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7 Motivation
7.1. What is motivation?
 It is the desire of workers to do a job quickly and efficiently.
 They are the external and internal factors that stimulate people to take actions to meet a specific aim.
 Importance of motivation
 Help a business achieve its goals
 Help remain as cost-effective as possible (lower accidents and wastage)
 Helps maintain low labour turnover and absenteeism rates
 Impact the productivity and competitiveness of the business
 Well-motivated staff will be ready to accept responsibility and will make suggestions to improve
customer service and satisfaction.

7.2. F.W. Taylor - scientific management/theory of an economic man

 His main purpose was to reduce inefficiencies
 His approach included 7 steps
 Select group of workers
 Observe them perform tasks
 Record time taken
 Identify the quickest method
 Train all employees in that method
 Supervise them
 Pay them accordingly
 He believed that people are only motivated by money
 He believed piece rate method of payment should be used where worker’s output is directly linked to their
wage rates
 He believed that autocratic leadership style should be used
 Workers should be closely supervised and no discussion or feedback should be taken
 One-way communication
 Theory X manager ideology is adopted
 Problems of this method
 Not everyone is motivated by money
 Quantity over quality is encouraged - not acceptable in the long run
 In modern times, due to advanced education and training, worker participation should be encouraged and
will help the business in the long run

7.3. Abraham Maslow - Hierarchy of human needs

 He categorised employee needs into 5 levels.
 Every employee starts at the lowest level
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 Physical needs - food, shelter, water, rest

 Safety needs - job security, health and safety
 Social needs - trust, friendship, teamwork, acceptance
 Esteem needs - respect, status, recognition, achievement
 Self-actualisation - reach one’s full potential, challenging and creative work
 Regression is possible - once one need is satisfied, greater quantity of the same need will not motivate
people
 Limitations
 Everyone has different needs
 Difficult and impractical to identify for each worker and have separate measures for each
 Self-actualisation is never permanently achieved

7.4. Frederick Herzberg - Two factor theory

 He conducted interviews and surveys to know and identify factors which give good feelings and the ones that
provide negative feelings
 Job enrichment principles should be adopted
 Complete units of work - workers should be allowed to produce a recognisable part of the product/service
 Feedback on performance - workers must be given accurate feedback on their work. Good work must be
recognised
 A range of tasks - workers must be given challenging and beyond their current experience tasks
 Team work should be encouraged and adopted
 He divided his results into 2 factors
 Hygiene factors
 Salary, working conditions, supervision, social relations
 They DO NOT motivate employees, but their absence DEMOTIVATES they
 They just remove dissatisfaction
 Motivators
 Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement
 These factors MOTIVATE employees

7.5. David McClelland - Motivational needs theory

 He identified 3 types of motivational needs in his book - The achieving society
 Achievement motivation
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 Have realistic goals

 Seek opportunities of job enrichment and advancement
 Have result driven attitudes
 Authority motivation
 Desire to control others
 Need to be influential, effective, make an impact
 Strong leadership instincts
 Affiliation motivation 
 Need for friendly relations
 Teamwork and interaction with others
 Be liked and popular
 Achievement motivated people are the ones who give the business the best results.

7.6. Vroom - expectancy theory

 Individuals will choose to behave in ways they believe will lead to the best outcome and rewards
 People can be motivated if they believe
 There is a positive link between performance and effort
 Will result in a favourable reward
 Reward will help satisfy important needs
 Desire to satisfy the need is strong
 3 beliefs:
 Valence - depth of the want of an employee for an extrinsic reward
 Expectancy - degree to which people believe hard- work will lead to their desired reward
 Instrumentality - confidence of employees that they will receive the reward they desire
 Even if any 1 belief is missing, motivation will not occur

7.7. Motivational theories - evaluation

 They provide the starting point and a framework to defining motivational methods and issues
 They are often criticized due to its lack of rigour and follow up work
 Important to identify the most appropriate theory and identify their relevance in the business

7.8. Motivators - Financial rewards

Time based wage rate Piece rate Salary
Payment to a worker made for Payment to worker for each unit Annual income, paid monthly
each hour worked produced
Mode of payment for manual, Reflects the difficulty of the job and Professional, supervisory and
clerical and other blue collared the standard time management staff
workers
Time rate is present, usually paid Too low- demotivates, too high- Fixed each year and determines
weekly reduces incentives (will be able to the status of job
meet their target wage level easily)
Does not directly link to efforts put Encourages faster working and efforts Job evaluation helps decide salary
in bands
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Low security for workers Requires output to be measurable Security of income and helps in
cost and price calculation
Little security for workers Suitable for jobs where output is
not measurable
Helps in price determination on the Can lead to complacency as
basis of labor costs income is not related to effort
Quality and safety issues \n Leads to Regular appraisal is necessary
falling quality standards
Resistance from workers in the event
of change of work
Commission Bonus Performance-related Profit-sharing Fringe Benefits
pay
Proportion of the In addition to their A bonus scheme to A bonus for staff Non cash forms of
sales made wages/salary reward staff for “above based on the profits reward
average work of the business- can
performance” be a proportion of
the salary, issue of
organizations
shares

7.9. Non-financial rewards

Job Rotation Job Enlargement Job Enrichment
Increasing flexibility of the Increasing the scope of job Principle of organizing work
workforce
Giving variety of work multi-skills Broadening the task, deepening Encouraged to use full ability-not
just physical effort
Switch from one job to another- Includes both rotation and Reduction of direct supervision,
avoids monotony enrichment allowing decision making authority
Series of separate task Usually happens in case of Based on 3 principles from
redundancies or shortage Herzberg's theory: \n - Complete
units of work \n - Direct feedback \n
- Challenging tasks
Doesn’t increase empowerment or Horizontal enlargement
responsibility
Adding tasks to avoid it from
becoming boring but no
power/authority is given
Doesn’t lead to long-term job
satisfaction or enrichment
Job redesign Training Quality circles

Restructuring of a job with the Improving and developing the skills Originated in japan-Kaizen
agreement of the employee of employees
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Attempt to make work more Increases status and chances of Voluntary groups of workers meet
interesting and challenging promotion regularly and discuss issues
Adding and removing certain tasks Greater sense of belonging Employees have first hand
can lead to rewarding work experience with the problem
Similar to enrichment Better and quicker solutions
Allows workers to gain a wider Provides a new perspective
range of skills and increases chances
of promotion
Leads to job enrichment - Herzberg
motivation
Worker participation Team-working Target setting Delegation and
Empowerment
Actively encouraged to Lower labor turnover Management by Passing down of authority
become involved in objectives
decision making within
the organization
Involvement in decisions Better ideas, improved Enables feedback and Delegating control over
on break times, job quality comparison work
allocations, productivity
Improves productivity and Maslow and Herzberg’s Provides a sense of
lowers wastage applications direction
Better decisions, new Delayering Time taking - appraisal
perspectives every year
Can be time consuming Not everyone is a team
player
Autocratic managers find Conflict with
it difficult organizational values
Paternalistic leadership Training costs
used - demotivating

7.10. Financial and non-financial motivation - evaluation

 Pay is not the only motivating factor
 Managers must be flexible
 Depends on:
 Leadership style
 Culture of management
 Attitude of managers and workers
 Usually, business use a mix
 Non-financial methods are cheaper than financial