MODULE 5

MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE

CROSSWORD PUZZLE
 MODULE INTRODUCTION

Motivation is essentially about the drive and commitment to doing

something. From the point of view of business, motivation is somebody’s
willingness to work. However, it’s just not about completing a job or
working hard but rather it comes from enjoying the work that one is doing
and wanting to reach certain goals that one has set for himself/herself like
getting a promotion. Moreover, it might be something where someone feels
a sense of satisfaction from accomplishing something or having successful
results after a very challenging situation.
 TOPICS OUTCOMES
After reading and understanding this module, students will be able to:

1. Describe the theories of motivation; and

2. Analyze how motivation plays a big role in organizational behavior.
 The Meaning and Nature
of Motivation
Motivation in the workplace is defined as the
willingness to exert high levels of effort toward
organizational goals conditioned by the effort’s
ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins
in Mobbs and McFarland, 2010). It has been a
focus of research by experts for more than a
century for the very reason that knowing what
drives people to do what they do because
motivated employees results in better
organizational performance. Likewise motivated
employees report to having higher levels of
customer satisfaction and employee retention
(Campbell, n.d.).
 Theories of Motivation
MOTIVATION theories can be distinguished
between content and process motivation theories.
Content theories which are also called the need
theories focus on WHAT, while process theories focus
on HOW human behavior is motivated. Within the
work environment content theories which are the
earliest theories of motivation have had the greatest
impact on management practice and policy, but are
the least accepted in the academic community.
Though content theories cannot explain entirely what
motivates and demotivates people, it tries to identify
what our needs are and relate motivation to the
fulfillment of these needs. Process theories are
concerned with the occurrence of motivation and
what influences the occurrence of motivation. Exhibit 5.1.
Motivation theories
 Maslow Hierarchy of NEEDS
This is the earliest and most widely known theory of motivation, developed by Abraham
Maslow (1943) in the 1940s and 1950s. According to Maslow, needs are classified into five
basic categories which are ordered in his hierarchy, beginning with the basic psychological
needs and continuing through safety, belonging and love, esteem and self-actualization. In his
theory, the lowest unsatisfied need is the most significant needs and individuals seek a higher need
when lower needs are fulfilled.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is always shown in the shape of a pyramid where physiological
needs are at the bottom of the pyramid and the need for self-actualization at the top.

1. Physiological needs (e.g. food, water, shelter, sleep)

2. Safety and security (secure source of income, a place to live, health and well-being)
3. Belongingness and love (integration into social groups, feel part of a community or a group; affectionate
relationships)
4. Esteem (respect for a person as a useful, honourable human being)
5. Self-actualization (individual’s desire to grow and develop to his or her fullest potential) What humans
can be, they must be. (Maslow, 1954)
Maslow Hierarchy of NEEDS

Exhibit 5.2

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

(Source: Author's own figure)
 Alderfer ERG Theory
Existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs
According to Alderfer (Furnham, 2008) there are three classes of needs: existence ,
relatedness and growth. Maslow’s physiological and safety needs belong together to
existence needs. Relatedness can be harmonised to belongingness and esteem of others.
Growth is the same as Maslow’s self-esteem plus self-actualization. Both Maslow and
Alderfer tried to describe how these needs, more or less important to individuals.

• Existence Needs
These Include all material and physiological desires (e.g., food, water, air, clothing,
safety,
physical love and affection). Maslow's first two levels.

• Relatedness Needs
Encompass social and external esteem; relationships with significant others like family,
friends, co-workers and employers . This also means to be recognized and feel secure as
part of a group or family. Maslow's third and fourth levels.
 Alderfer ERG Theory
Existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs
• Growth Needs
Internal esteem and self actualization; these impel a person to make creative or
productive effects on himself and the environment (e.g., to progress toward one's ideal
self). Maslow’s fourth and fifth levels. This includes desires to be creative and productive,
and to complete meaningful tasks.

Alderfer agreed with Maslow that unsatisfied needs motivate individuals. Alderfer also
agreed that individuals generally move up the hierarchy in satisfying their needs; that is,
they
satisfy lower-order before higher-order needs. As lower-order needs are satisfied, they
become less important, but Alderfer also said: as higher-order needs are satisfied they
become more important. And it is also said that under some circumstances individuals
might return to a lower need. Alderfer thought that individuals multiply the efforts
invested in a lower category need when higher categorized needs are not consequent.
McClelland Needs for Achievement, Affiliation and Powe
In the early 1960s David McClelland built on Maslow’s work described three human
motivators. McClelland (Arnold et al., 2005) claimed that humans acquire, learn their motivators
over time that is the reason why this theory is sometimes called the Learned Needs Theory. He
concurred that people have three motivating drivers, and it does not depend on our gender or age.
One of these drives or needs will be dominant in our behaviour and this depends on our culture and
life experiences. Although each person has all of these needs to some extent, only one of them tends
to motivate an individual at any given time and whichever this need is would characterize his or her
behavior. This in turn results in diversified behavior of employees.

1. Achievement
Achievement motivation refers to a person’s need for success or mastery of skills and is related with a
range of actions. Individuals seek achievement of challenging goals, and furtherance in their job.
Individuals with a high need for achievement like to receive regular feedback on their progress and
achievements; and often like to work alone; seek challenges and like high degree of independence.
Sources of high need for achievement can be: getting praise for success, goal setting skills, one’s own
competence and effort to achieve something.
McClelland Needs for Achievement, Affiliation and Powe
These three motivators are:

2. Affiliation
Affiliation motivation is the need for love, belonging and relatedness. People with affiliation motivation
have a strong need for friendships and want to belong within a social group, need to be liked and held in
popular regard. They are team players, and they may be less effective in leadership positions. High-need-
for-affiliation persons mostly have warm interpersonal
relationships.

3. Power
Power motivation is a need to control over one’s own work or the work of others. These
persons have a strong need to lead and to succeed in their ideas. Persons with this type would
like to control and influence others. McClelland argues that with a strong need for achievement people
can become the best leaders. The problem with this type of people is that they expect the other people
around them to be as achievement-focused and result-driven as they are.
 Herzberg Two Factor Theory
Herzberg’s Two Factor theory is also called motivation-hygiene theory. This theory
says that there are factors (motivating factors) that cause job satisfaction, and motivation
and some other also separated factors (hygiene factors) cause dissatisfaction (Exhibit
5.3). That means that these feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction to these factors are
not opposite of each other, as it has always previously been believed. The opposite
therefore of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather, no satisfaction. According to
Herzberg (1987) the job satisfiers deal with the factors involved in doing the job,
whereas the job dissatisfiers deal with the factors which define the job context.
 Herzberg Two Factor Theory

According to Herzberg’s there are five factors of job satisfaction (motivating factors)
which are the only factors that can motivate. Likewise there are also five factors of job
dissatisfaction that we need to achieve more efficient work. These are shown in the
table:
 Herzberg Two Factor Theory

Hygiene factors are needed to ensure that an employee is not dissatisfied. Motivation
factors are needed to ensure employee's satisfaction and to motivate an employee to
higher performance.
Summary of Content Theories
of Motivation
 Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory
Behavior can be formed by its consequences (Gordon, 1987) according to Skinner’s
operant conditioning theory.

• Positive reinforcements, for example verbal praise, appreciation, extra vacation days,
stock options or any other reward can increase the possibility that the rewarded
behaviour will happen again. Positive verbal feedback and high grade on examination
that a student receives will encourage the recurrence of the behavior that caused the
rewards.
• Negative reinforcement occurs for example when we try to reduce stress by altering
employee hours. In this case altering employee hours is a negative reinforcement
because it reduces the unpleasant state.
• Punishment can be undesired reinforcement, or reinforce undesired behaviour.
 Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The expectancy theory places an emphasis on the process and on the content of
motivation as well, and it integrates needs, equity and reinforcement theories. Victor
Vroom's (1964) expectancy theory aims to explain how people choose from the available
actions. Vroom defines motivation as a process that governs our choices among
alternative forms of voluntary behaviour. The basic rationale of this theory is that
motivation comes from the belief that decisions will have their desired outcomes.
The motivation to engage in an activity is determined by appraising three factors. These three
factors are the following:
• Expectancy – a person’s belief that more effort will result in success. This means that better
performance will result if someone works harder.
• Instrumentality – the person’s belief that there is a connection between activity and goal. If
you perform well, you will get reward.
• Valence – the degree to which a person values the reward, the results of success.
 Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The theory suggests that although individuals may have different sets of
goals, they can be motivated if they believe that:

1. There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance,

2. Favorable performance will result in a desirable reward,
3. The reward will satisfy an important need,
4. The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort
worthwhile.
 Adams’ Equity Theory
The equity theory states that people are motivated if they are treated equitably, and
receive what they consider fair for their effort and costs. The theory was suggested by
Adams (1965) and is based on Social Exchange theory.

According to this theory, people compare their

contribution to work, costs of their actions and the
benefits that will result to the contribution and
benefits of the reference person. If people perceive
that the ratio of their inputs-outputs to the ratio of
referent other's input-output is inequitable, then they
will be motivated to reduce the inequity workers put
inputs into the job, such as education, experience,
effort, energy, and expect to get some outcomes such
as salary, reward, promotion, verbal recognition, and
interesting and challenging work each in equal
amounts
 Locke’s Goal-setting Theory
Locke's (1990) goal setting theory is an integrative model of motivation just like the
expectancy theory.
It emphasizes that setting specific, challenging performance goals and the commitment to
these goals are key determinants of motivation. Goals describe a desired future, and these
established goals can drive the behaviour. Achieving the goals, the goal accomplishment
further motivates individuals to perform. Goals should be specific so they can be measured,
challenging so they would be more motivational and should require involvement so it would
be accepted.
 Alienation at Work
Alienation in the workplace happens when a worker can express individuality only when
they are producing work. Feelings of alienation can happen without the employee or
employer even realizing it. When they lose their independence and become just another
part of a bigger picture they feel emotionally separated from others and this is when they
feel alienated. When they begin to have this feeling from managers, co-workers and
peers, they feel like they are just objects of the organizations. As a consequence, since
they do not feel appreciated and are not needed in their jobs, they lose their loyalty to
their company and are eager to look for other jobs.

Types of Alienation
1. Alienation from production.
This type of alienation happens when the worker does not see the final product they
produce; rather, they focus only on a piece of what they are producing. As a result,
workers don't understand what role they play in the entire process.
 Alienation at Work
2. Alienation from the act of production.
This happens when an employee is only given a set of instructions to complete; they do not get
the instructions for the entire process. The employee never has a role in the whole vision or
planning, and they are made to feel that those who create the vision are an elite class .

3. Alienation from themselves.

By nature, people want to be creative and then implement those ideas. This type of alienation
happens when people cannot maintain that part of their humanity; they feel as though they cannot
be themselves. They may even begin to feel like they are not human.

4. Alienation from others.

This type of alienation tends to happen when workers specialize in a small piece of a larger
whole. While it may be good for employees to have a specialty, these employees begin to feel like
they are in a thankless job, and they also may feel like they're missing out on bonding with others.
 Alienation at Work
HOW EMPLOYEES FEEL ALIENATION
There are many ways companies alienate employees, sometimes without even
realizing it.
That's why it's important to pay attention to the signs your employees are giving
you. Here are some ways you may be alienating your employees
1. Keeping them in the dark.
2. Not asking for their input.
3. Keeping them boxed in.
4. Ignoring their goals.
5. Working them too hard.
6. Playing favorites. Instead.
7. Not valuing them.
Thank you for listening