Motivation Theories and Practice: a critique
Motivation is the idea of about the difference between getting things done and not getting things done; energises people; and directs activities to goals. While it is true that most people believe on motivation as illustrated in various theories, it is argued that not all these theories are applicable in all conditions particularly on the aspect of employee motivation. In general perspective, this paper discusses the motivation theory and various theories including Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors theory, McClelland’s Three-need theory, and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. Several definitions of motivation are presented. But the focus of the paper is on the disagreement that not all motivation theories are sort of generic prescription in addressing managerial difficulties. Thus, this paper believes on the statement of Rollinson with Broadfield (2005) that motivation – “as if it is some sort of medicine that can be dispensed in variable quantities to those who need it most. This is an impossibility.” Further, some cases are integrated to provide explanations on the flaws of every theory. The conclusion summarises the whole paper with relevant comments of the author.
Motivation theory and its practice are among the most extensive area of study in several fields of specialization from social and applied sciences. Most literatures aim to formulate an all-inclusive body of knowledge ranging from the general concept of motivation up to the industry-based perspectives. Silverman and Casazza (1999) stated that “motivation is a process not a result” (p. 92). By understanding the motivation theories, it also assists HRD to prepare a better structure of training planning and design in an organization. It is fundamental to understand the motivation factor in order to examine the relationship between rewards system and working attitude of the people. According to the expectancy theory, employees expect and need to be rewarded according to the work they do, and will help them to develop their capability, help them to work up to a higher level so that they can be better rewarded. Employees expect organizations to have compensation systems that they perceive as being fair and commensurate with their skills and expectations (Sims 2002).
If the managers understand the employee’s underlying working motivator, it can improve the customer satisfaction in the long run. It is the role of HR Department to implement different kind of rewards system or recognition system in order to maintain the employee and organization morale. Various studies advocated this line of thinking about motivation. There are different perceptions and definitions of “motivation”. Some people might think that motivation is a view of personal trait as some have or some might not have it (Robbins and Coulter 1998). Motivation can be defined as the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need (Robbins and Coulter 1998). Armstrong (1993) also defined motivation will cause people to act or behave in certain ways. Furthermore, Mullins (1999) defines motivation as ‘the degree to which an individual wants and chooses to engage in certain specified behaviors’ (p. 26). From this theory, Mullins identifies four common characteristics which underline the above definition of motivation:
Motivation is typified as an individual phenomenon. Every person is unique and all the major theories of motivation allow for this uniqueness to be demonstrated in one way or another.
Motivation is described, usually, as intentional. Motivation is assumed to be under the worker’s control, and behaviours that are influenced by motivation, such as effort expended, are seen as choices of action.
Motivation is multifaceted. The two factors of greatest importance are (1) what gets people activated (arousal); and (2) the force of an individual to engage in desired behaviour (direction or choice of behaviour).
The purpose of motivational theories is to predict behaviour. Motivation is not the behaviour itself, and it is not performance. Motivation concerns action, and the internal and external forces that influence a person’s choice of action.
From the definitions mentioned, it can be analysed that motivation is necessary for the growth of the employee in the organisation. The employee starts his/her career through learning, basically the culture of the organisation and his/her responsibilities. Motivation is a vital element to learning because if an organisation does not possess the ability to motivate its employees, the knowledge within the organisation is not practically used to the fullest (Osteraker 1999). Thus, in every successful learning organisation, finding the factors that will motivate its employees to partake in continuous learning and to take advantage of this knowledge, accordingly, becomes their aim (Osteraker 1999). Former General Manager of General Electric, Jack Welch uses this approach to empower employees. Through this, little and huge issues that affect employees everyday work behaviours were identified and solved (Slater, et al. 1998). This is fundamentally a great way to identify employees’ needs.
On the other hand, leadership also plays a fundamental part in motivating employees. Today, leadership serves as a critical element of organisational success. In motivating employees to learn, leaders must set a way towards a given goal, inspire, or motivate them to follow (Prewitt 2003). The HR manager should know how to recognise success and how to praise those who deserve praises. Several studies found positive linkage between leadership styles and job satisfaction, except for the initiating structure leadership style, which similarly shows negative effect on job satisfaction (Pool 1997; Lok and Crawford 2004). Deserving employees can be effectively praised and recognised through awards and bonuses. Developing a program were a particular employee with good performance would be branded as employee of the week can also be a good idea. Of course, this should also come with small rewards to make employees feel that their efforts pay off.
Further, motivation is the interaction between the individual and the situation. Under different situations, individual will respond differently. It all depends on the individual motivational drive or individual needs and varies from situation to situation (Robbins and Coulter 1998). It also leads motivation treated as a need-satisfying process; an unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individuals. These drives generate search behaviour to find particular goals that, if attained, will satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of tension (Robbins and Coulter 1998). The figure below illustrates the process of motivation.
Figure 1: Motivation Theory
Understanding the motivation theory and practice is done through useful review of different and popular kinds of motivational theories. There are several types of motivation theories including the best-known and most typical examples are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors, McClelland’s three needs theory, and Vroom’s expectancy theory. These motivation theories are used because of their proven relevance and applicability to the concept of this research. Also, they are the most common theories in relation to employee motivation and reward system.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), a psychologist, created one of the most well-known motivation theories called the Hierarchy of Needs (Fig. 2). Robbins and Coulter (1998) mentioned that Maslow generalized that every human beings exists a hierarchy of five needs, which are:
Physiological – Food, water, shelter and other bodily needs
Safety – Security and protection from physical and emotional harms
Social / Belonging – Acceptance and friendship
Esteem – Internal esteem factors like self-respect; achievement and external esteem factors like status, recognition and attention.
Self-actualization – Growth, achieving one’s potential and self-fulfillment
Figure 2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Model
In order to apply an appropriate rewards system in an organization, it is essential to understand the idea of human needs and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reflect the five general human needs. This theory is based on a progression hypothesis and it called content theory. Content theory seeks to examine the specific factors that motivate behaviours. In Maslow’s theory, people progress up the hierarchy as they successively gratify each level of need.
Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors theory
Motivation-hygiene theory was proposed by another psychologist Frederick Herzberg. It emphasized that the needs satisfactions are categorized into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. According to Armstrong (1993), motivation can take place in either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation:
- Intrinsic motivation – the self-generated factors and influence people to behave in a particular way or direction. Intrinsic factors motivate us from within personal interest, desire and fulfilment. It has long-term and deeper effect.
- Extrinsic motivation – To satisfy indirect or instrumental needs. It arises from some kind of ‘Do this’ and you will get that motivation. It has an immediate and powerful effect but will not last long.
To a certain extent, part of the Herzberg’s theory is parallel to Maslow’s theory. It can be seen that the hygiene factors in the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy and the motivators in the higher levels. However, unlike Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s two-factor theory argued that individual needs satisfaction does not process in a hierarchy (Wong, et al. 1999 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753). The motivation-hygiene theory needs to hold management not only to provide hygiene factors and avoid employee dissatisfaction, but also provide factors intrinsic to the work itself in order for employees to be satisfied with their jobs. It can be argued that it does not mean that the employee is motivated to learn or work. From Herzberg’s theory, it encourages the organisation to enlarge and enrich work responsibilities and pay more attention to goal-setting, appraisal, reward and recognition system.
McClelland’s Three-need theory
McClelland’s theory of needs that focuses on three needs: achievement, power and affiliation. Need of achievement means people are striving personal achievement rather than the rewards. People are highly motivated by challenge and competitive work situation (Stoner, et al. 1995). Need of power is the desire to have impact or influence or control others. Need of affiliation is the desire of friendship; prefer to keep good relationship instead of competitive environment (Robbins and Coulter 1998). In McClelland theory, it contends that people with a high need for achievement make good managers. For instance, people with high need for achievement will eager to obtain feedback on their performance, willing to solve problem and exhibit moderate levels of risk taking (Wood 1992). In view of Herzberg and McClelland’s motivation theories, it shown that both theories are not defined ‘money’ as motivator. It means financial rewards are not the key motivation factor. On the other hand, Taylor (1991 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753) disagreed that the need of affiliation is more important than monetary rewards. In earlier literatures, Graham and Kwok (1987 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753) was conducted a research in Hong Kong, it found that the primary motivator in Hong Kong is the financial reward while Weaver (1988 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753) stated that monetary compensation is the key motivator for Hong Kong’s hotel staffs. Findings argued the extent on how far can financial rewards like money can motivate hotel staff to learn. McClelland three-need theory (Wong, et al. 1999 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753) is more focused on different kind of non-monetary human needs. Mayo (1945 cited in Brown, et al. 2003, pp. 753) commented that these three needs are more important than monetary compensation in motivating employees. It is worthwhile to look into the McClelland three needs theory in order to examine the importance of the non-monetary reward system.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The staff’s expectancy cannot be ignored. This is the idea behind Vroom’s expectancy theory. This theory is focused on the personal perceptions and it can reflect the individual concept instead of only concentrated on the monetary reward. Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation focuses on personal perceptions of the performance process, “the more motivated the worker to perform effectively, the more effective his performance” (Vroom 1970, pp. 229). Expectancy theory argues that 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 (Robbins and Coulter 1998). Expectancy is the belief that effort leads to performance, for example, ‘If I try harder, I can do better.’ It reflected this theory focuses on the following relationships:
Figure 3: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory Model
According to the expectancy theory, employees expect and need to be rewarded according to the work they do, and will help them to develop their capability, help them to work up to a higher level so that they can be better rewarded (Sims 2002, pp. 7). Employees expect organisations to have compensation systems that they perceive as being fair and commensurate with their skills and expectations. The compensation may, in some cases, act as employee motivators. These compensations that employees receive may be value-added compensation including direct compensation, such as salary, incentives and commissions; and indirect compensation, such as insurance benefits, employee recognition programs, flexible work hours, and vacation benefits (Burke and Cooper 2004). Similar to Maslow’s theory of needs hierarchy, the expectancy theory may also be applied in the organisational context. More specifically, it could possess vital implications with regard to corporate reward system as according to Caruth and Handlogten (2001, pp. 43):
· a clear connection between rewards and performance must be determined;
· the connection between rewards and performance must be relayed to the human resources;
· the rewards must be provided based on performance;
· the rewards must fulfil the specific needs of the employees so as to draw out a high level of motivation; and
· barriers in organizations that hinder excellent performance must be eradicated to ensure motivated behaviour.
If the staffs in an organisation believe that it needs to put effort and lead to performance in order to achieve certain rewards and personal goals, reward system could motivate them to learn and work.
In sum, the concept of motivation includes a lot of factors to consider. The continuous empirical explorations of management authors as well as psychology experts on the varying application of motivation and its theories expose the limitless ability of motivation and its practice to affect behaviour among people. Understanding motivation, may it be as generic or case-specified solution to organisational difficulties particularly on employees involves the knowledge of reward and reinforcement, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and self-control. It is argued that motivation is not always applicable to all cases in the organisational setting. The role of the manager including his/her skills to advocate the principles of motivations and use such in advantage is a factor to consider. While it is true that motivation acts as good organisational element when used properly and effectively, the limitations must be identified as people’s diversity is contributory to its effects. The resistance among people based on behaviours and attitudes is always obligatory.
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