Motivation

Motivation comes from the Latin word movere, which mean to move.
Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-orientated behavior, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, it’s a way to push the employees to reach a goal or an objective.

There are 4 motivational theories:

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Proposed in 1943 by Abraham Maslow. This theory is very simple to understand, as you see in the image, there are different need that a human needs, but he has to start at the lowest levels that is basic needs, when those needs are fulfilled they move to the next one, and the next, and the next until you reach the level on top.





• McClelland’s need theory

Also referred as the three need theory, David McClelland proposed that a persons needs are shaped by life experiences, and these three needs are:

o Achievement
They prefer to work along or with persons that are high achievers, they seek to excel and tend to avoid low-risk because if the success is easily attained then it’s not an achievement which they are not very proud of, and in high-risk situations the success is look at as a matter of chance than achievement by ones own efforts, they like to get feedback of their result. Money is not an important motivation.

o Affiliation
They perform their best in a cooperative environment; they prefer to work in environment where there is a lot of interaction between workers and acceptance between workers, they are very good in situations where they are negotiating with a client or in customer service

o Power
They are very motivates to manage other people, there are two types:
Personal: They prefer to direct everyone and is often perceive as undesirable
Institutional: They want to organize the efforts in order to make it more productive for the organization; a person with high institutional power is more effective than a person with high personal power.

• Herzberg’s two-factor theory

There are two factors that can motivate or affect a company employee into working better or worse, the two factors are:

1. Motivators are the things that motivate an employee to give a higher performance at work such as recognition, achievement or personal growth.
2. Hygiene Factors are things that ensure that the employee will not get dissatisfied at work such as status, job security, salary and fringe benefits (non-wage compensations provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries like health insurance, etc).

• Expectancy theory

This theory explains how individuals make their decisions regarding various behavioral alternatives. There are 2 propositions:
1. When deciding among behavioral options, individuals select the option with the greatest motivation forces (MF).
2. The motivational force for a behavior, action, or task is a function of three distinct perceptions: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valance. The motivational force is the product of the three perceptions:

• EXPECTANCY
That depending on the effort you will get the desired performance and is based on past experiences, self- confidence and how a person perceives the difficulty of the job.
• INSTRUMENTALITY
Is a perceived performance-reward relationship, that if an employee meets the expectations that the company had for them, they will get a reward for their work.
• VALENCE
How a person sees the reward, this point of view depends on the person’s needs, goals and values.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/expectancy.htm
http://tutor2u.net/business/people/motivation_theory_herzberg.asp
http://www.quickmba.com/mgmt/expectancy-theory/
http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_herzberg_two_factor_theory.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?Motivation-Theory&id=410700