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Maslow's hierarchy of needs..

Motivation theories

 

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.

Motivational theories are split into two groups as process and content theories. Content theories endeavor to name and analyze the factors which motivate people to perform better and more efficiently while process theories concentrate on how different types of personal traits interfere and impact the human behavior. Content theories are highly related with extrinsic rewards, things that are concrete like bonuses and will help improve employees' physiological circumstances whereas process theories are concerned with intrinsic rewards, such as recognition and respect, which will help boost employees confidence in the work place and improve job satisfaction.

A famous content theory would be Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and a famous process theory would be the equity theory.

Theories of motivation provide a theoretical basis for reward management though some of the best known ones have emerged from the psychology discipline. Perhaps the first and best known of these comes from the work of Abraham Maslow.Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs describes a pyramid comprising a series of layers from at the base the most fundamental physiological needs such as food, water, shelter and sex, rising to the apex where self-actualisation needs included morality and creativity. Maslow saw these levels of needs being fulfilled one at a time in sequence from bottom to top. Employment and the resources it brings are classed under ‘safety needs’ (level 2) while the workplace may also contribute to a sense of ‘belonging’ (level 3) and recognition at work can satisfy the need for ‘self-esteem’ (level 4).

Frederick Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory, first published in 1959, argues that an employee's job satisfaction or dissatisfaction is influenced by two distinct sets of factors and also that satisfaction and dissatisfaction were not at opposite ends of the same continuum but instead needed to be measured separately. The two sets of factors are motivator factors and hygiene factors. According to Herzberg, real motivation comes from the work itself, from completing tasks, while the role of reward is to prevent dissatisfaction arising.

Expectancy theory is the theory which posits that we select our behaviour based on the desirability of expected outcomes of the action. It was most prominently used in a work context by Victor Vroom who sought to establish the relationship between performance, motivation and ability and expressed it as a multiplicative one – where performance equals motivation x ability. There are a lot of attractions for this kind of approach, particularly for employers who can target their motivation effort and anticipate a definable mathematical return for them. As this is a cognitive process theory it relies on the way employees perceive rewards These three theories plus variants of them have been used in countless research studies and continue to inform the practice of reward management up to the present day.

 

References

 

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-96.

Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row.

Maslow, A. H. (1962). Toward a psychology of being. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company.

Maslow, A. H. (1970a). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Maslow, A. H. (1970b). Religions, values, and peak experiences. New York: Penguin. (Original work published 1966)

 

 

Comments

  1. Anushka JayasekaraJanuary 18, 2021 at 1:43 AM

    So, according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs without completing bottom line need, employees will not go for rest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Roshan WijendraJanuary 18, 2021 at 6:40 AM

    Good knowledge was gained from this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clifford Bulner 20039089January 27, 2021 at 9:13 PM

    Very useful information

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ganga PathirajaJanuary 30, 2021 at 8:06 PM

    If the management is seeking to motivate employees, initially eliminate from the things that are burdensome for them about the organization and get confirmed that the employees are handling fairly and with respect.

    ReplyDelete

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