Unit 3

MOTIVATION
MEANINING OF MOTIVATION

• Motivation is simply the process of encouraging employees to

voluntarily give their best in the job so that the performance goals
are achieved effectively.
• It is a drive that moves people to do what they do.
• Motivation involves identifying and influencing people’s behaviour in
a specific direction.
• It actually works with the individuals’ desire, energy and
determination and stimulates them to realize the predetermined
goals.
Some words which go with motivation:
• Desire
• want, wishes
• aims, goal
• needs and drives
• motives, incentives
• Motivation is a term used to describe those processes both
instintictive and rational, by which people seek to satisfy their basic
drives, perceived needs and personal goals which triggers human
behaviour
Therefore motivations is a process and a drive
• Motivation may be defined as keenness for a particular behaviour or
simply willingness to work in order to achieve a predetermined
reward or goal.
• Motivation is a product of needs, drives or motives, which is basically
the driving force within a person.
• It is inner state that energises, activates or directs behaviour towards
achieving a goal.
• Motivation is a process that starts with physiological or psychological
deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed
at a goal or an incentive.
Therefore motivation lies in the meaning of interrelationship between
• need
• drive
• incentive
 • Need: Created whenever there is a physiological or psychological
imbalance e.g. when the body is deprived of food
• Drive: it is a deficiency with direction – actions which provide an
energising thrust towards reaching an incentive
❖ e.g need for food translates to hunger ( drive)
❖ need for friends translates to a drive for affiliation
• incentive: anything that alleviates the need and reduces the drive,
restores the physiological or psychological balance
Model of motivation

• A simplified model of motivation would look like below

• A stimulus - e.g. Hunger (physical) or desire for company
(social/psychological) ………. give rise to a response (some kind of
behavior) ………which leads to an outcome…. (Either satisfaction or
frustration
• Motives may or may not be clear to individual
• But as manages we need to understand the motives of each
individual actions because how we understand others will influence
our attitude and behavior towards them
• For example, if somebody is hardworking and reliable, we treat them
with respect – but it might not have been what they wanted (not the
motive/need)
• As managers we need to understand the drive/need
WHAT IS A NEED - what creates the need? -
Schein’s classification of needs
• Schein propounded a classification of managers’ assumption about
people based on a review of earlier approaches of motivation.
• His classification follows a broadly chronological pattern as follows:
Rational- Economic

• Human motivation has its roots from the need for self-interest and
the maximization of gains as the prime motivations.
• According to Schein, this view places human beings into two
categories:
1. The untrustworthy, money- motivated, calculative masses
2. The trustworthy, more broadly motivated, moral elite whose task is
to organizes and control the masses
Social model

• Views people as predominantly motivated by social needs – the need

for personal relationship.
• This is drawn heavily on the conclusions of Hawthorne studies.
• The implications for managers is that emphasis on attending to
people’s needs over the task will lead to greater productivity as well
as higher morale.
Self-actualization model

• Individual needs for self-actualization is the prime motivator

• The implications to managers here is that people need challenge,
responsibility and autonomy in their work if they are to be motivated
Complex model
• Presupposes that understanding people motivation is a complex
business in which interrelated factors are at work
• Managers in this situation need to be sensitive to a range of possible
responses to employees’ motivation against the different work and
team environment.
• This Schein classification helps to relate the major approaches to
organizational behaviour and motivation, the basis of which is that
motives are directed towards desired ends (social, economic,
self-actualization etc) and the behaviour that is selected consciously
or sometimes instinctively towards the achievement of these ends.
CLASSIFICATION OF MOTIVE

Human motives can be classified into two;

• Primary motives
• Secondary motives
Primary motives
• Primary needs are mainly physiological/biological and unlearned.
• They include need for food, water, clothing and shelter, sleep and other
material concerns
Secondary motives:
• Are mainly psychological and learned.
• And they include belongingness, power prestige, competence recognition
and achievement.
• For organizational behavior, as the society develops economically and
becomes more complex, the primary motives give way to secondary
motives in motivating behavior
 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
The theoretical approaches to motivation can be classified into there:
• The content theories – which go as far back as early 1900
• Process theories
• Contemporary theories
Historical Development

Content Theories
• 1900 – Scientific management theories (Fredrick Taylor which
emphasized wages and incentives as motivators
• 1940s – Hawthorne Studies (Elton Mayo) emphasizes working
conditions and need for affiliation as motivators
• 1950s/1960s - Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Theory
❖ Douglas McGregor Theory X and Y
❖ Herzberg two factor theory
❖ Alderfer Expectancy, Relatedness and Growth (ERG)
theory
Process Theories

1960s Vroom Expectancy Theory

• Porter Lawler Performance/satisfaction model
Contemporary Theories

Stacy Adams equity Theory of work motivation

• 1961 McClelland Achievement Motivation model
D.C. McClelland Achievement Motivation Theory

While many psychologists have studied common factors in human

motivation, others have focused on differences between individuals.
• One such researcher is McClelland of Harvard University. He and his
team drew attention to three set of needs in particular as follows:
• The need for achievement (n-Ach)
• The need for power (n-Pow)
• The need for affiliation, or belonging (n-Aff)
• McClelland isolated the n-Ach as key human motive and that is
influenced strongly by personality and environment
• Achievement may be defined as the degree to which persons wishes
to accomplish challenging goals succeeds in competitive situation and
exhibit desire for feedback regarding performance
• He concluded that n-Ach is developed more by childhood experiences
and culture background than by purely inherited factors.
• Hence the importance of management by supervisors training and
designing jobs to increase achievement motivation.
Persons with high need for achievement tend to have the following characteristics:
• Want to do better than the competitors – highly competitive
• Moderate risk takers
• Need for immediate feedback. these people prefer activities that will provide immediate feedba
e.g. mechanical work rather than research work, sales rather than marketing
• Satisfaction with accomplishment: accomplishing a task is intrinsically satisfied in itself witho
necessary accompanying material rewards – want money for what it can buy and not for its o
sake
• Preoccupied with the task: higher achievers tend to be totally preoccupied with the task until th
are successfully completed. They cannot stand to leave a job half-finished and are not satisf
with themselves until they give maximum effort.
• They are dedicated, committed and hence sometimes unfriendly, braggers
• The like attaining or surpassing a difficult goal and are exited when solving difficult and comp
problems
• Are innovative – enjoy developing better ways of doing things
• Can exercise personal responsibility
Need for Power
Characteristics
• Need to influence others
• Control others
• Being in possession of authority
• Gaining control of information
• Defeating the opponent
Need for affiliation
• Being likely by many people
• Being accepted as part of a group
• Working with people who are friendly
• Maintain harmonious relationship and avoid conflict
• Participating in pleasant social activities
Need for security
• Have a secure job
• Be protected against loss of income
• Protection again illness and disability
• Protection against physical harm or hazardous condition
• Avoid task with a risk of failure or blame

Need for status

• Having the right car
• Wearing the right clothes
• Working for the right company
• Having a degree from the right university
• Living in the right neighborhood
• Belong to a certain club
MASLOW’S HERARCHY NEED THEORY:

• Drawing mainly form humanistic psychology and clinical experience,

Abraham Maslow outline on overall theory of motivation.
• He said that a person’s motivation could be arranged in hierarchical
manner.
• He believed that once a given level of need is satisfied, it no longer
serves to motivate.
• The next level needs to be activated in order to motivate an
individual.
• Once the needs at the lower level are satisfied, those at the next
higher level emerge and demand satisfaction.
There are five levels in his hierarchy of needs:
Basic or Physiological Needs
• These are the needs which must be satisfied to maintain life.
• The basic needs include need for food, water, air and shelter.
• Application: These needs are unlearned (primary) these needs can be
met by providing basic salary or wage and safe working conditions.
Safety or Security Needs
• Once the physiological needs have been met, the needs at next higher
levels, safely needs emerge.
• Need for a stable environment relatively free from threats
• This includes emotional as well as physical safety
• Safety needs include desire for protection from physical danger, quest for
economic security, performance for familiar rather than the unfamiliar, and
desire for an orderly predictable world.
• Application: Safety needs can be met by job security, joining trade union
and fringe benefits such as insurance or medical scheme, severance pay,
pension plans.
Social Needs /love and belongingness
• When physiological and safety needs have been met, social needs the
next level become important motivators.
• Need related to affectionate relations with others and status within
the group
• These needs include the desire to belong, to be accepted, to give and
receive friendship and affection.
• Application: Social needs are met by compatible formal and informal
work groups, friendship at work, joining clubs, societies and social
groups
Ego or Esteem Needs
• Once physiological, safety, and social needs are satisfied, the esteem needs
assume priority.
• Self-esteem needs can be broken into two categories. The first category
reflects our need for competence and achievement or success. This can be
satisfied intrinsically.
• The second category of esteem needs include the desire for reputation,
prestige and recognition from others.
• Application: Ego or self –esteem needs can be met by promotion or merit
pay increase, high status job title, less direct supervision, delegation of
authority
Self-Actualization or Self-Fulfillment Needs
• Self-actualization or self-fulfillment is the highest level in the hierarchy.
These are the individual needs for realizing his or her own potential for
continued self-development and creativity.
• It is a feeling of accomplishment and of being satisfied with one’s self or
become the best one is capable of becoming.
• Self-actualization is the persons motivation to transform self-perception
into reality
• Application: Self – actualization needs can be met by challenging jobs,
creative tasks, advancement opportunities, and achievement in work.
Realization of ones potential.
• According to Maslow, people tend to satisfy their needs
systematically stating with basic physiological needs and then move
up the hierarchy.
• Until a particular group of needs is satisfied, a person’s behavior will
be dominated by them
• Thus, a person who is hungry will not be motivated by safety or
affection needs.
• Maslow later modified this argument by stating that there was an
exception to this rule in respect to self-actualization – for this level it
seems that satisfaction of one need gives rise to further need for
realizing ones potential.
DOUGLAS MCGREGOR THEORY X AND THEORY Y:

McGregor saw two different set of assumption made by managers about

their employees – X and Y
Theory X
• Regards employees as being inherently
• Lazy – the average human being has an inherent dislike for work and will
avoid it if he can
• Because of the laziness, most people require coercion and control,
direction, threat with punishment to get the work done
• Avoid responsibility
• Has relatively little ambition and only seeks security
Theory Y
• This theory sees people in a more favorable light
• Employees are seen as liking work – which they see as natural as rest or play
• Work is seen as a source of satisfaction
• Employees do not have to be controlled or coerced so long as they are committed
to the organization objectives.
• Employees will exercise self-control and self-direction to achieved objectives
• Under proper conditions, they will not only accept but also seek responsibility
• Employee exercise imagination and ingenuity at work
In real life, a bred of the two is likely to provide the best prescription for effective
management