CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

INTRODUCTION

Motivation is defined as individual’s intention or willingness to put maximum effort in his/her work to reach organizational goals and enhance ones ability to satisfy some individual needs. The cyclic process of motivation starts from Unsatisfied needsà Tensionà Drivesà Search Behaviorà Satisfied Needà to end with Reduced Tension. There are three major elements related to motivation: Effort, Goals and Needs.

Effort:

It refers to an individual’s intensity in reaching the stated goal. The intensity varies from individual to individual and also depends upon the extent to which individual assigns importance to various goals. If these efforts are channeled in proper direction consistent with organizational goals, the organization will maximize its profit and reach a state of excellence in their field.

Need:

It refers to some internal state that makes certain outcomes appear attractive. It is also a state of deficiency and the organism tries to restore this deficiency to make it as equilibrium. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within an individual. These drives direct the individual in different directions or searching in different places to find a particular goal, If the goal is attained the organism will satisfy the need and reduce the tension.

Goals:

Human behavior is always goal directed. Once the desired goal is satisfied, individuals will always restate the goals or look for other goals to get sastisfied. Goals will always be changing from one level to another. In order to motivate an individual, managers must ensure to set a goal in such a way which stimulates him or her to put more effort in their work. An effective way to set goals is to follow the SMART approach, which states that goals should meet five characteristics:

1. Specific

2. Measurable

3. Achievable

4. Relevant

5. Timely or Time Limited

If the chosen goal has these characteristics, the employee will have a highest level of motivation.

CONTENT THEOREIS OF MOTIVATION

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow formulated one of the most popular theories of human motivation.

Maslow’s theory is based on the following propositions.

· The needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, ranging from the lowest need to highest need level

· All needs are never fully satisfied

· Once a need is fairly well satisfied, it no longer motivates behavior

· The needs are interdependent and overlapping Maslow’s theory of motivation explains five levels of needs.

Physiological Needs

The need for sunlight, sex, food, water and others, which are basic to human survival, are called physiological needs. At work level, this need can be met through by providing good working conditions, attractive wage or salary, subsidized housing, free catering etc.

Safety Needs

The safety needs include the need for freedom from threat caused by the environment, animals and people. It also includes the need for shelter, security and peace. At work level, this need can be met by providing private health insurance cover, attractive pension provisions, safe working conditions etc.

Love and Belonging Needs

These needs cover the need of relationships, affection, giving and receiving love and sense of belonging. The manager can provide the following facilities to take care of these needs: company sports and social clubs, office parties, barbeques, outings, permission for informal activities, and encouraging open communication

Self Esteem Needs

It is also known as ego needs, which fulfill the need for strength, achievement, recognition, appreciation, respect and prestige. The managers can provide regular positive feedback, prestigious job titles, photographs in company newsletter, promotions etc.

Self-actualization Needs

These are the need for full development of one’s potential. Challenging job assignments, discretion over work activities, promotion opportunities and encouraging creativity can fulfill these needs. In terms of motivation, Maslow argued that each level in the hierarchy must be substantially satisfied before the next level is activated, and that once a need is fully satisfied, it may not motivate people. The next level in the hierarchy will be dominant only after the fulfillment satisfaction level. This theory has a lot of implication for managers. As a manager if you want to motivate an employee, first try to understand what level that person is on in the hierarchy and focus on satisfying those needs at or just above the level.

Maslow’s framework:

It is based on three fundamental assumptions

1. Individuals are goals oriented whose needs can influence their behavior. Only unsatisfied needs can influence behavior; satisfied needs do not act as motivator

2. A person’s needs are arranged in an order of importance, or hierarchy, from the basic (eg. Food and shelter) the complex (eg. Ego and achievement)

3. The person advances to the next level of the hierarchy, or from basic to complex needs, only when the lower need is at least minimally satisfied. That is, the individual worker will first focus on satisfying a need for safe working conditions before motivated behavior is directed toward satisfying a need for achieving the successful accomplishment of a task.

Maslow classified these five needs into two broad categories as higher order needs and lower order needs. The basic needs such as physiological needs, safety needs and love and belonging needs were classified as lower order needs, where as self esteem, self actualization needs were described as higher order needs. The distinction between these two categories was made based on a single premise whether a person assigns much importance to the internal factors or the external factors. If a person gives much importance to the external factors such as salary, security, company policy, fringe benefits etc. the lower order needs are very dominant in him. On the other hand, if a person assigns challenging assignments, self-esteem, recognition, the higher order needs are very dominant in him. Employees, who are working in government organization likely to have fulfilled the basic needs,

Maslow took a deprivation-gratification approach to need satisfaction. That is, he contended that an unfulfilled or deprived need would activate a person to engage in behaviouir that would satisfy or gratify that need. Once one level of need is gratified, the next level of needs will emerge as the deprived needs seeking to be gratified. Maslow’s need theory received wide recognition, particularly among practicing managers but it lacks empirical support substantially. Managers, who accepted Maslow’s hierarchy attempted to change their organizations and management practices so that employees’ needs could be satisfied.

Maslow’s theory is built on the framework that unsatisfied needs serve as factors arouse people to behavior. When a need has been minimally fulfilled, it then ceases to be a motivator of behavior. For example, as assembly line worker may have a desire or need to become a supervisor. Through training programs or part-time studies, this employee can be promoted to a supervisory role in the factory in due course of time. The need to become a supervisor no longer exists, and therefore, the behavior of the individual is altered to a new situating.

An important point for managers to consider is that highly deficient needs, or needs that have gone unsatisfied for long period of time, serve to cause such behavioral responses as frustration, conflict and stress. Individual’s reaction to frustration, conflict and stress differs from individual to individual depending upon environmental, organizational and personal factors. These reactions to need deficiency take the form of at least four different ‘defensive behaviors’           

1. Aggression: It is a physical or verbal defensive behavior that can be directed toward a person, object or the organizational. Physical aggression can take the form of such things as stealing or equipment sabotage. Verbal aggression can be the emotional outburst of an employee directed toward the supervisor concerning unsafe working conditions.

2. Rationalization: It is defensive behavior that takes the form of such activities as placing the blame on other or having a “take ir or leave it” attitude. An employee may rationalize a small pay increase by attributing it to poor supervision or inadequate resources, when in fact it was the particular individual’s unsatisfactory performance that caused the small pay increase.

3. Compensation: It concerns the behavior of a person going overboard in one area to make up for problems or need deficiency in another area. A person whose need for interaction with fellow employee’s goes unsatisfied during normal working hours may compensate by being extremely active in company related social, recreational or civic activities.

4. Regression: It is defense that significantly alters the individual’s behavior. After being turned down for promotion to the position of a loan officer, the head cashier may change her behavior from being friendly and open to being tense, highly task oriented or temperamental.

These defensive behaviors can result from the inability of an employee to satisfy a personally important need. These behaviors are realties in any organizational setting, and it’s the responsibility of the manager to understand the cause, and if resources are available, provide a solution to correct defensive behavior.

Implications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

This model helps the managers to understand and deal with issues of employee motivation at the workplace. This model can be applied to motivate people at all levels in the organization. Managers who understand the need patterns of their staff can help the employees to engage in the kinds of work activities and provide the types of work environment that will satisfy their needs at work. For instance, the employees love and belonging needs can be fully satisfied by organizing yearly dinner and dance program, office week end parties, creating recreation clubs or social clubs etc. Fortunately, the workplace has the potential to offer need gratification for several different types of needs, and mangers can motivate employees by giving appropriate organizational support which will gratify individual’s needs. Thus, despite its drawbacks, Maslow’s theory offers managers a good technique on understanding the motives or needs of individuals and how to motivate organizational members.

Herzberg Two-Factor Theory of Motivation

Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation suggests that there are two sets of factors which either led to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They are Motivating factors and Hygiene factors.

Herzberg collected data from 200 accountants and engineers asking a simple question such as “Can you describe, in detail, when you feel exceptionally good about your job” Similarly, Can you describe, in detail, when you feel exceptionally bad about your job? Good feelings about the job were reflected in comments concerning the content and experiences of the job (e.g, doing good work or a feeling of accomplishment and challenge), bad feelings about the job were associated with context factors, that is, those surrounding but not direct involving in the work itself (e.g., salary and working condition) This study revealed two distinct types of motivational factors: satisfiers and dissatisfiers.

Herzberg resulted in two specific conclusions:

There is a set of extrinsic job conditions that, when not present, result in dissatisfaction among employees. If these conditions are present, this does not necessarily motivate employees. These conditions are the dissatisfiers or hygiene factors because they are needed to maintain at least a level of no dissatisfaction. These factors are related to the context of the job and are called dissatisfiers.

These include:

a. job security

b. salary

c. working condition

d. status

e. company policies

f. supervision

g. Interpersonal supervision

h. Fringe benefits

2. A set of intrinsic job conditions exist that help to build levels of motivation, which can result in good job performance. If these conditions are not present, they do not result in dissatisfaction. These set of aspects are related to the content of the job and are called satisfiers.

These include:

a. Achievement

b. Recognition

c. Work itself

d. Responsibility

e. Advancement

f. Personal growth and development

Motivating Factors

The presence of motivating factors always ensures job satisfaction and happiness among the employees. They are: achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, growth and the work itself. These motivating factors are relating to the work content factors.

Hygiene Factors

The other set, which leads to dissatisfaction, is the hygiene factors such as salary, company policy, supervision, status, security and working conditions. These hygiene factors are relating to the work contextual factors. Herzberg argued that improvement in the hygiene factors would only minimize dissatisfaction but not increase satisfaction and motivation.

Implications for Managers:

In order to motivate employees, the managers must ensure to provide the hygiene factors and then follow the motivating factors. Hertzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory proposes that intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction and motivation, whereas extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction.

According to Herzberg, the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, manages who sought to eliminate factors that created job dissatisfaction could bring about workplace harmony but not necessarily motivation. Because they do not motivate employees, the extrinsic factors that create job dissatisfaction were called hygiene factors. When these factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; but at the same time they may not be fully satisfied. They will be in neutral state. If we want to motivate people on their jobs, it is suggested to give much importance on those job content factors such as opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility, and achievement. These are the characteristics that people find intrinsically rewarding.

Herzberg model sensitizes that merely treating the employees well through the good company policies is not sufficient to them motivated. Managers should utilize the skills, abilities, and talents of the people at work through effective job designing. In other words, the work given to employees should be challenging and exciting and offer them a sense of achievement, recognition, and growth. Unless these characteristics are present in the job, employees will not be motivated.

In Herzberg’s framework, these managerial reactions have focused primarily on the hygiene factors surrounding the job, which has resulted in bringing individual to the theoretical “zero point” of motivation. The two-factor theory would predict that improvements in motivation would only appear when managerial action focused not only the factors surrounding the job but on the inherent in most assembly line jobs and developing jobs that can provide increased levels of challenge and opportunities for a sense of achievement, advancement, growth and personal development.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor’s theory is based on how a manager feels about human nature. In general, people tend to have either positive or negative assumptions about human nature. Based on these assumptions, McGregor proposed two sets of theories as Theory X (negative assumptions) and Theory Y (positive assumptions).

Theory X

Theory X represents the traditional approach to managing and is characterized by the following basic assumption about human beings.

· The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.

· Because of human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort towards the achievement of organizational objectives.

· The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all. Once the team leaders tend to have the above-mentioned negative assumptions about their members, consequently, they will adopt the following strategies to influence them.

· Control measures or strict supervision are properly exercised to get results from them

· Such control can be achieved by the appropriate use of rewards and punishment.

Implications of X Theory:

The implication for a manger working in an organization with these premises is that the group will be strictly controlled and supervised. Decisions will be made largely by the manager and communicated in writing or verbally in a formal situation. Members of the group will rarely be involved in determining their own tasks. Theory X usually operates in traditional, highly centralized organizations.

Theory Y

Theory Y is more people oriented. It refers to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, particularly the higher-order needs and the motivation to fill these needs at work. It is based on the following assumptions. The following are some of the assumptions of Theory Y.

· The expenditure of physical and mental effort is as natural as play or rest.

· External control and threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort toward organizational objectives. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the services of objectives to which they are committed.

· Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.

· The average human beings learn, under proper condition, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.

· The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

· Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

Implications of Y Theory:

Leaders operating under these assumptions will be more likely to consult the group, encourage members to contribute to decision making and work without strict supervision. Communication between the group and the leader will be two of the members of the group. The acceptance of the Theory Y approach, with its tenets of participation and concern for worker morale, encouraged managers to begin practicing such activities as i) delegating authority for many decision, ii) enlarging and enriching jobs of workers bymaking them less repetitive, iii) increasing the variety of activities and responsibilities and iv) improving the free flow of communication within the organization.

The major criticisms are that too much emphasis was put on informal group process with knowledge of the complexities of group dynamics. Also the strategies evolved based on Theory Y may be successful in one organization and may not be successful in another.

ERG Theory:

Alderfer proposed a modified version of Maslow’s need hierarchy and labeled as ERG theory. Alderfer’s ERG refers to three groups of core needs – Existence, Relatedness and Growth (ERG).

Existence Needs:

These needs are all the various forms of physiological and material desires, such as hunger, thirst and shelter. In organizational settings, the need for pay, benefits, and physical working conditions are also included in this category. This category is comparable to Maslow’s physiological and certain safety needs.

Relatedness Needs:

These needs include all those that involve interpersonal relationships with others in the workplace. This types of need in individuals depends on the process of sharing and mutuality of feelings between others to attain satisfaction. This category is similar to Maslow’s safety, social and certain ego-esteem needs.

Growth Needs:

These needs involve a person’s efforts toward creative or personal growth on the job. Satisfaction of growth needs results from an individual engaging in tasks that not only require the person’s full use of his or her capabilities, but also may require the development of new capabilities. Maslow’s self-actualization and certain of his egoesteem needs are comparable to those growth needs.

ERG theory is based upon three major propositions:

i) The less each level of need has been satisfied, the more it will be desired (need satisfaction). For example, the less existence needs (pay) have been satisfied on the job, the more they will be desired.

ii) The more lower level needs have been satisfied, the greater the desire for higher level needs (i.e., desire strength) For example, the more existence needs have been satisfied for the individual worker (pay), the greater the desire for relatedness needs (satisfying interpersonal relationships)

iii) The less the higher level need have been satisfied, the more the lower level needs will be desired (i.e., need frustration) for example, the less growth needs have been satisfied (challenging work), the more relatedness needs will be desired (satisfying interpersonal relationships).

Difference between Alderfer’s ERG and Maslow’s Need Hierarchy:

ERG theory differs from Maslow’s need hierarchy in two aspects. (a) Alderfer highlighted that once an individual’s higher level need is not fully satisfied or encounters difficulty in fulfilling these needs resulting in frustrations and disappointment, the person will exhibit a strong desire to regress to a lower level needs where he/she finds more comfort and satisfaction. (b) Alderfer further stated that an individual may have an intention to fulfill more than one need at the same time. In other words, individuals may be working towards fulfilling both their relatedness needs and growth needs or their existence and related needs simultaneously.

Implications of ERG Theory:

Alderfer has proposed two sets of views on individual’s aspirations and fulfillment. One is satisfaction-progression and other frustration-regression. Satisfaction-progression is similar to Maslow’s model in which once an individual’s basic needs are satisfied, he/she will progress to the next level to satisfy the succeeding higher level to have them satisfied. Alderfer proposed yet another view of individual’s aspirations and fulfillment. If people eventually become frustrated in trying to satisfy their needs at one level, their next lower level needs will re-emerge and they will regress to the lower level to satisfy more basic needs. This is called as frustration-regression. For manages, ERG theory provides a more workable approach to motivation in organization. Because of the frustration-regression approach component, it provides the manager with the opportunity of directing employee behavior in a constructive manner even though higher order needs are temporarily frustrated.

In summary, ERG theory argues that satisfied lower-order needs lead to the desire to satisfy higher-order needs; but multiple needs can be operating as motivators at the same time and frustration in attempting to satisfy a higher-level need can result in regression to a lower-level need.

McClelands THREE – NEEDS THEORY

McClelland proposed three types of needs common in work life. They are Need for Achievement, Need for Power and Need for Affiliation.

Need for Achievement:

This refers to the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards and to strive to succeed. People with a high need for achievement are striving for personal achievement rather than for trappings and rewards of success. They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. They prefer jobs that offer personal responsibility for finding solutions to problems, in which they can, received rapid and unambiguous feedback on their performance in order to tell whether they are improving or not and in which they can set moderately challenging goals. High achievers are not gamblers, they dislike succeeding by chance. They are motivated and prefer the challenge of working at a problems and accepting the personal responsibility for success or failure.

Implications for Need for Achievement Theory:

Too little challenge will bore them since there is no opportunity to satisfy their urge to achieve, and too much challenge would mean that the job is difficult and hence will induce the fear of failure in them. Since their need for achievement and accomplishment are high, high Need for Achievement individuals will not try to work on jobs that are so challenging that successful task accomplishment become doubtful. Also, high achievers avoid very easy or very difficult tasks instead they show willingness to take a moderate level of difficulty which will have much challenge in accomplishing them. They like to set goals that require stretching themselves a bit.

Need for Power:

This refers to the need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise. Individuals high in Need for Power enjoy being ‘in-charge’, strive for influence over others, and prefer to be in competitive and status oriented situations. McClelland distinguished two types of power – Personal Power and Institutional Power. Individuals high in personal power like to inspire subordinates and expect that latter to respect and obey them. Such behaviors gratify their own need for power in a personal sense. Managers, who are high in institutional power, tend to exert authority and influence so as to achieve the goals of the organization rather than to gain any personal ego satisfaction. McClelland describes the institutional power managers as “organizationminded” and getting things done in the interest of the organization. That is, the institutional power manager exercises power in the interests and welfare of the organization. Institutional power managers are said to be very effective since they are willing to somewhat sacrifice their own interests for the organization’s overall wellbeing. McClelland feels that institutional or social power is good for the organization and personal power is detrimental to the overall interests of the organization.

Implications for Need for Power:

Persons with high need for power would naturally be turned on by holding positions of authority and influence in the organization. They like to take charge and be in control of situations. Placing such individuals in high level positions will help them to gratify their own needs as well as get many of the organization’s policies and orders followed and carried out by employees.

Need for Affiliation:

This refers to the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships. Individuals high in Need for Affiliation like to interact with colleagues in the organization. They have a strong desire for approval and reassurance from others and they are willing to conform to the norms of groups to which they belong. In effect, they have needs to develop affinity and warm relationships with people in the work system. They are usually gregarious by nature and like to work with others in a friendly atmosphere. Team work, co-operative efforts, and joint problem-solving sessions, and committee assignments are all suited for those high in Need for Affiliation.

Implications for Need for Affiliation:

People high in need for affiliation are said to perform better in their jobs when they are given supportive feedback. Thus, friendly manages and supervisors can influence individuals high in Need for Affiliation and motivate them to work harder.