Theories regarding motivation

Theories regarding motivation

Motivation theories are several approaches to examining variables that inspire a person, whether for personal or professional reasons. Various theories of motivation have been suggested, and some of the more influential theories are presented here.

1.      Maslow's theory: The hierarchy of needs

Figure 1: The hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943)

Maslow's theory suggests that individuals desire to enhance the quality and quantity of life or career goals (Maslow, 1943). Their demands are grouped based on their relative importance. Therefore, based on this idea, work satisfaction depends on the employee's demands and the circumstances that provide them with an acceptable amount of satisfaction. The five phases of Maslow's hypothesis are based on humans' physical, biological, social, and psychological requirements (M. Badubi, 2017). These steps are represented in Figure 1.

Typically, the ordinary member of society or employee is only partially fulfilled with these desires. For instance, employees starting at the bottom of the organisational hierarchy will have their physiological requirements met. However, as individuals advance in their careers, their demands change and grow more sophisticated. As long as the employee's changing demands are addressed, he or she will be satisfied and driven. Thus, according to Maslow's theory, managers should endeavour to meet employees' unmet wants (Maslow, 1943). When the hierarchy of needs theory is applied to a business, it is evident that a favourable work environment must be developed for employees to realise their full potential.The inability to do so would result in poor job performance, decreased job satisfaction, and increased staff turnover (Steers and Porter, 1979).

2.      Vroom's expectancy theory

Figure 2: Vrooms' three factors of expectation (Vroom, 1994)

According to Vrooms' expectation theory, "choices among alternative courses of action are legally related to psychological events occurring contemporaneously with the behaviour" (Vroom, 1994). An employee's propensity to perform in a certain manner depends on the intensity of the expectation, which is influenced by the expected outcome and the employee's attraction to it (Robbins and Judge, 2013). For instance, management may request that an employee perform a marketing campaign in exchange for the anticipated wage raise. This theory states that an employee's behaviour is the product of choices made among available possibilities and is therefore related to the individual's psychology, namely the perception and creation of attitudes and beliefs (Kour, El-Den and Sriratanaviriyakul, 2019).

Vroom recognised three factors that motivate and guide conduct. These are namely valence, instrumentality, and anticipation. Valence may be described as the emotional orientations that individuals have toward outcomes. A result is regarded favourably valenced if the individual wishes it. Important to remember is that the valances of a work-related outcome are the employee's level of happiness with it, not its actual worth. The probability belief that ties one result to others is known as instrumentality. That is, the employee's inclination for one result depends on their view of how it influences other preferred outcomes. The expectation is a person's impression of whether or not a particular outcome is achievable.

3.      Equity theory

Equity theory is a process theory that examines how satisfaction is attained instead of what causes motivation (M. Badubi, 2017). According to the equity hypothesis, employees will evaluate the effort they put into their employment about the benefits they receive. Consequently, employees considering their work outcome more valuable than the labour required will experience job satisfaction. This belief is contingent on specific aspects of the work itself. For instance, working with precise tasks and a defined position will be more satisfying. Employees typically compare their input/outcome ratio to their coworkers to see whether the outputs are equitable (Robbins and Judge, 2013). They will lose motivation if they see a disparity between their inputs and outputs and those of other employees. Consider a diligent employee who is not receiving the compensation they deserve. Once this employee compares his rewards to those of other employees, he will inevitably feel demotivated. Therefore, equity theory says that workers are concerned not just with the compensation they receive but also with how their rewards compare to those of others. Employees can compare outcomes like compensation, status, promotions, etc., based on inputs, including effort, education, and experience. Individuals are motivated to achieve better because they seek justice and equality.

The philosophy of equity and justice articulated by J.S. Adams (1965) examines how individuals assess social trade connections. Inputs and outcomes are the fundamental components of this theory. In the workplace, people exchange their talents, experience, education, training, and effort for monetary compensation. The outcomes are the results of the transaction, which might include status, promotion, recognition, material advantages, and so on. Like the equity theory, Adam suggests that people create attitudes about fairness (or justice) that they deserve and perceive as equitable for their acts. Then, individuals would compare their outcomes to those of others and be inspired to take the required steps to merit a fair result. For a firm to keep its employees engaged, it is essential to design and implement fair and equitable compensation plans.

4.      McClelland's need theory

According to McClelland's need achievement theory, individuals are driven by their accomplishments instead of rewards (McClelland, 1961). For some employees, creating and accomplishing lofty objectives is their primary source of inspiration. They are motivated by the desire to achieve something better than anybody else has (Robbins and Judge, 2013). The idea of wants, as stated by McClelland is based on three needs: accomplishment, power, and affiliation (McClelland, 1961). The urge for achievement was defined as the desire to excel in a given work, meet specific criteria, and succeed in one's endeavours. The thirst for power was characterised as the desire to compel people to act in ways they would not have acted on their own. The need for positive interpersonal interactions and approval was identified as the urge for attachment. Individuals with a strong demand for connection spend more time cultivating social ties because they want to be loved and acknowledged. Due to their reluctance to make complex judgments for fear of provoking the ire of others, these individuals may not be suited for management positions (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2012). In contrast, those driven by a desire for power are motivated to train, influence, instruct, and motivate others. Those with a strong demand for power and a low need for affiliation are best fitted to be good managers (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2012).

5.      Motivator-hygiene theory

Motivator-Hygiene theory or Herzberg's Two-factor theory (Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman, 1959) was derived from a study conducted by accountants and engineers to determine the factors that cause an individual to feel good or bad about their career. According to Herzberg, five motivators contribute to job satisfaction: accomplishment, acknowledgement, the job itself, responsibility, and progress. In contrast, the hygiene elements, which include management style, corporate regulations, compensation, supervision, work relationships, and work environment, can demoralise people.

According to Herzberg, addressing the reasons for unhappiness through managing hygiene issues would not always lead to contentment. Instead, it would produce a condition devoid of happiness or discontent. Motivators are required for satisfaction and, subsequently, motivation to occur. This notion suggested that work should be reformed to provide more incredible difficulty, greater responsibility, progression prospects, opportunities for personal growth, and acknowledgement. Since the elements that contribute to discontent are separate from those that contribute to satisfaction, eliminating the ones that contribute to dissatisfaction would only result in serenity, not motivation. Changing the company's policies, for instance, would prevent employees from being pleased but would not motivate them. Managers need to add motivational variables such as material rewards to stimulate motivation. Therefore, both sorts of issues require consideration. It has been suggested that vertically loading jobs or giving workers more responsibility would result in more motivation than horizontally loading them with duties of comparable complexity. Herzberg outlined seven universal principles applicable to vertical loading (Herzberg, 1976). These are shown in the table below:

Principle	Motivators involved
Eliminating specific controls while preserving accountability	Responsibility and personal achievement
Increasing the accountability of people for their job	Responsibility and recognition
Providing a person with a whole unit of natural work (module, division, area, and so on)	Responsibility, achievement, and recognition
Increasing an employee's power over one's activities, employment freedom	Responsibility, achievement, and recognition
Making periodic reports immediately accessible to the employee as opposed to the supervisor. supervisor	Internal recognition
Introduce previously unaddressed new and more challenging responsibilities	Growth and learning
Assigning individuals specific or specialised tasks, enabling them to become experts	Responsibility, growth, and advancement

Table 1: Principles used to assign extra liability (Herzberg, 1976)

References

Adams, J. S. (1965)' Inequity In Social Exchange', in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, pp. 267–299. doi: 10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60108-2.

Herzberg, F. (1976) 'One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?', in Job Satisfaction — A Reader. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 17–32. doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-02701-9_2.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B. (1959) The motivation to work. 2nd edn. John Wiley.

Kour, J., El-Den, J. and Sriratanaviriyakul, N. (2019) 'The Role of Positive Psychology in Improving Employees' Performance and Organizational Productivity: An Experimental Study', Procedia Computer Science, 161, pp. 226–232. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2019.11.118.

Kreitner, R. and Kinicki, A. (2012) Organizational Behavior. 10th edn. McGraw-Hill Education.

M. Badubi, R. (2017) 'Theories of Motivation and Their Application in Organisations: A Risk Analysis', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, 3(3), pp. 44–51. doi: 10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.33.2004.

Maslow, A. H. (1943) 'A theory of human motivation.', Psychological Review, 50(4), pp. 370–396. doi: 10.1037/h0054346.

McClelland, D. C. (1961) The achieving society. New York: Van Nostrand.

Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T. A. (2013) Organisational behavior. 15th edn. Edited by S. Yagan. Pearson Education, Inc.

Steers, R. M. and Porter, L. W. (1979) Motivation and Work Behavior. 7th edn. Edited by Lyman W. Porter, Gregory A. Bigley, and Richard M. Steers. McGraw-Hill.

Vroom, V. H. (1994) Work and Motivation. 1st edn. Jossey-Bass.