Content Vs Process Theory of Motivation

Theories of Motivation
Meaning and Definitions

 Motivation can be defined as the human psychological characteristic that adds up to an
individual's level of commitment
 It can also be described as the management process of influencing follower's behavior
 Individuals in an organization ought to be energetic and sufficiently stimulated to ensure
that they maintain their drive and clear focus towards achieving the collective
organization goal
Content Theory of Motivation

 Content theory it is also called need theory
 Developed based on fulfilling individual necessities and requirements to motivate them
 Focus on internal individual factors that sustain, cause or stop a particular behavior
(mainly focus on the needs that lead to people’s motivation)
 The main contributors of the theories of this category are
1 Abraham Maslow’s . . . . . hierarchy of needs theory
2 Frederic Hertzberg’s . . . theory,
3 McGregor’s theory X & theory Y and
4 Aldefer’s ERG Process theory attempts to understand and outline individual
behavioral patterns to fulfill their needs and requirements
Abraham Maslow
 Develop a theories of the hierarchy of needs describe inspiration from the principles of
behavioral and human psychoanalytic psychology
 The theorists and scholars who came later such as Frederick Herzberg, Clayton Alderfer
and David McClelland also agree on the same principle that every person is concerned
with the ability to fulfill his or her needs be it emotional spiritual or intellectual needs
 Leaders studying and understanding the content theories of motivation can learn different
ways in which to effectively motivate the members of their team to get the best out of
each
Theories are base (assumption)
 Individuals are unique and as such have unique sources of motivation
 It is of utmost importance organization, leaders and managers understand each
employee’s sources of motivation to ensure that each of them is motivated and not just a
fraction of the employees
 lack of motivating factors creates tension that can trigger a negative behavioral
performance
 if individuals safe a problem to satisfy their needs, he/she attempt to satisfy on their own
 Providing specific needs is most likely going give rise to the desired behavior
 Identifying the need is critical and so is identifying ways in which to satisfy the
requirements
 Offering rewards is a commonly effective way of meeting the individual need to
optimize performance, however, while offering rewards, it is essential to ensure that
what leaders and manager award the employees is proper because the requirements keep
on changing based on experiences and other factors which necessitate the importance of
designing motivation programs to address ways in which to satisfy the changing needs
Content theories of Motivation offer a more realistic approach to motivation than
process theories of motivation
 For the leader, to effectively motivate employees, understand the factors that drive
people is essential
 There are many advantages attributed to the content theories of motivation
 These advantages include:
1 Universality
 Based on the idea of content theories of motivation, all people are concerned with
satisfying everyday inner needs, for this reason, people can be viewed as similar
in the sense that they are not as different from each other when it comes to their
efforts of satisfying needs
 Therefore, by understanding the content theories of motivation, leaders can better
understand the psychological foundations underlying the behaviors of their
followers
 Taking a look for example in the David McClelland’s approach, we discover that
there are three types of needs (achievement, affiliation, and power) that dominate
every person’s behavior.
 Most individuals experience a balanced combined need for the three needs while
some specific people demonstrate a strong preference for a particular need among
the rest of the essentials
2 Specified
 Content theories of motivation rather than focusing on grouping of individuals
into different personality types
 It is designed to define particular needs of employees of an organization
 Take note of the fact that although each person has everyday essentials that are
the same as those of their colleagues, each person satisfies the needs differently
from their colleagues
E.g. some employees may harbor feelings of hatred or disliking towards their
leaders or colleagues while others may experience significant levels of
relations and satisfaction in their jobs
 The Clayton Alderfer’s ERG theory is very similar to the fight or flight instinct in
that it is based on the principle of frustration regression. Based on that principle,
if the employee of a particular organization is unable to satisfy his or her own
need, he or she may regress in growth within an organization and opt to criticize
the leadership interests. Goal Orientation – as employees strive to satisfy the
goals set by their leaders, employees are also influenced significantly by their
personal goals. Frederick Herzberg's theory argues that when it comes to
achieving goals, each person is motivated by different forces. The motivation
factors that affect the behavior of individual include advancement, achievement,
responsibility, recognition and satisfaction. The theory believes that employees
are more concerned with achieving the state of job satisfaction as opposed to the
state of lack of job satisfaction. The urgency of an individual’s needs relates to
his or her degree of goal orientation (Mullins, L.J. 2010).
Process Theory of Motivation

 Attempts to understand and outline individual behavioral patterns to fulfill their needs
and requirements
 Adam’s equity theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Taylor’s motivation theory and
Bandura’s reinforcement theory are the core theories in process category
 Emphasize on establishing ways in which motivational factors cause, sustain or stop
behaviors
 There exist four dominant theories in the category of process theories, these are:
1 Goal setting theory,
2 Expectancy theory,
3 Equity theory and
4 Reinforcement theory
 The theories imply that the choices that people make are mainly by preferences, sense of
accomplishment and reward factors
 Therefore, leaders and managers ought to understand and accurately follow the process
of motivation to create the desired effect
 In the expectancy model, the primary focus is on the likelihood of a particular outcome
occurring, however, in the equity theory, there is the assumption that employees tend to
compare their rewards and efforts with the awards and efforts of other people working
under same conditions
 In the goal setting theory, the primary focus is on the goals being very specific to drive
performance, and vague goals are not practical when it comes to motivating employees
while the more specific goals have a more motivating effect on the employees
 From the process theories, we derive that equity is a very critical factor when it comes to
the designing of motivational programs and goals are essential in directing behavior
Conclusion
 After discussing the importance of motivation of employees in every organization to
ensure increased productivity, it is clear that every manager and leaders at every level of
the organization need to study and understand motivation factors as well as various
theories of motivation to motivate their followers effectively. It is also critical to note that
motivation does not entirely depend on offering rewards and incentives, non-financial
reward methods could also prove useful towards motivating employees and boosting their
productivity. An organization’s leadership has to develop and align themselves with the
appropriate theories capable of bringing about job satisfaction to the employees while at
the same time ensuring that the organizational goals are met. Another important thing is to
note that there exists no theory that self-reliant when it comes to motivation. There
requires the utilization of a mixture of various approaches to bring about effective balance.
In the attempt to empower an organization’s workforce, employees need a platform to
present their voice to help the leadership understand them and come up with ways to
motivate them. It is also critical that the employees understand the company’s vision and
goals so that they can align themselves with them and perform their duties diligently.
Organizations that are focused on getting results will most likely go a long way to ensure
that the employees remain motivated toward achieving the set goals.
Main Differences of Content and Process Theories of
Motivation
 There are significant difference among content theories of motivation and process
theories of motivation
 The summery of differences are depicted here under
1 Focus of the theories
Content Theory Process Theory
 States that individuals are motivated by  Emphasize that individuals can be
their needs motivated through expectations
 Attempts to satisfy personal needs of  Attempts to understand and fulfill
employees employee expectations
 Focus on job content  Focus on process of motivation
 Consider and treat everyone equally  Acknowledge the differences among
individuals
 Reasons to change the individual needs  Intermediate through expectations
frequently (goals) and perceptions focusing on
psychological process of individuals
2 Factors of motivation
 Motivators like  For example
} physiological needs, } Treat equally,
} job security, } fair opportunities,
} social recognition and } Individual goals,
} acceptance, } performance evaluation,
} achievement etc } feedbacks etc
3 Theories Advocators
 Hierarchy of Needs theory  Reinforcement theory
 Hertzberg’s theory  Expectancy theory
 McGregor Theory X and theory Y  Equity theory
 ERG Matrix  Goal setting theory

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Theories of Motivation

Meaning and Definitions

Content Theory of Motivation

Process Theory of Motivation

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