Maslow's Theory Of The Five Theories Of Motivation

Herzberg showed that to truly motivate an employee a business needs to create conditions that make him or her feel fulfilled in the workplace.

As it was mentioned before, the key idea of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory relates to the existence of several sets of motivation and needs that govern human behavior. Hence, the major concepts of this theory include certain needs that are grouped into sets based on their place within the hierarchy of all the needs. The first version of the theory has five needs, which are divided into

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist and a founder of humanistic psychology who developed the Hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a description of the needs that motivate human behaviour. In 1943, Abraham Maslow proposed five different kinds of human needs, beginning with the most basic: survival. Physiological needs, such as food and shelter, are followed by needs related to safety. Next, there are needs of love and belonging. Fourth, humans have needs of esteem, such as the need for being respected. The final need in the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization (fulfilling one's potential). The hierarchy suggests that basic needs must be met prior to less basic needs; for example, a starving person will seek food before self-actualization.

Maslow dealt with the psychological growth process, considered man as a biological organism, and began his study with the theory of motivation based on a holistic approach. The holistic approach paints a multidimensional whole picture of a person integrating the physical, mental, and spiritual through a growth perspective. According to Sengupta (2011), “Maslow defines growth as the continuous development of talents, capacities, creativity, wisdom and character, the various processes, which bring the person toward ultimate self-actualization” (p. 102). Maslow did not ignore the spiritual dimension, but mainly focused on the biological nature of man. He believed the entire person, not just part of him is motivated. “Maslow’s motivational theory is based on the idea that human behavior is controlled through a number of developing fundamental needs that operates in a fixed sequence and needs are defined as a condition of deficit” (Sengupta, 2011, p. 102). Needs are not always caused by shortfalls, however, they may be founded on an individual’s understanding of inner strength and high ethical standards in order to understand their maximum potential.

Maslow’s study of the needs hierarchy led to Frederick Herzberg’s theory, Two-Factor Theory. Herzberg researched focused on employee’s attitudes and motivation. He determined that there are two factors of motivation. The first set (hygiene factors) relates to the employee's need for fair treatment in compensation, supervision, and working conditions (Dictionary of Human Resource Management, 2001). If these are not met, employees feel dissatisfied. Herzberg second set of needs, (motivator factors) identify personal growth and capacity development on the job, (promotion, achievement, responsibility, etc.) must be met for employees to experience job satisfaction. Distinguishing between these two sets of factors is important because it means that different factors are responsible for job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction (Dictionary of Human Resource Management, 2001). Herzberg believed that motivation increases when one combines pay (extrinsic factor) with a motivator such as challenging work (DuBrin, 2007). This theory has led people to understand that money will not always be the best motivation.

Abraham Maslow introduced a very simple way of understanding the needs of a person. The Hierarchy of Needs sorts the needs of the lowest and most basic levels to the higher levels. Maslow then arises within their theory of personality, the concept of hierarchy of needs, which needs are structurally organized with varying degrees of power, according to a biological determination given by our genetic makeup as the agency human species.

A question across every branch of psychology, regardless of what ideology one follows, is “what motivates humans?” In the year of 1943, Abram Maslow wrote his paper A Theory of Human Motivation. In this paper, Maslow described a theory in which he claimed that all people had basic needs, and these needs were fulfilled in order of their importance to the individual. Each need would need to be met prior to working towards another need, eventually achieving the ultimate goal of self-actualization. This theory is the basis of the humanistic perspective, which believes that the values of all humans are generally the same. Those who follow humanistic perspectives generally believe in the good of others.

This essay will discuss about what is motivation? what motivate people toward satisfy needs. The paper will includes three main artical theory by Abraham Maslow ( Maslow's Hierarchy of needs ), Clayton Alderfer ( Alderfer's ERC Theory ) and Psychologist David Mcclelland ( McClelland's Theory of needs ). The author will explain why motivation is important in an organization and how it will impact the organization. The three motivation theories will also be used together in order to enhance the staff’s motivation level to work and help the organization towards success. In the end will be the conclusion and opinions with my own expreriences.

Motivation theories can be classified into two aspect: Process theroies and Content theories. Content Therories explains what motivates people. Contents theories studied by Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg and McCelland. And in this section we will cover the Maslow`s hierarchy of needs theory. Psychologist Abraham Maslow founded basic needs that common to all people. Abraham Maslow introduced “A Therory of Human Motivation” article in 1943. According to the theory, needs divided into five parts. Each part has its own needs. He described these needs as a hierarchy in the shape of a pyramid. A hierarchy is an understanding that line up people or concept from lowest to highest. As reported by Maslow, people must meet the needs at lower levels of

Abraham Maslow’s theory about motivation suggested that motivation is about to meet human needs. (Pichère P, et al., 2015) In today’s society, motivation is usually defined as the desire of achieving a goal, leading to goal-directed behavior. So why is motivation so important at work? This is because actual productivity of an organization is thought to be dependent on the level of motivation of employees. In another word, people who are motivated will try harder to accomplish the given task, which will increase the productivity and make it more efficient to achieve the organizational goals.

Organizations can use various motivational theories for inspiring their employees. According to the Hertzberg 's theory, employers should start by concentrating on sanitization features such as wage and employment security, before concentrating on influential issues such as exciting work and fully grateful that the work completed. In contrast, Adams ' equity theory states that management must focus on subjects that may be thought to be imbalances, such as wage and full appreciation of work completed, before concentrating on job security. The Vroom 's theory proposes that management must focus on the reward system, employee attempt in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization. As mentioned by the Motivation in the Real World by Gellerman (1992), the most successful motivation techniques in companies in the United States are: “selectivity in hiring, generous pay and benefit programs, and encouragement of long-term employment.” Additional tactics are flexible implementation of procedures, rules and regulations, and a sensible policy of placing employee motivation is a priority (Beck, 2004).

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.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is simply a ranked structure of behavioral stimuli that try to explain motivation. It is one of the Content Theories of motivation.

Needs could be said to physiological or psychological deficiencies that stimulate behaviour. This differ with time and place, as environmental factors can influence it and make strong or weak.

Abraham Maslow brought about the Hierarchy of needs model in 1940-50’s USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory is still well founded today for understanding human motivation, management training and personal development. Maslow’s theory was applying to how human beings behave and their needs. He stated that employees are motivated based on satisfying their needs. The following needs are self-actualisation, esteem, social, safety and psychological needs.