Employee Motivation Theories

Motivation is derived from the Latin word movere, which means "to move" (Kretiner, 1998). Motivation is defined as "those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of goal-oriented voluntary actions" (Mitchell, 1982, p.81).

According to Robbins (1993), motivation is the "willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to satisfy some individual need." In this context, a need is an internal state that makes certain outcomes appear appealing. An unsatisfied need creates tension, which stimulates the individual's drives.

These drives then cause a search behavior to find specific goals that, if achieved, will satisfy the need and lead to a reduction in tension (Robbins, 1993).

Job satisfaction, according to Kumar and Singh (2011, p.12), is determined by the employee's judgment of how well his work delivers the outcomes he wishes, as well as how well expectations are fulfilled or even exceeded.

According to David and Anderzej (2010), motivation can be defined as cognitive decision-making with the intention of initiating and monitoring behavior targeted at reaching a specific objective.

There are three main theory categories, content theories, process theories and contemporary theories (Saif, Nawaz, Jan & Khan, 2012).

Maslow's hierarchy of requirements, Herzberg's motivator-hygiene (or two-factor) theory, Alderfer's Existence, Relatedness, and Growth theory, and McClelland's needs theory are all examples of these theories. (International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development - School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China)

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory

According to Maslow (1943), people, including employees in organizations, are motivated by the desire to achieve or maintain the various conditions upon which these basic satisfactions rest, as well as by certain more intellectual desires.

Humans are a perpetually desirous species. Normally, satisfying these desires is not entirely mutually exclusive, but only tends to be. The average member of society is frequently partially satisfied and partially unsatisfied in all of his or her desires (Maslow, 1943).

According to Smith & Cronje (1992), Maslow's theory is explained based on the notion that people aspire to achieve more in life, and their demands are prioritized according to their importance.

It consists of five types of reasons, with lower-level demands at the bottom that must be met first before higher-level needs may be addressed (Wallace, Goldstein and Nathan 1987, 277).

Maslow's need hierarchy can be used to deduce two fundamental postulates.

They are,

  1.     A satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior

  2.  To the extent that lower-order needs become satisfied

The most powerful determinant of behavior is the next higher-order level of requirements (Hamner and Organ 1978, 139).

The ability of jobs to motivate people is determined by the extent to which they include aspects that meet higher-order human wants (Imel 1982, 3).

The hierarchy of needs is directly tied to a person's level of aspiration (Haimann 1973, 217), the individual method that a person takes to satisfy his requirements will be determined by his or her attitudes (Haimann 1973, 219).

Maslow's hypothesis is widely recognized, according to Ajila (1997) and Kamalanabhan et al. (1999). When making decisions about space, lighting, and overall working conditions, safety in terms of work practices, love in terms of forming cohesive work teams, esteem through responsibility and recognition, and self-actualization in terms of opportunities for creative and challenging jobs/tasks are all taken into account.

                              

                                    
                                                                   FIGURE 1: MASLOW (1943) 

 

Examples

In developing countries, this is especially true. Employees at four Nigerian manufacturing companies ranked meeting lower-order growth demands first, followed by higher-order growth needs (Ajila 1997).

Among bank employees in India, officers attached greater importance to growth needs than did clerks (Rao & Kulkarni 1998).

Another implication was for organizations to implement support programs and focus groups to assist employees in dealing with stress, particularly during more difficult times, and to take the time to understand the needs of the respective employees (Kreitner, 1998).

When the concept of need hierarchy is applied to work organizations, the implications for managerial actions become clear. Managers are responsible for creating an environment in which employees can reach their full potential. Failure to create such an environment would theoretically increase employee frustration, potentially leading to poorer performance, lower job satisfaction, and increased withdrawal from the organization (Steers & Porter, 1983, p.32).

It consists of five types of reasons, with lower-level demands at the bottom that must be met first before higher-level needs may be addressed (Wallace, Goldstein and Nathan 1987, 277).

Maslow (1987) also emphasized that most action is multi-motivated, stating that "any conduct tends to be determined by several or all of the basic wants at the same time, rather than by just one of them"

According to Maslow (1943), Individuals must first satisfy lower-level deficit wants before moving on to higher level growth requirements, he later explained that meeting a need is not a "all-or-nothing" situation, noting that his earlier words may have created "the mistaken impression that a need must be completely met before the next need occurs".

 

Reference

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Imel, Susan. Quality Circles: Implications for Training. Columbus: 1982. ERIC. ED 237 810.

Kamalanabhan TJ, Uma J, Vasanthi M. 1999. A dephi study of motivational profile of scientists in research and development organizations. Psychol. Rep. 85:743–49

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Reuben M. Badubi, International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development - School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China) Volume 3 Issue 3 August, 2017 Pages 44-51

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Robbins, S. (1993). Organizational Behavior (6 ed.). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Saif, K.F., Nawaz, A., Jan, A. & Khan, M.I. Synthesizing the theories of job-satisfaction across the cultural/attitudinal dimensions. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 2012,3 (9): 1382-1396.

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