Motivational Concepts in Management

Motivational Concepts

• Motivation is defined as the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
• The three key elements of motivation are:
  • Intensity: how hard a person tries to achieve a goal
  • Direction: the orientation that benefits the organization
  • Persistence: how long a person can maintain their effort

Early Theories of Motivation

• Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
  • Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, etc.)
  • Safety needs (security and protection)
  • Social needs (affection, belongingness, acceptance, friendship)
  • Esteem needs (self-respect, autonomy, achievement, status, recognition)
  • Self-actualization needs (growth, achieving one's potential, self-fulfillment)
• As a need becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant
• McClelland's Theory:
  • Three needs: need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power
  • Need for achievement is closely related to personal responsibility and feedback
  • Need for power is the desire to have impact, be influential, and control others
• McClelland's theory has the best research support, but is impractical due to the difficulty of measuring the needs

Self-Determination Theory

• People prefer to feel they have control over their actions
• Intrinsic motivation is undermined when a previously enjoyed task feels like an obligation
• Rewards-personal goals relationship is crucial for motivation

Expectancy Theory

• The key to motivation is understanding an individual's goals and the linkage between effort and performance, performance and rewards, and rewards and individual goal satisfaction
• Expectancy theory predicts that an employee will exert effort if they perceive a strong relationship between effort and performance, performance and rewards, and rewards and satisfaction of personal goals
• Factors influencing expectancy theory include ability, performance appraisal system, and rewards-goals relationship

Motivation Theories

• Need for achievement is predicted by personal responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk, strongly motivating high achievers.

• A high need to achieve does not necessarily make someone a good manager, especially in large organizations.

• Need for power (nPow) is the desire to have impact, be influential, and control others, characterized by a desire to be "in charge" and strive for influence over others.

McClelland's Theory of Needs

• The theory proposes that three needs are subconscious: need for achievement (nAch), need for power (nPow), and need for affiliation.

• Measuring these needs is not easy, typically done through a time-consuming and expensive process involving a trained expert presenting pictures to individuals and scoring their responses.

Self-Determination Theory

• The theory proposes that people prefer to feel in control over their actions, and anything that makes a previously enjoyed task feel like an obligation will undermine motivation.

• Intrinsic factors (advancement, recognition, responsibility, and achievement) are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors (supervision, pay, company policies, and working conditions) are related to job dissatisfaction.

• Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying; job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from job dissatisfaction factors.

Herzberg's Theory

• The theory proposes that hygiene factors (extrinsic factors) must be adequate to prevent dissatisfaction, but to motivate people, managers must emphasize factors intrinsically rewarding that are associated with the work itself or outcomes directly derived from it.

• Criticisms of Herzberg's theory include methodological limitations, questionability of reliability, and assuming a relationship between satisfaction and productivity.

Expectancy Theory

• The theory predicts that an employee will exert a high level of effort if they perceive a strong relationship between effort and performance, performance and rewards, and rewards and satisfaction of personal goals.

• Each of these relationships is influenced by certain factors, including ability to perform, fairness of the performance appraisal system, and the rewards-goals relationship.

Goal-Setting Theory

• The theory proposes that specific goals increase performance, difficult goals result in higher performance than easy goals, and feedback leads to higher performance than non-feedback.

• Contingencies in goal-setting theory include goal commitment, task characteristics, and national culture.

• Goal-setting theory is culture-bound and well-adapted to North American cultures, where individual achievement and performance are highly valued.

Self-Efficacy Theory

• The theory proposes that self-efficacy is influenced by four characteristics: enactive mastery, vicarious modeling, verbal persuasion, and arousal.

• Self-efficacy is a key factor in motivation, as it determines an individual's confidence in their ability to achieve a goal.

Motivation Definition

• Motivation is the process that accounts for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.

• The three key elements of motivation are intensity (how hard a person tries), direction (orientation that benefits the organization), and persistence (how long a person can maintain their effort).

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• The theory proposes that human beings have a hierarchy of five needs, which include physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

• As a need becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant, and no need is ever fully gratified.

Learn about the three key elements of motivation, including intensity, direction, and persistence. Understand how these elements contribute to an individual's effort towards achieving a goal.