In-class Reading.

Mgt P
Dr. Sundas Azeem
Motivation Theories

Motivation is a state of mind, filled with energy and enthusiasm, which drives a person to work
in a certain way to achieve desired goals. It is a force that pushes people to work with a high
level of commitment and focus, even if things are going against them. Motivation translates into
a certain kind of human behavior. In short, motivation is the driving force behind human actions.

There are multiple forces that guide and direct our motivations. It is important to ensure that
every team member in an organization is motivated. Various psychologists have studied human
behavior and have formalized their findings in the form of various motivational theories. These
theories provide insights into the way people behave and what motivates them.

Motivation theory is a way of looking at the motivation of a person and how this influences their
behavior, whether for personal or professional reasons. Motivation is the key to more profitable
employees, as a motivated employee is more productive.

What are the 5 Theories of Motivation?

Motivation is a huge field of study. Psychologists have proposed many different theories of
motivation. Some of the most famous motivational theories include the following:

1. Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchical Needs

Abraham Maslow postulated that a person will be motivated when all his needs are
fulfilled. People do not work for security or money, but they work to contribute and to use their
skills. He demonstrated this by creating a pyramid to show how people are motivated and
mentioned that ONE CANNOT ASCEND TO THE NEXT LEVEL UNLESS LOWER-LEVEL
NEEDS ARE FULFILLED. The lowest level needs in the pyramid are basic needs and unless
these lower-level needs are satisfied people do not work towards satisfying the higher-level
needs.

Below is the hierarchy of needs:

  Physiological needs: are basic needs for survival such as air, sleep, food, water, clothing,
and shelter.
 Safety needs: Protection from threats, deprivation, and other dangers (e.g., health, secure
employment, and property)
 Social (belongingness and love) needs: The need for association, affiliation, friendship,
and so on.
 Self-esteem needs: The need for respect and recognition.
 Self-actualization needs: The opportunity for personal development, learning, and
fun/creative/challenging work. Self-actualization is the highest-level need to which a
human being can aspire.

Maslow’s theory in the work context: Business Examples

Maslow's Need: PHYSIOLOGICAL

Business Application: Safe work environment. Proper lighting. Clean facilities. Airflow. Heat.
The correct tools to do the best job.
Example: Google has bicycles and electric cars to get staff to meetings, gaming centers, organic
gardens, and eco-friendly furnishings. The company wants to make its employees' lives more
comfortable, and they are continually searching for ways to improve the health, well-being, and
morale of its Googlers.

Maslow's Need: SAFETY

Business Application: Treat coworkers with respect. Allow them the freedom to take risks and
not be harshly criticized or humiliated.

Example: The fact that the CEO of Facebook, one of the world's most dynamic and fastest
growing companies, is meeting with entry-level employees says a lot about the way Mark
Zuckerberg does business. Rather than slotting people into roles based on age and experience,
Facebook values everyone's ideas in clear and distinct ways.

Maslow's need: BELONGING

Business Application: Give everyone the opportunity to be heard. Create a sense of community.
Coworkers are part of something bigger than themselves. They have a clear understanding of a
value-centered mission.

Example: HBO’s Corporate Social Responsibility team unites HBO employees, talent and non-
profit partners to make a difference on social issues, connected to their industry, and their
communities. Employees are inspired from their top-down leadership to educate, take action and
help make the world a better place.

Maslow's need: ESTEEM

Business Application: Empowerment. Public praise. Employee recognition programs.

Understanding that each person's job contributes to the ultimate success of the company. Making
everyone feel valued and important.

Example: Southwest gives employees “permission” to go the extra mile to make customers
happy, empowering them to do whatever is necessary to meet that vision.

Maslow's need: SELF-ACTUALIZATION

Business Application: Give employees the opportunity to think big, to be creative, to have a
vision for the future, to reinvent, and provide direct input to senior leadership.

Example: Google offers its employees one of the most innovative work environments. The
company cares so much about innovation that it has set forth nine principles of innovation. One
of their tenets encourages Google employees to spend 20% of their time pursuing innovative
ideas about which they are passionate—resulting in products and applications like Google News,
Google Alerts and Google Maps Street View.
The leader will have to understand at what level the team members are currently, and seek out to
help them to satisfy those specific needs and accordingly work to help fulfill those needs. This
will help the team members perform better and move ahead with the project., till the time they
start thinking of fulfilling the next upper level of need as mentioned in the pyramid.

2. Hertzberg’s two-factor Theory

Hertzberg classified the needs into two broad categories; namely hygiene factors and motivating
factors:

 poor hygiene factors may destroy motivation but improving them under most
circumstances will not improve team motivation
 hygiene factors only are not sufficient to motivate people, motivator factors are also
required .

Hygiene Factors (Dis-satisfiers) Motivator factors (Satisfiers) .

Improving the hygiene factors decreases Improving motivator factors increases job
job dissatisfaction satisfactio

 Working condition  Achievements

 Coworker relations  Recognition
 Policies & rules  Responsibility
 Supervisor quality  Work itself
 Personal growth

3. McClelland’s Theory of Needs

McClelland affirms that we all have three motivating drivers, which do not depend on our gender
or age. One of these drives will be dominant in our behavior. The dominant drive depends on our
life experiences.

The three motivators are:

 Achievement: a need to accomplish and demonstrate own competence. People with a

high need for achievement prefer tasks that provide for personal responsibility and results
based on their own efforts. They also prefer quick acknowledgment of their progress.
 Affiliation: a need for love, belonging and social acceptance. People with a high need for
affiliation are motivated by being liked and accepted by others. They tend to participate
in social gatherings and may be uncomfortable with conflict.
  Power: a need for controlling own work or the work of others. People with a high need
for power desire situations in which they exercise power and influence over others. They
aspire for positions with status and authority and tend to be more concerned about their
level of influence than about effective work performance.

4. Vroom’s Theory of Expectancy

Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation says that an individual’s motivation is affected by

their expectations about the future. In his view, an individual’s motivation is affected by –

 Expectancy: Here the belief is that increased effort will lead to increased performance
i.e., if I work harder then it will be better. This is affected by things such as:
o Having the appropriate resources available (e.g., raw materials, time)
o Having the appropriate management skills to do the job
o Having the required support to get the job done (e.g., supervisor support, or
correct information on the job)
 Instrumentality: Here the belief is that if you perform well, then the outcome will be a
valuable one for me. i.e., if I do a good job, there is something in it for me. This is
affected by things such as:
o A clear understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes –
e.g., the rules of the reward ‘game’
o Trust in the people who will take the decisions on who gets what outcome
o Transparency in the process decides who gets what outcome
 Valence: is how much importance the individual places upon the expected outcome. For
example, if someone is motivated by money, he or she might not value offers of
additional time off.

Motivation = V * I * E

The three elements are important when choosing one element over another because they are
clearly defined:

 E>P expectancy: our assessment of the probability that our efforts will lead to the
required performance level.
 P>O expectancy: our assessment of the probability that our successful performance will
lead to certain outcomes.

5. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y were first explained by McGregor in his book, "The Human Side of
Enterprise," and they refer to two styles of management – authoritarian (Theory X) and
participative (Theory Y).

Theory X: Managers who accept this theory believe that if you feel that your team members
dislike their work, have little motivation, need to be watched every minute, and are incapable of
being accountable for their work, avoid responsibility and avoid work whenever possible, then
you are likely to use an authoritarian style of management. According to McGregor, this
approach is very "hands-on" and usually involves micromanaging people's work to ensure that it
gets done properly.

Theory Y: Managers who accept this theory believe that if people are willing to work without
supervision, take pride in their work, see it as a challenge, and want to achieve more, they can
direct their own efforts, take ownership of their work and do it effectively by themselves. These
managers use a decentralized, participative management style.

6. Alderfer’s ERG Theory

C. P. Alderfer, an American psychologist, developed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into a theory

of his own.

His theory suggests that there are three groups of core needs: existence (E), relatedness (R), and
growth (G). These groups are aligned with Maslow’s levels of physiological needs, social needs,
and self-actualization needs, respectively.

Existence needs concern our basic material requirements for living, which include what Maslow
categorized as physiological needs such as air, sleep, food, water, clothing, sex and shelter and
safety-related needs such as health, secure employment, and property.

Relatedness needs have to do with the importance of maintaining interpersonal relationships.

These needs are based on social interactions with others and are aligned with Maslow’s levels of
love/belonging-related needs such as friendship, family, and sexual intimacy and esteem-related
needs such as gaining the respect of others.

Growth needs describe our intrinsic desire for personal development. These needs are aligned
with the other part of Maslow’s esteem-related needs such as self-esteem, self-confidence, and
achievement, and self-actualization needs such as morality, creativity, problem-solving, and
discovery.

Alderfer is of the opinion that when a certain category of needs is not being met, people will
redouble their efforts to fulfill needs in a lower category.
Maslow’s theory is very rigid and it assumes that the needs follow a specific and orderly
hierarchy and unless a lower-level need is satisfied, an individual cannot proceed to the higher-
level need i.e., an individual remains at a particular need level until that need is satisfied.

Whereas, according to Alderfer’s theory, if a higher-level need is aggravated, an individual may

revert to increasing the satisfaction of a lower-level need. This is called the frustration-regression
aspect of ERG theory. ERG theory is very flexible as Alderfer perceived the needs as a
range/variety instead of perceiving them as a hierarchy i.e., an individual can work on growth
needs even if his existence or relatedness needs remain unsatisfied.

For e.g., when growth needs aggravate, then an individual might be motivated to accomplish the
relatedness need and if there are issues in accomplishing relatedness needs, then he might be
motivated by the existence needs. Hence in this manner, frustration or aggravation can result in
regression to a lower-level need. Another example could be, if someone’s self-esteem is
suffering, he or she will invest more effort in the relatedness category of needs.

Implications of the ERG Theory

All managers must understand that an employee has various needs that must be satisfied at the
same time. According to the ERG theory, if the manager focuses solely on one need at a time,
then this will not effectively motivate the employee. The frustration-regression aspect of ERG
Theory has an added effect on workplace motivation. For e.g., if an employee is not provided
with growth and advancement opportunities in an organization, then he or she might revert to
related needs such as socializing needs.

To meet those socializing needs, if the environment or circumstances do not permit it, he might
revert to the need for money to fulfill those socializing needs. By the time the manager realizes
and discovers this, they will take more immediate steps to fulfill those needs.

Conclusion

Motivation is the state of mind which pushes all human beings to perform to their highest
potential, with good spirits and a positive attitude. The various motivation theories outlined
above help us to understand what are the factors that drive motivation. It is a leader’s job to
ensure that every individual in the team and the organization is motivated,