MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES

1.Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory” : 

One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from the lowest to the highest, and he concluded that when one set of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases to be a motivator. As per his theory this needs are :

(i) Physiological needs : These are important needs for sustaining the human life. Food, water, warmth, shelter, sleep, medicine and education are the basic physiological needs which fall in the primary list of need satisfaction. Maslow was of an opinion that until these needs were satisfied to a degree to maintain life, no other motivating factors can work.

(ii) Security or Safety needs : These are the needs to be free of physical danger and of the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. It also includes protection against any emotional harm.

(iii) Social needs : Since people are social beings, they need to belong and be accepted by others. People try to satisfy their need for affection, acceptance and friendship.

(iv) Esteem needs : According to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such satisfaction as power, prestige status and self-confidence. It includes both internal esteem factors like self-respect, autonomy and achievements and external esteem factors such as states, recognition and attention.

(v) Need for self-actualization :  Maslow regards this as the highest need in his hierarchy. It is the drive to become what one is capable of becoming, it includes growth, achieving one’s potential and self-fulfillment. It is to maximize one’s potential and to accomplish something.

2) “Theory X and Theory Y” of Douglas McGregor :

3) Contribution of Rensis Likert : Likert developed a refined classification, breaking down organizations into four management systems.

1st System – Primitive authoritarian
2nd System – Benevolent authoritarian
3rd System – Consultative
4th System – Participative

As per the opinion of Likert, the 4th system is the best, not only for profit organizations, but also for non-profit firms.

4) Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory :

Frederick has tried to modify Maslow’s need Hierarchy theory. His theory is also known as two-factor theory or Hygiene theory. He stated that there are certain satisfiers and dissatisfiers for employees at work. In- trinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated with dissatisfaction.Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying. He states that presence of certain factors in the organization is natural and the presence of the same does not lead to motivation. However, their non presence leads to demotivation.

5.Vroom’s Valence x Expectancy theory :

The most widely accepted explanations of motivation has been propounded by Victor Vroom. His theory is commonly known as expectancy theory. The theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a specific way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual to make this simple, expectancy theory says that an employee can be motivated to perform better when their is a belief that the better performance will lead to good performance appraisal and that this shall result into realization of personal goal in form of some reward. Therefore an employee is :

Motivation = Valence x Expectancy. 

The theory focuses on three things :

• Efforts and performance relationship
• Performance and reward relationship
• Rewards and personal goal relationship

6) The Porter and Lawler Model : Lyman W. Porter and Edward E. Lawler developed a more complete version of motivation depending upon expectancy theory.

Actual performance in a job is primarily determined by the effort spent. But it is also affected by the person’s ability to do the job and also by individual’s perception of what the required task is. So performance is the responsible factor that leads to intrinsic as well as extrinsic rewards. These rewards, along with the equity of individual leads to satisfaction. Hence, satisfaction of the individual depends upon the fairness of the reward.

Some other theories are ,

7) Contributions of Elton Mayo :  “Hawthorne Experiments Theory”

8) Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory : Existence – Relatedness – Growth Theory

9) McClelland’s Theory of Needs : David McClelland has developed a theory on three types of motivating needs :

1.     Need for Power

2.     Need for Affiliation

3.     Need for Achievement

10) Cognitive Evaluation Theory

11) Goal Setting Theory of Edwin Locke

12) Reinforcement Theory

13) Equity Theory

14) Jeremy Bentham’s “The Carrot and the Stick Approach”