Motivation

Motivation
Motivation can be described as the internal force that impacts the direction,
intensity, and endurance of a person’s voluntary choice of behavior. It consists of −
 Direction − focused by goals.
 Intensity − bulk of effort allocated.
 Persistence − amount of time taken for the effort to be exerted.
Example − A team leader encourages team members to work efficiently.
Features of Motivation
Motivation is an internal feeling, that is, it defines the psychological state of a
person. It is a continuous process and we should make sure that it is not disturbed.
A person should be encouraged completely.
Motivation consists of three interacting and dependent elements −
 Needs − The requirements or deficiency which is created whenever there is
physiological imbalance.
 Drives − The various camps or events organized to motivate the employees
and give them new opportunities.
 Incentives − Employees need to be rewarded for their nice work in order to
keep them encouraged.
Importance of Motivation
We need to motivate employees because of the following reasons −
 Motivated employee is more quality oriented.

 Highly motivated employees are more productive as compared to other
employees.
 It helps in achieving three behaviour dimension of human resource namely
o Candidates must be attracted not only to join but also remain in the
firm.
o Employees must perform task in a dependable manner.
o Employees should be creative, spontaneous and innovative at work.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

This theory was produced in order to answer the question “What motivates an
individual”. Every second need comes to force when the first need is satisfied
completely. Maslow explained the hierarchy of needs by grouping them into two:
deficiency needs and growth needs.
Physiological Needs
Every individual needs to take care of the basic requirements required to sustain.
These requirements include food to eat, clothing to wear and shelter to live in.
These necessities are relatively independent of each other but are finite.
Safety Needs
Everybody wants to stay in a protected environment with minimal danger so that

they can have a peaceful life. Safety needs basically includes protection from
physiological danger like accident and having economic security like bank accounts,
health insurance
In an enterprise, it includes job security, salary increment, etc. The managerial
practice to satisfy this involves offering pension scheme, provident fund, gratuity
etc.
Social Needs
We have all heard that man is a social animal, we want to be there with those
people where we are loved and we are accepted as we are; nobody wants to be
judged. This is a common requirement every human desires.
This theory helps managers to think about encouraging their employees by
identifying employee needs. In short, it presents motivation as constantly changing
force, expressing itself to the constant need for fulfilment of new and higher levels of
needs.
Esteem
Esteem means the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others.
People often involve in a profession or hobby to gain recognition, earn fame and
respect. According to Maslow, the needs of humans have strict guidelines - the
hierarchies rather than being sharply separated, are interrelated. This means that
esteem and the consequent levels are not strictly separated but are closely related.
Self-Actualization
Self-actualization means realizing one’s full potential. Maslow describes this as a

desire to complete everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.
Our management style is firmly influenced by our beliefs and assumptions about
what encourages members of our team like: If we believe that our team members
dislike work, then we tend towards an authoritarian style of management. However,
if we assume that employees take pride in doing a good job, we tend to adopt a
more participative style.
Douglas McGregor, the eminent social psychologist, divides management style into
two contrasting theories −
 Theory X
 Theory
Y
Theory X
This theory believes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working,
and this encourages an authoritarian style of management. According to this theory,
management must firmly intervene to get things done. This style of management
concludes that workers −
 Disfavor working.
 Abstain responsibility and the need to be directed.
 Need to be controlled, forced, and warned to deliver what's needed.
 Demand to be supervised at each and every step, with controls put in place.
 Require to be attracted to produce results, else they have no ambition or
incentive to work.
McGregor observed that X-type workers are in fact mostly in minority, and yet in
mass organizations, such as large scale production environment, X Theory
management may be needed and can be unavoidable.
Theory Y
This theory explains a participative style of management, that is, distributive in
nature. It concludes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and
creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility. It estimates that workers −
 Take responsibility willingly and are encouraged to fulfill the goals they are
given.
 Explore and accept responsibility and do not need much guidance.
 Assume work as a natural part of life and solve work issues imaginatively.
In Y-type organizations, people at lower levels are engaged in decision making and
have more responsibility.
Comparing Theory X & Theory Y

Let us now compare both the theories −
Motivation
Theory X considers that people dislike work, they want to avoid it and do not take
responsibilities willingly.
While, Theory Y considers that people are self-motivated, and sportingly take
responsibilities.
Management Style and Control
In Theory X-type organization, management is authoritarian, and centralized control

is maintained.
While in Theory Y-type organization, the management style is participative,
employees are involved decision making, but the power retains to implement
decisions.
Work Organization
Theory X employees are specialized and the same work cycle continues.
In Theory Y, the work tends to be coordinated around wider areas of skill or
knowledge. Employees are also motivated to develop expertise, and make
suggestions and improvements.
Rewards and Appraisals
Theory X-type organizations work on a ‘carrot and stick’ basis, and performance
assessment is part of the overall mechanism of control and compensation.
Coming to Theory Y-type organizations, appraisal is also regular and crucial, but is
usually a separate mechanism from organizational controls. Theory Y-type
organizations provide employees frequent opportunities for promotion.
Application
Admitting the fact that Theory X management style is widely accepted as inferior to
others, it has its place in large scale production procedure and unskilled production-
line work.
Many of the principles of Theory Y are widely accepted by different types of
organization that value and motivate active participation.
Theory Y-style management is appropriate for knowledge work and licensed
services. Licensed service organizations naturally develop Theory Y-type practices
by the nature of their work, even high structure knowledge framework, like call
center operations, benefit from its principles to motivate knowledge sharing and
continuous improvement.

Motivation

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Motivation

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Motivation

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Motivation

 Motivated employee is more quality oriented.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Everybody wants to stay in a protected environment with minimal danger so that

Self-actualization means realizing one’s full potential. Maslow describes this as a

Comparing Theory X & Theory Y

Management Style and Control

In Theory X-type organization, management is authoritarian, and centralized control

Rewards and Appraisals

You might also like