MOTIVATION I

Definition: The word Motivation derives from the Latin word “Movere”. The Latin
word “Movere” means “To move”, “To drive” or “To drive forward” etc.
Motivation can be defined as stimulating, inspiring and inducing the employees to
perform to their best capacity. Motivation is a psychological term, which means it
cannot be forced on employees. It comes automatically from inside the employees,
as it is the willingness to do the work.

The process of motivation

1. Unsatisfied need. Motivation process begins when there is an unsatisfied

need in a human being.
2. Tension. The presence of unsatisfied need gives him tension.
3. Drive. This tension creates an urge of drive in the human being and he starts
looking for various alternatives to satisfy the drive.
4. Search Behavior. After searching for alternatives, the human being starts
behaving according to chosen option.
5. Satisfied need. After behaving in a particular manner for a long time then he
evaluates that whether the need is satisfied or not.
6. Reduction of tension. After fulfilling the need, the human being gets
satisfied and his tension is reduced.

The importance of motivation

1. Motivation helps to change from negative attitude to positive attitude.
Without motivation, the employees try to perform minimum activities in the
organization. However, the motivation fills in the desire to perform to their
maximum level. All the resources of the organization are of no use unless
and until the employees use these resources. The motivated employees make
best use of the resources.
 2. Motivation improves performance level of employees. The motivation
improves the efficiency level of employees, which means the employees
start performing the job to the best of their ability with minimum wastage of
time and resources because motivated employees always go for best
utilization of resources. The motivation bridges the gap between the ability
to work and willingness always improves efficiency.
3. Help in achieving the organizational goals. The motivated employees always
try to achieve the organizational goal and contribute their best efforts for the
realization of organizational goal, as they know with the achievement of
organizational goal only they can achieve their personal goal. All the
employees contribute their efforts in one direction of accomplishment of
goal.
4. Motivation creates supportive work environment. In motivation, the
relations between superior and subordinates are always improved. When the
employees get their need satisfied or get the recognition and respect in the
organization then they always offer a supportive hand to superiors. There is
more co-operation and co-ordination in the organization and all the
employees work with the team spirit.
5. Motivation helps the managers to introduce changes. The motivated
employees show less resistance in accepting the changes according
to changes in the business environment because they know if the changes are
not implements in the organization, not only the organization will lose by
this but the employees also will find it difficult to get their needs fulfilled.
Motivated employees are always supportive and co-operative in accepting
changes in the organization.
6. Reduction in Employee Turnover. The motivation creates confidence in the
employees to get their need satisfied in the organization itself. They always
select the alternative to remain in the organization and increase their earning
rather than leaving the organization and increasing their earnings. With
motivation, employee turnovers are less because the satisfied employees
never leave the job.

Advantages of Motivation
Advantages to Management or Organization:
 Increase in the efficiency and productivity of employees. Motivation ensures
a high level performance of employees.
  Better co-operation from employees and cordial labor-management
relations.
 Reduction in the rate of labor absenteeism and turnover.
 Reduction in the wastage’s and industrial accidents.
 Improvement in the morale of employees.
 Quick achievement of business/corporate objectives and favorable corporate
image.
Advantages to Employees or Workers:
 Employees get various monetary and non-monetary facilities/benefits which
provide better life and welfare to them.
 Security of employment and other benefits due to cordial relations with the
management.
 Job attraction and job satisfaction.
 Higher status and opportunities of participation in management.
 Positive approach and outlook of employees towards company, management
and superiors.
 Reduction in the rate of labor turnover, which is harmful to employees and
management.
 Better scope for improvement in knowledge and skills of employees.

THE THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943):

In 1943, Abraham Maslow’s article, “A Theory of Human Motivation” appeared in
the Psychological Review. Abraham H. Maslow attempted to formulate a needs-
based framework of human motivation and based upon his clinical experiences
with people.
The basis of Maslow’s motivation theory is that human are motivated by
unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower factors need to be satisfied before higher
needs can be satisfied. According to Maslow, there are general types of needs
(physiological, survival, safety, love, and esteem) that must be satisfied before a
person can act unselfishly. He called these needs “deficiency needs.” As long as
we are motivated to satisfy these cravings, we are moving towards growth, toward
self-actualization. Satisfying needs is healthy, while preventing gratification makes
us sick or act evilly.
Maslow’s need hierarchy model of motivation indicates that fundamental, lower-
order needs like safety and physiological requirements have to be satisfied in order
to pursue higher-level motivators along the lines of self-fulfillment. As depicted
in the following hierarchical diagram, sometime called ‘Maslow’s Needs Pyramid’
or ‘Maslow’s Needs Triangle’, after a need is satisfied it stops acting as a
motivator and the next need one rank higher starts to motivate. The need hierarchy
is as follows:

1. Basic physiological needs: the physiological needs relate to the survival and
maintenance of human life. These needs include such things as food,
clothing, air, water and other necessaries of life, which are biological in
nature. These needs are primary needs.
2. Safety and security needs: after satisfying the physiological needs, people
want the assurance of maintaining a given economic level. They want job
security, personal bodily security, security of source of income, provision for
old age, insurance against risks, etc.
3. Social needs: man is a social being. He is, therefore, interested in
conversation, sociability, exchange of feelings and grievances,
companionship, recognition, belongingness, etc.
4. Esteem and status needs: these needs embrace such things as self-
confidence, independence, achievement, competence, knowledge and
success. These needs boost the ego of individual. They are also known as
egoistic needs. They are concerned with prestige and status of the individual.
5. Self-fulfillment needs: the final step under the need priority model is the
need for self-fulfillment or the need to fulfill what a person considers being
his mission in life. It involves realizing one’s potentialities for continued
 self-development and for being creative in the broadest senses of the word.
After his other needs are fulfilled, a man has the desire for personal
achievement. He wants to do something, which is challenging and since this
challenge gives him enough dash and initiative to work, it is beneficial to
him in particular and to the society in general. The sense of achievement
gives him psychological satisfaction.
Maslow proposed that all human needs are kept as per rank of importance and
human behavior is to fulfill its needs as per importance rank and so he continuous
in a proper sequence but after fulfillment of a need another need arise. Moreover
satisfied need will no longer be a motivator and needs and wants are infinity.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor who set forth in his book “Human Side of Enterprise” 2 pairs
of assumptions about human beings, which he thought were implied by the actions
of autocratic and permissive managers. The first set of assumptions is contained in
“Theory X” and the second set of assumptions in “Theory Y”. It is important to
note that these sets of assumptions were not based on any research, but is intuitive
deductions.
Theory X:
According to McGregor, this is a traditional theory of what workers are like and
what management must do to motivate them. Workers have to be persuaded and
pushed into performance. This is management’s task. Management can offer
rewards to a worker who shows higher productivity and can punish him if his
performance is below standard. This is also called ‘carrot and stick’ approach to
motivation. It suggests that threats of punishment and strict control are the ways to
control the people. McGregor questioned the assumptions of Theory X, which
followed carrot and stick approach to motivation of people and
suggested autocratic style of leadership. He felt that management by direction and
control is a questionable method for motivating such people who’s physiological
and safety needs have been satisfied and whose social esteem and self-actualization
needs are becoming important. For such people, Theory Y seems to be applicable.

Theory Y:
Theory Y assumes that goals of the organization and those of the individuals are
not necessarily in congruent. The basic problem in most of the organizations is that
of securing commitment of workers to organizational goals. Worker’s commitment
is directly related to the satisfaction of their needs. Thus, this theory places great
emphasis on satisfaction of the needs, particularly the higher once, of the
employees. It does not rely heavily on the use of authority as an instrument of
command and control. It assumes that employees exercise self-direction and self-
control in the direction of the goals to which they feel themselves committed. They
could be motivated by delegation of authority, job enlargement, and management
by objectives and participative management practices.

Analysis of Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X as previously stated is where a manager thinks that all employees are
lazy, dislike work and will try to avoid doing work. With that being said, theory X
managers will try to counter the laziness of the employees. They would ensure that
employees work hard by closely monitoring their performance. In this type of
situation, theory X managers would create a work environment with strict rules;
implement a well-defined system of performance appraisal to control employees.
For example, Henry Ford, according to McGregor was a manager who has adopted
theory X as Henry Ford closely monitored his employees. In opposition of Theory
X, theory Y goes against everything theory X says. Theory Y’s assumptions are
that managers should shape the company’s work culture into a way where
opportunities for subordinates to exercise initiative and self-direction would be
facilitated to.
McGregor felt that traditional leadership was leaning more toward theory X that is
hierarchical and very controlling where employees were very dependent on their
managers as there are controlled very tightly. He continued on saying that this
mode of managing could lead to a waste of human talent and potential. An
example of this could lead down to something as simple as the saying, two heads
are better than one. Clearly, theory X function almost like a dictatorship, which
does not take into, account the ideas and creativity of employees. In a situation like
this theory Y would benefit a company much more. Unless the company is a large
corporation such as Coca cola, where the company is divided into many divisions
such as production, marketing and human resources. For example in the production
division, employees, which are involved in manufacturing of the bottle, would be
only be expected to carry out their purpose of making the bottles, which is a
repetitive process. Theory X here would be more beneficial as there is no need for
innovation or creativity. Whereas, in the marketing division, innovation and
creativity are essential for success.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y gives managers a new understanding of how
different leadership methods has an effect on the productivity of employees.
Theory X and Theory Y are not opposites and neither is one completely better than
the other one. The theories are just a guideline on how which way (theory X or
theory Y) would better suit the company and produce a better work environment as
well as increasing productivity.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation

Frederick Herzberg theorized that employee satisfaction has two dimensions:

“hygiene” and motivation. Hygiene issues, such as salary and supervision, decrease
employees' dissatisfaction with the work environment. Motivators, such as
recognition and achievement, make workers more productive, creative and
committed
1. Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential
for existence of motivation at workplace. These do not lead to positive
satisfaction for long-term. But if these factors are absent/if these factors are
non-existant at workplace, then they lead to dissatisfaction.
In other words, hygiene factors are those factors, which when adequate/reasonable
in a job, pacify the employees and makes them ssatisfied. These factors are
extrinsic to work.
Hygiene factors are also called as dissatisfies or maintenance factors as they are
required to avoid dissatisfaction. These factors describe the job
environment/scenario. The hygiene factors symbolized the physiological needs,
which the individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled. Hygiene factors include:
 Pay: The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and
reasonable. It must be equal and competitive to those in the same
industry in the same domain.
 Company Policies and administrative policies: The company
policies should not be too rigid. They should be fair and clear. It
 should include flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation,
etc.
 Fringe benefits: The employees should be offered health care plans,
medical benefits for the family members, employee help programs,
etc.
 Physical Working conditions: The working conditions should be
safe, clean and hygienic. The work equipment should be updated and
well-maintained.
 Status: The employees’ status within the organization should be
familiar and retained.
 Interpersonal relations: The relationship of the employees with his
peers, superiors and subordinates should be appropriate and
acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation element
present.
 Job Security: The organization must provide job security to the
employees.
2. Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be
regarded as motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction.
These factors are inherent to work. These factors motivate the employees for
a superior performance.
These factors are satisfiers. These are factors involved in performing the job.
Employees find these factors intrinsically rewarding. The motivators symbolized
the psychological needs are perceived as an additional benefit. Motivational factors
include:
 Recognition: The employees should be praised and recognized for
their accomplishments by the managers.
 Sense of achievement: The employees must have a sense of
achievement. This depends on the job. There must be a fruit of some
sort in the job.
 Growth and promotional opportunities: There must be growth and
advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the
employees to perform well.
 Responsibility: The employees must hold themselves responsible for
the work. The managers should give them ownership of the work.
They should minimize control but retain accountability.
 Meaningfulness of the work: The work itself should be meaningful,
interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get
motivated.
Limitations of Two-Factor Theory
The two factor theory is not free from limitations:
 1. The two-factor theory overlooks situational variables.
2. Herzberg assumed a correlation between satisfaction and productivity. But
the research conducted by Herzberg stressed upon satisfaction and ignored
productivity.
3. The theory’s reliability is uncertain. Analysis has to be made by the raters.
The raters may spoil the findings by analyzing same response in different
manner.
4. No comprehensive measure of satisfaction was used. An employee may find
his job acceptable despite the fact that he may hate/object part of his job.
5. The two factor theory is not free from bias as it is based on the natural
reaction of employees when they are enquired the sources of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction at work. They will blame dissatisfaction on the external
factors such as salary structure, company policies and peer relationship.
Also, the employees will give credit to themselves for the satisfaction factor
at work.
6. The theory ignores blue-collar workers

Implications of Two-Factor Theory

The Two-Factor theory implies that the managers must stress upon guaranteeing
the adequacy of the hygiene factors to avoid employee dissatisfaction. In addition,
the managers must make sure that the work is stimulating and rewarding so that the
employees are motivated to work and perform harder and better.
This theory emphasize upon job-enrichment to motivate the employees. The
job must utilize the employee’s skills and competencies to the maximum. Focusing
on the motivational factors can improve work-quality.