Employee Motivation Essay examples

Psychologist Abraham H. Maslow is the developer of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The theory covers human behavior in terms of basic requirements for survival and growth (Cengage, 2002). The theory was developed in the early 1960’s. During this time psychology was taken over by two different views. One side was the human behavior and the other one was the behaviorist. Maslow explained that psychoanalysts had not accomplished the task to consider the behavior of healthy humans. He also mentioned that many subjective experiences that related with human behaviors were being ignored by behaviorist. In the beginning Maslow examined motivations and experience of many healthy individuals. He recognized that there are many requirements in this theory that are important for human survival and to help motivate individuals. He conceptualized different human needs as a pyramid with five levels in

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

An aspect of motivation that was answered early on in research was learning to understand individual needs. In early research, it was believed that employees worked or were motivated to do so based upon their needs; they were motivated to satisfy their needs in other words. There are four main need-based theories of motivation include: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the ERG theory, Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory, and McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (Carpenter, Bauer, Erodgogan & Short, 2013).

What is motivation? As manager’s, motivation is one of the most vital and crucial assets to possess in managing a business. This drive is a critical tool to use in the work place and determine the success or failure of an organization. Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior. In other words, motivation is an internal energy that drives an individual to do something in order to achieve a certain goal. Therefore, creating a motivating environment in the workplace will lead to happy employees. Creating a work environment like this, managers can expect low staff turnovers, improved productivity, happy customers, and better financial performance. Therefore, the input of motivation use towards employees determines the output efficiency of the company. However, everyone involved in an organization is motivated differently. Everybody has their own individual needs in regards to motivation. Depending on how motivated a person is, determines the effort that individual puts into the work and therefore, how productive they are.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow developed a theory in psychology known as the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is mostly often used as a pyramid, as shown on the title page. One of the many interesting things that Maslow noticed, is the layers of physiological needs, safety and security needs, the needs for loving and belonging, esteem needs, and self-actualization, in that order(working from the bottom layer of the pyramid up).

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,

Extrinsic motivation e.g. Money is the critical incentive to motivation in today's work environment However , motivation differs from individual to individual and with their respective beliefs and values, circumstances and culture. It is important for mangers to identify which motivation factor works with which employee and apply it respectively In any environment, both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations are needed for work satisfaction and work performance

These include firstly, the early theories of motivation such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation or motivation hygiene theory, and secondly, contemporary theories such as McClelland's theory of needs, cognitive evaluation theory, Alderfer's ERG (existence, relatedness and

(a) For the Hierarchy-of-needs Theory, Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of needs.

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

Osland, et al. (2007) provide a good introduction to three basic motivational content theories. The first theory is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that proposes man is motivated by a lack in the one or more of the five common needs. The needs that Maslow identifies are physiological, safety, social belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow believed that one fills needs from the most basic (like food and water) to the highest level (self-actualization). Maslow’s ideas are easy to relate to and attempt to provide an all-inclusive approach to the concept of motivation; however, there is little evidence to support the idea that man cannot have self-actualization without the other more basic needs first satisfied. The second content theory Osland, et al. discuss is McCelland’s learned needs. McCelland states that man is motivated by one of three things: achievement, power, or affiliation – or a mixture of the three. Each of these needs can possess a negative or positive connotation or implementation, but it is argued that people motivated by affiliation make better leaders. The third theory presented is McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. McGregor asserts that Theory X people or employees are inherently lazy and must be controlled and forced to act, whereas Theory Y people are self-controlled, motivated, and ambitious.

Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs is an arrangement of the innate needs that motivate behavior, from the strongest needs at the bottom to the weakest needs at the top. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has five levels. The bottom level is Psychological in which you worry about getting enough food, sex, sleep,homeostasis, breathing, water, and excretion. The second bottom level is Safety in which you mostly need safety of house, employment, body, morality, family, health, resources, and property. The middle level is love/belonging in which you need friendship, family, and sexual intimacy. The second top level is esteem in which you need self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, and respect by others. The top most level is self actualization in which you need morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts. Self-actualization is the fullest realization of a person’s potential. As you move up in the hierarchy, the needs become more human and less basic.

Every human being needs motivation now and then. Incentives and recognition programs can support you in helping your employees become happier and more productive at work. As a leader, one of the main things to think about is how to recognize an employee for a performance that has exceeded expectations, objectives and goals. Therefore, I would like to introduce you in this paper to some ideas that hopefully would promote this method as one of the main priorities in today's and tomorrow's workplace.

What is motivation? Motivation is defined as “an individual’s willingness to respond to the organization’s requirements in short run.” (P.71 Dixon, 1998) For the purposes of this research paper, I find the most fitting definition of motivation is to define it as “the force that Energizes, Directs, and Sustains behavior.” (uri.com, 2014) Motivation is imperative to productivity. A highly motivated staff often leads to high productivity from the workforce.

The behaviour of an individual at a particular moment is usually determined by his strongest need. Psychologies claim that needs have a certain priority. As the more basis needs are satisfied, an individual seeks to satisfy the higher needs. If his basic need sere not met, efforts to satisfy the higher need should be postponed.