Theories of Motivation

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 Motivation
 Motivation:
The processes that account for an individual’s intensity,
direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
3 key elements:
• Intensity - describes how hard a person tries.

• Direction - quality of effort. Effort directed toward and

consistent with the organization’s goals is the kind of effort we
should be seeking.

• Persistence - how long a person can maintain effort. Motivated

individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal
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 Motivation and individual needs
– Motivation—the forces within the individual that account
for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended
at work.
 Needs
– Unfulfilled physiological and psychological desires of an
individual.
– Explain workplace behavior and attitudes.
– Create tensions that influence attitudes and behavior.
– Good managers and leaders facilitate employee need
satisfaction.

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• Early theories of motivation

– Hierarchy of Needs Theory

– Theory X and Theory Y

– Two-Factor Theory

– McClelland’s Theory of Needs

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 Theory of Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow defined human needs as:

• Physiological: the need for food, drink, shelter, and relief from pain.

• Safety and security: the need for freedom from threat; the security from threatening
events or surroundings.

• Belongingness, social, and love: the need for friendship, affection, belongingness,
acceptance and love.

• Esteem: the need for self-esteem, self-respect, autonomy and achievement, status,
recognition and attention.

• Self-actualization: the need to fulfill oneself by maximizing the use of abilities, skills,
and potential. Drive to become what we are capable of becoming. Growth, achieving
our potential, self-fulfillment.
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Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy of Needs

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Opportunities for satisfaction in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.

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 Assumptions
• Maslow’s theory assumes that a person attempts to
satisfy the more basic needs before directing behavior
toward satisfying upper-level needs.

• Lower-order needs must be satisfied before a higher-

order need begins to control a person’s behavior.

• Unsatisfied needs motivate or a satisfied need activates

movement to a new need level

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David McClelland’s Theory of Needs or Acquired Needs
Theory

• Need for Achievement (nAch) – drive to excel, to achieve in

relation to a set of standards

• Need for Affiliation (nAff) – the desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships

• Need for Power (nPow) – need to make others behave in a

way in which they would not have behaved otherwise (to have
power over them)

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 Douglas McGregor (1906-1964)

• Taught psychology at MIT.

• At Antioch College, McGregor found that his classroom teaching of

human relations did not always work in practice.

• From these experiences, his ideas evolve and lead him to recognize
the influence of assumptions we make about people and our
managerial style.

• Formulated Theory X and Theory Y

• Two distinct views of human beings: one basically negative and

other basically positive.

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 Theory X
• Work is inherently distasteful to
most people.
• Most people are not ambitious,
have little desire for
responsibility, and prefer to be
directed.
• Most people have little capacity
for creativity in solving
organizational problems.
• Motivation occurs only at the
physiological and safety levels.
• Most people must be closely
controlled and often coerced to
achieve organizational
objectives.
Theory Y
• Work is as natural as play, if the
conditions are favorable.
• Self-control is often indispensable
in achieving organizational goals.
• The capacity for creativity in
solving organizational problems is
widely distributed in the
population.
• Motivation occurs at the social,
esteem, and self-actualization
levels, as well as physiological
and security levels.
• People can be self-directed and
creative at work if properly
motivated
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 Frederick Herzberg’s
Two Factor Theory
• His research emphasized job enrichment (depth) rather than job
enlargement

– Job context (hygiene factors) – needed to be optimal to prevent job

dissatisfaction. These factors (according to Herzberg) did not motivate.

– Job content (motivators) – factors that did lead to motivation

– Money (according to Herzberg) could motivate if it was seen as a

reward for accomplishment; but if money was given without regard for
merit, then it was a hygiene factor.

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 Motivation and Hygiene Factors
Motivation and Hygiene Motivators
Factors
• Achievement
• Policies and
Administration • Recognition for
Accomplishment
• Supervision
• Challenging Work
• Working Conditions
• Increased
• Interpersonal Relations Responsibility
• Money, Status, Security • Growth and
Development

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Herzberg’s two-factor theory.

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Contemporary theories of motivation

• Expectancy Theory

• Reinforcement Theory

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 Expectancy Theory

A theory that says that the strength of a tendency to

act in a certain way depends on the strength of an
expectation that the act will be followed by a given
outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome
to the individual.

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• The theory-focuses on 3 relationships:
– Effort-performance relationship
• The probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given
amount of effort will lead to performance.

– Performance-reward relationship
• The degree to which the individual believes performing at a
particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome.

– Rewards-personal goals relationship

• The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s
personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential
rewards for the individual.

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• Theory’s 3 relationships as questions for
employees:

– If I give a maximum effort, will it be recognized in

my performance appraisal?

– If I get a good performance appraisal, will it lead

to organizational rewards?

– If I am rewarded, are the rewards attractive to

me?

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 The expectancy theory of Victor Vroom helps explain
the choosing process among individuals in terms of
the value (valence) of the reward and the
expectancy of receiving the reward.

• Force is strength of motivation.

• Valence is strength of preference for an outcome.

• Expectancy is the level of belief that changes in

behaviour will achieve the required outcome.

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 Expectancy Theory (illustrated)

This process may be illustrated in the following

way:

Required Outcome
Effort
performance (eg. Promotion)

Force = Valence × Expectancy

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Elements in the expectancy theory of
motivation.

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Motivation is a function of the relationship between:

• effort expended and perceived level of performance

• the expectation that rewards (desired outcomes) will be related to performance.

There must also be the expectation that rewards are available. These relationships

• determine the strength of the motivational link.

• the strength of the individual’s preference for an outcome

• the belief in the likelihood that particular actions will achieve the required goal

The model shows that the amount of effort generated depends upon:

• the value of the reward

• the amount of effort seen to be necessary

• the probability of receiving the reward

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Management practices:

• Managers need to focus on employee expectations for success.

• Managers must actively determine which second-level outcomes are

important to employees.

• Managers should link desired second-level outcomes to the

organization’s performance goals.

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 Reinforcement Theory
Reinforcement
– The administration of a consequence as a result of
a behavior.
– Proper management of reinforcement can change
the direction, level, and persistence of an
individual’s behavior.

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 Reinforcement Theory
 Fundamentals of reinforcement theory …
– Reinforcement theory focuses on the impact of external
environmental consequences on behavior.
– Law of effect — impact of type of consequence on future
behavior.
– Operant conditioning:
• Developed by B.F. Skinner.
• Applies law of effect to control behavior by
manipulating its consequences.

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Reinforcement theories linked to
motivation

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 Reinforcement theories linked to
motivation
 Law of effect.
– Theoretical basis for manipulating consequences
of behavior.
– Behavior that results in a pleasant outcome is
likely to be repeated while behavior that results in
an unpleasant outcome is not likely to be
repeated.

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 Reinforcement theories linked to
motivation
 Operant conditioning strategies:
– Positive reinforcement
• Increases the frequency of a behavior through the
contingent presentation of a pleasant consequence.
– Negative reinforcement
• Increases the frequency of a behavior through the
contingent removal of an unpleasant consequence.

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Reinforcement theories linked to
motivation

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 Four basic strategies:
• Positive reinforcement.
• Negative reinforcement.
• Punishment.
• Extinction

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 Positive reinforcement.
– The administration of positive
consequences to increase the likelihood of
repeating the desired behavior in similar
settings.
– Rewards are not necessarily positive
reinforcers.
– A reward is a positive reinforcer only if the
behavior improves.
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 Principles governing reinforcement.
– Law of contingent reinforcement.
• The reward must be delivered only if the
desired behavior is exhibited.
– Law of immediate reinforcement.
• The reward must be given as soon as possible
after the desired behavior is exhibited.

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 Negative reinforcement.

– Also known as avoidance.

– The withdrawal of negative consequences

to increase the likelihood of repeating the
desired behavior in a similar setting.

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 Punishment.

– The administration of negative

consequences to reduce the likelihood of
repeating the behavior in similar settings

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 Extinction.
– The withdrawal of the reinforcing
consequences for a given behavior.

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