1) Contribution of Robert Owen :
Though Owen is considered to be paternalistic in his view, his
contribution is of a considerable significance in the theories of
Motivation. During the early years of the nineteenth century, Owen’s
textile mill at New Lanark in Scotland was the scene of some novel ways
of treating people. His view was that people were similar to machines.
A machine that is looked after properly, cared for and maintained
well, performs efficiently, reliably and lastingly, similarly people are
likely to be more efficient if they are taken care of. Robert Owen
practiced what he preached and introduced such things as employee
housing and company shop. His ideas on this and other matters were
considered to be too revolutionary for that time.
2) Jeremy Bentham’s “The Carrot and the Stick Approach” :
Possibly the essence of the traditional view of people at work can
be best appreciated by a brief look at the work of this English
philosopher, whose ideas were also developed in the early years of the
Industrial Revolution, around 1800. Bentham’s view was that all people
are self-interested and are motivated by the desire to avoid pain and
find pleasure. Any worker will work only if the reward is big enough, or
the punishment sufficiently unpleasant. This view - the ‘carrot and
stick’ approach - was built into the philosophies of the age and is
still to be found, especially in the older, more traditional sectors of
industry.
The various leading theories of motivation and motivators seldom
make reference to the carrot and the stick. This metaphor relates, of
course, to the use of rewards and penalties in order to induce desired
behavior. It comes from the old story that to make a donkey move, one
must put a carrot in front of him or dab him with a stick from behind.
Despite all the research on the theories of motivation, reward and
punishment are still considered strong motivators. For centuries,
however, they were too often thought of as the only forces that could
motivate people.
At the same time, in all theories of motivation, the inducements of
some kind of ‘carrot’ are recognized. Often this is money in the form
of pay or bonuses. Even though money is not the only motivating force,
it has been and will continue to be an important one. The trouble with
the money ‘carrot’ approach is that too often everyone gets a carrot,
regardless of performance through such practices as salary increase and
promotion by seniority, automatic ‘merit’ increases, and executive
bonuses not based on individual manager performance. It is as simple as
this : If a person put a donkey in a pen full of carrots and then
stood outside with a carrot, would the donkey be encouraged to come out
of the pen ?
The ‘stick’, in the form of fear–fear of loss of job, loss of
income, reduction of bonus, demotion, or some other penalty–has been
and continues to be a strong motivator. Yet it is admittedly not the
best kind. It often gives rise to defensive or retaliatory behavior,
such as union organization, poor-quality work, executive indifference,
failure of a manager to take any risks in decision making or even
dishonesty. But fear of penalty cannot be overlooked. Whether managers
are first-level supervisors or chief executives, the power of their
position to give or with hold rewards or impose penalties of various
kinds gives them an ability to control, to a very great extent, the
economic and social well-being of their subordinates.
3) 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.
As each of these needs are substantially satisfied, the next need
becomes dominant. From the standpoint of motivation, the theory would
say that although no need is ever fully gratified, a substantially
satisfied need no longer motivates. So if you want to motivate someone,
you need to understand what level of the hierarchy that person is on
and focus on satisfying those needs or needs above that level.
Maslow’s need theory has received wide recognition, particularly
among practicing managers. This can be attributed to the theory’s
intuitive logic and ease of understanding. However, research does not
validate these theory. Maslow provided no empirical evidence and other
several studies that sought to validate the theory found no support for
it.
4) “Theory X and Theory Y” of Douglas McGregor :
McGregor, in his book “The Human side of Enterprise” states that
people inside the organization can be managed in two ways. The first is
basically negative, which falls under the category X and the other is
basically positive, which falls under the category Y. After viewing the
way in which the manager dealt with employees, McGregor concluded that a
manager’s view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain
grouping of assumptions and that he or she tends to mold his or her
behavior towards subordinates according to these assumptions.
Under the assumptions of theory X :
- Employees inherently do not like work and whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it.
- Because employees dislike work, they have to be forced, coerced or threatened with punishment to achieve goals.
- Employees avoid responsibilities and do not work fill formal directions are issued.
- Most workers place a greater importance on security over all other factors and display little ambition.
In contrast under the assumptions of theory Y :
- Physical and mental effort at work is as natural as rest or play.
- People do exercise self-control and self-direction and if they are committed to those goals.
- Average human beings are willing to take responsibility and
exercise imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving the problems
of the organization.
- That the way the things are organized, the average human being’s brainpower is only partly used.
On analysis of the assumptions it can be detected that theory X
assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals and theory Y
assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals. An organization
that is run on Theory X lines tends to be authoritarian in nature, the
word “authoritarian” suggests such ideas as the “power to enforce
obedience” and the “right to command.” In contrast Theory Y
organizations can be described as “participative”, where the aims of the
organization and of the individuals in it are integrated; individuals
can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts towards the
success of the organization.
However, this theory has been criticized widely for generalization of work and human behavior.
5) 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.
6) 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. He devised his
theory on the question : “What do people want from their jobs ?” He
asked people to describe in detail, such situations when they felt
exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. From the responses that he
received, he concluded that opposite of satisfaction is not
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 nonpresence leads to
demotivation. In similar manner there are certain factors, the absence
of which causes no dissatisfaction, but their presence has motivational
impact.
Examples of Hygiene factors are :
Security, status, relationship with subordinates, personal life,
salary, work conditions, relationship with supervisor and company
policy and administration.
Examples of Motivational factors are :
Growth prospectus job advancement, responsibility, challenges, recognition and achievements.
7) Contributions of Elton Mayo :
The work of Elton Mayo is famously known as “Hawthorne Experiments.”
He conducted behavioral experiments at the Hawthorne Works of the
American Western Electric Company in Chicago. He made some illumination
experiments, introduced breaks in between the work performance and
also introduced refreshments during the pause’s. On the basis of this he
drew the conclusions that motivation was a very complex subject. It
was not only about pay, work condition and morale but also included
psychological and social factors. Although this research has been
criticized from many angles, the central conclusions drawn were :
- People are motivated by more than pay and conditions.
- The need for recognition and a sense of belonging are very important.
- Attitudes towards work are strongly influenced by the group.
8) 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
This leads us to a conclusion that :
9) 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.
10) Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory :
Alderfer has tried to rebuild the hierarchy of needs of Maslow into
another model named ERG i.e. Existence – Relatedness – Growth.
According to him there are 3 groups of core needs as mentioned above.
The existence group is concerned mainly with providing basic material
existence. The second group is the individuals need to maintain
interpersonal relationship with other members in the group. The final
group is the intrinsic desire to grow and develop personally. The major
conclusions of this theory are :
- In an individual, more than one need may be operative at the same time.
- If a higher need goes unsatisfied than the desire to satisfy a lower need intensifies.
- It also contains the frustration-regression dimension.
11) McClelland’s Theory of Needs :
David McClelland has developed a theory on three types of motivating needs :
- Need for Power
- Need for Affiliation
- Need for Achievement
Basically people for high need for power are inclined towards
influence and control. They like to be at the center and are good
orators. They are demanding in nature, forceful in manners and
ambitious in life. They can be motivated to perform if they are given
key positions or power positions.
In the second category are the people who are social in nature. They
try to affiliate themselves with individuals and groups. They are
driven by love and faith. They like to build a friendly environment
around themselves. Social recognition and affiliation with others
provides them motivation.
People in the third area are driven by the challenge of success and
the fear of failure. Their need for achievement is moderate and they
set for themselves moderately difficult tasks. They are analytical in
nature and take calculated risks. Such people are motivated to perform
when they see atleast some chances of success.
McClelland observed that with the advancement in hierarchy the need
for power and achievement increased rather than Affiliation. He also
observed that people who were at the top, later ceased to be motivated
by this drives.
12 ) Equity Theory :
As per the equity theory of J. Stacey Adams, people are motivated by
their beliefs about the reward structure as being fair or unfair,
relative to the inputs. People have a tendency to use subjective
judgment to balance the outcomes and inputs in the relationship for
comparisons between different individuals. Accordingly :
If people feel that they are not equally rewarded they either reduce
the quantity or quality of work or migrate to some other organization.
However, if people perceive that they are rewarded higher, they may be
motivated to work harder.
13) Reinforcement Theory :
B.F. Skinner, who propounded the reinforcement theory, holds that by
designing the environment properly, individuals can be motivated.
Instead of considering internal factors like impressions, feelings,
attitudes and other cognitive behavior, individuals are directed by
what happens in the environment external to them. Skinner states that
work environment should be made suitable to the individuals and that
punishments actually leads to frustration and de-motivation. Hence, the
only way to motivate is to keep on making positive changes in the
external environment of the organization.
14) Goal Setting Theory of Edwin Locke :
Instead of giving vague tasks to people, specific and pronounced
objectives, help in achieving them faster. As the clearity is high, a
goal orientation also avoids any misunderstandings in the work of the
employees. The goal setting theory states that when the goals to be
achieved are set at a higher standard than in that case employees are
motivated to perform better and put in maximum effort. It revolves
around the concept of “Self-efficacy” i.e. individual’s belief that he
or she is capable of performing a hard task.
15) Cognitive Evaluation Theory :
As per these theory a shift from external rewards to internal
rewards results into motivation. It believes that even after the
stoppage of external stimulus, internal stimulus survives. It relates
to the pay structure in the organization. Instead of treating external
factors like pay, incentives, promotion etc and internal factors like
interests, drives, responsibility etc, separately, they should be
treated as contemporary to each other. The cognition is to be such that
even when external motivators are not there the internal motivation
continues. However, practically extrinsic rewards are given much more
weightage.
TASK TO BE PERFORMED :
DEBATE :
LIST 10 STRONG POINTS OF YOUR PERSONALITY
LIST 10 NEGATIVE POINTS OF YOUR PERSONALITY
ARE THIS 20 POINTS DEBATABLE ?
TRY CHANGE THE NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE
|
“Ask yourself :
- What sort of manager would you like to be managed by ?
- Are you that sort of person ?
This are two basic questions conducive to a healthy management style.” |
