27/Apr/11

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (SEMESTER – 1)

UNIT – 6 MOTIVATION : THE WHY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

⇒ Motivation : Introduction and History:

- It is the central place in the discipline of organizational behaviour.
- Motivation is not the only explanation of human behaviour.
- It interacts and acts in conjunction with mediating processes and
environment.
- Motivation is like perception and learning is a construct of
behaviour.
- It is a process that starts with psychological and or physiological
deficiency that activates the behaviour towards goal attainment.
- Motivation represents a relationship between need, drive and goal.
- Needs are created when there is imbalance-physiological or
physiological.
- Drives are set up to restore balance.
- Drives ultimately lead to goal accomplishment.
- Motivation is a psychological process.
- A motive is a felt need.
- In a sense motivation means causes of behaviour.
- Hedonism claims that:
• Human behaviour is rational
• Human behaviour is deliberate
• Humans consciously try to avoid pain and discomfort and their
behaviour is directed to secure comfort and pleasure.
- The concept of “economic man” assumes that the human behaviour
is directed to maximize economic gains and minimize economic losses.
- William James, in the first decade of the last century, disputed the
basic assumptions of Hedonistic concept.
- He thought that much of human behaviour is instinctive-based.
- William McDoougal, the pioneering social psychologist further
developed the instinctive theory as “an innate disposition which determines
the organism to perceive or to pay attention to any object” which causes
behaviour. Sigmund Freud shaped the theory of unconscious behaviour.
- Freud reasoned that human behaviour is like an iceberg, only a
small part of which is visible.
- The part of iceberg which is not seen controls the seen part.
- Freud says a person is constantly in conflict with the self.
- The three constructs of human personality are always conflicting.
- The final outcome which is the observable behaviour is the product
of his conflict.
- This is the reason why many a time a person cannot verbalize his or
her motivations.
⇒ Characteristics and classification of motives:
- Characteristics of needs or motives are:

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 27/Apr/11
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (SEMESTER – 1)
UNIT – 6 MOTIVATION : THE WHY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

• The need having the highest strength dominates human

behaviour.
• A need once satisfied ceases to influence behaviour.
• Needs are recurrent in nature.
• Needs are ubiquitous.
- Classification of motives:
• Primary motives are the one that are
unlearned and are physiological e.g. hunger, thrust, sleep, avoidance of
pain, etc.
• General motives are the needs that are
unlearned by not physiological, they reduce the tension or stimulation and
include curiosity, manipulative activity, affection, etc.
• Secondary motives develop as human
society develops economically and become more complex e.g. needs for
power, need for affiliation, need for achievement, need for security and
need for status.
⇒ Broader classification of motives:
1. The power motive:
- The leading advocate of this movie was pioneering psychologist
Alfred Adler.
- Power motive is essentially the desire to control others to direct
other’s behaviour.
- The power attached to one’s personal competence.
- In an organization because of his or her competence a person
comes to acquire power.
2. The achievement motive:
- David C.McClelland is mot closely associated with the study of
achievement motive.
- Achievement motivation can be expressed as a desire to perform in
terms of a standard of excellence or to be successful in competitive
situations.
- The specific characteristic of a high achiever are moderate risk
taking, need for immediate feedback, satisfaction with accomplishment and
preoccupation with the task.
3. The affiliation motive:
- This motive is indicative of the need belong to and be accepted by
others.
- The consideration of this motive is important in the discussion of
group dynamics.
- The higher the need for affiliation among the members of the group,
the higher is the group cohesiveness.
⇒ Intra personal conflicts:

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 27/Apr/11
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (SEMESTER – 1)
UNIT – 6 MOTIVATION : THE WHY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

1. Role conflict:
- Role conflict arises when a person is performing two different roles
having contrary or contradictory expectations at the same time.
2. Goal conflict:
- They are of three types:
(i) Approach – approach:
• Approach – approach conflict arises when there exist two equally
positive but mutually exclusive situations.
• Bother are equally attractive but a person can choose only one of
them.
• A person receiving two equally good job offers gets into this kind of
conflict.
• This kind of conflict is not known to create stress and tensions for a
long time.
• Somehow the person makes a choice and settles down with it
(ii) Avoidance – avoidance:
• Avoidance – avoidance conflict arises when there exists two equally
negative situations one of which has to be accepted.
• This conflict also is not known to create stress for a long time.
• Somehow the person makes a choice and settles down with it.
(iii) Approach – avoidance:
• Approach – avoidance conflict is known to create stress in the mind of
a person for a long time. This type of conflict arises when a positive
situation is coupled with a negative one i.e. if he wants the positive, he
must choose the negative too.
3. Frustration:
- Frustration occurs when need fulfillment is continually blocked or
when one’s self image is in jeopardy.
- Defense mechanisms are the behaviours occurring to deal with
frustration.
- Defense mechanisms are unconscious behaviours.
- These behaviours are not deliberate behaviours.
- They just occur.
- In life there could be a mixture of different defense mechanisms
in one instance of behaviour.
- In life there is no prioritizing when it comes to defense
mechanisms for dealing with frustration.
- They serve an important function of keeping the human
personality integrated.
o Defense mechanisms:
- Rationalization is giving pseudo
justification to explain one’s failures.

HETAL PATIL 3
 27/Apr/11
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (SEMESTER – 1)
UNIT – 6 MOTIVATION : THE WHY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

- Regression is sliding back in terms of

one’s chronological age. Certain patterns of behaviours are learnt during the
childhood that are subsequently in the adult age replaced by the behaviours
acceptable by the society.
- Aggression is also known as emotional
transference. It is giving vent to the pent up feelings by offensive behaviour
towards a third object or a person unconnected wit the source of frustration.
- The offensive behaviour is almost always
against the third object or the person that cannot retaliate.
- Fantasy is building castles in the air with
a view to escaping from the problem situation.
- It is temporarily removing oneself
mentally from the problem situation and losing oneself in the imaginary
world where things happen at his behest.
- The increased frequency of fantasizing is
a signal that on had better seek some from a psychiatrist.
- Resignation, flight or withdrawal is a
complete surrender to the problem situation.
- This accepting a situation and ceasing
any effort to deal with the problem.
⇒ Money as a motivator:
- While money can be a de-motivator, it is rarely a good motivator.
- It always shows up as fourth or fifth on any list of motivational
factors.
- Pay gets people to show up for work, but pay doesn’t get many to
excel.
- More important is interest, challenging, meaningful work,
recognition and appreciation, a sense of accomplishment, growth of
opportunities and the like.
- But the managers have consistently listed money as the number
one factor that they think motivates people.
- Bribing people to perform turns them into mercenaries.
- It debases, degrades and demeans work
- It sets vicious, self-perpetuating cycle into motion – incentives,
inducements, rewards and the like leave people feeling manipulated and
overly focused on what the gent for complying with the management’s goals
and direction.
- Money is rarely an effective rallying pint for high performance.
- That’s because money doesn’t provide deeper meaning and
inspiration for a bigger cause and purpose.
- A high performing organization is filled with higher performers who
are well paid.
⇒ Abbreviations-

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (SEMESTER – 1)
UNIT – 6 MOTIVATION : THE WHY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

1. WIFM – What’s in it for me.

HETAL PATIL 5