Comparing Theories Of Employee Motivation And Explain Key Constructs For Each Theory Essay

Abraham Maslow developed a Hierarchy of Needs (appendix 3) which is used to understand human motivation, management training and personal development. This hierarchy is used to determine the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides a foundational theory. It states that all employees have some basic needs that must first be satisfied in order to provide the framework for further motivation and empowerment.

Abraham Maslow’s theory, Theory of Hierarchy Needs, is a motivational theory in psychology that has a tier model of the five things a human needs. Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. The five stages, from bottom to top, include Physiological needs( food, water, warmth, and rest), the second stage: Safety Needs ( security and safety), third stage: Belongingness and love needs ( intimate relationships and friends), the fourth stage: Esteem Needs (prestige and feeling of accomplishment), and finally the last stage: Self-actualization ( achieving one’s full potential, including creative potential). The five stage model can be divided into

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs was introduced in the mid-1940’s by Abraham Maslow; it is one of the most popular theories of work motivation to this day. the theory was originally used specifically in a psychological setting, but was made more popular by Douglas McGregor in the late 1960’s and began to be used by not only psychologists but managers as well (Steers & Porter, 1983). The hierarchy is based on the fact that human beings have needs, Maslow took these needs and separated them into five categories: physiological needs, safety, belongingness or social needs,

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist who had developed the Hierarchy of needs model in 1940-50s, and the Hierarchy needs theory is still being used to day and for understanding the human motivation. In his hierarchy he believes that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. And when a human had fulfilled a person would seek to fulfil the next one. Maslow’s hierarchy needs is concerning the responsibility of service providers to provide a

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model is implemented off a hierarchal pyramid which is renowned as one the most motivational theories, it is mainly incorporated with business dynamics, and it can also be used when relating to cultural diversity. Maslow 's hierarchy outlines in a hierarchal order as drawn upon by (Patrick.A.G, 2003) quoted by Maslow that the needs are ' 'Physiological, safety, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization ' '. The physiological needs are the basis that an individual will attain such as, basic human needs which incorporate survival, food and shelter. After the physiological needs have been met, safety and security is the next priority need on the hierarchy,

Motivation according to Kelley (2014) is the ‘process through which managers build the desire to be productive and effective in their employees’. If an employee is motivated, they are more likely to be productive and generally staff turnover is low. The problem of worker motivation is that workers are not seen as humans, they have a lack of freedom at the workplace and lack of job fulfilment. Taylor and McGregor Theory X argue that there is not a problem with worker motivation, workers will be obedient because of fear of losing their job motivates them to do well. Whereas Maslow and McGregor’s Theory Y argues that there is a problem with worker motivation because of class conflict between the worker and the manager. The

Social needs acquired by such employees include love, acceptance and belonging. They must feel accepted and a sense of worthiness before they can work up to fulfilling other, more difficult needs. The esteem level on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the need for appreciation and respect. After the other levels of needs have been fulfilled, the esteem needs begin to play a prominent role in motivating behaviour. Theory Y employees will be motivated to gain respect in their organisation by achieving company objectives and by showing management their skills and abilities. The top need desired by such employees is self-actualisation. Maslow himself said;

Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following

Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.

The literature review, explain the theories which are related to the case study’s problems in order to the motivation and satisfy employees’ needs. There are three important theories include; organizational motivation justice, Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory, and expectancy theory.

Per Maslow, these needs which are the run of motivation for an employee to work are arranged in a hierarchical order of increasing importance. This order is “prepotency”. It means satisfied need no longer remains a motivator and only the next greater needs can motivate an employee to perform further. This was later analyzed due to there is no certainty that these needs are consider as a motivation hierarchical order as recommended, therefore

He placed the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid and the most advanced needs at the top of the pyramid. According to Maslow , when people satisfy one level of need, they then move up to the next level. In his theory, the most basic need is the survive – to have enough money to buy food, shelter and necessary clothes. When they have satisfied the need for survival, they then need to feel safe and secure – perhaps from unemployment. So that second level of need is the security. After that, people need to belong to a group and to have friends – these are their social needs. They then move on the needing status. At this stage they need to be respected in the community, to be esteemed, and to be given recognition for what they do. When all these needs have been satisfied, people finally have self-actualization needs. This is ambition to achieve as much as they possibly can – perhaps to be promoted to high-level position with more responsibility. (Jane, 1999) 4

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.

This essay provides a literature review of motivation theories. The motivation theories are included Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. As motivation important to managers and company to manage the staffs, and motivation is about everyone. In two motivation theories, I found that the difference between Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are that, Two-Factor Theory identified the fives levels of needs that satisfied in motivating employees. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it divided into two side of factors, which are hygiene factors and motivator factors.