Motivation in the Workplace - Essay Example

The university consists mainly of five faculties’ namely engineering, science, humanities, built environment and business school. Deans are at the centres of each of these faculties. The department focused in the case is the engineering department which is composed mainly of the faculties with prior experience in the academics career. Most of the faculties have been in the university for around eight years. Another notable peculiarity of the department is that all the lecturers are males. The department has made notable efforts in creating an industry collaboration and several technology developed by the university has been patented.

The protagonist of the case is Anne Henderson who is a notable professional in her industry. Changes in motivational factors are explained with the help of the story of her industrial behaviour and the changes in her career interest. Expansion plans of the university have resulted in them advertising for the post of senior lecturer. The preferred candidate for the post is an expert in the field with good experience in research work, good business contacts and having a willingness to travel. The case ends by referring to the state of mind of Anne Henderson where she comes across the vacancy at Midshires University and makes a call to the university without even looking at the instructions.

Anne’s Motivating Factors This case study can be explained in terms of the content and process theories of motivation. For the purpose of the case study, two content and process theories will be considered. “Content theories explain the specific factors that motivate people. They explain what drives human behavior.” (Ferguson, 2000) Content theories specifically deal with needs and goals of individuals. Therefore, it deals with those factors that motivate individuals. The popular content theories are McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, ERG Theory, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and McClelland’s Theory of Needs.

From the content perspective, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and McClelland’s Need theory will be used to explain Anne’s motivating factors. “Process Theories deal with the “process” of motivation and is concerned with “how” motivation occurs.” (Ozgurzan, 2012) This is unlike the materialistic approach of content theory. Process theories state that any particular motivational behaviour of an individual is the result of an activity on the individual. Some of the popular process theories are Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, Goal Theory and Adam’s Equity Theory.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory and Adam’s Equity Theory will be used here to explain Anne’s motivational situation. Herzberg’s theory of motivation states that an individual’s motivation level is influenced mainly by Hygiene Factors and Motivator Factors. Hygiene factors are those factors that are necessary for having a stable motivational level. The absence of these factors can lead to dissatisfaction of employees. But on the contrary their presence is not a motivator for the employees.

Some of the hygiene factors are company policy, wages, supervisory quality, working conditions, job security, etc. Now, Anne’s motivation level can be analysed based on this theory. From the case study it can be seen that Anne was provided with an array of hygiene factors by the company. ?80,000 of annual salary, chauffeur-driven car, flat, pension scheme, credit cards and first class air travels were