Organization Behavior and Management Organization Behavior and Management

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Organization Behavior and Management Motivation Theories Introduction

According to Darwins theory, living creatures will naturally seek to preserve their lives and this is a testament of the inherent need for survival. Both man and animals have developed mechanisms that help them to protect and preserve their lives (Ospovat, 1995). Every day we are faced with the need for survival and this act as a major driving force in our lives. This need to survive makes both man and animals to devise methods and tools to assist in the quest of survival (Craig, 2009). Motivation has been identified in many studies as one of the important things in the quest for survival. Motivation is intrinsically or extrinsically a moving force, which man and animals use as they strive to fight against elements that can be detrimental to their living (Laurie, 1977). In the business sphere, motivation is seen as an important ingredient in the business survival and continuation (Vidaver-Cohen, 2001). Researchers have carried a lot of research on motivation and its impact in businesses. Renowned philosophers such as Maslow, McClelland, Bandura and Herzberg have put forward management and motivation theories relating to use of motivation by management in improving performance as well as survival of the businesses (Adetule, 2011). According to Rollinson & Broadfield (2005), It is commonplace to hear managers refer to motivation as if it is some sort of medicine that can be dispensed in variable quantities to those who need it most. This is impossibility. This paper will critically evaluate this statement using the knowledge of motivational theories and finally offer a conclusion summarizing the evaluation. Discussion Motivation

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Motivation will relate to a wide range of psychological processes, which will guide individuals towards a goal and keep them pursuing the goal. Motivation often is described in terms of direction (the choice of one activity over another), intensity (how hard an employee tries) and persistence (how long an employee continues with a behavior, even in the face of obstacles or adverse circumstances). Workers become more productive and engage more in the organizational culture if they are motivated. Everyone is capable of being motivated and according to Syed Noman Mustafa, Everybody has a motivational fuse i.e. everybody can be motivated. It is just a matter of knowing how to ignite it (Mustafa, 2010). There are two types of motivations namely intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation will come from within. It will come from personal enjoyment and achievements in education that one will achieve from doing a particular thing. Extrinsic motivation will come from factors that are outside of the self. For example, motivation to work hard so as to get a promotion is an extrinsic motivation. Other examples of this type of motivation will include money and material achievements. Syed Noman Mustafa continues to state that there are 10 laws of motivation, which he summarizes as An individual has to be motivated in order to motivate others: A person cannot expect to motivate others if he/she is not individually motivated (Fein, and Klein, 2005) Motivation requires a goal: Without a specific goal in mind, it is impossible for a group or team to be motivated. Motivation, Once Established, Never Lasts: Motivation should be an ongoing process. It cannot be a once a year booster.

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Motivation Requires Recognition: People will strive harder for recognition than for almost any other single thing in life.

Participation Motivates: It is vital to get people involved and to seek their opinions. Seeing Progression Motivates: When individuals progress as a group, moving forward and achieving, they will always be more motivated.

Challenge Only Motivates if there is a Potential to Win: If targets for results are set to high, they may actually have a de-motivating effect. If the consensus of the group or team is that the targets are out of reach or impossible to achieve, demotivation will be the result.

Everybody Has a Motivational Fuse: Everyone can be motivated. Everyone has a fuse; it is just a matter of knowing how to ignite it.

Group Belonging Motivates: People want to have a sense of belonging. The smaller the group or team, the greater the loyalty, motivation and effort. Extra-curricular activities can be used to draw people together (Mustafa, 2010).

Importance of motivation The benefits of motivating employees an organization can be summarized as follows; It helps to put the human resource into action- through motivation human resource can be fully utilized in an organization. This can be done by making workers more willing to be productive (Broeck et al, 2011). It helps to improve the level of efficiency among workers- a workers efficiency has been proven not to be dependent upon only qualification and abilities , but also on motivation levels. When workers are motivated they tend to be more productive, reducing the cost of operation and ultimately make them more effective (Segelken, 2008). Motivation helps in achievement of organizational goals- when workers are motivated they integrate well within the

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organization and are ready to implement and implement the organizational goals. Motivation helps to create a working environment that is conducive. Motivation will help in creating a stable workforce- research has shown that in organizations where workers are motivated there is a lower turnover in workers leaving the organization. One of the reasons cited by many workers as a reason for abandoning an organization and seeking another one is lack of motivation. Theories of Motivation As noted above there are various theories that have been put forward that tries to investigate what will motivate workers. Below are some of the theories and one thing notable is that they draw different conclusions about what will motivate employees. Taylor (Theory of Scientific Motivation) Frederick Winslow Taylor proposed that workers are motivated mostly by the pay in his theory of scientific management. He argue that workers are by nature apprehensive about working and require close supervision and control. It is therefore, the work of the manager to organize work in a way that it is delegated to workers in small portions. Furthermore, workers should be equipped with the right training and tools so that they can be effective and efficient while doing the assigned task. According to Taylor, the workers pay should be based on the number of items they produce and this he says will motivate workers to be more productive and hence improve their productivity. The theory was largely adopted in the business fraternity as many viewed it as a way to improve productivity and reduce the costs of production. Henry Ford in his company Ford was the most notable businessman to adopt the theory in his production line. This marked the start of the mass production era.

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The theory has close relationship with another concept proposed by Macgregor (Theory X), which states that workers are lazy and will do everything to avoid responsibility. It also shares some concepts with another proposition (autocratic management style) that states that managers take up all the decisions in the company and they simply bark orders to their juniors. With time workers started to rebel against the initiative because the tasks they were given were repetitive and were being treated like machines (Linda, 2012). At the time firms could afford to fire workers because productivity per workers increased. The negative side of this approach was that strikes among workers increased as well as other industrial actions. Elton Mayo According to Mayo, money as a motivator was insufficient and workers could be motivated more if their social needs were met while they worked. Mayo introduced the Human Relation School of thought that focused on interest of workers being more addressed by managers. He proposed that managers ought to treat their workers responsibly and realizing that workers enjoy relating with each other (a point that was disregarded by Taylor). Elton carried out experiments at the Hawthorne factory that was run by Western Electric in the city of Chicago. He studied two groups of women workers and focused on how their productivity levels were affected when factors were changed such as working conditions and lightning (Zaleznik, and Trahair, 2006). His hypothesis was that productivity was going to decrease as level of lightning was reduced and other conditions. After the study, he actually learnt that change any in working condition or lighting either increased workers productivity or the productivity remained the same. From his study, he however, concluded that the best way to motivate workers was through; better communication- if communication between management and workers was good then productivity improved. Greater involvement by managers- when managers became involved in

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the working lives of the worker, productivity increased. Working in groups and or in teams- from the study, Hawthorne previously did not engage teams in production; it was found that when teams were introduced, productivity rose. Mayos theory closely relates with paternalistic style of management. David Mcclelland (motivational needs theory) McClelland is noted for his motivational needs theory which he identified in his 1961 book The achieving Society. He identified three types of motivation needs which are; achievement motivation or the n-ach- this seeks achievement, challenging goals but attainable and job advancement. In this motivation there is need for feedback and a sense of accomplishment. Authority or power motivation also known as n-pow- this motivation leads to a need to be influential, and effective. In this motivation there is a high need to lead and to have their ideas prevail over the rest. Affiliation motivation or the n-affil- this type of motivation leads the person to want friendly relationships and the person is motivated to interact with the others. In this motivation the person becomes a major team player (McClelland, 1987). McClelland claimed that through his experiment it was apparent that while many people will possess a strong achievement-based motivation, the people that do will display a consistent behaviour which they use while setting the goals. Maslow Abraham Maslow worked closely with Frederick Herzberg to create the Neo-Human Relations School. This was in the 1950s and their proposition focused mainly on the psychological needs of workers. Maslow theory proposed that there exist five levels of human needs that workers require to be fulfilled as they work.

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Source: (Bassett, 2004). He stated that if a level lower than the preceding one is fully met then the worker will be motivated by hoping and seeing that the next need up in the hierarchy is satisfied. An example is a person who is severely affected by lack of food. This person will be motivated to get a basic job (wage) so that he can stop worrying about food, before he starts to worry about getting a secure job or earning the respect of others (Bassett, 2004). It is therefore, important that businesses offer different incentives to employees to help them satisfy each need. This should be done in turns and up the hierarchy. According to this law, managers should recognize that workers have different things that motivate them and that they should not move up the hierarchy in the same pace. The set of incentives should be different from each worker to the next (Kaur, 2009) Herzberg (two-factor theory of motivation) Frederick Herzberg worked closely with Maslow and he proposed the two-factor theory of motivation. His argument was that there are certain factors that businesses can introduce that can directly motivate employees to be more hard working (motivators) (Beck, 2004). He also argued that there are those factors that will de-motivate workers if they are not present, but if

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introduced by themselves they would not motivate workers to work hard. These factors he termed them as Hygienefactors (Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman, 2005). To him, motivators will be more concerned with the actual work. An example is that if work is interesting and there is a high chance for a raise or promotion, a worker will be more motivated. Hygiene factors will be those factors that surround the job and may not be related to the work. An example is that a worker will only work if the company offers a reasonable level of payment and that there is a safe working condition (CLARKE and GOLNAZ, 2011). These factors will not necessarily make the workers to work harder, but regardless they are important. One important view of Herzberg about hygiene factors is that he appreciates them more than Taylor. Herzberg believed that to motivate employees, businesses should adopt a democratic approach in management. They should also improve the nature and the way that work is done. Some of the things that he identified managers could adopt were; job enlargement- managers should a variety of tasks that employees can perform to make the work more interesting. Job enrichment- the work assigned to workers should be more complex, interesting and should offer a certain level of challenge because this way workers can attain a greater sense of achievement once they complete a task. Empowerment- managers should delegate more power to the employees. Employees should be able to make their own decisions regarding areas affecting their work life (Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman, 2005). Bandura (expectancy theory) According to his theory, Bandura proposes that a person decides to act or behave in a certain way because they are motivated by what that behaviour will result to. Therefore, the outcome of the behaviour will determine the behaviour chosen. Expectancy theory focuses on the

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mental process of choosing behaviours. The theory tries to explain the process through which a person goes to make choices (MAYO, 1952) . The theory draws largely from a previous theory proposed by Victor Vroom. "This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the recipients" (Montana, 2008). Conclusion Motivation is important in any organization if it is to survive and prosper. When there is lack of motivation, productivity levels will fall and this will affect the bottom line of the company (Colbert and Bloom, 2011). The postulation by managers that motivation is a drug that can be administered in dosages to the workers who need is wrong. I agree with Rollinson & Broadfield sentiments that this is an impossibility, because as seen in all the theories above motivation should be an ongoing process. It cannot used as a booster that is dispensed once in a while to get the desired results. Motivation is important in ensuring survival, and as Darwin said an individual is naturally moved to struggle in order to survive, if not he will lose the value of his life. If motivation is administered in dosages, then the goal of motivation, which is to maintain and increase productivity of workers will be lost. Workers will feel unappreciated and disgruntle will be prevalent among workers. As seen in the example of Taylors theory, when workers are disgruntled strikes will be on the increase and productivity will be low.

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Adetule, P. J. (2011) The Handbook on Management Theories, Bloomington: Author House. Bassett, M. (2004) The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. Beck, R. C. (2004) Motivation: theories and principles, Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. Broeck, V. et al (2011) Understanding Workaholics' Motivations: A Self-Determination Perspective. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 60(4), 600-621. CLARKE, R. and GOLNAZ, S. (2011) Meeting EMPLOYEEE requirements: Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff, Industrial Engineer, 43(10), 44-48. Colbert, A. E. and Bloom, M. (2011) An Integration and Extension of Intrinsic Motivation Theories: The Role of Core Affect, Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 30. Craig, P. C. (2009) Concerning the Application of Human Motivation Theories in Organizational Settings. Academy of Management Review, 55(3), 384-397. Fein, E. C. and Klein, H. J. (2005) Goal Propensity: Understanding and Predicting Individual Differences in Motivation. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 1(2), 114-258. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B and Snyderman, B. B. (2005) The motivation to work, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Kaur, M. P. (2009) Organizational Culture and Organizational Climate as a Determinant of Motivation, Journal of Management Research, 8(10), 38-51. Laurie, B. A. (1977) The Uses of the Intrinsic-Extrinsic Distinction in Explaining Motivation and Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Review, 2(2), 267-276.

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Linda, D. (2012) The role of perceived organizational support, distributive justice and motivation in reactions to new information technology, Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 729738. MAYO, E. (1952) Untitled, INDUSTRIAL management, 59(15), 98. McClelland, D. C. (1987) Human motivation, Massachusetts: CUP Archive. Montana, P. (2008) Management, London: Barron's Educational Series. Mustafa, S. N. (2010), Everybody Has a Motivational Fuse!! [Online] Available from: http://www.12manage.com/myview.asp?KN=1439 [Accessed 8th March 2012]. Ospovat, D. (1995) The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection, 1838-1859.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Segelken, R. (2008) Putting Research into Practice: Cornell Tries the "Bandura Model" Human Ecology, 36(1), 9-10. Vidaver-Cohen, D. (2001) Motivational appeal in normative theories of enterprise. Research in Ethical Issues in Organization, 3. Zaleznik, A. And Trahair, R. C. (2006) Elton Mayo: the humanist temper, London: Transaction Publishers.