MOTIVATION THEORY

Motivation is a key part of the manager’s job because through it the manager is able to make
people want to perform activities so that goals can be achieved

Motivation has been defined as the set of processes that determine behavioral activities and
choices that is the process which influence people to behave the way they do. Motivation is
therefore concerned with the reasons for human behavior.it explains why people behave in a
certain way. Motivation is derived from motive which is an inner force that moves that moves a
person to behave in a certain way.

Management thinking motivation has progressed through distinct stages;

 Traditional view-which is a simplistic way of looking at employees

 Human related view-advocated by the behavioral school of management thought
 Human resource review-it argues that people are actually resources that can benefit the
organization

Motivation theory has two major theories

1. Content theories
2. Process theories

CONTENT THEORIES

Content theories attempt to explain the specific things that actually motivate an individual at
work. They are concerned mainly with identifying people’s needs, their relative strength and
goals that people pursue in order to satisfy these needs. Their main focus is on what motivates.
They include;

HERZBERG’S THEORY (Two Factor Theory)

The two factor theory was developed by Fredrick Herzberg from his study of 200 accountants
and engineers.it is also known as hygiene theory.it is a theory of external motivation because the
manager controls the factor that produce job satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Prior to Herzberg study it was generally believed that employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction
and hence motivation or lack of it were opposite ends of the same continuum (scale)that is
people were either satisfied with their jobs or they were dissatisfied or something in
between.Hezberg study thus showed that is not the case. He found out that satisfaction was
influenced by one set of factors while dissatisfaction was influenced by another set hence the two
factor theory.

Factors which influenced dissatisfaction he called them dissatisfies included;

 Company policies
 Supervision
 Status
 Job security
 Administration
 Salary
 Interpersonal relations

If these factors are present in high quality and quantity people are simply not dissatisfied and not
necessarily satisfied.so the presence of those factors are present in high quality and quantity,
people are not necessarily dissatisfied or satisfied.

Factors which affected satisfaction he called them satisfiers or motivators which included;
achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth and advancement .when these factors fell below
an acceptable level, they contributed very little to job dissatisfaction but they did prevent
satisfaction.

This theory has a clear message for managers in trying to motivate employees, the first step
should be to eliminate dissatisfaction by ensuring that pay, working conditions are reasonable

ABRAHAM MASLOW’S NEED HIERACHY

Maslow’s human needs can be arranged in order of importance from the most basic. Once a need
is fairly well satisfied it no longer motivates behavior and man is motivated by the next higher
level of needs. Maslow divided human needs into five levels;

1. Physiological needs

They are the most basic human needs for sustaining life e.g. food, air, shelter and clothing. These
needs have certain characteristics;
  They are relatively independent of each other
 They can be identified with specific location of the body
 To remain satisfied, they must not be repeatedly within a short time
 Unless these needs are satisfied to the degree necessary to sustain life other needs will
need to motivate people

2. Safety or security needs

These needs are expressed as desired for protection against danger, threat or deprivation. The
desire may be economic, physical or for social safety. Employees may for example desire
economic security, orderly working relationship etc.

3. Social needs

These include need for belonging, love, acceptance, friendship association and need to give and
receive love. Man being a social being will aspire for a place in his own grave and will strive to
achieve it

4. Esteem needs (EGO)

According to Maslow these needs do not become motivators until the lower level needs have
been reasonably satisfied. These needs are completely satisfied. Once these needs become
important to an individual he will continually seek satisfaction of them. The typical industrial
organization offers only limited opportunity for the satisfaction of these needs at the lower levels
of employment. Esteem needs consists of both self-esteem and esteem by others

5. Self Actualization Needs

These needs according to Maslow emerge after all other need have been satisfied. Self-
actualization needs include the realization of ones potentialities, self-fulfillment, self-
development and creativeness. The form these needs take varies from one person to another just
as human personalities vary

ALDERFER’S MODIFIED NEED HIERARCHY MODEL (ERG)

Alderfer gives a variation of Maslow’s need theory and refers to his very version as the ERG
model of motivation. Alderfer condense Maslow’s five levels of needs into three levels that are
based on the core needs of existence, relatedness and growth

MC GREGOR THEORY (X AND Y THEORY)

THEORY X ASSUMES;

 Has autocratic management

 States that the average person dislikes work and will try to avoid it
 Because people dislike work they must be coerced through threats and punishment if
they have to contribute to organizational objectives
 Above all people want security, they prefer to be led and avoid responsibility

THEORY Y ASSUMES;

 Participative management
 Work is as normal as play
 Threat of punishment is only one way to make people work
 Committed people are self-motivated and self-directed
 Under the right conditions the average person will seek and like responsibility
 The ability to think creatively, to innovate and solve problem s are widely distributed
among people

SKINNER-MOTIVATION THROUGH POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

All behavior is as a result of stimulus

In management a motivational stimulus can be anything that results in change of behaviour

can be positive such as promotions, pay rise or negativity such as threat of demotion

PROCESS THEORIES

They concern themselves with identification of the dynamic variables that make up
motivation. Mainly process theories focus on how behavior initiated, directed and sustained,
they include;
 THE VROOM –MODEL-A CONTIGENCY VIEW/EXPECTANCY THEORY

Vroom looks at effective motivation as a result of these factors;

 The goals that a person wants to achieve

 These might include a higher salary, promotion, job security and more interesting works.
Each individual may have a different arrangement of goals. Vroom lays an emphasize on
what goals the employees sees as important

PRODUCTIVITY AND SATISFACTION-PORTER AND LAWLER MODEL

Basing their work on the assumption that a relation existed between satisfaction and productivity.
Lawler and porter developed their model and managerial motivation. The model is based on the
assumption that rewards cause satisfaction and that sometimes performance produce rewards.

They hypothesized that satisfaction and performance are linked by rewards.that good
performance lead to rewards which led to satisfaction. According to the theory satisfaction
performance leads to either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards are given to the individual by
himself for good performance and they include feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction or
higher level needs

Extrinsic rewards are given by the organization and include; pay, promotions, status and job
securities and they mainly satisfy lower level needs. This means that at times extrinsic rewards
are not related to performance.to be considered as a reward the individual must value it
positively so both individual worker and the organization are responsible for motivation. But
despite the organizations influence the greater responsibility for motivation lies with the
individual. Therefore his motivation or satisfaction depends on the performance as it is affected
by value he places on rewards, the probability that effort will result in rewards, his efforts,
abilities, traits and role perception