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Motivation – Basic concepts and theories

This overview is compiled from Michael Armstrong’s book A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. It intends to give a very brief overview on the most important concepts and theories of motivation.

According to Arnold, there are 3 components of motivation:

   direction – what a person is trying to do

   effort – how hard a person is trying

   persistence – how long a person keeps on trying

Furthermore, literature distinguishes 2 types of factors that influence motivation:

   intrinsic – self generated factors (responsibility, freedom to act, scope to use and develop skills and abilities, interesting and challenging work, opportunities for advancement) – they have a deeper and longer-term effect

   extrinsic - what is done for people to motivate them (rewards, promotion, punishment) – they have an immediate and powerful effect, but won’t necessarily last long

Most influential is the Needs (content) Theory

   The underlying concept is the belief that an unsatisfied need creates tension and a state of disequilibrium. To restore balance, a goal is identified that will satisfy the need and a behavior pathway to this goal is selected.

   All behavior is motivated by unsatisfied needs.

   People will be better motivated if their work experience satisfies their needs and wants.

Maslows hierarchy of needs

   Self-fulfillment

   Esteem

   Social

   Safety

   Physiological

 

   If a lower need is satisfied, the next higher one becomes dominant.

   Higher-order needs provide greatest motivation.

   Different people may have different priorities

Alderfer’s ERG Theory

   About subjective states of satisfaction and desire

   3 primary categories of human needs

              existence needs – need for material and energy exchange

              relatedness needs – transactions with human environment, process of sharing or mutuality

              growth needs – people make creative or productive efforts for themselves

McClelland’s needs

   Based mainly on studies of managers

   3 most important needs:

   achievement – need for competitive success measured against a personal standard of excellence

   affiliation – need for warm, friendly relationships with others

   power – need to control and influence others

Herzbergs two-factor model

   Motivators – factors that really motivate people,

   Hygiene factors – dissatisfiers; their absence would demotivate people, but their presence not necessarily improves motivation; essentially describe the environment, little effect on positive job attitudes

Process cognitive theory

   Emphasis on psychological processes that effect motivation and on basic needs

   Concerned with peoples perceptions and the way they interpret and understand it

   People will be highly motivated if they can control the means to attain their goals

Expectancy theory

   By Vroom

   Value, instrumentality (belief that if we do one thing it will lead to another), expectancy (probability that action or effort will lead to an outcome)

   Strength of expectations may be based on past experiences

   Motivation is only likely when a clearly perceived relationship exists between performance and an outcome that is seen as a means of satisfying needs

   Porter and Lawler: two factors determining the effort people put into their jobs:

   Value of rewards to individuals in so far as they satisfy their needs

   Probability that rewards depend on effort, as perceived by individuals, their expectation about relationships between effort and reward

   Two additional variables:

   Ability – individual characteristics and skills

   Role perceptions – what he wants to do or thinks he is required to do, good if they correspond with the viewpoint of the organisation

Goal theory

   Latham and Locke

   Motivation and performance are higher when individuals are set specific goals

   Goals have to be difficult but accepted

   Feedback on performance

   Participation in goal setting is important –  goals need to be agreed

   As long as they are accepted – demanding goals lead to better performance than easy goals

Reactance theory

   Brehm

   Individuals are not passive receivers but responders

   They seek to reduce uncertainty by seeking control about factors influencing rewards

Equity theory

   Adams

   Perceptions people have about how they are being treated as compared with others

   Involves feelings and perceptions, is always a comparative process

   People will work better if they are treated equitably

   Two forms of equity:

   Distributive – fairness people feel they are rewarded in accordance with their contribution and in comparison with others

   Procedural – perceptions of employees about fairness of company procedures

   We hope/expect that the inputs we give into our job equal the outputs we get

Other theories

   Behavioral theory (Skinner): behavior is learnt from experience, learning takes place mainly through reinforcement

   Social learning theory (Bandura) significance of reinforcement as a determinant of future behavior, importance of internal psychological factors, esp. Expectancies

   Attribution theory (Guest) explanation of performance after we have invested considerable effort and motivation in a task; 4 types of explanations: ability, effort, task difficulty, luck; motivation depends on the factor used to explain success or failure

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More Information on Motivation

A list of links to external articles is available in our
Knowledgebase - HR - Motivation

     
Some links for your own research:

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
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Status: 25. November 2007