Mcclelland's Theory of Needs

Motivation is having a reason or reasons to act/behave in a particular way. It creates “drive” in people whether it is in pursuit of a goal, or the need to complete an activity. It produces enthusiasm and a willingness to achieve in both a work environment and in your personal life. Motivation can be increased and decreased in line with the incentives on offer.

Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. (Cherry, 2016) Motivation plays the role in everyday lives. Ones motivation to do something differs from ones feels and the type of motivation towards the action that is being done. By studying motivation, we learn what gives our behavior its purpose, direction and sustainability. (Bond & McConkey, 2001, p. 6.3).

Without going into the fine details and depth of all the motivational theory, we will use

Motivation is all about the why of individual behaviors. There are entire books, courses, and even fields of study focused on understanding motivation, but it is all based on the same fundamental question: Why do we do the things we do?

Motivation is a very broad term that is discussed in a variety of settings. There is the motivation to perform in a business setting, the motivation to perform on the field of competition, the motivation to provide for friends and family, and the motivation to accomplish goals that have been set. These are all various motivations that any one person can be involved with at any time. According to Maslow, motivation always exists within a person and in various forms, “...motivation is constant, never ending, fluctuating, and complex, and that it is an almost universal characteristic of practically every organismic state of affairs” (Maslow, 1954). As complex as motivation seems, it is everyone’s intention to identify their personal

Motivation is: “the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve” (Bedeian, 1993). Due to the difference in the definitions for motivation, I will use the definition – Motivation is the inner drive that allows individuals to achieve company and personal goals.

What is motivation? Process that accounts for an individuals intensity, direction & persistence of effort towards attaining a goal.

Motivation is the general desire a person has to do something. It gives individuals an inner drive to complete a goal. In order for a person to aspire

Motivational Theories are important to management today because employers and managers need to know what drives the employees to perform at their best, and why. As Hersey explains, “If we are to understand, predict, and influence behavior, we must know what our employees really want from their jobs. Only then can we appeal to their strongest motivations and increase the probability of meeting both professional and organizational goals”

Motivation refers to the reasons that we act towards a goal. Psychologists reason that motivation can only be understood through behavior. Psychologists have created theories to try to understand and explain behavior.

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.

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

Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g., food, water, shelter) or an object, goal, state of being, or ideal that is desirable, which may or may not be viewed as "positive," such as seeking a state of being in which pain is absent. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality.

Maslow’s, McClelland’s, and Herzberg’s theories can fundamentally motivate an employee to either engage in a positive or negative manner. The needs of an individual can be general, resulting in job satisfaction and content, or all-consuming, resulting in unethical behavior or contentment.

The term motivation is derived from the Latin word movere, meaning "to move." Motivation is the push of the mental forces to accomplish an action or goal willingly without being forced or told to do so. It is an unsatisfied need that drives human behavior to exert effort to reach the goals. For example we study because we are lack of knowledge; we work because we are lack of money. We will in turn be motivated by what we are lack of.