Session 2

• Motivation


  The driving force that initiates and sustains goal-oriented behaviour
• Need-based theories of motivation are the earliest answers to understanding motivation involving individual needs
• Need-based theories of motivation

  • Originates from the desire to fulfil/achieve a need
  • Motivated with the combination of energy, determination and opportunity
  • Needs are necessary for organisms to live a healthy life
  • Absence would cause a clear negative outcome - deficiency or death
  • Can be objective/physical or subjective
• Objective needs


  • Food
  • Water
  • Shelter
  • Sleep
• Subjective needs


  • Affection
  • Acceptance
  • Self-esteem
• Abraham Maslow


  • Original thinker, focused on positive qualities of people
  • Wanted to understand what motivates people
  • Placed great emphasis on personal freedom, choice, self-determination, and personal growth
  • Known as the Father of Humanistic Psychology
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs


  A hierarchical structure of different types of needs where basic physical needs must be met first before people can realize their full potential
• Physiological needs


  • Linked to survival; food, air, sleep, water
  • When unfulfilled nothing else matters
  • Must be fulfilled for other needs to be experienced
• Safety needs


  • Physical safety such as freedom from danger
  • Psychological safety such as stability and order
  • An earthquake victim would continue to feel safety needs long after the quake is over as his ordinary routine was disrupted
  • An individual would experience a high safety need when their job is threatened due to restructuring
• Love & belongingness needs

  • Giving and receiving acceptance and affection
  • Pleasing and fulfilling interactions with family, friends, partners
  • Small groups: clubs, office teams, school/college houses
  • Large groups: political parties, sports teams
  • Dating clubs, personal ads and even various social media platforms are created to fulfil such needs
• Esteem needs


  • Feelings of self-respect, self-competence, receiving regards from others
  • Sense of contribution, to feel self-valued, in their profession or hobby
  • Love is more basic than self-esteem
  • Individuals are sometimes attracted into relationships which offer affection only on the cost of self-respect
  • Lower: Respect of others, the need for status, attention, recognition, fame and prestige
  • Higher: Self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom
• Self-actualization


  • Using one's capacities to their fullest
  • Realizing personal growth and self-fulfilment
  • Cannot normally be reached until other lower level needs are met
  • Unlike other needs, it a process not a goal
  • Achieved through experiences of living, facing challenges and interacting with the diverse aspects in the world
• Characteristics of self-actualizing individuals

  • Efficient perception of reality
  • Acceptance of self, others and the world
  • Spontaneity and naturalness
  • Freshness of appreciation of all experiences
  • Deep relationships with others
  • Distinguishing between good and evil
  • Having peak experiences (experiences of deep intensity; enhanced awareness and 'feeling alive')
• Deficiency needs


  • Physiological, safety, love and esteem needs
  • Motivated when unfulfilled
  • Harder to suppress and the desire to fulfil gets stronger the longer they are denied
• Growth needs


  • Higher level needs that can only be met after satisfying the basic needs
  • One that is starving is less likely to worry about achieving personal growth
  • Every individual is capable of reaching the highest level of the hierarchy
  • Often disrupted by the unmet basic needs
• Alderfer's ERG theory


  • Builds on Maslow's hierarchy and states that humans have three core types of need: Existence, Relatedness and Growth
  • These needs may be of different levels of priority for different individuals, and their relative importance for an individual may vary over time
• Existence needs


  • Physiological and safety needs such as food, shelter, water, pay, working conditions etc.
• Relatedness needs


  • Maintaining meaningful social and interpersonal relationships
  • External esteem
  • Both in the personal and professional settings
  • Interactions with family, friends and co-workers
• Growth needs


  • Internal esteem and self-actualization
  • Related to a person's needs of personal development
  • Desire to be creative/productive
• Satisfaction-progression


  After satisfying one category of needs, a person progresses to the next need
• Frustration-regression


  A person who is frustrated by trying to satisfy a higher level of needs eventually will regress to the preceding level
• If an ambitious employee isn't provided with growth opportunities, then their motivation will be lower and they may become frustrated
• Employees that fall victim to the frustration-regression principle and become more intent on fulfilling relatedness needs, such as socializing more frequently with co-workers during work hours
• McClelland's Need Theory


  • An individual's specific needs are acquired over time and shaped by life experiences
  • Regardless of age, gender, culture we all possess three motivating drivers: Need for Achievement, Need for Affiliation, Need for Power
• Need for Achievement (nAch)


  • Taking responsibility for finding solutions to problems
  • Mastering complex tasks
  • Having a strong need to set and accomplish challenging goals
  • Often liking to work alone or with other high achievers
  • Taking calculated risks to accomplish their goals as they need to excel
  • Enjoy receiving feedback to monitor progress of one's own achievements
  • Pursue competitive careers
• Need for Achievement (nAch)


  • Gets satisfaction from coming up with brilliant ideas, meeting deadlines, planning future career moves
  • They need rapid feedback on their performance; they are usually very frustrated by not receiving feedback, and the quicker the better
  • Best for positions such as sales; explicit goals, immediate feedback available, effort leads to success
  • Success in lower level jobs often promoted to higher-level positions
• Need for Achievement (nAch) & Behaviour


  • Money is important to both high and low achievers, but for different reasons
  • High achiever wants a challenging job and responsibility for work
  • Want to feel successful at doing something over which they have control
  • Low achiever views monetary reward as an end in itself
  • Get increased performance from low Need for Achievement person by rewarding with money
• Need for Affiliation (nAff)

  • Wanting to be liked and would often go along with other group members
  • Desire to belong
• Feedback


  • Demonstrated by not receiving feedback, and the quicker the better
  • Best for positions such as sales; explicit goals, immediate feedback available, effort leads to success
• Promotion


  • Success in lower level jobs often promoted to higher-level positions
• McClelland's Need Theory


  Need for Achievement (nAch) & Behaviour
• Reasons money is important for high and low achievers

  • High achiever wants concrete feedback about performance
  • Making a profit, or receiving a bonus, is a statement about success or failure
  • Symbol of success and feedback about job performance
  • Low achiever views monetary reward as an end in itself
• High achiever


  • Wants a challenging job and responsibility for work
  • Want to feel successful at doing something over which they have control
• Low achiever


  Get increased performance by rewarding with money
• McClelland's Need Theory: Need for Affiliation (nAff)

  • Wanting to be liked and would often go along with other group members
  • Desire to belong, be accepted
  • Seek others' approval
  • Concerned about interpersonal relationships
  • Enjoy teamwork
  • Favour collaboration over competition
  • Dislike high risk or uncertainty
• People with high Need for Affiliation


  • Prefers to interact with others and spend time with friends
  • Advantageous in occupations of frequent interpersonal interactions such as customer care, social workers or teachers
  • Disadvantageous as these individuals get overly concerned about others' perceptions of them and seek approval
  • Difficulty in giving critical feedback to employees or disciplining poor performers
• McClelland's Need Theory: Need for Power (nPow)


  • Drive to control and influence others
  • Need to win arguments
  • Enjoys competition and winning
  • Need to persuade
  • Enjoys status and recognition
  • Concern for acquiring status and having an impact on others
• Strong Need for Power People

  • Focus on "controlling the means of influencing the behavior of another person"
  • Means of influence: anything available to the person to control the behavior of another
  • Has strong effects on other people
  • Actively searches for means of influence
• Personal Power


  To direct others; often perceived as undesirable
• Institutional Power (Social Power)


  To organize the efforts of others to improve goals of the organization