Theories of Motivation

INTRODUCTION – MOTIVATION

Motivation is defined as what prompts a person to act in a certain way or at least develop an inclination for specific behavior (Kast and Rosenzweig 1985, 296).

Motivation can be defined as those forces within an individual that push or propel him to satisfy basic needs or wants (Yorks 1976, 21). The level of needs will determine what rewards will satisfy an employee.

Motivation can also be defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.

Theories of Motivation

ABRAHAM MASLOW

Abraham Maslow believed that man is inherently good and argued that individuals possess a constantly growing inner drive that has great potential. The needs hierarchy system, devised by Maslow (1954), is a commonly used scheme for classifying human motives. It involves five categories of motives arranged with lower-level needs on the bottom which must be satisfied first, before the higher level needs come into play (Wallace, Goldstein and Nathan 1987, 277). The five general levels of needs as are shown in the following hierarchical order.

Physiological needs: Food, water, sex, and shelter

Safety needs: Protection against danger, threat, and deprivation. Behavior which arouses uncertainty with respect to continued employment or which reflects favoritism or discrimination. Unpredictable administration of policy are powerful motivators of the safety needs in the employment relationship at every level.

Social needs: Giving and receiving of love, friendship, affection, belonging, association, and acceptance.(If the first two levels are fairly well gratified a person becomes keenly aware of the absence of )

Ego needs: Need for achievement, adequacy, strength, and freedom. The essence this is the need for autonomy or independence.

Self-actualization needs: The need to realize one’s potentialities for continued self development and the desire to become more and more of what one is and what one is capable of becoming. The conditions of modern industrial life afford only limited opportunity for the self-actualizing need to find expression.

Two major postulates can be derived from Maslow’s need hierarchy. They are:

(1)A satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior.

(2)To the extent that lower-order needs become satisfied, the next higher-order level of needs becomes the most proponent determinant of behavior

Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene Theory

Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory is often called the two factor theory and focuses on those sources of motivation which are pertinent to the accomplishment of work. Herzberg concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were the products of two separate factors: motivating factors (satisfiers) and hygiene factors (dissatisfiers) Satisfiers respectively:

Satisfiers                                    Dissatisfiers

1. Achievement                               1. Company policy
2. Recognition                                 2. Supervision
3. Work itself                                  3. Working with conditions
4. Responsibility                             4. Interpersonal relations
5. Advancement                              5. Salary
6. Growth                                         6. Status
7. Job security
8. Personal life

(Herzberg, Mousner, and Snyderman, 1959, 59-83)

Herzberg used the term “hygiene” in the medical sense- the sense that it operates to remove hazards from the environment (Duttweiler 1986, 371).

Alderfer’s ERG theory

Alderfer, expanded on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, created the ERG theory. This theory posits that there are three groups of core needs-existence, relatedness, and growth, hence the label: ERG theory. The existence group is concerned with providing our basic material existence requirements. They include the items that Maslow considered to be physiological and safety needs. The second groups of needs are those of relatedness- the desire we have for maintaining important personal relationships. These social and status desires require interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and they align with Maslow’s social need and the external component of Maslow’s esteem classification. Finally, Alderfer isolates growth needs as an intrinsic desire for personal development.

HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE WORKER TO HIGHER PERFORMANCE OR PRODUCTION

For one to achieve higher performance or productivity he or she must creates a positive, high-self-esteem workplace which will result higher performance. By applying the theories of motivation as outline above one can easily motivation work to higher performance or production by meeting their physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, Esteem / Self-actualization and Self-transcendence.

Steps to motivating workers to higher performance

To perform at their best, individuals have two basic needs in the world of work:

• The Autonomy Need. The first is called “the autonomy need.” This is the need to be seen and respected as an individual, and to stand out for one’s personal performance. It is a need to be recognized for individual achievement or the “I am special” need.
• The Dependency Need. The second need that each person has in the workplace, is “the dependency need.” This is the need that people have to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. People want to be part of a team. It is the need to feel recognized and accepted as part of a group of people in the workplace.