
Motivation Management Theories
- Acquired Needs Theory. This theory states that every person has the same needs, but each individual prioritizes them differently.
- Owen and Motivation in Management. Robert Owen, a Welsh social reformer, developed a theory based on his experience with machines during the Industrial Age of the 1800s.
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Another one of the motivational theories in business is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which identifies a person's most basic needs on a progressive pyramid, ending with ...
- Two Factor Theory. The two factor theory identifies two main sources of motivation for people in the workforce. ...
- The ERG Theory. The ERG theory represents existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. ...
What are the motivational theories of Management?
Theories of Motivation
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow described needs in terms of a hierarchy. ...
- Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory. Herzberg argued that there are two factors which are essential in the motivation of employees. ...
- McClelland’s Three Needs Theory. ...
- McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. ...
- Alderfer’s ERG Theory. ...
- Adam’s Equity Theory. ...
- Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. ...
How managers can use motivation theories?
Motivation theories are tools managers can use to increase production, profits, employee retention rates and employee satisfaction levels. As a manager, you may aim to increase employee motivation in order to help your company achieve its business goals. Using motivation theories can include offering incentives, addressing needs or providing ...
What are the three theories of motivation?
Theories of Motivation
- Evolutionary Theory of Motivation. ...
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. ...
- Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation. ...
- Arousal Theory of Motivation. ...
- Incentive Theory of Motivation and Intrinsic vs. ...
- The Cognitive and Achievement Approaches to Motivation. ...
What motivational theory can a manager use?
The Maslow Theory of Motivation is a great tool for Project Managers to understand and use. It can help you keep your team motivated as well as correct motivational issues. What’s this?

How does motivation relate to performance?
Thus motivation relates with the “willingness to work”. Performance results from the interaction of physical, financial and human resource. The first two are inanimate, they are translated into “productivity”, only when the human element is introduced.
What is equity theory of motivation?
It is based on the assumption that members of an organisation experience strong expectations of justice, balance and fairness in treatment by the organisation. When a person feels that he is being treated unfairly by the organisation, these feelings can have a variety of adverse effects on the person’s motivation and performance on the job. The equity theory of motivation helps in understanding both the causes and the likely consequences of feelings of inequitable treatment among organisation members.
Why is Maslow's theory important?
Maslow’s theory is considered an important theory of motivation because it highlights the needs of the people. Theory # 1.
What is Theory X?
Theory X indicates the traditional approach to managerial motivation and control. It represents old stereotyped and authoritarian management style of motivation.
What is the role of employees in decision making?
The employees must participate in decision-making. They must be consulted by the management and their suggestions must be considered. This will increase their commitment to the organisational decisions. Thus, decision-making under Theory Z is less centralised and more consensus seeking. It involves the employees in decision-making and gives them due recognition.
Why is it important to motivate personnel?
In simple words, it is necessary to motivate the personnel for the attainment of predetermining objectives of the business organisation. To do so, a manager must see that his subordinates work efficiently and enthusiastically and give results that are beneficial to the organisation.
What is Maslow's theory of human needs?
The crux of Abraham H. Maslow’s theory, which was propounded in 1943, states that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy composed of five categories. Maslow began his theory based on the assumption that man is an animal with a hierarchy of needs. Of these needs, there are some that are lower on the scale of necessity and others that are higher. According to the theory, as and when the lower needs are satisfied, higher needs emerge and are required to be satisfied. Higher needs cannot be satisfied unless the lower needs are fulfilled.
What is the motivation of behavior?
The extent that a need in the lower level of the hierarchy is satisfied, the next need higher in the hierarchy becomes the motivator of behavior (MINER, 2005).
How does motivation affect performance?
Most organization strives to achieve a high level of performance through the activities of its employees. Consequently, today’s business environment is characterized by stiff competition and uncertainties in the market. Motivation of employees is imperative when it comes to improving productivity of employees to achieve a sustained high level of performance within the organization. Motivation can be termed as he forces within an individual that pushes an individual to develop an inclination for specific behavior (MINER, 2005). According Mukherjee (2009), motivation is individual enthusiasm to put more effort on his or her responsibilities to achieve organization goals. Most organization seek out to employ individuals who are motivated and can be able to motivate others within their workplace to perform better in order to accomplish the assignments assigned to them.
How does Zappos motivate employees?
To ensure that all the employees are adequately motivated, Zappos Company can employ Armstrong motivation process. This process begins with identification of individual needs for employees within the organization (Beck, 2004). After identifying individual needs within the organization, the company can set measurable goals believed to satisfy these wishes of employees. Realistically, the organization ought to set behavior direction geared to achieve the specific objective. If these goals are achieved, the employee needs will be satisfied, and such behavior will be repeated when such a need occur. Bringing what is referred to as intensification effect to the organization.
Why should an organization assess the motivation level of employees?
The organization from should assess motivation level of the employees to ensure that the employees are consistently motivated. By contunually providing a hygienic working environment, challenging opportunities and identification of excellent performance; the company can be able to maintain a team of motivated employees who work hard to achieve the organization goals (VAN WART et als., 2005).
How did Elton Mayo develop his motivation theory?
At first Mayo believed that employees were motivated by their working conditions, skills and as well as their salary and wages. Mayo conducted experiments by isolating workers into two groups and studied the effect of changing lighting working conditions. Mayo believed that the level of production will decrease with changing lighting conditions from better to worse in the company. Interestingly, when these working conditions continued to be worse, the productivity of workers remained the same or improved instead.
What is a manager's job?
It is a manager’s job to motivate employees to do their jobs well!” Lawrie Mullins.
Why do organizations have inadequate motivation?
Inadequate motivations do occur in organizations because some of the employees joined an organization with different expectations, outlook and behavior. Despite individual challenges of motivation and productivity, most organization seeks ways of ensuring there is continuous productivity in order to achieve organization goals.
What is motivation theory?
Motivation theories are tools managers can use to increase production, profits, employee retention rates and employee satisfaction levels. As a manager, you may aim to increase employee motivation in order to help your company achieve its business goals. Using motivation theories can include offering incentives, addressing needs or providing rewards to motivate your team to meet a specific goal.
How to ensure employees are benefiting from motivation theories?
To ensure employees are benefiting from the motivation theories you're applying, consider asking them for feedback after they earn a reward or incentive. You can ask your team whether they're interested in individual incentives or group incentives. Then allow them to explain their reasoning and try implementing additional incentives based on their feedback. For example:
How to meet socialization needs?
Socialization: To meet socialization needs, employees may strive for their coworkers to accept them, seek to make friendships at work or job groups to feel a sense of belonging. A workplace may fulfill this need by creating opportunities for employees to bond by hosting employee lunches and team-building activities.
What is incentive motivation?
The incentive motivational theory suggests people feel motivated by reinforcement, recognition, incentives and rewards. The incentive theory also proposes that people may display certain behaviors in order to achieve a specific result, incite a particular action or receive a reward. Here are a few examples of incentives in the workplace:
Why is trust important in the workplace?
As a manager or supervisor, having a team that trusts you is vital for workplace motivation. For example, if you promise your team cookies as a reward for exceeding their daily quotas, fulfilling your promise can develop employee trust. It may also motivate your team to respond positively to future rewards or incentives, which may increase their overall productivity.
What is McClelland's need theory?
McClelland's need theory proposes there are three different needs. Each type of need correspond s to a specific type of person who feels motivated to address that need. Understanding McClelland's need theory can help managers identify employee needs, which may give them the ability to place their employees in situations where they can thrive and reach their goals. Use these three needs to determine which incentive may work best for each employee:
What is affiliate theory?
The affiliate theory proposes that humans desire to belong to a group and feel accepted by other people. This theory can help managers identify if an employee might work well on a team and grow from the experience. Employees who feel motivation from affiliation often have highly developed interpersonal skills that can help them generate strong and meaningful relationships with their coworkers.
What are motivational theories?
Humans have different perceptions and needs about how they will satisfy those basic needs. All types of motivational theories focus on these relationships (individual needs and perceptions about how to satisfy them) but in another way. 1.
What are the theories of motivation?
Theories of Motivation- It includes various theories like need or content theories, cognitive theories, reinforcement theory, and behavioural theories...
What is the product of Vroom's theory?
Vroom’s theory explains that motivation is a product of expectancy and valence . Motivation or Force= Expectancy x Valence. Force indicates the term motivation that influences an individual to behave in a specific manner. Valence indicates the strength of an opinion that an individual holds about the outcome of his action.
Which theory of motivation explains that motivation is a product of expectancy and valence?
Both theories are briefly discussed below: (a) Vroom’s expectancy theory : According to this motivational theory, individual expect to achieve some goals out of their actions and also feel motivated to perform those tasks and actions. Vroom’s theory explains that motivation is a product of expectancy and valence.
What is the need hierarchy of Maslow?
This theory develops as a supplement to Maslow’s theory. It acts like an alternative need theory called ERG theory which classifies needs as lower-order and higher-order. It is written by Clayton Alderfer. The base of this theory is the need hierarchy of Maslow.
How many needs are there in Maslow's theory?
There are five needs in Maslow’s theory and all five needs are converted into three needs which known as ERG theory. The three needs are as follows:-
What are the factors that contribute to motivation?
Motivators: These factors are related to the challenges, opportunities, job content, achievement, recognition, innovative projects for personal growth and responsibility. Their absence gives no motivation but their presence gives a high degree of motivation and morale.
What is the main theory of motivation?
This is a content theory of motivation whereas the main theory is the Maslow’ Hierarchy of Needs. Herzberg carried out a research utilizing 200 engineers and accountants. They were asked to memorize the situations when that they felt positive or negative feelings at their job and the reasons there of. According to his findings he presented a two-steps approach to understand employee motivation and satisfaction which are called as Hygiene factors and Motivator factors.
What is motivation in psychology?
Motivation is the factors that determine the grounds for engagement in a particular behavior by a person or persons. It attached with the beginning, route, the level of involvement and the sustaining at a particular level of behavior of a person. The grounds for a particular behavior may include the determinants which are varying from basic human needs to higher level of social needs. Motivation can be reflected through the energy and commitment of the individual or group to perform a certain task or tasks (Joseph 1989).
How does motivation affect a company?
The employee motivation is a crucial factor for every business at a same or sometimes at a higher level with compared to other businesses. It affects the every aspects of the business. The basic level of the motivation is reflected by the hard working work force. At this stage the productivity will be high and hence the cost of labor per unit will be reduced. However the mere improvements in productivity will not be the single factor that a firm can achieve by motivating its workforce. Motivated employees are performing to a high standard level of performance where favorable impacts over the customer satisfaction and the shareholder value can be gained. The motivated employees are less likely to engage in industrial actions or such other violence actions against the company. The employee conflicts and grievances may lower. Further the motivated employees would work effectively under minimum supervision. They will be enthusiastically learning new things relating to their jobs that would enhance the quality of performance.
What is the motivation factor in Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
At lower levels of the Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs theory the monetary benefits are considered to be the motivation factor. At the higher level of the hierarchy factors such as social respect, recognition, sense of belonging and empowerment are powerful than the monetary factor of motivation. Accordingly Maslow suggested that the money is a lowest important factor as a motivator of employees. McGregor has included money in his Theory X category and explained it as a poor motivator and in theory Y category he has placed social recognition and praise suggesting that they are strong motivators other than money. This section of the assignment will present explanations of those important theories of motivation before understand the practical usage of those theories to generate a motivated workforce (Werther and Davis 1985).
What is the motivation of an employee?
Motivation is crucial factor of the success of the organization these days. There are various theories have been presented by various philosophers regarding the motivation of employees. Management, leadership, and organizational culture are key determinants among the factors affecting employee motivation. Every job has the probability of motivation or demotivation the employee. Motivation affects the every aspects of the business and strongly affects the level of productivity.
What is the motivation factor of people at work?
Taylor simply described that the motivation factor of people at work is money . He suggested that the pay based on the rates produced by an each worker will induce him to produce more and more to earn more. Further the employees who do not achieve target of a daily production should be paid less in order to induce them to meet daily target. And the employees who exceed the target production should be paid more to induce them to keep that productivity and to motivate others. Accordingly manager’s job is to tell the employees what to do and the employees target is to complete that and to be paid according to their production (Tripathi 1991)
How does leadership style affect motivation?
The leadership style can be significantly influence the motivation of employees. The qualities of the leader will determine the extent to which the e employees are contributed to the organization. If the leader is unfair, do not provide clear instructions, and negatively look at the things then the employees will lose their desire to work hard to accomplish the goals. The organization’s leaders must communicate with its employees openly so that the employees are clear about the things that they are required to do.
What are the three theories of motivation?
The three theories are: 1. Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy 2. Herzberg’s Two Factors or Motivation-Hygiene Theory 3. Mc. Gregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Motivation Theory # 1. Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy: The behaviour of an individual at a particular moment is usually determined by his strongest need.
Which theory is a general guide to managers?
However, Maslow’s theory should be regarded as a general guide to the managers, for it is a relative concept, not an absolute explanation of all human behaviour. It provides a convenient conceptual framework for the study of motivation. Motivation Theory # 2. Herzberg’s Two Factors or Motivation-Hygiene Theory:
How can positive motivation be improved?
Better performance can come only when positive motivation is built up through improvement in the job content by making it more interesting, challenging, responsible and worthwhile. The managers can work on both fronts by reducing the dissatisfaction arising out of hygiene factors and building up the motivators for bringing employees’ satisfaction.
Why is it important to use Herzberg's theory?
From the point of view of management, the significance of Herzberg’s theory lies in the warning that merely removing the causes of dissatisfaction will not make the workers do any better. More particularly, more pay cannot be the basis for long range satisfaction.
When an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied to a reasonable level, safety needs get the most important priority as motiv?
When an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied to a reasonable level, safety needs get the most important priority as motivator . Such needs refer to the protection that a man needs against accident, physical torture, unemployment, disability, old age, etc. A man seeks safety against what threatens his survival physically and economically, e.g. fear and danger of loss of job, life or limb, and property.
What is the behaviour of an individual at a particular moment?
The behaviour of an individual at a particular moment is usually determined by his strongest need. Psychologists claim that, as the basic needs are satisfied, an individual seeks to satisfy the higher level needs. ADVERTISEMENTS: If his basic needs are not met, efforts to satisfy higher level needs should be postponed.
How can an organisation influence needs?
Organisation can influence these needs through supervision, communication system, work groups, etc. Managers recognise the existence of these needs, but they often wrongly assume that these needs represent a threat to the organisation.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Mcclelland's Three Needs Theory
- David McClelland's motivation theory of management suggests that each person has three basic needs: the need for power, achievement, or affiliation. In this employee motivation theory, McClelland says that a person's particular need will have a significant impact on their behavior. 1. Need for Power:this person is motivated by having a position of ...
Herzberg's Motivation Theory
- Herzberg's Motivation Theory, which is also known as Two-Factor or Hygiene Theory, is another one of the more renowned employee motivation theories. It suggests that individuals have two categories of needs when it comes to work – Hygiene and Motivators. Hygiene refers to a person's work environment, including working conditions, wages, workplace relations while Moti…
Assessment Tasks
Answer
- Abstract
Most organizations focus their attention on what ought to be done in order to achieve a sustained high level of performance through employees. Managers are trying to come up with best ways to manage employees by motivating them to perform better in order for the organization to achiev…
Table of Contents
- Company……………………………………………………………………9 Most organization strives to achieve a high level of performance through the activities of its employees. Consequently, today’s business environment is characterized by stiff competition and uncertainties in the market. Motivation of employees is imperative when it comes to improving productivity of employees to achieve a sus…
Motivation Theories
- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow held that a person is naturally good and proposed that people possess inner driving force that has a budding potential. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is classified into five needs which exist in a hierarchy. Lower-level needs on the bottom of the hierarchy must be fulfill… - Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
This theory is also referred as Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene Theory and focuses on sources of motivation which are applicable to accomplishment of assigned tasks (HERZBERG et als., 1993). Herzberg identified that job satisfaction (motivating factors) and dissatisfaction (hygiene factor…
Assessment of Techniques Used to Implement Motivation Theories in Zappos Company
- Zappos.com is an online shopping store based in Las Vegas. This organization has been able to motivate its employees towards achieving their organizational goals of selling shoes online. Zappos company mission is to provide the best customer service possible. Motivation techniques employed by Zappos Communication: Good communication among managers and employees i…
Effectiveness of Implementing Motivation Theories in Zappos Company
- By and large, Zappos have enjoyed numerous benefits from motivating their employees by applying techniques obtained from motivation theories. The organization is having among the best team of motivated employees whose goal is geared toward satisfying the organization objectives. Currently, the organization is ranked number 15 in “100 best Companies to work for” …
Recommendation on Implementation of Motivation Techniques
- To ensure that all the employees are adequately motivated, Zappos Company can employ Armstrong motivation process. This process begins with identification of individual needs for employees within the organization (Beck, 2004). After identifying individual needs within the organization, the company can set measurable goals believed to satisfy these wishes of employ…
References
- BECK, R. C. (2004). Motivation: theories and principles. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson Education. MINER, J. B. (2005). Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Armonk, NY [u.a.], Sharpe. Weiner, B. (2001). Intrapersonal and interpersonal theories of motivation from an attribution perspective. Springer US. Heath, C. (1999). On the social psychology of agency relatio…