THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Overview of the Content Theories of

Motivation

by
ANJANA T T
2016-31-018
MBA-ABM
WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
The processes that account for an individual’s
intensity ,direction , and persistence of effort towards
attaining goal.
 THREE COMMON ASPECTS OF
MOTIVATION
Effort
-Concerns the magnitude or intensity of employee’s work –related
behavior.
Persistence
- Concerns the sustained efforts employee manifested in their work
related activities.
Direction
-quality of an employee’s work –that is the investment of sustained effort
in a direction that benefits the employer
 MOTIVATIONAL MODELS

MODELS

EARLY THEORIES CONTEMPORARY

THEORIES

HUMAN CONTENT PROCESS

SCIENTIFIC
RELATIONS THEORIES THEORIES
MANAGEMENT
MODEL

MASLOW’S HERZBERG ACHIEVEMENT

NEED TWO-FACTOR ALDERFER’S
MOTIVATION
HIERARCHY THEORY ERG THEORY
THEORY
THEORY

PORTER’S
VROOM’S
GOAL SETTING ADAM’S EQUITY PERFORMANCE
EXPECTANCY
THEORY THEORY SATISFACTION
THEORY
MODEL
EARLY THEORIES

• SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
• It is the name given to the philosophy and set of methods
and techniques that stressed the scientific study and
organization of work at operations level for the purpose of
increasing efficiency
• Father of scientific management- F W Taylor
TECHNIQUES OF SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT
Scientific method of doing work

Planning the task

Scientific selection, training and remuneration of workers

Specialization and division of work

Time and motion studies

Mental revolution

These techniques coupled with Taylor’s logical and rational approach to

management was simple theory of human behavior.
• Scientific approaches to motivation has been criticised, since the approach
from a motivational viewpoint is concerned with rather simplistic
assumption about human behaviour.

• Taylor believed that workers would be motivated more by the money(this

hypothesis is called the ‘rabble hypothesis’).

• contrary to this workers seeks satisfaction of a variety of needs in

workplace: - need for security

- social fulfillment

- challenging jobs
Human Relations Model
• Elton Mayo found that the social contacts which had at
workplaces is also important.
• The factors that influence the workers to reduce their
motivation was the boredom working surrounding and the
repetitiveness of tasks.
• Here the employees were given some freedom to make their
own decisions on their jobs.
• In human relations model, workers were expected to accept
managements authority because supervisors treated them with
consideration and were attentive to their needs.
MAJOR TYPES OF MOTIVATION
THEORIES

Content Theories of Motivation

What motivates us

Process Theories
WHY and HOW motivation occurs
Content perspectives
- Approaches to motivation that try to answer the question,
“What factors in the workplace motivate people?”

•Content theories focus in the individual needs that activate

tensions, which influence satisfaction and behaviour .

Activates That
Individual needs Tensions Job satisfaction &work behaviour
influence
 Content Perspectives of Motivation
1-Maslow’s Hierarchy of need
2-Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
3-Alderfer’s ERG Theory
4-McClelland’s Achievement theory
5-Murry’s manifest needs theory
 1.MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY
 Needs were categorized as 5 levels of lower-to higher-order
needs
 -Individuals must satisfy lower-order needs before they can satisfy
higher order needs
-Satisfied needs will no longer motivate.
-Motivating a person depends on knowing at what level that person
is on the hierarchy
 Hierarchy of needs
- Lower-order(external):physiological, safety
- Higher-order(internal):social,esteem,self-actualiztion
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS

• Physiological needs are crucial to human behaviour .

• Most basic, powerful and obvious of all human needs.
• It is the need for physical survival
• They dominate human desires
• It includes-
Food, drink,oxygen,sleep,protection from extreme
temperature and sensory stimulation.
 SAFETY NEEDS

• It is mostly observed in infants and young children because of their

relative helplessness and dependence on adult
• Other expressions for need for safety occur when individuals are
confronted with real emergencies
eg: war, crime, waves, flood,earthquakes,riots, social disorganizations
and similar other conditions

• Security needs in the organisational context such as job security,salary

increase, safe working conditions,unionisation and lobbying for
protective legislation.
• Managerial practices of safety- pension scheme, group
insurance,provident fund,gratuity,safe working conditions,grivence
procedure etc.
SOCIAL NEEDS
• Also called belonging and love need.
• An individual motivated in this level longs for affectionate
relationship with others.
• Group membership
• love for maslow means
• Mutual respect,admiration and trust
In an organisational context-
 Need for compatible work group,
 Peer acceptance,
 Proffessional friendship and friendly supervision
 SELF-ESTEEM NEED

Classified into two:

 Self-respect &Esteem from others
• Self respect- desire of competence, confidence, personal
strength,adequacy, achievement,independence and freedom.
• Esteem needs-prestige,
recognition,acceptence,attention,status,reputation and appreciation.
• Satisfaction of esteem needs generates feelings of self
confidence,worth,strength and capacity.
• Absence of self-esteem leads to feeling of
inferiority,weakness,helplessness
• In workplace-
job title, merit pay increases, peer/supervisory reconition,
challenging work, responsibility

• Managerial – fullfill the needs such as:

challenging work assignments,performance
feedback,performance recognition,personal
encouragement, involving employees in goal setting and
decision-making.
SELF-ACTUALISATION NEEDS

• To self actualise is to become the total kind of person that

one wants to become to reach the peak of once’s potential
• The need for self actualisation is distinctive , in that it is
never fully satisfied.it remain important and insatible
• 3 reasons explain why majority of people do not reach
self actualisation:-
 Blind to own potentials
 Social environment stifles
 Lower level needs exert pressure
• In an organization self actualisation needs-
 Desire for excelling oneself in one’s job
 Advancing an important idea,
 Successfully managing a unit

By aware of the self actualisation needs managers can use

a variety of approaches to enable subordinates to achieve
personal as well as organisational goals.
ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HIERARCHY
OF NEEDS
2.HERZBERG’S TWO-FACTOR
THEORY

 Federick Herzberg’s theory of motivation is also called ‘Two

factor Theory’, ‘Dual Factor Theory’
and‘Hygiene/Maintenance Theory of Motivation’

 Focused attention on the work environment to identify

factors that arouse in people either positive or negative
attitudes towards their work.
 Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are created
by different factors.

 Hygiene factors : Extrinsic (environmental) factors that

create job satisfaction
 Motivators : Intrinsic (psychological) factors that
create job satisfaction

 Attempted to explain why job satisfaction does not result in

increased performance
HERZBERG’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
 COMPARISON BETWEEN MASLOW’S THEORY AND
HERZBERGS TWO FACTOR THEORY
ISSUE MASLOW HERZBERG
•Type of theory Descriptive Precriptive
•The satisfaction Unsatisfied needs energise Needs cause performance
performance behaviour, this behaviour causes
relationship performance
•Effect of need A satisfied need is not a A satisfied(hygiene)need is not
satisfaction motivator(except self-actualisation) a motivator,other satisfied
needs are motivators
•Need order Hierarchy of needs No hierarchy

•Effect of pay Pay is a motivator if it satisfies Pay is not a motivator

needs
•Effect of needs All needs are motivators at various Only some needs are
times motivators
•View of Macro view-deals with all aspects of Micro view-deals primarily
motivation existence with work related motivation
•Work level Relevant for all workers more relevant to white-collar
&professional work
3.ALDERFER’S ERG THEORY
ERG theory demonstrate that more than one need may be
operative at the same time
• EXISTANCE- Refers to our concern with basic material
existence requirements; what Maslow called physiological and
safety needs.
• RELATEDNESS- Refers to the desire we have for
maintaining interpersonal relationships; similar to Maslow’s
social/love need, and external component of his esteem need.
• GROWTH - Refers to an intrinsic desire for personal
development, the intrinsic component of Maslow’s esteem
need, and self-actualization

• In maslow’s model there is progression-satisfaction but in

Alderfer there is frustration regression hypothesis
TWO-KEY COMPONENTS OF ERG THEORY, SATISFACTION -PROGRESSION
AND FRUSTRATION-REGRESSION

SATISFACTION
FRUSTRATION OF IMPORTANCE OF
OF GROWTH
GROWTH NEEDS GROWTH NEEDS
NEEDS

SATISFACTION
FRUSTRATION OF IMPORTANCDE OF
OF
RELATEDNESS RELATEDNESS
RELATEDNESS
NEEDS NEEDS
NEEDS

SATISFACTION
FRUSTRATION OF IMPORTANE OF OF EXISTENCE
EXISTENCE NEEDS EXISTENCE NEEDS NEEDS
ALDERFER’S ERG THEORY
4-MCCLELLAND’S ACHIEVEMENT,
POWER, AND AFFILIATION NEEDS

People acquire or learn certain needs from their:

• Culture
• Family
• Personal and occupational experiences
• Type of organization for which a person woks
Three-Needs Theory-
There are 3 major acquired needs that are major motives in work
-Need for achievement (nAch)
• The drive to excel and succeed
• Employees with higher need for achievement derive satisfaction from
achieving goals.
-Need for power(nPow)
• The need to influence the behavior of others
• The employees exhibiting the need for power derive satisfaction from
the ability to control others
-Need of affiliation(nAff)
• The desire for interpersonal relationships
• Individuals exhibiting need for affiliation derive satisfaction from
social and interpersonal activities
MCCLELLAND’S ACHIEVEMENT,
POWER, AND AFFILIATION NEEDS
• The essence of McClelland’s model is that individual
needs along with congenial work environment can
create motivation and satisfaction.

Individual + responsive work can work motivation

needs environment create and job satisfaction
5-HENRY MURRAY’S THEORY OF NEEDS

• “A needrefers to a potentiality or readiness to

respond in a certain way under certain given
circumstances”
• Needs organize perception,guiding us to “see”
what we want (need) to see.
 MATCHING CONTENT THEORIES
NEEDS
HIERARCHY ERG TWO-FACTOR
THEORY THEORY ACHIEVEMENT THEORY
SELF
ACTUALISATION
MOTIVATORS NEED FOR
GROWTH • ADVANCEMENT ACHIVEMENT
• GROWTH
ESTEEM • ACHIEVEMENT
NEED FOR
N POWER
BELONGINGNESS RELATEDNESS
MOTIVATIO
HYGIENES
• JOB SECURITY
• SALARY NEED FOR
SECURITY • WORKING AFFILIATION
EXISTENCE CONDITION

PHYSIOLOGICAL