THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Definition
Motivation is defined as anything that affects behaviour in pursuing a certain outcome, or a
goal/objective. The search for happiness and satisfaction is central to motivation. There are
several motivation theories:

Why motivate?

 Employee motivation affects productivity, and so part of the leader’s role should be to
channel follower’s motivation towards the accomplishment of the organizations
vision and goals.
 The study of motivation helps leaders understand what prompts people to initiate
action, what influences their choice, and why they persist in that action over time.
 Motivation can lead to behaviours that reflect high performance within organizations.

Types of Motivator Categories

There are two types of motivator categories in a company’s culture, intrinsic and
extrinsic.

1. What Is Intrinsic Motivation?

When you’re intrinsically motivated, your behavior is motivated by your internal desire to
do something for its own sake — for example, your personal enjoyment of an activity, or
your desire to learn a skill because you’re eager to learn.

Examples of intrinsic motivation could include:

 Reading a book because you enjoy the storytelling.

 Exercising because you want to release stress.
2. What Is Extrinsic Motivation?

When you’re extrinsically motivated, your behaviour is motivated by an external factor

pushing you to do something in hopes of earning a reward — or avoiding a less-than-positive
outcome.

Examples of extrinsic motivation could include:

 Reading a book to prepare for a test.

 Exercising to lose weight.
 1. Content motivation theory
(https://pressbooks.senecacollege.ca/organizationalbehaviour/chapter/chapter-5/)

Explains why human needs change with time. Content theory includes the work of David
McClelland, Abraham Maslow and other psychologists as they attempted to explain why
human needs change, but not how they change. This theory explains the specific factors that
motivate behaviour.

(i) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory -This is the most widely known theory of
motivation and was hypothesised by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in
the 1940s and 1950s. Maslow put forward the idea that there existed a hierarchy
of needs consisting of five levels in the hierarchy. These needs progressed from
lower order needs (physiological level to self-actualization level) through to
higher level needs. Maintains that a person does not feel a higher need until the
needs of the current level have been satisfied.
 (ii) ERG Theory

Clayton Alderfer revised Maslow's theory in 1972. He reduced the levels in the hierarchy
from five to three and termed these; Existence needs, Related needs and Growth needs. His
most significant contribution, however, was to alter Maslow's concept of a one-way
progression up the hierarchy, to one that allowed for regression to lower levels if these needs
are no longer being met. This is a more realistic approach as it recognises that, because a
need is met, doesn't mean it will always remain met.

McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory for Achievement, Affiliation and Power

McClelland's model argues that all people have these three needs. He further maintains that
there is a direct link between high-performing managers and their need for achievement, and
to a lesser extent their need for power and affiliation. In other words, people with a high drive
to succeed are more likely to be more highly motivated than people with a low drive to
succeed. He also maintains that it is possible to arrange work situations and conditions to gain
the high motivational benefits from those with a high need for achievement—starting by
employing people with a high need for achievement.

(iii) Herzberg’s' Two Factor Theory

Next to Maslow, Herzberg's theory has probably received the most attention within the
workplace. Frederick Herzberg developed the model in 1959. He did this by interviewing
over 200 professionals. The interviews delved into when the interviewees were at their most
and least happy with their jobs. He developed the theory that people’s job satisfaction
depends on two kinds of factors. Factors for satisfaction (motivators/satisfiers) and
for dissatisfaction (hygiene factors/ dissatisfiers). He developed a theory that differentiated
between factors that satisfied employees, and factors that dissatisfied employees. In his
theory the opposite of 'satisfaction' is not 'dissatisfaction' but rather 'no satisfaction'.
Likewise, the opposite of 'dissatisfaction' is 'no dissatisfaction'.

4 different combinations can exist at work:

1: High hygiene and high motivation

This is the ideal situation. Employees are very motivated and barely have any complaints.

2: High hygiene and low motivation

Employees have few complaints, but they’re not really motivated, they see their work simply
as a paycheck.

3: Low hygiene and high motivation

Employees are highly motivated, their job is challenging, but they have many
grievances/complaints e.g., about salary or work conditions.

4: Low hygiene and low motivation

This is the worst possible situation; employees are not motivated and have a lot of
complaints.

How to Use the Model

There is a two-step process to use the Two Factor Theory model to increase the motivation of
your team.

1. Eliminate job hygiene stressors.

2. Boost job satisfaction.

1. Eliminate Job Hygiene Stressors

The first step to enhancing the motivation of your team is to ensure that the hygiene factors
are not causing dissatisfaction.

Each person will examine hygiene factors through their own unique frame of reference.
Because of this, it’s important to work with each member of your team to understand their
specific perspective.

Some common steps to remove hygiene stressors are:

 Rectify petty and bureaucratic company policies.

 Ensure each team member feels supported without feeling micromanaged. You can
use servant leadership or democratic leadership.

 Ensure the day to day working culture is supportive. No bullying. No cliques.

Everyone treated with equal respect.

 Ensure that salaries are competitive within the industry. Ensure there are no major
salary disparities between employees doing similar jobs.
  To increase job satisfaction and status, aim to construct jobs in such a way that each
team member finds their job meaningful.

2. Boost Job Satisfaction

Once you have removed hygiene stressors, the next step is to boost the job satisfaction of
each team member. We can do this by improving the actual content of the job itself. Again, a
unique approach for each employee will be required.

Three techniques which can be used to achieve this are:

a. Job Enrichment

Job enrichment means enriching a team member’s job by giving them more challenging or
complex tasks to perform. These more complex tasks should make the job more interesting.

b. Job Enlargement

Job enlargement means giving a team member a greater variety of tasks to perform. This
variety can also make a job more interesting.

Note that with job enlargement the variety of tasks is increased, but not the difficulty of those
tasks. If difficulty increased, then that would be job enrichment.

c. Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment means delegating increasing responsibility to each team member.

This can be done by slowly increasing the amount of responsibility you delegate to an
employee.

Limitations of the Theory

Some common criticisms of Herzberg’s Motivation Theory include:

 The theory only applies to white collar workers.

 It doesn’t take an individual’s situation or perception into consideration. We have

attempted to address this above by applying the theory at an individual level.

 The theory focuses on improving employee satisfaction. That doesn’t necessarily

translate into increased productivity.

 There is no objective way to measure employee satisfaction within the theory.

  Two Factor Theory is subject to bias. For example, when an employee is satisfied,
they will give themselves credit for that satisfaction. Conversely, when they are
dissatisfied, they will blame external factors.

2. Reinforcement motivation theory

The Reinforcement Theory of Motivation was proposed by B.F. Skinner and his
associates. This theory proposes that you can change someone's behaviour by using
reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Rewards are used to reinforce the behaviour
you want, and punishments are used to prevent the behaviour you do not want. Extinction
is a means to stop someone from performing a learned behaviour. There are four types of
reinforcement that can result from behaviour.

1. Positive Reinforcement: A method of strengthening behavior with rewards or positive

outcomes after a desired behavior is performed.

2. Avoidance / Negative reinforcement: Used to strengthen behavior by avoiding

unpleasant consequences that would result if the behavior was not performed.

3. Punishment: Used to weaken undesired behaviors by using negative outcomes or

unpleasant consequence when the behavior is performed.
4. Extinction: Used to weaken undesired behaviors by simply ignoring or not reinforcing
that behavior.

3. The process motivation theory

This theory focuses on understanding how people choose behaviour to fulfil their needs.
The process motivation theories attempt to understand why people have different needs,
why their needs change, how and why people choose to try to satisfy needs in different
ways, the mental process people go through while trying to understand situations and
lastly, they try to understand how people evaluate their need satisfaction.

Types of process motivation theories

There are three different categories of the process motivation theory.
 • Equity theory

• Expectancy theory

• The Porter-Lawler Model

(i) Equity theory: in equity theories, employees assess their effort against fellow
workers and the reward they receive for their effort.
Proposes that people or employees in an organization are motivated when their
perceived inputs equal the outputs. Inputs include the efforts, experience, loyalty,
commitment, seniority etc. whereas outputs are the compensation received either in
cash or in kind.
Equitable distribution of pay is vital to organizations unfortunately, employees either
inflate their efforts or performance against their colleagues, or they will overestimate
what others earn. Employees motivation tends to be satisfied and motivated until they
learn the relevant others earn more for the same work performed i.e., overrewarded or
earn the same from less work done i.e., under rewarded, or lastly, they are rewarded
equally i.e., equitably rewarded.

Counter reaction to perceived inequality include.

 Reduced inputs (commit less effort)
 Increased input (get a raise)
(ii) Expectancy theory - Suggests that motivation depends on individual’s mental
expectations about their ability to perform tasks and receive desired rewards. This
theory explains that individuals can be motivated towards goals if they believe
that there is a positive correlation between efforts and performance, the outcome
of a favourable performance will result in a desirable reward, a reward from a
performance will satisfy an important need, and/or the outcome satisfies their need
enough to make the effort worthwhile. This theory is associated with the work of
Victor vroom.

NB/Victor Vroom's primary research was on the expectancy theory of motivation, which
attempts to explain why individuals choose to follow certain courses of action in
organizations, particularly in decision-making and leadership.

Goal setting theory

In 1960’s, Edwin Locke put forward the Goal-setting theory of motivation. This theory states
that goal setting is essentially linked to task performance. It states that specific and
challenging goals along with appropriate feedback contribute to higher and better task
performance.

In simple words, goals indicate and give direction to an employee about what needs to be
done and how much efforts are required to be put in.