2022/2023 ACADEMIC YEAR

MGS 201: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT LECTURE NOTES

TOPIC 5: MOTIVATION AT WORK

Motivation is seen by increasing number of organisations as a key consideration when it comes to

company success. Today’s competitive environment requires a workforce that is motivated and
committed to reaching work-related goals. This topic focuses in two central questions:

 First, what motivates people?

 Second how a company can keeps employees engaged and enthusiastic about their work?

In the following development we will consider the answer to these questions by examining two
categories of theories about motivation: content and process. Content theories of motivation seek to
understand what underlies and drives motivation in order to effectively motivate people. The process
theories of motivation seek to understand what steps can be taken to improve and maintain motivation.
Before reviewing those theories, it is important to understand what motivation is, its importance and
the types of motivations.

1. Understanding what Motivation is

 What Motivation is

Motivation is an internal and unseen force that drives and energizes the employees’ efforts. There are
two basic types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from the personal
satisfaction of work itself, while extrinsic motivation comes from the rewards that are linked to job
performance, such as a paycheck. It should be noted that today’s workers want to derive meaning and
satisfaction from their work, not only money.

Why motivate?
• To ensure that each employee brings his/her best effort on a sustained basis to the process
of achieving the objectives of the organisation.
• To give a business a competitive edge over its rivals.
• To compensate the hard work of employees.
• To maintain a low level of absenteeism and labour turnover.
• Etc.

2. What Underlies and Drives Motivation (Content Theories)?

People’s needs are the content that drives or energizes their efforts. Content theories attempt to look
inside and better understand what energizes action. Fundamentally, all of these theories share a
common emphasis on needs as the origin of motivation. They conclude that if there were no needs,
there would be little basis for energizing any activity. Understanding the needs that motivate people
can be valuable aid to managers. If a manager knows the needs of his workers, he can align
organisational characteristics and rewards to meet the needs when employees achieve organisational
goals.
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Knowing the needs that drive their workers can help managers to provide the types of outcomes and
work settings that those workers will find rewarding and satisfying.

Maslow argued that motivation lies within each individual employee. Therefore, managers merely need
the key to unlock the motivational force.

A summary of the content theories is given in the figure below.

Maslow’s needs theory Alderfer’s Herzberg’s McClelland’s Means of satisfying needs

hierarchy ERG theory two factor theory of
theory learned needs
Self-actualization Growth Motivators Need for Providing opportunities to take
achievement new responsibilities
and to develop new skills.
Esteem Need for Delegating authority to junior
power employees, offering promotion
opportunities.
Social or Ralatedness Hygienes Need for Social and sporting facilities,
Belongingness affiliation opportunities to work in groups.
Safety or Existence Implementing a proper health and
security safety policy, providing employees
with contracts of employment.
Physiological Through pay and a warm and dry
working environment.

a) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed a theory of motivation based on the hierarchy of needs. He
assumed that unsatisfied human needs motivate behaviour. According to Maslow, people experience
needs in a specified order, from the simple physical needs to complex psychological needs. In
ascending order, these needs are:

 Physiological needs, such as food, water, sex, shelter and so on.

 Safety or security needs, such as danger avoidance, a steady job, and a healthy work
environment.
 Social needs, such as friendships, supervisory support, a sense of belonging in one’s
relationships with other people, affection and need for love.
 Esteem needs, such as personal pride, a positive self-concept, status, etc.
 Self-actualisation, or the desire to use one’s potential to the maximum.

Maslow argues that each lower level need has to be satisfied before the next higher level needs become
salient or motivating. For example, a hungry person is highly motivated to do whatever it takes to
secure food, even taking actions that jeopardize safety, such as accepting a dangerous job. Therefore,
the hierarchy of needs suggests that managers can motivate employees by providing an environment
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in which the employees can satisfy their most pressing needs.

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MGS 201: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT LECTURE NOTES

From a human relations perspective, this suggests that managers must develop positive relationship
with subordinates in order to discover what their motivational needs are. For example, a manager who
knows that employees are motivated by physiological needs may be able to put in place incentive
compensation system.

b) Herzberg’s two factor theory

Two factors theory focuses on characteristics that motivate and reduce motivation at work. Frederick
Herzberg developed this theory based on interviews with workers regarding what led them to be
satisfied and motivated at work and resulted in being dissatisfied and unmotivated. His key finding is
that two separate sets of characteristics affect motivation and, thus employee performance:

 The first set, labeled Hygiene factors, corresponds to the lower level needs in Maslow’s
theory. Hygiene factors are contextual and extrinsic aspects of jobs such as salaries, fringe
benefits, company policies, working conditions, etc. They can cause dissatisfaction if they
are inadequately met. Unfortunately these factors do not motivate people to do a good job.

 The next set, labeled Motivators include the nature of the work, responsibility for a task well
done, feedback and recognition, opportunities for personal growth and learning, and feelings
of achievement derived from task completion. Herzberg contends that these motivators
increase job satisfaction.

c) Alderfer’s ERG theory

Clayton Alderfer revised Maslow’s theory to make the needs and the sequence of needs less rigid.
Alderfer’s revised need hierarchy is called ERG theory, referring to three groups of core needs:

 The Existence group of needs, which is concerned with material requirements for survival,
corresponding to physiological and safety needs in Maslow’s hierarchy.

 The Relationship group of needs, which involves people’s desire for social support,
interpersonal relationships, and favorable recognition by others. These needs roughly
correspond to Maslow’s social and esteem needs.

 The Growth group of needs or intrinsic desire to use and develop one’s talents (Self-
actualization and some elements of esteem needs of Maslow)

NB: Alderfer does not assume a rigid hierarchy in which one need has to be satisfied before other needs
emerge. Instead all three categories can operate simultaneously.

d) McClelland’s Needs

McClelland also identified a set of important needs that serve as motives:

 The need for achievement, which is a drive to accomplish things, in which the individual
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receives great satisfaction from personal attainment and goal completion.

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 The need for affiliation, which is the desire to be liked by others, to receive social approval,
and to establish close interpersonal relationships.
 The need for power, which is the desire to influence or control other people.

FINALLY, HOW TO MOTIVATE?

To answer this question, it is very important to know and understand the REASONS WHY PEOPLE
WORK (See the needs). According to those reasons, Managers can apply different forms of motivation
that content intrinsic and extrinsic factors:

 Monetary forms of Motivation (Piecework; salaries and wages; fringe benefits;

Performance-related pay; Profit sharing; share ownership; etc.)
 Non-monetary forms of motivation (job enlargement; job enrichment; Responsibility for
task well done; Feedback and recognition; opportunities for personal growth and learning;
Teanworking; Promotion; Communication; Managers-employees relationship; working
conditions; Recognition, etc.).

3. How to Improve and Maintain Motivation (Process Theories)

3.1. Goal-Setting theory

Hundreds of studies demonstrate that people are more motivated when there are concrete objectives or
targets to achieve. These studies suggest that three important aspects of goals energize people to try
harder:

 First, employees must believe that the goals are good. That is they should “buy into” the
goals. One effective way to increase goal acceptability is to have employees and supervisors
jointly set the goals in participative fashion.
 Second, the targets set should challenge people to “stretch” their abilities, but they should
also be realistic. Unattainable goals frustrate and demoralize employees.
 Third, goals should be specific, quantifiable, and measurable to give people clear direction
on how to focus their efforts so they can concentrate on meeting or exceeding the established
targets.

Globally, setting goals in a participative fashion and identifying goals that are challenging,
specific, and measurable will help lead workers to accept the goals. In turn, acceptance of a goals
energizes the worker to put forth the needed effort. This motivation results in improved
performance and attainment of the goal, setting the stage for another round of goals.

One well-known approach to implementing goal theory is Management by objectives (MBO). In an

MBO system, employees and supervisors agree on a set of measurable goals to be accomplished within
certain amount of time.
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3.2. Equity theory

Equity theory contains two important concepts.

 First, motivation largely depends on the perception of fairness in the exchange process
between what the person contributes and what the person receives.
 Second, people are constantly comparing themselves to others. The way they see their input-
outcome exchange relative to others affects their behaviours.

The direct implications of these two concepts for managers is that workers pay attention to fairness of
the exchange and to other workers. A manager might like to think that a worker will pay attention to
only their own deal regarding the exchange of inputs to outputs, but he would only be fooling yourself.
The reality is that people are always looking at the exchanges enjoyed by others and making
comparisons to their own arrangements.

Further, when employees make these comparisons, they tend to overestimate the compensation of
others. A manager can avoid this bias and the downward adjustment of inputs that can result by making
public general compensation levels (establishment of pay grades for jobs). In addition, the manager
can help to put exchanges in balance by recognizing that outputs can include more than financial
outcomes (such as recognition, flexibility, etc.).

People who perceive that they are being inequitably treated can use one of four methods to attempt to
change the ratios, or they can mentally reassess the situation and decide that it is equitable after all.

 One option is to reduce inputs by cutting back on the level of effort, and if the imbalance
becomes too great, to leave the firm.
 A second option is to influence the outcomes. For instance, the employee may document
what he or she has accomplished to persuade the boss to provide a raise or a promotion.
 Third, a person can decrease others’ outcomes. For instance, a dissatisfied employee may
spread rumors about people in order to reduce their outcomes.
 Finally, a person who feels that he or she is getting more that deserved may increase effort
levels to reduce the dissatisfaction resulting from guilt.

3.3. Expectancy theory

One of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation is Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory.
According to this theory, the strength to act in a particular way depends on people’s beliefs that their
actions will produce outcomes they find valuable and attractive. For instance, employees work harder
if they believe that hard work will lead to better performance appraisals and promotion. Fundamentally,
Expectancy theory is a model about choice. That is the amount of effort that is put forth on a task is
something that people choose. That choice is based on three critical factors:

 Expectancy: the link between effort and performance on a task. It is the belief that a given
level of effort will lead to success on the task.
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 Instrumentality: the perceived link between task performance and rewards.

 Valence: the value placed on task performances and rewards.

The basic statement made by this model is: the effort put forth on a task will be determined by the
value the person places on a task and on a belief that he or she can perform the task. In other words,
the model states that people will be motivated to perform well on a task only if the reward has value to
them and if they believe they can be successful. Does task performance have value to your workers?
Do they believe they can succeed? According to the expectancy model, these are critical questions and
the answers will determine the level of motivation of workers.

3.4. Reinforcement Theory (Skinner and Associates)

This theory states that individual’s behaviour is a function of its consequences. It is based on “Law of
Effect”, which was formalized by psychologist Edward Thorndike. The law of effect states that
behaviours are encouraged (repeated) or discouraged (not repeated) depending on the consequences
which follow.

This theory overlooks the internal state of individual, i.e the inner feelings and drives of individuals
are ignored by Skinner. The theory focuses totally on what happens to an individual when he takes
some actions. Thus, according to Skinner, the external environment of the organization must be
designed effectively and positively so as to motivate the employee.

The managers can use the methods below for controlling the behaviour of the employees. These
methods also correspond to the four key consequences:

 Positive reinforcement

It is a pleasurable stimulus or reward following a desired behaviour that induces people to continue the
behaviour. For instance, people are likely to spend more time in the office if they feel it will help them
earn promotions even though it may not increase their overall productivity. One common use of
positive reinforcement in the workplace is performance contingent pay such as merit pay and bonuses.
Performance contingent rewards can be powerful motivators, but these same practices can be the source
of problems if they don’t work the way people think they should. Another example is immediately
praising an employee for coming early for job.

 Negative reinforcement

It is the removal of unpleasant conditions following desired behaviour, resulting in an increase in the
frequency of that behaviour. For instance, a worker may be subjected to close scrutiny and loud
direction from an authoritarian foreman. However, the boss may remove this negative condition once
the worker demonstrates that he/she can correctly perform the task.
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 Punishment (negative approach to motivation)

It is the aversive or unpleasant consequence following an undesired behaviour. This leads to a decrease
in that behaviour. However, the avoidance of undesired behaviours through punishment does not mean
that people will engage in desired behaviours. For instance, a boss who yells at people for being late
may provoke employees to show little initiative to try their best once they clock in. In fact, they may
resent the boss and try to get even whenever they can. The threat of punishment for undesired
behaviours may be more effective than the actual use of punishment because punishment decreases
undesirable behaviours only temporarily and may create anger and resentment, which hurt
communication and undermine goodwill and personal initiative.

 Extinction

It is withholding of a positive consequence following desired behaviour. Eventually, faced with never
being reinforced following a behaviour (that used to be followed by a reward), the frequency of the
behaviour will decrease to the point where it disappears, or is extinguished. For example, a worker may
have been rewarded on the basis of quantity. However, the emphasis in the organization may have
shifted to quality. Out of habit, the worker may for a while, still focus on quantity of production.
Behaving in ways to maximize quantity, maybe sometimes at the expense of quality, will soon
extinguish when the worker realizes that the behaviour is no longer rewarded.

Reinforcement theory indicates that managers should link desirable outcomes (such as pay raises
or promotion) to the behaviours they want to encourage. They should also try to reduce undesirable
outcomes associated with the behaviours they wish people to exhibit. For instance providing day care
facilities may prompt more women to accept jobs that require frequent travel and unpredictable
schedules.

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