an urge by individuals for development, creativity and job satisfaction. For example being self- motivated.

Level 2 represents the need for believing in yourself and what you do. These are esteem needs, i.e. the desire for self-esteem and self-respect, which are affected by a person’s need for recognition and appreciation.

Level 3 represents the need for having friends in the workplace. These are needs for love or belonging to, and the desire to give and receive friendship and to associate ...

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Level 3 represents the need for having friends in the workplace. These are needs for love or belonging to, and the desire to give and receive friendship and to associate happily with people.

Level 4 represents the need for security, safety and the protection against danger or deprivation. This is a need for self-preservation and the concern of the future.

Level 5 represents the need for basic needs for example food water, a fair wage and shelter. These are physiological needs.

The problems with Maslow’s theory are:

There is no place for money
It is too individualistic
In the modern world, there is no need for a physical level
You could go down levels
You could skip levels

Douglas McGregor

I also investigated Douglas McGregor’s theory of Theory X and Theory Y.

Douglas McGregor in his book, “The Human Side of Enterprise” published in 1960 has examined theories of behaviour of individuals at work, and he has formulated two models, which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X assumptions

The average human has a natural dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.

Because of their dislike of work, most people must be controlled or threatened before they will work hard enough.
The average human prefers to be directed, dislikes responsibility, and desires security above everything.
People are lazy, do not like work and are only motivated by money.
The average person has no ambition, wants no responsibility, and would rather follow than lead.
The average person is self-centred and therefore does not care about organisation goals.
The average person resists change, is gullible and not particularly intelligent.

Theory Y assumptions

The amount of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
Control and punishment are not the only ways to make people work, man will direct himself if he is committed to the aims of the organisation.
If a job is satisfying, then the result will be commitment to the organisation.
The average man learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but also to seek responsibility.
People are self-motivated, they like work and responsibility.

The problems with McGregor

His theory depends on the type of job
His theory depends on the type of person and the age of the person
His theory depends on the time.

Fredrick Winslow Taylor

Fredrick Winslow Taylor also studied motivation and this is the oldest motivation theory. He believed that people were only motivated by money. He said that the best way to motivate people was to train them in the best way to do a job and then pay them for each good they produced-called piece rate.

The problems with Taylor

Some jobs cannot be paid in piece rate.
This theory can be reliant on others.
Money CANNOT be the ONLY motivator.
This theory relies on training.
Is there a best way of working?

George Elton Mayo

George Elton Mayo was in charge of certain experiments on human behaviour carried out at the Hawthorne Works of the western electric company in Chicago between 1924 and 1927. Following from the findings of his investigations he came to these conclusions:

Work is a group activity.
Adults have to arrange their social life around their work.
The need for recognition, security and a sense of belonging is more important in determining how much workers enjoy their job.
A complaint is not always not agreeing with the facts; it is usually a problem with an individual’s status position.
Informal groups within the work area seem to control the attitudes of each individual worker.

Hertzberg

Hertzberg’s hygiene theory says that we have basic needs (hygiene needs), which, if not met, cause us to be dissatisfied. Meeting these needs does not make us satisfied-it just prevents us from becoming dissatisfied. The ‘hygiene’ word is deliberately medical as it is has a likeness to do something necessary, but which does not contribute towards making the patient well, it only prevents them from getting sick. These are also called maintenance needs.

There is a separate set of needs, which, when met, do make us satisfied. These are called motivators. This theory is called Hertzberg’s two-factor theory.

Hertzberg asked people about times when they had felt good about their work. He discovered that’s the key points of job satisfaction were achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility and advancement.

He also found that key dissatisfiers were company policy and administration, supervision, salary, interpersonal relationships and working conditions.

What struck him the most was that these were separate groups with separate evaluation, and not a part of the same range. So if the company resolved the dissatisfiers, they would not create satisfaction.

Hertzberg concluded that you have to differentiate between hygiene needs and motivator needs and ensure you address motivator needs when getting someone to do something. Attacking hygiene needs may be effective when trying to stop them doing something.

I investigated if these motivation theories are true by making up a questionnaire. I asked 30 people, half men and half women. I am trying to find out which theory works best. I could have got a mix of results by doing questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires are easier to analyse than interviews but interviews give more detailed answers. I did not use any leading questions in my questionnaire and I made it as fair as possible, I used a different range of age groups and jobs. I asked people mainly in the evening and at weekends because most people are at work during the day.

In my questionnaire I used closed questions the advantage of using these questions is that they provide simple, short, positive responses. This makes them easy to present data graphically. I also used multi-response questions, which give the interviewee a range of possible answers to choose from. Also, I used open questions, which give more detail and a larger range of answers. Finally, I used questions that ask the interviewee to give their opinion on something on a scale of preference.

Once I had written my questionnaire, I tested it out on a small sample of people to check that’s the questions have been understood and they are providing the right type of responses.

Here is one of my questionnaires:(the rest are at the back of my project)

Here are the findings of my questionnaire:

9 women said the next level on Maslow’s hierarchy motivates them and 6 said that it does not.

6 men said the next level on Maslow’s hierarchy motivates them and 9 said that it does not.

Overall 15 people say that the next level on the hierarchy motivates them and 15 people said that it does not.

Only 2 women and 2 men said that they would work with no pay.

This table shows whether their bosses motivate them to work. 3 women and 3 men did not have a boss.

According to my questionnaire people who are 51-59 enjoy working more than any other age group and it is men who on an average enjoy working more. Also people who have worked longer at their jobs enjoy them more.

This table shows that men work more than women. Women believe that being self-motivated is most important in being a happy worker but men think that believing in what you do is most important. Men also tend to enjoy work more than women.

Looking at my results, I can see that money is the greatest motivator and the second best result on what motivates people is to save up-, which is directly linked with money. But money is not the only motivator, so according to my findings Taylor’s theory is incorrect.

My questionnaire gave mixed results when it came to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The majority of men said that the next level on the hierarchy does not motivate them although most women said that it does. But if you put my results for both men and women together then half of them agree with the theory and half of them don’t. To get a more accurate answer I would have to ask a lot more people. Women said that the most important factor in being a good worker is being self motivated-which agrees with Maslow’s theory, but most men disagreed with this and said that self-belief is the most important.

McGregor’s theory states that people who are only motivated by money desire security over anything else and my questionnaires show this, with the bulk of people saying that having a safe job is most important in being a happy worker. But people who say they are self-motivated say they go to work because they want money.

Mayo said that adults have to arrange their social life outside work but according to my results, socialising was third on my list for why people go to work. So I also do not agree with Mayo’s theory.

Overall, I don’t think that any of the theories I have studied are correct. If I was doing this research in real life and I had more time and money, I would do more research and ask a lot more people what motivates them to do their job to make the results more reliable and I would ask people around the country-not just in Romford.

I think that money is definitely not the only motivator, it depends on the job, when you do the job, how old you are and what the job involves. It also depends on the person, people might work for a number of reasons but I think you have to enjoy work to do it well and you have to be motivated to be a good worker. So you can’t really say it is one thing that motivates people because not everyone is going to think the same thing.