Theories of Motivation

Every time I unlock my phone, a phrase of motivation is what I read. Somehow, it helps me get through a tough day I encounter at school. But there are other forms of motivation; it may be encouragement from my family and friends, or just by remembering why am I at such situation. In management, having a reason for doing things is essential in order to have satisfaction in the end. This is so important that even honorable persons made theories regarding this. And that’s my main idea for this blog.

To start, motivational theories can be divided into two broad groups: content theories, which is associated with internal forces, and process models, which is involves the external stimuli. For the content theories, we have Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Alderfer’s ERG needs theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory, and McClelland’s achievement motivation. Between these four, the one we’re most familiar with is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If you don’t remember what’s it about, well I’m here to discuss. In addition, I’ll discuss the others plus those under the process models, including Vroom’s expectancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory. So, here we go.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it states that the primary need take priority and must be satisfied before the secondary needs can be pursued. The division of the said needs includes the physiological, safety, love or belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. In the primary needs, it contains physical and biological needs that are essential to life, like food, water and warmth. For the secondary needs, these are wants, acquired needs and desires, including safety, love and creativity. As it was stated, the physiological needs to be accomplished first before the secondary need are obtained. As the process goes on, self-actualization is the final destination, wherein we have already reached our full potential of human being. If you want to reach this point, just start from the bottom. In Alderfer’s ERG needs theory, it condenses the 5 divisions of Maslow’s hierarchy needs into three: existence needs (safety, physiological), relatedness needs (love or belongingness, esteem), and growth needs (esteem, self-actualization). Another main difference between the two theories is that unlike Maslow’s, Alderfer’s theory allows a person to be operating at different levels at the same time. For Herzberg’s theory, two groups of factors are dependent on each other. These are the hygiene factors (job security, work conditions) which prevents job dissatisfaction, and motivators (authority, responsibility), which stimulate employees to strive for superior performance. With McClelland’s achievement motivation theory, it states that the strength of a specific motive is directly linked to the opportunities offered by the situation. Dominant factors may be achievement (strong need to set and accomplish all goals), affiliation (likeness to belong to a group), and power (wants to control and intervene others). So, what do you think is your dominant motivator? Well, I think I have already encountered people with the mentioned types.

Now, to simply explain Vroom’s expectancy theory, let’s think first that humans are rational and thinking beings, who act in anticipation of their own efforts. There is a belief that effort brings performance, and performance leads to rewards. A person chooses to make an effort, because he expects that in the end, he will be rewarded. Like in the case of courting, a man decides to court the person he likes, and expects that they will end up being together. For Adam’s equity theory, key concepts are comparison and perception. It tackles fairness, wherein input is equal to output. Just picture two workers with the same boss. The one is being praised more often compared to the other, though the underrated worker thinks that he places the same efforts, but is being unnoticed. He will then get demotivated because he feels that his efforts are not being fairly rewarded. In Skinner’s reinforcement theory, it tackles the law of effect, wherein we act in response to the expected consequences. Stimulus leads to response, leading either to the action to be increased in frequency, or reduced (in the case of punishment).

As I have shared all the theories of motivation by famous social scientists, I think you're very much aware now about the essentials of motivation. Well, in all aspects, we want to be more productive with the help of getting motivated. At a simple level, people do things for a reason, but keep in mind that it is different for each person.