Ive missed more than 9000 shots in my career. Ive lost almost 300 games.

26 times Ive been trusted

to take the game winning shot and missed. Ive failed over and over and over again in my life. And that
is why I succeed.
(Michael Jordan)

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
(Aristotle)

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing
is not enough; we must do.
(Leonardo da Vinci)

1 KEY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Motivation is the driving force behind human behaviour.

Motivation and human management

Motivated people are those who have made a conscious decision to devote
considerable effort to achieving something that they value. What they value will differ
greatly from one individual to another. There are a variety of ways to motivate
people, including the fear of losing a job, financial incentives, self-fulfilment goals
and goals for the organisation or groups within the organisation.

The traditional view- finds some of its origins in the work of Taylor and the school of
scientific management. At its most extreme, this view postulates the following:

people dislike work

people will only work for money
people are not capable of controlling their work or directing themselves
simple, repetitive tasks will produce the best results
workers should be closely supervised and tightly controlled
extra effort must lead to greater reward
people will meet standards if they are closely controlled
firm but fair supervision will be respected

Taylor took the view that there is a right (meaning best) way to perform any task. It is
managements job to determine the right way. Workers gain from this approach
because the right way is easier and pay is enhanced as a result of increased
productivity.

The human relation view - originates in the work of Mayo, known as the
Hawthorne Studies. The series of studies essentially concluded that the strongest
motivational force behind most employees behaviour at work was the preservation
and nurturing of social relationships with their colleagues. The main tenets of this view are
as follows:

people want to be made to feel valued and important

people want recognition for their work
people want to be controlled sensibly
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 managers must discuss the plans they make for staff
they must take any objections on board
they must encourage self-regulation on routine tasks

Mayos work leads to an approach towards people which encourages contribution

and self-direction, advocating full participation on matters of significance in order to
improve the quality of decisions made and the nature of supervision.

Theory X and Theory Y managers

Douglas McGregor proposed a Theory X and Theory Y model to explain basic

human traits.

Theory X assumptions are:

The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.
Most people must be coerced, controlled, directed or threatened with
punishment to get them to expend adequate effort towards the achievement of
organisational objectives.
The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid
responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all.

On the other hand, Theory Y makes different assumptions about the nature of
people:

Expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest. The
average human being does not inherently dislike work, which can be a source of
satisfaction.
External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means of
bringing about effort. People can exercise self-direction to achieve objectives
to which they are committed.
Commitment to objectives is a result of the rewards associated with their
achievement. The most significant of those rewards is satisfaction of the
selfactualisation needs.
The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept,
but to seek, responsibility. Avoidance of responsibility, emphasis on security
and low ambition are the result of experience and are not inherent in mans nature.
Capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity
in the solution of organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in
the population.
Under conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potential of the
average human being is only partially utilised.

Needs and goals

These various needs can be categorised in a number of ways eg, physiological and social
motives or intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

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 Extrinsic motivation is related to tangible rewards such as salary and fringe
benefits, security, promotion, contract of service, the work environment and
conditions of work.
Intrinsic motivation is related to psychological rewards such as the
opportunity to use ones ability, a sense of challenge and achievement,
receiving appreciation, positive recognition and being treated in a caring and
considerate manner.

Goals also influence motivation.

2 CLASSICAL AND MODERN THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Content theories focus on the question of what arouses, sustains and regulates
goal directed behaviour ie, the particular things that motivate people. They
offer ways to profile or analyse individuals to identify their needs.

Often criticised as being static and descriptive they appear to be linked more to job
satisfaction than to work effort. Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor take a universal
approach whereas McClelland and Argyris list forces and drives that will vary in
relation to different individuals.

Process theories attempt to explain and describe how people start, sustain
and direct behaviour aimed at the satisfaction of needs or the reduction of inner
tension. The major variables in process models are incentive, drive,
reinforcement and expectancy. The best-known work in this area has been
concerned with Vrooms expectancy theory, Handys motivation calculus and
Adams equity theory.

Maslows hierarchy of needs

Maslow advanced the following propositions about human behaviour:

Man is a wanting being.

A satisfied need is not a motivator of behaviour, only unsatisfied needs

motivate.
Mans needs are arranged in a series of levels - a hierarchy of importance. As soon
as needs on a lower level are met those on the next, higher level will
demand satisfaction. Maslow believed the underlying needs for all human
motivation to be on five general levels from lowest to highest, shown below. Within
those levels, there could be many specific needs, from lowest to highest.

Remember the assumptions of Maslows hierarchy:

individuals have multiple needs

needs are ordered into levels, creating a hierarchy
a need, once satisfied, is no longer a need

To be of use, Maslows basic theory needs qualification to include the individual

as a determining factor in motivation and behaviour. These include:

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 Levels in the hierarchy are not rigidly fixed; boundaries between them are
indistinct and overlap.
There are individual exceptions to the general ranking of the hierarchy. Some
people never progress beyond the first or second level (for example, many
inhabitants of the third world), others are so obsessed with the higher needs that
lower ones may go largely unnoticed.
Variables apart from individual needs may motivate e.g. social standards and a
sense of duty.
An act is seldom motivated by a single need; any act is more likely to be
caused by several needs.
The same need will not give rise to the same response in all individuals.
Substitute goals may take the place of a need that is blocked.

Herzbergs theory of motivation

The major finding of the study was that the events that led to satisfaction were, not
surprisingly, of a quite different kind from those that led to dissatisfaction.

One set of factors are those which, if absent, cause dissatisfaction. These factors are
related to job context. They are concerned with job environment and are extrinsic to
the job itself.

They are called hygiene factors and include such elements as:

company policies and administration

supervision
working conditions
interpersonal relations
money, status and security

The other set of factors are those which, if present, serve to motivate the individual
to superior effort and performance. These factors are related to the job content of work.
They are motivators or growth factors. Motivation factors include:

achievement
increased responsibility
challenging work
recognition for achievements
growth and development.

David McClelland

David McClelland (Studies in Motivation, 1955) identified three basic types of

motivating needs present in people. He shows that all three needs can be present
in a person but the weight attached to each can vary. The three needs are:

(a) Need for achievement - where this is high then people have an intense desire to
succeed and an equally intense fear of failure.

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(b) Need for affiliation - where this is high people tend to seek acceptance by
others, need to feel loved and are concerned with maintaining pleasant social
relationships.
(c) Need for power - people with a high need for power seek opportunities to
influence and control others, seek leadership positions and are often articulate, outspoken
and stubborn.

C Argyris

Even though management based on the assumptions of Theory X is perhaps no longer

appropriate in the opinion of McGregor and others, it is still widely practiced.
Consequently a large majority of the people in organisations today are treated as
immature human beings in their working environment.

In attempting to analyse the situation, Argyris compared bureaucratic/pyramidal values

(the organisations counterpart to Theory X assumptions) that still dominate most
organisations with a more humanistic/democratic value system (Theory Y
assumptions about people).

Expectancy theory

The common themes in expectancy theories are:

conscious decisions by individuals to behave in certain ways

individual values with regard to choosing desired outcomes
individual expectations concerning the amount of effort required to achieve a
specific outcome
individual expectations concerning the probability of being rewarded for
achieving a desired outcome.

Motivation is a function of the relationship between:

effort expended and perceived level of performance

the expectation that rewards (desired outcomes) will be related to
performance.

There must also be the expectation that rewards are available. These relationships
determine the strength of the motivational link.

the strength of the individuals preference for an outcome

the belief in the likelihood that particular actions will achieve the required
goal

This process may be illustrated in the following way:

EFFORT REQUIRED OUTCOME

PERFORMANCE e.g. PROMOTION

Force = Valence Expectancy

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 Force is strength of motivation.
Valence is strength of preference for an outcome.
Expectancy is the level of belief that changes in behaviour will achieve the required
outcome.

The recommendations to management that go with this model are outlined as

follows:
Discover what outcome each employee values most.
Define for employees the kinds of performance that are desired or required, ie
explain what constitutes a goal and adequate performance.
Ensure that the desired levels of performance are achievable.
Link the outcomes desired by employees to the specific performance desired by
management.
Ensure that the overall motivation strategy avoids conflict between the positive
expectations it seeks to create and other factors in the work situation.
Make sure that outcome or rewards are sufficiently attractive to motivate the desired
level of performance.

Porter and Lawlers model - Vrooms theory has been extended by the findings of Porter
and Lawler (Managerial Attitudes and Performance, 1968) in devising a more
complete model of motivation for management.

Basically, Porter and Lawlers model (shown below) shows that the amount of
effort generated depends upon:

the value of the reward

the amount of effort seen to be necessary
the probability of receiving the reward.

The amount of effort deemed necessary and the probability of receiving the reward
are in turn influenced by the individuals record of performance to date, and range of skills,
personality, perception of his role, and any number of other environment factors.

Remember that rewards may be:

(a) external rewards that are given by others and form part of the job situation (e.g.
wages, status, security)

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(b) intrinsic rewards which the individual manager awards himself. These arise from the
performance of the tasks (e.g. feelings of self-esteem, accomplishment)

Handys motivational calculus

The idea put forward here is that each person has a specific motivation calculus in
respect of every decision taken and this can be on a conscious or a
subconscious basis. This assesses three factors:

Needs- these may be defined in accordance with the ideasof Maslow or any other
researchers, and they are the persons needs at that time.
Desired results - these are what a person is expected to accomplish in the
work.
Expenditure (E) factors -these relate to the expenditure of effort, energy, and
excitement in attaining the desired results. Handy suggests that motivational
theories have been too preoccupied with effort. He notes that there seems to be a
set of words (coincidentally beginning with e) that might be more helpful.

As a result of this assessment we have a motivation decision. This is the strength of the
motivation to achieve the desired results. It will have to be dependent upon:

the strength of the needs of the individual

the expectancy that the expenditure will achieve the desired results
the expectancy that these desired results will assist in the satisfaction of the
needs

Needs
The motivation
E factors
calculus
Desired Results

Charles Handy therefore suggests that:

each individual must know exactly what is expected

he or she should participate in the setting of the targets in accordance with personal
objectives
feedback, on a regular basis, is necessary to inform individuals of their
performance in relation to the targets

Adams equity theory

When people sense inequities in their work they will be aroused to remove the
discomfort and restore a state of felt equity to the situation by:

changing work inputs

changing rewards received
leaving the situation
changing the comparison points

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 psychologically distorting the comparisons

People who feel overpaid (feel positive inequity) have been found to increase the quantity
or quality of their work, whilst those who are underpaid (feel negative inequity) do
the opposite. Feelings of inequity are determined solely by the individuals
interpretation of the situation - the fact that a manager feels that the annual pay review is
fair is immaterial.

3 CONTENT AND PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Content and process theories

Content theories - such as those of Maslow and Herzberg, stress the

satisfaction of needs
Process theories - such as those of Vroom, emphasise the importance of
rewards.

Content theories attempt to explain those specific things that actually motivate the
individual at work. These theories are concerned with identifying peoples needs and
their relative strengths, and the goals they pursue in order to satisfy these needs.
Content theories place emphasis on the nature of needs and what motivates.

There is the assumption that everyone responds in much the same way to
motivating pressures and that there is, therefore, one best way to motivate
everybody. These theories provide a prescriptive list which managers can follow in an
attempt to increase productivity.

Process theories (expectancy and goal) change the emphasis from needs to the goals
and processes by which workers are motivated. They attempt to explain and
describe how people start, sustain and direct behaviour aimed at the satisfaction of
needs or reduction of inner tension. They place emphasis on the actual process of
motivation.

Process theories also attempt to identify major variables that explain behaviour, but
the focus is on the dynamics of how the variables are interrelated in explaining the
direction, degree and persistence of effort. The major variables in process models are
incentive, drive, reinforcement and expectancy.

Lets not forget an old theory that is the Carrot and Stick theory.

Carrot and Stick

This traditional motivational theory, attributed to philosopher Jeremy Bentham, dates back
to around 1800 during the Industrial Revolution. It breaks down motivation into two basic
components: incentives and fear. Some workers are motivated by the desire to attain
additional compensation, a yearning to achieve status and power by "moving up the
ladder," or the need for praise. But some workers act out of fear: the fear of losing a job,
being reprimanded by a supervisor or not being able to adequately perform an
assignment.

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