Theories of Motivation
Individual performances
make organizations what they are, individual performance in any
organization is determined by three complementary factors:
1) His knowledge of
the job
2) His skill in
performing the job
3) His attitude towards
the job.
The organization's
training procedures can influence an employees resolve of the first
two factors,while the last one is as a result of the focus of
motivation in the organization.
Motivation may be
defined as a goal seeking behaviour,the driving force within a person
or group of persons that drive them to evolve actions that would
result in the achievement of desired objectives. It usually involves
needs, expectations, personalities and perception.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Some of the theories of
motivation include:
1) Abraham Maslow
Hierarchy of needs
Maslow in his theory
saw needs as occurring in hierarchial order,the first being:
Physiological needs:
These concern the basic needs of human existence e.g.
food,clothing,shelter,sex.
Safety and security
needs: These are needs that focus primarily on the protection of
individuals from harm in his environment.
Social or love needs:
These are needs or desires to associate with others within a group
and being accepted for desired relationship.
Esteem needs: These are
needs for reputation,recognition or self worth,respect and
admiration.
Self actualization
needs: These are needs to realise personal goals a person would deem
important to give a feeling of pride and achievement.
2)Fredrick Herzberg two
factor theory:
The theory was
proposed in 1959 by Frederick Herzberg. He grouped needs into two.
One group contains company policy and administration,supervision and
working conditions,interpersonal relations,salary, security,personal
life and status. He called these factors dissatisfiers, maintenance
or hygiene factors which are not motivators. It is believed that
their existence in the work place does not motivate, but their
absence would definitely create dissatisfaction.
The second group
comprises satisfiers and motivators including: Factors of
achievement,recognition,challenging work,advancement and growth on
the job. These are job content factors whose existence in the
workplace will motivate and will not be effective tools if the
hygiene factors are absent.
3) Douglas McGregor
Theory X and Y
Douglas McGregor
explained two opposing behaviours of the managers towards the
subordinates. The first set of assumption called theory X assumed
that :
The average human being
has inherent dislike for work and would want to avoid it if possible.
The average human being
avoid responsibilities where possible,generally unambitious and
prefers to be directed.
Workers must be
coerced,controlled,directed and punished in order to get them to put
in their best
These assumptions
encourage managers to recommend "carrot and stick" style as
a means of ruling the workers. Ie. to control strictly and reward
the work where necessary.
Theory Y sees man in a
more favourable manner,managers regard employees as human beings.
Theory Y's assumptions are:
The expenditure of
physical and mental efforts in work is as natural as play or rest.
External control and
the threat of punishment are not only means for bringing about effort
towards organizational objectives. People will excercise self
direction and self control in the service of objectives to which they
are committed.
Commitment of
objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their
achievement.
Under proper conditions
average human beings learn not only to accept but to seek
responsibility.
The capacity to
exercise a relatively high degree of imagination,ingenuity and
creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely and
not narrowly distributed in the population
Under the conditions
of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the
average human being are only partially utilized.
4) David Mc-Clealand
Theory of needs.
He identified three
types of basic motivating needs which are
Need for power
Need for affiliation
Need for achievement
According to this
theory, people with high need for power usually seek position of
leadership in order to influence and control. They are mainly people
who are forceful,outspoken,hard headed and demanding,who enjoy
teaching and public speaking
Those with high need
for affiliation are usually concerned with maintaining good personal
relationship,enjoy a sense of intimacy and understanding,have
preparedness to console and help others who are in need and most of
all enjoy friendly interaction with others.
People with the need
for achievement are known for strong desires for success coupled with
fear of failure. They usually wang personal responsibility,moderate
difficult goals and acceptable realistic levels of risk taking .
Reinforcement Theory
(Operant Conditioning)
This theory was
developed by a psychologist .F Skinner.
Reinforcement theory
explains a behaviouristic approach which focuses on the fact that
reinforcement conditions behaviour. An event is said to be
reinforcing if the occurrence of the event following some behaviour
makes the behaviour more likely to be repeated. For example, if an
employee is paid a percentage of his weekly wage extra each time he
meets a particular target set by his superior,he would always want to
meet this target. In this way, the extra pay has acted as a
reinforcer. Events become reinforced if they are tried overtime and
the consequences recorded.
There are four
different kinds of situations involved in the reinforcement theory
which are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement,punishment
and extinction.
a) Positive
Reinforcement: It is a reinforcement in which a desirable event is
given to someone as a reward for following a specific behaviour,such
desirable events may include bonus,higher pay.
Negative Reinforcement:
A negative reinforcement refers to a situation where a behaviour
results in removal or withdrawal of undesirable or unpleasant event.
An example may be issuance of queries on lateness to work by an
employee, then the employee might change durle to the queries. In
this case,consistent queries acted as a negative reinforcer.
Punishment: It is a
situation whereby an undesirable effect occurs as a result of a
bebaviour less likely to be repeated. If a manager suspends a
subordinate from duty for one week with loss of pay,he does this with
the hope that this will deter the subordinate from similar behaviour
in future.
Extinction: Sometimes
when the pleasant or desirable event is removed,it results in
occurrence that may not be repeated. For example if a worker is paid
overtime each time he or she stays behind after closing hours to do
some jobs,he or she sees as urgent and important,when the managers
stops paying this overtime,he or she may stop going this extra mile.
From the above,we can
conclude that positive reinforcement is likely to be the most
effective one that managers can use to influence behaviour. One great
advantage and characteristic of positive reinforcement is that it
heightens the occurrence of effective job behaviour on the part of
subordinates.
Punishment and
extinction are less effective because they only reduce the frequency
of ineffective performance by employees. They hardly teach employees
what to do.
Negative reinforcement
has a lot of disadvantage as it has some undesirable side effects on
the employee. The employee may grow angry or feel frustrated when
subjected to the necessary unpleasant situations.
