Major Motivational Theories - Research Paper Example

Your Motivational Theories Motivation is the driving force in which people go for their goals. This is usually used in justifying human behavior, as it is considered as one of the major reasons with regards to how people act. It is considered to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The whole concept of motivation is to maximize pleasure, whatever pleasure means to that person. Sometimes, pleasure can be learning or even just a promise of food. It should not be confused with emotion, although they are related to each other in a sense that motivation is used to elevate emotion.Understanding motivations is crucial in a management setting. This is because one needs highly motivated employees to get the work done. Well motivated employees are those who are keen to do excellent jobs because they feel that they have to. Their goal is to do their job, and that’s what managers need. Intrinsic motivation is the type of motivation that is driven by interest. The interest of the person itself is the drive to make the work his goal. The people who are intrinsically motivated jump on the task to improve their skills. The other type of motivation is the extrinsic kind. The interest of the person to complete the goal if he is extrinsically motivated is usually the things he might get after the goal is achieved, like rewards or punishment. For example, grades and winning are extrinsic motivational factors while studying something because one is indeed interested in that particular area is intrinsic There are many motivation theories that are practiced to have motivated employees. Three of them are discussed in this paper. These theories are: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, and McGregor’s X/Y theory. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is perhaps the most popular and the most basic motivational theory. It was first discussed in Maslow’s 1943 study called A Theory of Human Motivation. It discusses the levels of human needs and how it is important in understanding these needs in order to manipulate the conditions of one’s employees for them to be good employees. It is often represented by a pyramid, with the needs starting from the bottom and ending at the tip with self actualization. The primary needs of a person are at the bottom of the pyramid, and that’s the physiological need. Then it progresses to safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. According to the hierarchy, one cannot achieve self-actualization if he did not fulfill the previous rung of the pyramid. This means that one should fulfill the physiological need, then the safety need, then the love need and then the esteem need in order to achieve self-actualization. Criticism of the theory is largely based on the postulate that the ranking of the “needs” aren’t really that accurate. Critics argue that food, shelter and other “physiological” needs are naturally instinctual and should not be included in the pyramid theory. They also say that the needs of a person referred to in this pyramid are largely for the American man. However, this information on motivation is quite important to managers as they would know what their people need, especially in an intercultural atmosphere. Since values and traditions differ, their needs as humans would definitely put a common thread on them, making them easier to motivate based on those commonalities. And even if the criticisms say something common on them, they are not as powerful. The second theory is the Herzberg’s two factor theory. According to this theory, there are two kinds of motivations: the one that causes satisfaction and the one the causes dissatisfaction. It is also called-hygiene motivation. It is also called content theory motivation. He interviewed 200 accountants and engineers for this who were then asked to recall when they felt good or bad at their offices. From this, he concluded that the motivation of the employees lies on the hygiene factors and motivation factors. Hygiene factors are those things which are needed by employers so that their employees would not be dissatisfied at work. Examples of hygiene factors are wages and salaries, company policies, physical working conditions and job security. Motivation factors are those which are needed by the employee for his own personal growth. Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, both of them are looking at the fact that both of them are looking for motivations so that their employees can be happy. Like Maslow’s theory, the major criticism for this theory is that it is not individualistic. It seems to assume that all people can be happy by giving out huge salaries but the results of his study about satisfaction and dissatisfaction were valid as they were published in 1959. The last theory is McGregor’s Theory X and Y. It has been developed in the 1960s in MIT. Obviously, there are two theories at work here. Theory X states that the lazy employees naturally dislike work, dislike responsibility and love security. With these kinds of employees, the management would have to make a comprehensive system that will have to monitor the employees quite closely. The other theory is Theory Y. This is the opposite of Theory X. The people who fit this Theory are those who are ambitious, self-controlling, responsible, consider work as play. The management, if faced with this kind of people, should create a working environment that would challenge these people, as well as nurture a creative environment. These theories, when combined, make a continuum. This means that they do not necessarily pinpoint that employees belong to the Theory X category or the Theory Y category. Rather, all people fall in between these two theories, and the management should make a system that would engage those personalities at play, with regards to the theories. This theory can work hand in hand with Maslow’s theory. If, according to McGregor, the person is at the Theory Y part of the continuum, he can infer that he is on the top (near self-actualization) part of the Maslow pyramid. He knows that the need of his employee is for esteem already, thus, he may know how to motivate him. Between the three theories, I will choose the last theory, McGregor’s X and Y theory as the one that will be best for implementation because it is more forgiving and more subtle. It is also more realistic. For it to be implemented, the manager should give out surveys or personality tests to determine which employees lean towards being a Theory x or a Theory Y person. The when the manager has finally gotten the survey results and can conclude whether his employees are a majority of Xers or Yers, he can make a management plan that is tailored for them. If the employees are more of Y employees, then the manager can make a management plan that would cater to their personalities, like, make the workplace creative, less rules (as the employees are more conscious and self-controlling), and more spontaneous. The same is true if the employees are more on the X kinds. The manager should make a managerial plan that is more constructive and more hands-on as these types are less conscious about their work. I think this design would work because it would cater to the needs of the whole employment system. References: Drucker, Peter. Management. New York: Harper Business. 2008. Print Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper. 1954. Print. Steinmetz, L.L. Nice Guys Finish Last: Management Myths and Reality. Boulder, Colorado: Horizon Publications Inc. 1983. Print.  Read More