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Human Behavior in Organization (HBO) 2. Since employees dislike work, they must be
coerced, controlled, or threatened with
MODULE No. 6 punishment to achieve goals.
3. Employees will avoid responsibilities and
seek formal direction whenever possible.
Understanding Motivation 4. Most workers place security above all other
Concept factors associated with work and will display little
ambition.
Defining Motivation In contrast to these negative views about the
nature of human beings, McGregor listed four
Motivation. The processes that account for an positive assumptions that he called Theory Y:
individual’s intensity, direction and persistence
of effort toward attaining a goal. 1. Employees can view work as being as
natural as rest and play.

Early Theories of Motivation 2. People will exercise self-direction and self-

control if they are committed to the objectives.

3. The average person can learn to accept,

Hierarchy Needs Theory. A hierarchy of even seek, responsibility.
five needs- physiological, safety, social, esteem
and self-actualization – exists such that as each 4. The ability to make innovative decisions is
need widely dispersed throughout the population and
is not necessarily the sole province of those in
It’s probably safe to say that the most well- management positions.
known theory of motivation is Abraham
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These needs are:

Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, ERG Theory

sex and other bodily needs.
Clayton Alderfer attempted to rework Maslow’s
Safety: Includes security and protection from need hierarchy to align it more closely with
physical and emotional harm. empirical research. His revised need hierarchy
is labeled ERG theory. Alderfer argued that
Social: Includes affection, belongingness, there are three groups of core needs –
acceptance and friendship. existence, relatedness and growth.

Esteem: Includes internal steem factors such as

self-respect, autonomy, and achievement; and Two-Factor Theory
external esteem factors such as status,
recognition and attention. Two –Factor Theory. A theory that relates
intrinsic factors to job satisfaction, while
Self-actualization: The drive to become what is associating extrinsic factors with dissatisfaction.
one capable of becoming; includes growth,
achieving one’s potential and self-fulfillment. The two-factor theory –also called motivation-
hygiene theory – was proposed by psychologist
Maslow separated the five needs into higher and Frederick Herzberg. In the belief that an
lower orders. Physiological and safety needs individual’s relation to work is basic and that
were described as lower-order needs and social, one’s attitude toward work can very well
esteem self-actualization as higher order needs. determine success or failure, Herzberg
investigated the question, “What people want
Theory X and Theory Y from their jobs?” He asked people to describe, in
detail, situations in which they felt exceptionally
Douglas McGregor proposed two distinct views good or bad about their jobs.
of human beings : one basically negative,
labeled Theory X, and the other basically Hygiene factors. Factors – such as company
positive, labeled Theory Y. policy and administration, supervision, and
salary – that, when adequate in a job, placate
Under Theory X, the four assumptions held by workers. When these factors are adequate,
managers are: people will not be dissatisfied.

1. Employees are inherently dislike work and,

whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it.

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Contemporary Theories of Reinforcement Theory. A theory that

behavior is a function of its consequences.
Motivation

Equity Theory. A theory that individuals

McClelland’s Theory of Needs. A compare their job inputs and outcomes with
theory stating that achievement, power and those of others and then respond to eliminate
affiliation are three important needs that help any inequities.
explain motivation.

McClelland’s theory of needs was developed by

David McClelland and his associates. The Expectancy Theory. The strength of a
theory focuses on three needs: achievement, tendency to act in a certain way depends on the
power and affiliation. They are defined as strength of an expectation that the act will be
follows: followed by a given outcome and on the same
attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.
Need for achievement: The drive to excel, to
achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive
to succeed. Question for Critical Thinking

Need for power: The need to make others

behave in a way that they would not have Can an individual be too motivated, so
behaved otherwise. that the performance declines as a
result of excessive effort ?
Need for affiliation: The desire for friendly and
close interpersonal relationships

Cognitive Evaluation Theory. A theory

stating that allocating extrinsic rewards for
behavior that had been previously intrinsically
rewarding tends to decrease the overall level of
motivation.

Goal Setting Theory. The theory that

specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to
higher performance.

MBO Programs: Putting Goal-Setting

Theory into Practice.

Management by Objectives (MBO). A program

that encompasses specific goals, participatively
set, for an explicit time period, with feedback on
goal progress.

Self-Efficacy Theory
Self-efficacy (also known as “social cognitive
theory” or “social learning theory”) – The
individual’s belief that he or she is capable of
performing a task.

The researcher who developed self-efficacy

theory, Albert Bandura, argues that there are
four ways self-efficacy can be increased:

1. enactive mastery
2. vicarious modeling
3. verbal persuasion
4. arousal