Unit 6: Management Functions:

Leading
Lesson 6.2
Theories of Motivation

Contents

Introduction 1

Learning Objectives 2

Let’s Connect 2

Discover 3
Concept of Motivation 4
Process of Motivation 4
Types of Motivation 4
Theories of Motivation 5
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 6
Alderfer’s ERG Theory 8
McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory 9
Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory 10
Adam’s Equity Theory 11
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory 12

Wrap-Up 15

Try This! 15

Challenge Yourself 17

Bibliography 18
Unit 6: Management Functions:

Lesson 6.2

Theories of Motivation

Introduction
What fuels you to get started and keep going? Managers must always ask this question to their
subordinates. However, the answer is not as easy as rewarding good behavior and giving
punishments since there are many factors that influence human behavior. Behavior is important
because organizational success is dependent on the collective behavior of its members.

It is a part of the managers’ leading function to constantly look for ways on how to bring out the
enthusiasm of their subordinates so they will become self-driven in performing their roles in the
organization. Further, understanding what and how to motivate a person will enable managers to
adjust their leadership strategies to foster a conducive working environment while being
efficient and effective. Thus, we are going to dig deep into the concept of motivation by looking
into different theories that explain the motivational process.

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Learning Objectives DepEd Learning Competency

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to identify
In this lesson, you should be able to do the following:the different theories of motivation
● Define motivation. (ABM_AOM11-IIc-e-29).

● Discuss the different theories of

motivation.
● Apply the different motivation
theories in different situations in
the organization.

We are motivated by different things that are shaped by our personal experiences. Our
motivation might be money, emotional care, social acceptance, reputation, fame, power, etc.
Let’s Connect
But regardless of the kind of motivation that we have, the point is it compelled us to act or do
something with initiative.
10 minutes
Rank It!
Instructions
1. Below are some of the common motivators of students. Reflect on your personal
experiences, then rank them based on how much it motivates you to study.
2. Write your ranking in the space provided, then answer the questions that follow.
Dreams and aspirations
Fame
Allowances
Learning experience
Opinion of others (parents, friends, classmates, teachers, etc.)

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Guide Questions
1. Which motivates you the most to study?

2. Have you ever been in a situation where you want to quit on something (assignments,
projects, tests, etc.), but you suddenly remembered your motivation? Briefly discuss.

3. Considering the fact that we are motivated by different reasons, what insights can you
infer that can be used in dealing with others?

Discover

As an essential element of directing, it is needless to emphasize further that motivation is one of

the keys to success. Consequently, it becomes a requirement that managers know how to
motivate their subordinates. Unlike planning and organizing that often operate on tangible
resources, motivation requires the application of psychological concepts and behavioral
principles to understand, predict, and influence the actions of people in the organization.

As a member of a particular organization, what motivates

you to do a certain task?

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Concept of Motivation
Motivation is defined as a psychological process that directs behavior. This means that a
person’s work performance is often influenced by his or her level of motivation. That said, one
could also say that the success level of an organization in achieving its goals is proportional to
the level of motivation of its members. Thus, it becomes imperative for managers to understand
the process of motivation and how it works.

Process of Motivation
The process of motivation has three main elements: motive, behavior, and goal. Motive refers to
the cause or reason why a person behaves in a certain way. The motives of a person can be
primary or secondary. Primary motives are those that are necessary for the survival of a person.
These include basic necessities, such as food, shelter, and clothing. In an organizational setup, it
might translate to monetary compensation and health benefits since these will enable a person to
get access to those necessities. On the other hand, secondary motives are social needs that
often play a vital role in the emotional development of a person, which could be in the form of
achievements, belongingness, and authority.

Whether primary or secondary, a motive is a driving force that enables a person to act in a certain
way. This particular action geared towards fulfilling a motive is what we see as behavior. For
instance, a person’s enthusiasm or disinterest in doing a certain task is a behavior that possibly
reflects the motive of the person.

Meanwhile, a goal pertains to the fulfillment of a motive. In terms of worker’s performance, it is

ideal that the individual motives of members resonate with the goals of the organization.

Types of Motivation
Considering how motivation works, managers should, therefore, use it by explaining why and
how the goals of the organization will benefit its members. Organization goals may be a means to
fulfill the employees’ motives. To do this, managers should first know what motivates a person.
Motivation comes in two forms.

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Extrinsic motivation pertains to anything, tangible or intangible, that one could get or avoid
after completing a task. Extrinsic motivators follow the concept of operant conditioning. In
extrinsic motivation, people receive an external reward or avoid punishment for their work or
desirable behavior. For example, many companies o ffer bonuses for exemplary work or
additional payment for jobs outside one’s job description. Extrinsic motivation includes
recognition, compensation, fame, and deadlines, to name a few.

Intrinsic motivation, however, occurs when people act because the act itself is satisfying and
brings a sense of joy. Intrinsic motivation includes enjoyment, challenge, autonomy, and
mastery. It is in the process of doing that pushes a person to complete the tasks. For instance, a
student may study a certain subject because of the satisfaction of learning new concepts while
studying, and not aim for high grades. In that sense, the activity itself becomes the reward.

Between the two, it seems like it is easier to motivate a person through extrinsic motivation.
However, this is not always the case. This is because there are many factors that should be considered
in motivating a person, which are the bases of the different motivation theories.

Check Your Progress

Is it always effective to give extrinsic motivation to people to increase
their work performance? Explain.

Theories of Motivation
There are several motivation theories that seek to explain the nature of motivation and how it affects
the behavior of a person. These theories could serve as models to further understand motivation,
and how it should be applied in an organization.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) is one of the most recognized motivation theories that factor in
the different fundamental needs of an individual. These needs are arranged in hierarchical order
where there are different levels of needs starting from the lowest to the highest. The theory
argues that a person must first meet the needs at the lower levels for him or her to focus on the
higher level needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy can also be divided into two: deficiency needs and growth needs. Deficiency
needs arise due to a lack or deprivation and motivate people when goals are unmet. The longer
these needs are denied, the stronger one’s motivation to fulfill them gets. To illustrate, an
employee who seeks financial stability will continuously be motivated by monetary compensation
until he reaches the point where he can attain a sustainable salary package. This desire translates to
behaviors, such as taking on more work that is given incentives on top of their base salary. The
motivation for a particular deficiency needs decreases when it is met.

On the other hand, growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from an intrinsic
desire to grow as a person. In contrast to deficiency needs, motivation increases as growth needs are
met. This is aligned with the idea of humanistic psychology that people aim for continuous
improvement of themselves.

Fig. 1. Different levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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Physiological Needs
These needs occupy the lowest level and serve as the foundation of the hierarchy. Maslow suggested
that people should first ensure their survival: food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. Otherwise, they will
not be motivated to do anything else. This explains why we sometimes experience difficulty in
paying attention to someone talking when we are hungry. Hunger is an indication that a basic need is
not met.

Safety and Security Needs

After satisfying the physiological needs, a person can now be motivated to establish safety and
security. Safety refers to what we feel when we know that no harm will happen to us. Security, on
the other hand, pertains to actions done to prevent any form of threat that might cause harm. To feel
secure, people often seek to acquire and control financial stability, material possessions, authority,
and the like. However, these efforts do not always result in a feeling of safety. An employee might
feel secure upon getting a job promotion, but feel unsafe because of threat from others who also
desire the position.

Love and Belongingness Needs

Love and belongingness need come after meeting the safety and security needs. These needs
represent our relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and others with whom we interact
with. Satisfying these needs implies acceptance of others. As such, people tend to follow social
norms or cultures because these define appropriate and acceptable behaviors in every
relationship. In an organization that promotes a culture of excellence, members might feel
motivated to produce excellent outputs to satisfy the feeling of belongingness.

Self-Esteem Needs
After gaining love and belongingness from others, a person can start developing a positive feeling
towards himself. This positive feeling can come from events, such as accomplishments, recognitions,
or achievements that make the person proud. One way managers can satisfy the self-esteem of their
subordinates is by recognizing a job well done.

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Self-Actualization Needs
Self-actualization is the highest level of need that a person could achieve. It pertains to the sense
of fulfillment brought by the realization of one’s potentials, capabilities, and talents. This is the
point where people tend to focus not on what they can get, but on what they can share.

It should, however, be noted that this need is hard to satisfy for two reasons. Because first, one
needs to meet the prior levels before reaching self-actualization. Second, it is impossible to
quantify one’s potential. Unlike the other needs that diminish once satisfied, people tend to be
motivated to pursue the further realization of their potentials. A person, for instance, can keep on
improving his or her craftsmanship since one cannot tell the boundaries of his or her potential.

Alderfer’s ERG Theory

The ERG theory was developed by American psychologist Clayton Alderfer in 1969. This clustered
the levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs into three major types of needs: existence, relatedness,
and growth.

Existence is composed of physiological and safety and security needs, relatedness is equivalent
to love and belongingness, while growth comprises self-esteem and self-actualization.

Fig. 2. The ERG Theory based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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In many ways, the ERG theory is similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. However, the theory differs
in its argument that a person can satisfy the needs from di fferent levels simultaneously. In that sense,
a person could strive to meet his or her social needs, love and belongingness, and self-esteem needs at
the same time.

Moreover, Alderfer also pointed out that there is a variation in how needs are prioritized based on
individual preferences which could change over time. For instance, a person may value relatedness
above growth when he or she is young, but this priority might change later on in his or her
adulthood.

McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory

This theory was developed in 1961 by David McClelland, an American psychologist. McClelland
proposed that the needs of a person are acquired and influenced by three important aspects:
achievement, power, and affiliation. These aspects or motivators are present in every person,
but in different proportions depending on their prior experiences. In that sense, personal
experiences play a key role in determining what would motivate a person.

People with a high need for achievement have much desire to meet goals and advance in their
profession. They manage risk by avoiding low-risk situations because these lack challenge and cannot
be considered an achievement. Similarly, they avoid high-risk situations because of a high chance of
failure, and that any success may be due to luck and not skills and capabilities. These qualities make
them ideal members of an organization because they possess an inner desire to accomplish
something. However, these people should be cautious of being demanding since not all people share
the same intensity or drive.

People with the need for power want control and authority. Driven by these desires, they tend
to seek ways on how to prevail, influence, or dominate a group. Also, their competitive nature stems
from their need to maintain status or be recognized. This nature enables them to be committed to
finishing tasks to ensure utmost compliance. A high need for power is often sought in
leadership roles. While this behavior works in making sure that the

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organizational goals are met, they should be wary of becoming inflexible toward others. An
extremely high level of this need should be watched out for as they tend to resort to zero-sum
outcomes or decisions, wherein a win is obtained at the loss of others.

People who need affiliation prefer to be in the company of other people. They strive to maintain
harmonious relationships and avoid conflicts as much as possible. As such, they are collaborative
more than competitive which makes them suitable for positions that require social interactions.
However, these people tend to be too familiar which could a ffect professionalism. Moreover, their
sense of judgment is also questionable since they favor relationships over objectivity in handling
conflicts.

Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory

Frederick Herzberg, an American psychologist, proposed the two-factor theory. These two factors
represent the satisfaction (motivators) and dissatisfaction (hygiene) of people. Motivators are
conditions toward the self that influence the level of commitment. These include professional
growth, employee empowerment, recognition, achievements, and work challenges. On the other
hand, hygiene pertains to conditions toward others or a working environment that is often
preferred or expected to be pleasant. Examples of this are salary, job security, working conditions,
work relationships, and rules and regulations.

It should be noted that the factors are independent of each other. This entails that lessening the
dissatisfaction will not result in satisfaction. Similarly, increasing the satisfaction will not remove the
dissatisfaction. Based on this premise, we can derive four conditions that could describe an
organization.

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Table 1. Motivation and Hygiene Grid
Motivation

Low Motivation and Low Hygiene
H Apparently, this situation is not suitable for
y employees. Employees are not satisfied and
g experience much dissatisfaction.
i conditions.
e
n
e
Low Motivation and High Hygiene
In this situation, employees enjoy low
dissatisfaction, but the work offers less
satisfaction. An example of this is
unfulfilling jobs that offer high salaries.
High Motivation and Low Hygiene
In this situation, the employees have high
satisfaction, but they also have many
dissatisfactions. A common example of this
is interesting work positions that have an
uncompetitive salary or poor working
High Motivation and High Hygiene
This is an ideal condition since
employees have high satisfaction and low
dissatisfaction.

Adam’s Equity Theory

Behavioral psychologist John Stacey Adams developed the equity theory in 1963. As the name of the
theory suggests, it proposes that people become motivated when treatment is based on balance or
fairness. The measure of fairness comes from the personal evaluation of the inputs and outputs in
comparison to others. That is, a person will find it fair if everyone who gives identical inputs gets the
same output.

Input refers to anything that a person contributes to do a particular task. This includes skills,
resources, time, and expertise. Meanwhile, output refers to any rewards that can be gained or
consequences that can be avoided as a result of the inputs. This includes salaries, benefits,
recognition, and achievements.

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Fig. 3. Sample perception of employees based on Equity Theory

Looking at the example above, it is apparent that individual perception plays a vital role in
determining personal satisfaction. This could lead to biased evaluation of own inputs that could
result in unrealistic expectations of outputs. Therefore, managers should be wary of the different
factors in the working environment and make sure that employees are treated objectively.
Managers could also set parameters on how employee inputs are measured to minimize unrealistic
expectations of employees.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory was developed by Victor H. Vroom, a business professor at the Yale School of
Management in 1964. Unlike other theories that focus on the needs, this theory highlights the
expected outcome that is one of the sources of a person’s motivation. This entails that the level of
motivation of a person partially depends on how much the person wants the expected outcome.

Essentially, motivation is a product of three main factors: valence, expectancy, and

instrumentality. Valence refers to the value associated with a particular outcome. Thus,

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people could be motivated if they want a particular outcome. The opposite will happen if a
particular outcome does not appeal to the person. This explains why people who look for
challenges at work are not motivated by competitive salaries.

Expectancy is the belief that an increase in effort will translate to better performance or results.
For instance, an employee believes that overtime at work will translate to overtime pay. This idea
can also be applied to tasks that require coordinated e fforts. If a member thinks that the result
will be the same because other members fail to do their part, he or she will not be motivated.

Managers can strengthen expectancy by improving the conditions that a ffect the employees’
beliefs. For example, having enough resources on hand makes it easier for the employees to think
that they can do better. Some other conditions are the extent of manager supervision, level of
expertise of employees, and conducive working environment. Meanwhile, instrumentality is the
belief that completing a task will lead to a particular reward. This belief is often influenced by
the clarity of the relationship between reward and performance, level of trust toward superiors, and
transparency of the process on how to get the reward.

Fig. 4. Valence, instrumentality, and expectancy

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Check Your Progress

Which motivation theory best explains your motivation process in your
studies? Discuss.

In Philippine Context
According to Maslow, addressing the physiological need is the first step in motivating a person. This requires a partial alleviatio

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Wrap-Up
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
● Motivation is a psychological process that directs behavior. The motivational process has
three components: motivation, behavior, and goal.
● Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs classifies the needs of a person in different levels and
requires the lower level to be met before proceeding to a higher level. On the other hand,
Alderfer’s ERG Theory is a modification of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and
identifies three major types of needs that are capable of being met at the same time.
● McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory explains that human behavior is defined by three
main motivators that are influenced by personal experiences. These motivators are
achievement, affiliation, and power.
● Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory states that motivation is determined by di ffering
combinations of self-directed conditions that influence the level of commitment
(motivators) and external conditions that one expects to be pleasant (hygiene).
Meanwhile, Adam’s Equity Theory argues that motivation happens upon achieving
equity based on personal evaluation of inputs and their corresponding output.
● Vroom’s Expectancy Theory points out that motivation is based on how much the
person wants the reward (valence), a belief that greater effort leads to better results
(expectancy), and assurance that e fforts have a corresponding reward.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Try This!
A. Matching Type. Match the theories in Column A with its key concepts in Column B.

Column A Column B

1. Alderfer’s ERG Theory a. Hygiene and motivators

2. McClelland’s Learned Needs b. valence and instrumentality
3. Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory c. relatedness, existence, and growth

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4. Adam’s Equity Theory d. achievement, affiliation, and

power

5. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory e. inputs and outputs

B. True or False. Write true if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write false.

1. Being able to avoid negative consequences is an example of extrinsic

motivation.
2. The ERG theory explains that existence and relatedness needs can be
achieved at the same time.
3. According to Maslow, a person can feel safe and secured despite the absence
of physiological needs.
4. Based on Herzberg, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two
independent concepts.
5. The Learned theory points out that the motivation of a person is driven
by motivators and hygiene factors.
6. Different forms of relationships fall under self-esteem needs in
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
7. Valence refers to how much a person wants a particular result.
8. Self-actualization is a need that is difficult to satisfy.
9. A person that is motivated by affiliation values relationships that make
him or her vulnerable to becoming biased.
10. According to Herzberg, eliminating dissatisfaction will result in
satisfaction.

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Challenge Yourself

Short-Response Essay. Analyze the situations carefully, then answer the following questions.
Your answers will be scored using the rubric at the end of this section.

1. Upon examining the different motivation theories, which of them best explains the
motivation process of a person? Justify your answer.

2. Is it to the advantage of an organization to apply a single motivation theory? Explain.

Suggested Rubric for Grading

The rubric below is a suggested one. Your teacher may modify the rubrics based on your needs.
Consult your teacher for the final rubric.

Performance Levels
Suggested
Criteria 1 2 3 Score
Weight
Beginning Proficient Advanced
Proficiency Proficiency

The student provides an The student provides The student provides

Quality of Ideas
unclear or limited appropriate answers extensive
idea about the topic based on the topic answers based on
discussed. discussed. the topic discussed ×3
and cites at least 1
evidence to support
the claims.

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The answers are The answers are The answers are
Structure disorganized and organized but require at complete,
require more than 5 most 5 revisions. well-organized, and ×2
revisions. require no revisions.

The answers have more The answers have 4 The answers have 0
Grammar than six grammatical to 6 grammatical to 3 grammatical ×1
errors. errors. errors only.

Total Possible Score 18

Bibliography
Daft, Richard. Organization Theory and Design. Boston: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2010.

Dessler, Gary. Human Resource Management. New Jersey: Pearson, 2010.

Hersey, Paul, Kenneth Blanchard, and Dewey Johnson. Management of Organizational Behavior:
Leading Human Resources. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2007.

Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New Jersey: Pearson, 1997.

Williams, Chuck. Organization and Management: Concepts and Applications. Quezon City:
Abiva Publishing House, Inc., 2017.

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