Motivation Theories

• Motivation theories are general explanations of human behaviour which explain why human beings respond to stimuli in particular ways.
• Content theories focus on what motivates people, which is either intrinsic or extrinsic.
• Frederick Winslow Taylor, an American engineer, developed scientific management (Taylorism) that demanded rigorous analysis of input, output and costs.
• Unit Two of IB Business Management HL covers topics such as business organisation and environment, human resource management, motivation theories, motivation in practice: financial rewards, motivation in practice: non-financial rewards, cultural impacts on financial and non-financial rewards, organisational (corporate) culture, industrial/employee relations, and potential IB questions on Unit Two topics for each assessment objective.
• Each part of a job is analysed scientifically and the most efficient method of achieving it is devised.
• The most suitable person to undertake the job is selected and is taught to do the job in the exact way devised.
• Managers cooperate with workers to ensure efficiency.
• There is a clear division of work and responsibility between management and workforce.
• Taylor equated men with machines, to be made efficient by removing wasted effort.
• Taylorism is associated with mass production and the division of labour.
• Scientific management relies on time and motion study to find the 'one best method' to achieve a goal.
• At the Bethlehem Steel company, Taylor created control groups, observed their behaviour and showed that the size of a shovel and the amount lifted affected the efficiency of workers.
• The result of Taylor’s principles was a reduction in the workforce from 600 to 140, but with remaining labourers awarded a 60% wage increase.
• Abraham Maslow, a part of the Human Relations School, proposed that unsatisfied needs act as motivators and that humans are influenced by a series of needs, some biological and others less tangible.
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs includes a mixture of extrinsic and intrinsic needs.
• Maslow identified five levels of human needs, represented as a triangle with the most basic needs at the base and the highest at the top.
• Only once a lower level of need has been fully met would a worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied.
• Most people can achieve the lowest level of needs, but few are able to satisfy higher order needs.
• Physiological needs, such as food and shelter, can be satisfied by acceptable wages and decent working conditions.
• Security or safety needs include the desire to be free of anxiety at work.
• Social needs of friendship and belonging mean working in teams, participating in social events and the opportunity to celebrate success.
• Self-esteem or ego needs are the need to feel positive about oneself.
• Self-actualisation or self-realisation needs are the satisfaction of achieving one’s innermost desires by seeking new challenges and by applying creativity and imagination to new problems.
• When one level of need is satisfied, it no longer motivates.
• Firms need to offer higher levels of need to motivate further.
• Criticism of Maslow’s theory includes that humans have diverse needs, people place different importance on different needs, people move through the hierarchy at different rates, and it is possible to experience several needs together.
• Money may be used to purchase higher order needs like ego possessions.
• Low hygiene/low motivation: the worst situation as employees are unmotivated with many complaints
• High hygiene/low motivation: employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated
• Low hygiene/high motivation: employees are motivated but have many complaints
• People form perceptions of what constitutes a fair balance by comparing their situation with ‘referent' others, including colleagues and friends.
• Organisations should ensure that employees understand the organisation’s vision and how their individual roles contribute to this.
• If inputs outweigh outputs, they become demotivated and may feel a sense of injustice
• John Stacey Adams developed Equity theory, which emphasises ‘what is fair and reasonable' and states that individuals seek a fair balance between what they put into a job (inputs) and what they get out of it (outputs).
• Equity does not depend on the input-to-output ratio alone but also on comparisons between an individual’s ratio and the ratio of referent others, which creates their own sense of fairness in their work situations.
• An increase in motivators is required to improve job satisfaction as these satisfy psychological needs.
• Motivators centre on recognition, responsibility, the nature of the work and promotion opportunities; improving these increases motivation.
• Purpose by taking steps to fulfil employees’ natural desire to contribute to a ‘greater’ cause
• Herzberg proposed that humans have two sets of needs: Lower level needs ( hygiene factors ) can lead to dissatisfaction, so firms need to improve factors such as salary, working conditions and company policies.
• Higher level needs ( motivators ) offer job satisfaction.