Entrepreneurial motivation and Barriers

Lecture-2

Entrepreneurial motivation
Need theory, created by psychologist David McClelland, is a motivational model that attempts to explain how the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation affect the actions of people from a managerial context. McClelland stated that we all have these three types of motivation regardless of age, sex, race, or culture. The type of motivation that each individual is driven by is changed by life experiences and the opinions of their culture. This need theory is often taught in classes concerning management or organizational behavior.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Need for Achievement People who are achievement-motivated typically prefer to master a task or situation. They prefer working on tasks of moderate difficulty, prefer work in which the results are based on their effort rather than on anything else, and prefer to receive feedback on their work.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Achievement based individuals tend to avoid both high risk and low risk situations. Low risk situations are seen as too easy to be valid and the high risk situations are seen as based more upon the luck of the situation rather than the achievements that individual made.

This personality type is motivated by accomplishment in the workplace and an employment hierarchy with promotional positions.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Need for Affiliation People who have a need for affiliation prefer to spend time creating and maintaining social relationships, enjoy being a part of groups, and have a desire to feel loved and accepted. People in this group tend to adhere to the norms of the culture in that workplace and typically do not change the norms of the workplace for fear of rejection.

Entrepreneurial motivation
This person favours collaboration over competition and does not like situations with high risk or high uncertainty. People who have a need for affiliation work well in areas based on social interactions like customer service or client interaction positions

Entrepreneurial motivation
Need for Power This motivational need stems from a person's desire to influence, teach, or encourage others.

People in this category enjoy work and place a high value on discipline.
The downside to this motivational type is that group goals can become zero-sum in nature, that is, for one person to win, another must lose.

Entrepreneurial motivation
However, this can be positively applied to help accomplish group goals and to help others in the group feel competent about their work. A person motivated by this need enjoys status recognition, winning arguments, competition, and influencing others. With this motivational type comes a need for personal prestige, and a constant need for a better personal status.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Locus of control
Another motivational trait that has received attention is locus of controlthe belief in the extent to which individuals believe that their actions or personal characteristics affect outcomes. Individuals who have an external locus of control believe that the outcome of an extent is out of their control, whereas individuals with an internal locus of control believe that their personal actions directly affect the outcome of an event

Entrepreneurial motivation
Self-efficacy Self-efficacy is the belief in ones ability to muster and implement the necessary personal resources, skills, & competencies to attain a certain level of achievement on a given task In other words, self-efficacy can be seen as task-specific selfconfidence.

Entrepreneurial motivation
An individual with high self-efficacy for a given task will exert more effort for a greater length of time, persist through set backs, set and accept higher goals, and develop better plans and strategies for the task. A person with high self-efficacy will also take negative feedback in a more positive manner and use that feedback to improve their performance.

These attributes of self-efficacy may be important to the entrepreneurial process because these situations are often ambiguous ones in which effort, persistence, and planning are important

Entrepreneurial motivation
Independence Independence entails taking the responsibility to use ones own judgement as opposed to blindly following the assertions of others. It also involves taking responsibility for ones own life rather than living off the efforts of others.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Effect on Management
McClelland said that people usually contain a combination of these three types of motivation and proposed that those in the top management positions should have a high need for power and a low need for affiliation. He stated that people with a high need for achievement will succeed best when given projects with attainable goals.

Entrepreneurial motivation
Although individuals with a need for achievement can make good managers, they are not suited to being in the top management positions. He also believes that people with a high need for affiliation may not be good top managers but will be team players and are best suited for a cooperative work environment.

Why should we have some knowledge about barriers to entrepreneurship?

An understanding of the inhibiting factors or barriers will help prospective entrepreneurs to develop a strategy to overcome them. A systematic study of the barriers will lead to a proper understanding of the fields or areas in which they occur. Once the barriers are clearly identified, the society, government and other supporting agencies can develop effective programmes to tackle the issues to create a conducive entrepreneurial climate.

An insight into the barriers will lead to insight into the entrepreneurs personality that is so essential in the process of entrepreneurship.

Barriers arising out of social environment

A society putting premium on safety and security in matters of securing a livelihood, such a value can become a strong social barrier to entrepreneurship. In some societies, the business is considered as a profession of lower hierarchy. Business people are considered inferior to office-goes, engineers, doctors etc. Such a social response to entrepreneurs can be a big hurdle in developing and nurturing entrepreneurs.

Barriers arising out of social environment

Social factors such as insistence on conformity an excessive protective attitude among children during their formative years discouragement to mobility will all thwart the following essential values of entrepreneurship. creativity innovative spirit sense of adventure.

economic environment as barrier for an entrepreneur?

The capital for setting up the new venture is not accessible for the entrepreneur Non-availability of labour at reasonable cost. If the labour market is unreliable and is fraught with undisciplined and selfishness, it will also become a barrier for entrepreneurship. Shortfall in the availability of raw materials in the desired quality and quantity. Inadequate infrastructure to transport the raw material to the factory. Non-availability of easy access to the market for the finished goods.

Culture as barrier to entrepreneurship

It is evident from the fact that the cultural values in our society are bound by conventionalism status-quo rituals strong cultural taboos etc.

Culture as barrier to entrepreneurship

All these cultural hindrances to entrepreneurship may curb the entrepreneurial spirit. For instance, in the past, some societies in India discouraged people from going abroad believing that crossing the sea was a cultural taboo. Similarly certain field of work were considered unsuitable for people of culture. Such strong cultural dictates can act as barriers to entrepreneurship

Political environment as barrier against development of entrepreneurs

A political environment that is characterised by instability and insecurity will discourage entrepreneurs. Political policies can retard the growth of entrepreneurial ventures in a country. Excessive interference in the form of controls, delays etc. from the government can discourage prospective entrepreneurs.

The personal barriers to entrepreneurship

Motivational Once the venture starts functioning, the obstacles faced in
the initial stages can make the entrepreneurs to lose their commitment and consequently their level of motivation dips. The entrepreneurs who lack toughness and perseverance often quit.

The personal barriers to entrepreneurship

Perceptional
Lack of a clear vision and misunderstanding can result in faulty perception. If the entrepreneur demands everything to be clear and well-defined in order to develop a perception, it will lead to disappointment. As entrepreneurs world is basically disorderly and ambiguous, the people who excessively depend on order will find it a barrier to entrepreneurship.