Motivation is a psychological characteristic that contributes to a person’s degree of commitment. It includes the facts that cause, channel, and sustain human behavior in a particular committed direction. However, the term motivation has been defined by authors in many ways. Some of the definitions are as follows:

(i) “Motivation may be defined as the state of an individual’s perspective which represents the strength of his or her propensity to exert effort toward some particular behavior” – Gibson
(ii) “Motivation refers to expenditure of effort toward a goal”- Dubrin
(iii) “Motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific goal-directed manner” – Hellriegel and Slocum
(iv) “Motivation is a cyclical process affecting the inner needs or drives that energize, channel, and maintain behavior” – Steers and Lyman.

For our purpose, we shall define motivation as the need or drive within an individual that urges him or her towards goal-oriented action.

The Motivation Process

The motivation process may be represented by a diagram (see, figure 6.1) which begins with inner drives and needs that motivate the individual to work towards certain goals, which the individual has chosen in the belief that those goals will satisfy the inner drives and needs. After attaining these goals, the individual consciously or unconsciously judges whether the effort has been worthwhile. As long as the individual perceives the effort as rewarding, the habit of making the effort is reinforced, and the individual can be persuaded to continue or repeat that kind of effort. Reinforcement, or what happens as a result of behavior, affects other needs and drives as the process is repeated.

Employee motivation is of crucial concern to management, mainly because of the role that employee motivation plays in performance. Basically, performance is determined by (i) ability, (ii) environment, and (iii) motivation. If any of these three factors is missing or deficient, effective performance is impossible. A manager may have the most highly qualified employees under him and provide them with the best possible environment, but effective performance will not result unless the subordinates are motivated to perform.

Inner Drives, Needs or Motives → Behavior or Action → Goals → Reinforcement → Satisfaction

---

2. Contemporary Theories of Motivation

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y are two sets of assumptions about the nature of people. McGregor chose these terms because he wanted neutral terminology without any connotation of being “good” or “bad”.

Theory X assumptions

The “traditional” assumptions about the nature of people, according to McGregor, are included in Theory X as follows:

1. Average human beings have an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if they can.
2. Because of this human characteristic of disliking work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives.
3. Average human beings prefer to be directed, wish to avoid responsibility, have relatively little ambition, and want security above all.

Theory Y assumptions

The assumptions under Theory Y are seen by McGregor as follows:

1. The expenditure of physical effort and mental effort in work is as neutral as play or rest.
2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for producing effort toward organizational objectives. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which they are committed.
3. The degree of commitment to objectives is in proportion to the size of the rewards associated with their achievement.
4. Average human beings learn, under proper conditions, not only to accept responsibility but also to seek it.
5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.
6. Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

These two sets of assumptions obviously are fundamentally different. Theory X is pessimistic, static, and rigid. Control is primarily external, that is, imposed on the subordinate by the superior. In contrast, Theory Y is optimistic, dynamic, and flexible, with an emphasis on self-direction and the integration of individual needs with organizational demands.

The Hierarchy of Needs Theory

One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. The basic needs placed by Maslow in an ascending order of importance and shown in the figure are these:

(a) Physiological needs: These are the basic needs for sustaining human life itself, such as food, water, warmth, shelter, and sleep. Maslow took the position that until these needs are satisfied to the degree necessary to maintain life, other needs will motivate people.
(b) Security or safety needs: These are the needs to be free of physical danger and of the fear of losing a job, property, food, or shelter.
(c) Affiliation, or acceptance, needs: Since people are social beings, they need to belong, to be accepted by others.
(d) Esteem needs: According to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of produces such satisfactions as power, prestige, status, and self-confidence.
(e) Need for self-actualization: Maslow regards this as the highest need in his hierarchy. It is the desire to become what one is capable of becoming—to maximize one’s potential and accomplish something.

McClelland’s Need Theory of Motivation

David C. McClelland has identified three types of basic motivating needs as (a) need for power, (b) need for affiliation, and (c) need for achievement. They are all relevant to management and must be recognized to make an organized enterprise work well.

• Need for power: It deals with the degree of control a person desires over his or her situation.
• Need for affiliation: Many people spend much of their time thinking about developing warm, friendly, personal relationships with others in the organization.
• Need for achievement: A strong need for achievement – the drive to succeed or excel – is related to how well individuals are motivated to perform their tasks.

The Two-Factor (Motivation-Hygiene) Theory of Motivation

Maslow’s needs approach has been considerably modified by Fredrick Herzberg and his associates. In the late 1950s, Herzberg and his associates conducted a study of the job attitudes of 200 accountants and engineers in Pittsburgh. Herzberg placed responses from the engineers and accountants interviewed in one of 16 categories—the factors on the right side of the figure were consistently related to job satisfaction and those on the left side to job dissatisfiers and satisfiers emerged.

Satisfiers (Motivating factors): Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth – all related to job content and rewards for performance.
Dissatisfiers (Hygiene factors): Company policy and administration, supervision, relationship with supervisors, work subordinates, status, and security – most of which are related to the work environment.

Herzberg’s study led him to conclude that the traditional model of job satisfaction was incomplete. He recommended redesigning jobs to provide higher levels of the motivation factors.

The Satisfaction-Dissatisfaction Continuum under the Traditional View and the Two-Factor Model

• Maintenance Factors (Hygiene factors): Company policy and administration, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, job security, and personal life.
• Motivators: Achievement, recognition, challenging work, advancement, and growth in the job.

The Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Another approach, one that many believe goes far in explaining how people are motivated, is the expectancy theory. According to psychologist Victor H. Vroom, people will be motivated to do things to reach a goal if they believe in the worth of that goal and if they can see that what they do will help them in achieving it.

Vroom’s theory may be stated as:
Force = Valence × Expectancy
Where force is the strength of a person’s motivation, valence is the strength of an individual’s preference for an outcome, and expectancy is the probability that a particular action will lead to a desired outcome.

Techniques of Motivation

Experience suggests that some specialized techniques to motivate can be used as follows:

1. Management by Objective (MBO) and goal setting
2. Participation in management
3. Monetary incentives
4. Modified work week/flexible working hours
5. Quality of working life (QWL)
6. Effective criticism
7. Job enrichment

Motivation through Reward Systems

Organizational reward systems are key in improving performance and success. These systems include both financial and non-financial rewards.

• Financial rewards
• Non-financial rewards: Social rewards, feedback as a reward

Motivators

Motivators are things that induce an individual to perform. Managers can influence behavior by establishing environments favorable to certain drives, such as creating a reputation for excellence.

Motivating

Motivating is the management process of influencing people’s behavior based on the knowledge of what causes and channels human behavior in a particular committed direction.

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is the end result of the need-want-satisfaction chain. Motivation and satisfaction are related, but there is a fine difference between the two. Motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want or goal, while satisfaction refers to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied.

Need-Want-Satisfaction Chain

Needs give rise to wants, which cause tensions that give rise to actions, resulting in satisfaction.