Employee Motivation

Begin with the end in mind

What are your talents?

What is your ultimate career goal?

What can you achieve in 2 years?

What are your personal goals?

What Is Motivation?Motivation– The processes that account for an individual’s

willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need.

• Effort: a measure of intensity or drive.• Direction: toward organizational goals• Need: personalized reason to exert effort

– Motivation works best when individual needs are compatible with organizational goals.

Drives (aka-primary needs, fundamental needs, innate motives)– Neural states that energize individuals to

correct deficiencies or maintain an internal equilibrium

– Prime movers of behavior by activating emotions

Needs– Goal-directed forces that people experience. – Drive-generated emotions directed toward

goals– Goals formed by self-concept, social norms,

and experience

Four-Drive Theory

Drive to BondDrive to Bond

Drive to LearnDrive to Learn

• Drive to form relationships and social commitments• Basis of social identity

• Drive to satisfy curiosity and resolve conflicting information

Drive to DefendDrive to Defend• Need to protect ourselves• Reactive (not proactive) drive• Basis of fight or flight

Drive to AcquireDrive to Acquire• Drive to take/keep objects and experiences• Basis of hierarchy and status

Challenges of Motivating Employees

Changing workforce– younger generation employees have different

needs and expectations to baby boomers– people have more diverse values – results in

more variety in what motivates employees

Cultural values– globalization has added to diversity

Content versus Process Theories

• Content theories– explain why people have different needs at

different times.

• Process theories– describe the processes through which needs

are translated into behaviour.

Early Theories of Motivation– Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs– McGregor’s Theories X and Y– Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory– Mc Clelland Theory

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory– Needs were categorized as five levels of lower- to higher-order needs.– lower-order needs - largely satisfied externally

• Physiological - food, drink, shelter, sexual satisfaction

• Safety - security and protection from physical and emotional harm

– Assurance that physiological needs will be satisfied

– Higher-order needs - largely satisfied internally

• Social - affection, belongingness, acceptance

• Esteem - internal factors like self-respect, autonomy, and achievement

– External factors like status, recognition, attention

• Self-actualization - achieving one’s potential as each need is substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (cont.)

• Individuals must satisfy lower-order needs before they can satisfy higher order needs.

• Satisfied needs will no longer motivate.

• Motivating a person depends on knowing at what level that person is on the hierarchy.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X - Assumes that workers have little ambition, dislike work, avoid responsibility, and require close supervision.– Assumed that lower-order needs dominated.

Theory Y - Assumes that workers can exercise self direction, desire responsibility, and like to work.– Assumed that higher-order needs dominated.– No evidence that either set of assumptions is valid.– No evidence that managing on the basis of Theory Y makes employees more motivated.

Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory

Job Satisfaction and Job Dissatisfaction are created by different factors.- Hygiene factors: Extrinsic (environmental) factors that create job dissatisfaction.- Motivators: Intrinsic (psychological) factors that create job satisfaction.

Attempted to explain why job satisfaction does not result in increased performance.- The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather no satisfaction.

Mc Clelland Three-Need Theory

Need for achievement (nAch)Need for power (nPow)Need of affiliation (nAff)

Need for Achievement (nAch)The drive to excel and succeed

High achievers:• prefer jobs that offer personal responsibility• want rapid and unambiguous feedback• set moderately challenging goals

– avoid very easy or very difficult tasks• high achievers don’t necessarily make good

managers– focus on their own accomplishments

» good managers emphasize helping others to accomplish their goals.

Need for Power (nPow)

The need to influence the behavior of others

Need of Affiliation (nAff)The desire for interpersonal relationships– Best managers tend to be high in the need for power and low in the need for affiliation

Three-Need Theory

Conclusion– High achievers prefer and are strongly

motivated in job situations with personal responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk.

– High achievers do not necessarily make a good manager, especially in large organizations.

– A low need for affiliation and a high need for power are closely related to managerial success.

– Employees can be trained to stimulate their achievement need.

Hierarchy TheoryNeeds hierarchy

theory

Self-actualisation

EsteemEsteem

BelongingnessBelongingness

SafetySafety

PhysiologicalPhysiological

• Maslow arranged five needs in a hierarchy.

• Satisfaction-progression process

• People who experience self-actualisation desire more rather than less of this need.

ERG TheoryERG

theory

Growth

RelatednessRelatedness

ExistenceExistence

• Alderfer’s model has three sets of needs

• Adds frustration-regression process to Maslow’s model

Needs hierarchytheory

Self-actualisation

EsteemEsteem

BelongingnessBelongingness

SafetySafety

PhysiologicalPhysiological

Content Theories of MotivationMotivatorhygiene

theory

Motivators

HygienesHygienes

Need forachievement

Need forNeed forpowerpower

Need forNeed foraffiliationaffiliation

McClelland’slearned needs

ERGtheory

Growth

RelatednessRelatedness

ExistenceExistence

Needs hierarchytheory

Self-actualisation

EsteemEsteem

BelongingnessBelongingness

SafetySafety

PhysiologicalPhysiological

Effective Goal Setting

SpecificSpecific

RelevantRelevant

ChallengingChallengingTaskTaskefforteffort

TaskTaskperformanceperformance

ParticipationParticipation

CommitmentCommitment