Management Assignment

Topic
Theories of Motivation

Submitted by
Priyesh Pandey
EE Sec 2
Roll no. 2k15/ee/096
 Theories of Motivation
Introduction
Motivation is a term that refers to the process that elicits, controls, and sustains certain
behaviours. It is a set of phenomena which dictates ones sense of duty to his/her work.
It affects the nature of an individual's behaviour, the strength of the behaviour, and the
persistence of the behaviour.
There are many approaches to motivation:

Physiological
Behavioural
Cognitive
Social
According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in a basic need to minimize
physical pain and maximize pleasure; or it may include specific needs such as eating and
resting; or a desired object, goal, state of being, or ideal; or it may be attributed to less-
apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality.
Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or optimism.
Motivation is related to, but distinct from, emotion.
Following are the 5 popularly known theories of Motivation:

Maslows Need Hierarchy Theory

Herzbergs Two Factor Theory
Equity Theory
Goal-Setting Theory
Expectancy Theory
 Maslows Need Hierarchy Theory
Maslow's hierarchy of needs are a series of physiological and emotional requirements
for human contentment, arranged in order of necessity.
The most fundamental and basic needs are what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-
needs":

Esteem
Friendship and love
Security
Physical needs
If these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the
individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of
needs must be met before the individual will focus on higher level needs.
The human mind is so complex that separate motivations from different levels of
Maslow's pyramid usually occur at the same time. Maslow referred to these levels and
their satisfaction in terms such as "relative," "general," and "primarily." His focus in
establishing the hierarchy of needs was to identify the basic types of motivations and the
order in which that they generally progress as lower needs are reasonably well met.

Physiological Needs.
o Basic needs such as requirement for survival
o Liveable working environment
 o People lacking food, love, esteem, or safety would consider food to be their
greatest need. Air, water, food, clothing, and shelter are the basic
physiological needs.
Safety Needs
Once physical needs are satisfied, individual safety takes precedence. Safety and
Security needs include:
o Personal security
o Financial security
o Health and well-being
o Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts
o Love and belonging
Interpersonal Needs
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layers of human needs
are interpersonal. This involves feelings of belongingness. Deficiencies in
interpersonal needs, due to neglect, shunning, ostracism, etc., can impact an
individual's ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in
general, such as:
o Friendship
o Intimacy
o Family
Humans need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. Without
these connections, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety,
and clinical depression. This need for belonging can sometimes overcome
physiological and security needs.

Esteem
o Esteem represents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by
others.
o Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs lower
and higher.
 o The lower version represents the need for respect from others.
o The higher version manifests itself as the need for self-respect.
Self Actualization
o "What a man can be, he must be. This quotation forms the basis of the
perceived need for self-actualization.
o This level of need signifies ones need for being at the supreme level or
standard of his/her work or be at its full potential.

Herzbergs Two Factor Theory

This theory suggests that to improve job attitudes and productivity, administrators must
recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics and not assume that an increase in
satisfaction leads to decrease in un-pleasurable dissatisfaction.

Herzberg found that the job characteristics related to what an individual does (the
nature of the work he performs) apparently have the capacity to gratify such needs as
achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and self-realization, thus making him
happy and satisfied. However, the absence of such gratifying job characteristics does not
appear to lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Instead, dissatisfaction results from
unfavorable assessments of such job-related factors as company policies, supervision,
technical problems, salary, interpersonal relations on the job, and working conditions.
Thus, if management wishes to increase satisfaction on the job, it should be concerned
with the nature of the work itselfthe opportunities it presents for gaining status,
assuming responsibility, and for achieving self-realization. If, on the other hand,
management wishes to reduce dissatisfaction, then it must focus on the job
environmentpolicies, procedures, supervision, and working conditions. If management
is equally concerned with both satisfaction and dissatisfaction, then managers must give
attention to both sets of job factors.