Employee Motivation Stephanie Nix American Public University Executive Summary This is an essay on two different theories and how they outline the needs of employees and various types of management. The relationship between motivation and success in groups and organizations will be analyzed. Employee Motivation Motivation is a state of mind, desire, energy or interest that translates into action. (Nahavandi, Denhardt, & Aristigueta 2015). An employee’s willingness to respond to an organization’s requirements, or productivity is directly related to how motivated they are in their workplace. It is important for managers to motivate their employees if they want their company to be successful. In order for this motivation to happen, the manager must understand the employee’s needs and perceptions. There are several different theories in which link job satisfaction and motivation. This essay explains two of them in more detail: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and McGregor’s X/Y theory. Both theories see motivation as the main factor in maximizing productivity in the workplace. The first theory, the hierarchy of needs, describes behavior as being directed toward the satisfaction of human needs. Needs are things that are lacking and are desired and are based on personality and values. (Nahavandi et al, 2015) According Abraham Maslow, the creator of this theory, a person’s needs are the main motivator. There are five categories or level of needs (ranging
Employee motivation is, or at least must be, one of the key issues for directors, managers and personnel managers. The leader must be able to find the sensitive strings of his subordinates, which can be motivated by influencing them to achieve high performance. The correct use of motivation encourages staff to make more efficient use of their knowledge, skills, and talents. In today's turbulent, often chaotic environment, commercial success depends on the employee's talent and effort. Despite the many existing theories and practices, some of the motivation of leaders today remains a mystical term. This is partly due to the fact that people are motivated by different things and techniques.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs addresses the evaluation of the motivation and productivity of individuals based on whether certain needs, such as food and safety, have been met before others can be fulfilled, like self-actualization. Abraham Maslow created this theory. He states that there are five levels within a hierarchy, where the needs in each lower level must be substantially fulfilled before issues in higher levels can be addressed. The lowest and most basic level, the physiological level, includes biological and bodily needs such as hunger, thirst, sex, and shelter. Once these needs are substantially met, the needs of the following level, safety, can be addressed. Safety includes human needs of protection and security from physical and emotional harm. The following level, social, refers to the more emotional needs of humans, like friendship, acceptance, belonging, and acceptance. The fourth level, esteem, regards internal factors, like self-respect and achievement, and external factors, such as status, recognition, and attention. The final level is self-actualization, where individuals are driven to achieve their full potential, to achieve their full potential, growth, and self-fulfillment.
Moreover, motivation occurs when a consumer has his/her need, desire, or wants something (Solomon, Polegato & Zaichkowsky, 2009). According to the theory of Maslow hierarchy needs, the needs can be divided into five groups: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Maslow,1943).
Motivation is the key to the success to any organization. “Human relation thinkers see the terms motivation and behavior as closely related because human behavior occurs as a result of motivation” (Razik & Swanson, 2010, p. 108). Motivating people to work harder, give of themselves 100%, encouraging the employees to not only work harder, but smarter to develop ways of doing things better can be one of the hardest jobs of an organization (Razik & Swanson, 2010). In this essay I will describe several motivational theories Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,
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
Motivation theory examines the process of motivation. According to Amstrong (2006), it explains why people at work behave in the way they do in terms of their efforts and the directions they are taking. It describes what organisations can do to encourage people to apply their efforts and abilities in ways that will further the achievement of the organisation’s goals as well as satisfying their own needs. It is also concerned with job satisfaction-
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory in (1943) paper A“theory of human motivation” psychological review Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. According to Maslow‘s human want to motivate they want physiological needs is mostly requirements survival. And safety need also required like a good health, financial, job security and including
The Hierarchy of Needs Theory was coined by psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, which states that ‘an individual’s basic need must be fulfilled before he is motivated to achieve higher level needs’.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was one of the first theories used to describe motivation. The theory is described through a pyramid with six levels. In order to move on to the next level in the pyramid the level below needs to be completely satisfied. These five levels in order are physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation in psychology developed by Abraham Maslow. It’s comprising a five tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchy levels within a pyramid. Maslow (1943, 1954) believed people move through different stages of five needs that motivate our behaviour. He called these needs physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. He stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Maslow believe each stage of need had to be met before progression to the next stage of need to occur. So at first Maslow think that people need to have the basic needs first before we go to the next stage. Basic needs such as food, water and sleep.
Abraham Maslow is well renowned for proposing the Hierarchy of Needs Theory in 1943. This theory is a classical depiction of human motivation. This theory is based on the assumption that there is a hierarchy of five needs within each individual. The urgency of these needs varies. These five needs are as follows-
If correct management decisions are to be taken in the organization’s best interest, it is necessary not only to provide good information for decision making, but also to ensure that management and employees are motivated to work towards the goals of the organization: that they have the same aspirations (BPP Paper P5, 2007).
Motivation is defined as an act or process that inspires and stimulates a person to be an effort to achieve a goal. It not only puts employees in act, but also makes them feel interesting with their job. As a result, most of employees are feeling satisfaction with their job, becoming creativity, innovation and productivity as well. However, to successful in motivating the staff is required an appropriate method that meets with all staff’s need. Otherwise, it is seems to useless in driving the employees. Specifically, there are many theories of motivation referred such as the theory of Abraham Maslow (the hierarchy of needs), Frederick Herzberg (the motivation-maintenance model), B.F Skinner (the reinforcement), Victor Vroom (the expectancy), Stacy Adams (the equity), Madeline Hunter (the intrinsic/extrinsic). In personal, I prefer to the theory of intrinsic/extrinsic as the best theory which be applied in order to generate a motivation in the company.
A.H. Maslow, a famous social scientist, has given a framework that helps to explain the strength of certain needs. According to him, there seems to a hierarchy into which human needs are arranged as shown in Figure.
Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory is one of the most popular motivation theory among managers. He says that employees are motivated to satisfy five basic types of needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. (Stone, 2014. P.441-452)