Motivation: Need Theories

Learning Goals
 Discuss the role of needs in behavior in
organizations
 Describe the major need hierarchy
theories of motivation
 Appreciate that the importance of
particular needs varies from person to
person
Introduction
 Assumptions of motivation Theories
◦ Behavior has a starting point, a direction, and
a stopping point
◦ Focus is on voluntary behavior under the
control of the person
◦ Behavior is not random. It has purpose and
direction
 Introduction (Cont.)

Motivation defined

Motivation is a psychological process that causes the

arousal(action), direction, and persistence (determination)of
voluntary actions that are goal directed.
 Introduction (Cont.)

that that
Motivation
leads to results in Some level
is the Choice of of job
psychological behavior performance
process

The Motivation-Behavior-Job Performance Sequence

Introduction (Cont.)
 Why know about motivation?
◦ Help you understand your behavior and the
behavior of others
◦ Can help a manager build and manage a
“system of motivation.”
◦ Offers conceptual tools for analyzing
motivation problems in organizations
Murray’s Theory of
Human Personality
 Assumptions
◦ People can adapt to their changing
environment
◦ Human behavior is goal directed
◦ Internal and external factors affect behavior
◦ People learn from interactions with their
environment
◦ Preconception of future affect behavior now
Murray’s Theory of
Human Personality (Cont.)
 Types of needs
◦ Physical needs
 Satisfaction of basic physical processes
 Need for food, air, water, sex
◦ Psychological needs
 Focus on emotional and mental satisfaction
 Example: the need for social interaction or to
achieve difficult goals
 Murray’s Theory of
Human Personality (Cont.)

 Some needs in Murray's theory

◦ n Order: organize and systematically arrange
objects; be clean, neat, and tidy
◦ n Achievement: attain difficult goals; perform as
well as possible
◦ n Recognition: receive credit for actions; to
seek honors and recognition

The small n in front of the name of each need is

the psychologist’s abbreviation for the word need.
Murray’s Theory of
Human Personality (Cont.)
 Some needs in Murray's theory (cont.)
◦ n Dominance: influence others; affect the
direction of a group
◦ n Deference: respect authority; admire a
person with authority
◦ n Autonomy: be independent and not be
influenced by others
◦ n Affiliation: associate with others, have
friends, and join groups
Murray’s Theory of
Human Personality (Cont.)
 Characteristics of needs
◦ Latent internal characteristics activated by a
stimulus
◦ A person tries to behave in a way that
satisfies an activated need

Strong need for affiliation:

Meet someone you like and start talking to the person
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs Theory
 Five groups of basic needs
 Healthy adults try to satisfy these needs
 So basic that they motivate behavior in
many cultures
 Chronic frustration of needs can lead to
psychopathological results
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs Theory (Cont.)
 Physiological needs: basic
requirements of the human body; food,
water, sleep, sex
 Safety needs: desires of a person to be
protected from physical and economic
harm
 Belongingness and love needs
(social): desire to give and receive
affection; be in the company of others
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs Theory (Cont.)
 Esteem needs: self-confidence and
sense of self-worth
◦ Esteem from others: valuation of self from
other people
◦ Self-esteem: feeling of self-confidence and
self-respect
 Self-actualization needs: desire for
self-fulfillment

Maslow: “. . . the desire to become more and more

what one is, to become everything that one is
capable of becoming.”
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs Theory (Cont.)
 Form a need hierarchy based on the
“prepotency” of needs
 Prepotency: need emerges as a
motivator after satisfying a lower-order
(more prepotent) need
 Hierarchy progression: physiological,
safety, belongingness, esteem, self-
actualization
 Self-
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs actualization

Esteem

Belongingness
and love

Safety

Physiological
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs Theory (Cont.)
 Need hierarchy
◦ Unsatisfied need is a potential motivator of
behavior
◦ Satisfied need is no longer a motivator
◦ Focus on more than one need: promotion
leads to more money (esteem and
physiological)
◦ Need satisfaction follows the order shown
but is flexible
Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
 Early interview research with engineers
and accountants
◦ Negative events: mostly involved a person's
job context such as company policy and
supervision
◦ Positive events: described aspects of the job
and feelings of achievement
◦ Salary mentioned about the same number of
times in negative and positive reports
 Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
(Cont.)

 Dissatisfies: items mainly found in

descriptions of negative events
◦ Could lead to high levels of employee
dissatisfaction
◦ Improve the dissatisfiers and reduce
dissatisfaction
◦ Not get higher satisfaction
Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
(Cont.)
 Satisfiers: items mainly found in
descriptions of positive events
◦ Could lead to high levels of employee
satisfaction
◦ Their absence, or a person's failure to
experience them, would not produce
dissatisfaction
Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
(Cont.)
 Two distinct continua: one for satisfaction
and one for dissatisfaction
 Not a single continuum with
dissatisfaction on one end and satisfaction
on the other
 Herzberg eventually called the satisfiers
motivators; the dissatisfiers hygiene
factors
Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
(Cont.)
 Motivators
◦ Achievement
◦ Recognition
◦ Work itself
 Hygiene factors
◦ Company policies and their administration
◦ Quality of supervision
◦ Working conditions
 Herzberg’s
Motivator-Hygiene Theory
(Cont.)
 Dissatisfiers distracted from the motivators
 Once the work context is improved, the
manager can try to provide the motivators
 Use a process called job enrichment
 Add more responsibility and autonomy to
the job
 Creates opportunity for employee to
experience the motivators
Case Study
 Motivational theory in Practice at Tesco