Motivation Theories, Content And Process Theories

According to Maslow’s Needs theory, based on the fact that a person is justified as long as he still has not reached a certain level of satisfaction, has a better understanding of the fact that human motivation leads to a broad spectrum of their needs we could say that in order to motivate people, the manager has to give employees the opportunity to meet the needs in a way that together lead to the organization's objectives.

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 identified that employees have the motivation to achieve certain needs. Once these needs have been achieved the employee will seek to fulfil the next set of needs.

Maslow’s theory of motivation is called the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance;

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

Through the use of this paper the agreement between Maslow and Rogers when it comes to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will be shown. It will also focus on the humanistic and biological approaches to personality. According to Orana (2009), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory that is considered to still be valid today in the areas of management training, personal development, and the understanding of the motivation of humans. This theory was first introduced in the book Personality and Motivation which was

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who introduced the concept of the motivational needs in his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” written in 1943. He explains that humans have certain needs that need to be fulfilled and when

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;

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.

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

This essay’s aim is to analyse and establish an understanding of various motivation theories and their possible application within organisations. Along with implementing, the information related to motivation, this essay would demonstrate the importance of motivation and it is necessary for organisations to motivate their employees effectively

2. What is MOTIVATION? Derived from the Latin word „MOVERE‟ which means „to move‟ The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal.

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.

As Douglas McGregor began working on his book, The Human Side of Enterprise, he encountered Abraham Maslow’s theory. Maslow believed that people had 5 basic ascending needs. It was this theory that not only supported McGregor’s thinking about a hierarchy of motivation, but it also provided a strong theoretical foundation for his assumptions (Bobic, 2003). With a firm foundation McGregor shared his theory with the world, and his theory has had a lasting impact on management theory.