Brief Summary on Work and Motivation

As well as setting & communicating objectives, developing strategies, & allocating resources, managers have to motivate the staff who report to them. These will often include people with interesting, responsible & fulfilling jobs, as well as others with less interesting & highly repetitive tasks. The work of managers is to ensure that staff work efficiently in an organization. To achieve this, it is clear that managers must know what motivates people. Because a good salary is not the only thing people look for a job. The accompanying fringe benefits are also important. By understanding the factors influencing motivation, they can create the conditions in which employees will perform to their maximum potential.

Numerous definitions are given for the word motivation.

Motivation comes from the Latin word movere, which means "to move". Two formal definitions of motivation are:

-       all those inner striving conditions described as wishes, desires, drives, etc. It is an inner state that activates or moves.

-       the combination of forces which initially direct and sustain behavior toward a goal.

In the motivation process, needs produce motives that lead to the accomplishment of objectives. A motive is a stimulus leading to an action that satisfies a need; in other words, motives produce action.  In the motivation process, achievement of the objective satisfies the need and reduces the motive. When an objective is reached, balance is restored. However, other needs arise that can be satisfied through the same sequence of events.

The types of rewards that an organization offers its employees play a crucial role in determining their level of motivation.

So it is obvious that, from an employer’s point of view, knowledge about how to motivate employees in their daily work would be invaluable. Indeed the concern of haw to motivate the workers was studied by management efficiently experts long before psychologists began to take an interest in the subject, & possibly the crudeness of this earlier theorizing was one reason why this interest arose.

So there are can be a lot of different theories of motivation. & the main known are:

Traditional theory.

The traditional theory of motivation evolved from the work of Frederick W. Taylor and others in the scientific management movement, which was active at the beginning of this century. Taylor's ideas were based on his belief that existing reward systems had not been designed to compensate a person for high production.

The traditional motivation theory is based on the assumption that money is the primary motivator. On the basis of this assumption, financial rewards are related directly to performance in the belief that, if the reward is great enough, workers will produce more.

In the need hierarchy theory, it is assumed that workers are motivated to satisfy a number of needs and that money can satisfy, directly or indirectly, only some of these. The need hierarchy theory is based largely on the work of Abraham Maslow.

Hierarchical theory of Maslow.

Maslow thought that several different types of needs exist within individuals and that these relate to each other in the form of a hierarchy. Maslow's hierarchy consists of the five levels of needs. The physiological needs are shown as being strongest; they tend to dominate all others until they are substantially satisfied. Once the physiological needs have been met, safety needs become dominant.

Physiological needs are basically bodily needs that must be satisfied to sustain life; food, sleep, water, exercise, clothing, and shelter. Safety needs are concerned with protection against imminent or threatened danger, or deprivation. Since all employees, to some degree, depend on the organization, safety needs can be critically important.

The physiological and the safety needs, the so-called lower-order needs, are more easily and therefore more generally satisfied than the others.

The third level of the hierarchy is the social needs. This level and the next two are higher-order needs. Generally placed in the third level are needs for love, affection, belonging. Developing a sense of belonging to a corporate entity and identifying with work groups are means of  satisfying these needs in organizations.

The esteem needs compose the fourth level; they involve the drive to value oneself and to inspire the esteem of others. Maslow contended that all people wont a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of themselves - that is, self-respect and self-esteem.

The next level in Maslow's need hierarchy, self-actualization or self-fulfillment, is attained through use of the person's abilities and interests to the fullest in functioning in his or her environment. As Maslow puts it, "What a man can be, he must be". The need for self-actualization or self-fulfillment is never completely satisfied; one can always reach one step higher.

The most important contention of need hierarchy theory is that a satisfied need is not a motivator.

Motivation-maintenance theory of Herzberg.

Frederick Herzberg has developed a theory of work motivation that has been widely accepted in management circles. His hypothesis is referred to by several names: motivation-maintenance, dual factor, or the motivation-hygiene theory.

The formulation of this theory involved extensive interviews  with approximately 200 engineers and accountants from 11 industries in the Pittsburg area. In conducting the interviews, Herzberg used what is called the critical incident method. He requested employees to recall work situations in which they had experienced periods of high and low motivation.

Through analysis of the interviewees' statements, it was found that different factors were associated with good and bad feelings. These conditions were classified into two major categories. Factors most frequently mentioned in: achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the characteristics of the job. But when subjects felt negatively about a work incident, they were more likely to mention factors associated with the work environment. Examples of these included status; relations with supervisors, peers, and subordinates; technical aspects of  supervision; company policy and administration; job  security; working conditions; salary; aspects of personal life that were as hygiene or maintenance factors. The researchers believed that they will not motivate, but can prevent motivation from occurring. Proper attention to hygiene factors is a necessary but not sufficient condition for motivation.

The first set of factors are called motivators. Herzberg maintains that motivation comes from within the individual, not from the manager.

Herzberg's motivation-maintenance theory is closely related to the need hierarchy theory of motivation; thus, it is subjects to many of the same criticisms.

Theory X & Theory Y.

In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing theories of work & motivation. What he calls Theory X is the traditional approach to workers & working which assumes that people are lazy & dislike work, & that they have to be both threatened (for example, with losing their job) & rewarded. It assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves. Theory Y, on the contrary, assumes that people have a psychological need to work & want responsibility & achievement.

Theory Y makes much greater demands on both workers & managers than McGregor realized. Bur managers shouldn’t forget that there are always week & vulnerable people, with little self-discipline, who need protection against the burden of responsibility. Even strong & healthy people need the security in order & direction. Managers can’t simply substitute Theory Y for Theory X. They have to replace the security provided by Theory X with a different structure of security & certainty.

Reinforcement theory.

The work of B.F.Skinner forms the primary basis for the reinforcement theory. The general idea behind this theory is  that reinforced behavior will be repeated and behavior that  is not reinforced is less likely to be repeated. If an  employee is given an increase in wages when performance is high, the employee is likely to continue to strive for high  performance.

Equity theory

Equity theory is based on the belief that employees will take whatever actions are necessary to produce feelings of equity with respect to their jobs.

An important point regarding equity theory is that an individual's  feelings of equity are based on his or her perceptions of inputs versus outcomes.

Because human resource managers often serve as intermediaries between employees and management in conflicts, they are concerned with job satisfaction or general job attitudes of the employees.

1. Attitude toward work group;
2. general working conditions;
3. attitude toward company;
4. monetary benefits;
5. attitude toward  supervision.

The motivation process centers on needs, which produce motives, that lead to the accomplishment of objectives.

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