MOTIVATION

The word Motivation derives from the Latin word “Movere”. The Latin word
“Movere” means “To move”, “To drive” or “To drive forward” etc. Motivation can
be defined as stimulating, inspiring and inducing the employees to perform to their
best capacity. Motivation is a psychological term which means it cannot be forced on
employees. It comes automatically from inside the employees as it is the willingness to
do the work.

Joe Kelly defined Motivation as “Motivation is a process where by needs instigate

behavior directed towards the goals that can satisfy those needs.”

According to W. G. Scot, “Motivation means a process of stimulating people to action

to accomplish the desired goals.”

“Motivation is the process of attempting to influence others to do their work through

the possibility of getting a reward”. [Edwin B. Flippo]

According to Michael J. Jucius, “Motivation is the act of stimulating someone or

oneself to get a desired course of action, to push the right button to get a desired
result.”
Characteristic or Features of Motivation:
Motivation is the essence of human psychology and has some common features. These
are discussed below:

• Mental process: Motivation is a mental state of affairs and arises from needs
which a person reflects in his or her behavior regarding feelings, emotions,
efforts, willingness to do work, inspire, intensity, desires, need, creativity and
self-satisfaction. It is a process of stimulating human beings to accomplish
desired goals.
• Monetary or non-monetary in nature:
➢ Monetary benefits such as high salary and wages, bonus, commission, cash
benefits etc.
➢ Non-monetary benefits include children educational facility, car facility,
medical facility, club facility, telephone facility, transports facility, congenial
working environment etc.
• Accomplishment of objectives: Motivation of the employees helps an
organization for the accomplishment of desired goals. It also helps to an
employee to fulfill his personal goals.
• Continuous process: Only one-time motivation to the employees of the
 organization is not sufficient to stimulate their inner state of affairs rather it is a
continuous process in the organization to motivate the employees so that they
move for the action which results for the accomplishment of overall goals.
• Overall growth of the organisation: Motivation is a total effort which is made
for all the levels of the management so that each employee will be under this
process and as a result there will be overall development of the organization.

Factors or Aids to Motivation:

For smooth functioning of the organization the employees are to be motivated. There
are some common factors or aids which is very much essential for stimulating people
so that overall goals of the organization can be fulfilled. The basic factors are discussed
below:
• Proper work environment: There should be proper work environment for creating
effective motivation. For this purpose the management should give emphasis on
work environment such as cleanliness, canteen, provision for safety, healthy
atmosphere etc.
• Fair remuneration: Each employee of the organization will get fair and
reasonable remuneration so that he or she can be motivated to accomplish the
desired goals of the organization. Provision should be made for giving bonus,
allowances and perquisites to encourage and stimulate the employees.
• Promotion policy: There should be a good promotion policy for the employees of
the organization. The promotion policy must be related with efficiency, seniority
and efforts of the employees. If the efficient and senior employee gets promotion
he or she should be highly motivated for this reward and ties to fulfill the objectives
of the organization.
• Recognition for work: If an employee is motivated for creating new things or for
executing his or her work in a smooth way and within the time schedule he or she
must be recognized and praised by the top management. This promotes high
motivation among the employees.

Importance or Advantages or Benefits of Motivation:

Motivation is such a process which stimulates the employees to get inner energy and self-
satisfaction which encourages the employees to perform their respective jobs efficiently
and effectively which results in the increase in productivity and profitability. The
importance or benefits of motivation in an organization are discussed below:
• Optimum utilization of resources: Highly motivated employees are very much
inspired to utilize the resources of the organization in the best possible way and
fully contribute their efforts and skill so that waste are minimized and cost is
decreased. Hence there should be optimum utilization of physical and financial
resources.
• Low labour turnover: Motivation inspires employees of an organization to do their
jobs best possible way which results in low employee turnover. They get job
satisfaction fulfillment of their personal needs makes them loyal and committed
to the organization.
• Favourable response to change: Environmental changes forced an organization
to make their required changes accordingly. If the employees are highly motivated
they may accept these changes and committed for the betterment of the
organization.
• Increases efficiency: In spite of necessary skill and efficiency for doing a job the
employees of an organization may be reluctant to perform their activity. Hence it
is only motivation which may inspire the employees to maximize the efficiency of
operations.
• Better labour relationship: If the subordinates are allowed to participate in the
decision-making process and expresses their views and opinion for the betterment
of the organization, they become motivated and willing to contribute their best
efforts to attain organizational objectives. Hence, there should be improvement in
the labour-management relationship.
 Theories of Motivation
Four theories on motivation :
➢ Maslow's Need Priority Model
➢ ERG Theory of Motivation
➢ Frederick Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
➢ Douglas Mc Gregor's theory of Motivation
➢ McClelland’s Needs Theory
➢ Vroom Expectancy Theory of Motivation
 Maslow's Need Priority Model

The need hierarchy theory was developed by a famous American psychologist Abraham
H. Maslow. According to his theory, as soon as one of his needs is satisfied, another
appears in its place. This process is unending. It continues from birth to death. Man
continuously puts forth effort to satisfy his needs.
Maslow categorized the need of a human being in five hierarchy of importance:
(i) Physiological Needs: Necessity for survival. Such needs include food, water,
cloth, shelter etc. These needs must be satisfied on a continuous basis.
(ii) Safety Needs: After securing physiological needs, human being wants security
and protection from physical danger, from natural calamity and also economic
security like accident, fire, unemployment, disability etc.
(iii) Social Needs: Human being is social animals. After getting physiological and
safety needs, they want social needs like mixing with others, need for love and
affection, belongingness, family life, informal group in the organization etc.
(iv) Esteem Needs: Esteem needs is the need for respect, confidence, recognition,
competence, knowledge, status, reputation etc.
(v) Self-actualization Needs: Needs for continued self-development and growth,
Creation of new things and ideas and it will not end unless and until people dies.
Criticism of Maslow's need theory:
• Needs of human being may change from one situation to another. For example, a
person who is working in a factory which is situated in a hill area requires winter
allowance which is not required for a person working in plain land.
• Needs varies from person to person. For example, an employee wants more salary
to satisfy his needs. Another may need praise and appreciation of his service.
• Needs of human beings may not follow the specific sequence or hierarchy as
suggested by Maslow.
• There are no definite principles of human behavior that once a need is satisfied that
cannot give further satisfaction. A person may get repeated satisfaction by fulfilling
a particular need say self-actualization.
 ERG Theory of Motivation
Clayton Alderfer of Yale University had re-worked on Maslow's need hierarchy
theory. Alderfer argues that there are groups of core need — existence, relatedness,
and growth — hence the labels are: ERG theory. The existence group is concerned
with providing our basic material existence requirements. They include the items
that Maslow considered to be physiological and safety needs. The second groups of
needs are those of relatedness — the desire we have for maintaining important
interpersonal relationships and they align with Maslow’s social need and the
external component of Maslow's esteem classification. Finally, Alderfer isolates
growth needs — an intrinsic desire for personal development. These include the
intrinsic component from Maslow's esteem needs and self-actualisation needs.
 The ERG theory demonstrates that (1) more than one need may be operative at
the same time, and if the satisfaction from a higher - level need is hindered, the
desire to satisfy a lower - level need increases.
ERG theory also contains a frustration - regression dimension.
Maslow argued that an individual would stay at a certain need level until that
need was satisfied. ERG theory counters by noting that when a higher - order need
level is frustrated; the individual's desire to increase a lower level need takes place.
 Inability to satisfy a need for social interaction, for instance, might increase the
desire for more money or better working conditions. So frustration changed to a
regression to a lower level need.
The evidence demonstrating that people in other cultures rank, the need
categories differently - for instance, natives of Spain and Japan place social needs
before their physiological requirements would be consistent with ERG theory.
 Frederick Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
This theory was propounded by Frederick Herzberg. Frederick Herzberg and his
associates make an interview of 200 engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh
area of the United States. These persons were asked to tell their views regarding
work elements which made them happy or unhappy. The result of the study reveals
that the feeling of unhappiness depends on the environment in which they are
working and the feeling of happiness or satisfaction was related to their jobs.
He published his research work in the book "The Motivation to Work" in the
year 1959. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction were different from
that causing job dissatisfaction. He developed the motivation-hygiene theory to
explain these results.
According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors have a very little contribution to
provide job satisfaction. He called it as “dissatisfies" because their absence results in
dissatisfaction but their presence cannot give motivation to the employees to take
more interest in their jobs.
On the other hand, motivating factors motivates sub-ordinates to take more
interest in their work. These factors increase efficiency and productivity of the
employees. Hence motivating factors are very much essential in order to give job
satisfaction and in order to maintain a high level of efficiency for performing the jobs.
The following are the list of hygiene factors and motivating factors.
Motivating Factors or Satisfiers Hygiene Factors or Dissatisfies
(Job content) (Job context)
1. Achievement 1. Company Policy and Administration
2. Recognition 2. Technical supervision
3.Work itself 3. Relationship with supervisor
4. Responsibility 4. Job conditions
5. Advancement 5. Inter-personal relationship with peers
6. Growth 6. Relationship with subordinates
7. Creative and challenging work 7. Status
8. Working conditions
9. Job security
10. Family life

According to Herzberg, hygiene factors when provided, reduces dissatisfaction but it

cannot provide motivation to the employees for better performance. The motivating
factors provided to the employees will create an environment where employees will get
high motivation and their efficiency and performance level should be increased.
 Douglas Mc Gregor's theory of Motivation
This theory was propounded by famous psychologist Douglas Mc Gregor. He had done
research on the nature and perception of human being and had contributed a lot in the
field of motivation called Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X

This theory is based on traditional assumptions and is known as conventional approach.

1. The average human being has an inherent dislike to work.
2. The average person lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, wants security of jobs
without doing anything sincerely.
3. Always wants to be led or directed by other.
4. The average human being is self-centered and does not bother for organizational
needs/objectives.
5. The average person lacks creativity in solving organizational problems.
6. The average human being by nature wants to resist change of any type.
Theory Y:

Theory Y is based on modern or professional approach and under this all the positive
behavior of the human beings which are discussed below:
1. Work is as natural as play or rest subject to the condition that the working
environment is favourable and employees are motivated to do their work with full
satisfaction and independence.
2. People generally want to accept and often seek responsibility and are self-
directed and creative. These creativity and innovative potentiality of the
employees can be utilized to solve the organizational problems.
3. They are ambitious and think for others.
4. Theory Y is applicable for such people those who are self-motivated and are
allowed to participate in the decision-making process.
5. Theory Y assumes that people are not by nature, lazy and idle and they can be self-
directed and creative at work, if properly motivated.
Motivational force for Theory X and Theory Y :
Theory X Theory Y
1. Authority is centralised. 1. Authority is decentralised.
2. Limited span of control i.e. a superior can 2. Wide span of control i.e. a superior can
supervise only a limited number of supervise much number of
subordinates. subordinates.
3. Only one-way communication is made 3. Here two-way communications is
from top level to lower level of made.
management.
4. Employees are always creating and
4. There is lack of creativity and resist to
do the new things and welcome all the
change in the organisation.
new ideas.

5. Lack of self-motivation. 5. Employees are self-motivated.

6. Lower-level needs (physiological and safety) 6. Both lower-level and higher-order needs
are the sources of motivation to the employees. such as social, esteem and self-actualization
are the source of motivation to the employees.
7. External control, threat of punishment, 7. Self-directed and self-controlled for
reward and close supervision is required for accomplishment of organizational goals.
accomplishment of organizational goals.
McClelland’s Needs Theory
McClelland’s Needs Theory was proposed by a psychologist David McClelland, who
believed that the specific needs of the individual are acquired over a period of time
and gets molded with one’s experience of the life. McClelland’s Needs Theory is
sometimes referred to as Three Need theory or Learned Needs Theory.

McClelland has identified three basic motivating needs, Viz. Need for Power, Need
for Affiliation and Need for Achievement and, along with his associates performed a
considerable research work on these basic needs.
Need for Power (n-pow): What is Power? Power is the ability to induce or influence
the behaviour of others. The people with high power needs seek high-level positions
in the organization, so as to exercise influence and control over others. Generally,
they are outspoken, forceful, demanding, practical/realistic-not sentimental, and like
to get involved in the conversations.

Need for Affiliation (n-affil): People with high need for affiliation derives pleasure
from being loved by all and tend to avoid the pain of being rejected. Since, the human
beings are social animals, they like to interact and be with others where they feel,
people accept them. Thus, people with these needs like to maintain the pleasant social
relationships, enjoy the sense of intimacy and like to help and console others at the
time of trouble.

Need for Achievement (n-ach): McClelland found that some people have an intense
desire to achieve. He has identified the following characteristics of high achievers:

• High achievers take the moderate risks, i.e. a calculated risk while performing
the activities in the management context. This is opposite to the belief that high
achievers take high risk.
• High achievers seek to obtain the immediate feedback for the work done by
them, so as to know their progress towards the goal.
 • Once the goal is set, the high achiever puts himself completely into the job, until
it gets completed successfully. He will not be satisfied until he has given his 100%
in the task assigned to him.
• A person with a high need for achievement accomplishes the task that is
intrinsically satisfying and is not necessarily accompanied by the material
rewards. Though he wants to earn money, but satisfaction in the
accomplishment of work itself gives him more pleasure than merely the cash
reward.
Hence, McClelland’s Needs Theory posits that the person’s level of effectiveness and
motivation is greatly influenced by these three basic needs.

Limitations of McClelland Theory

1. Does not take into account the Basic Needs

The biggest disadvantage of this theory is that this theory focuses on needs for
achievement, power, and affiliation but ignore basic needs like food, shelter and
safety which is primary needs and needs to be satisfied first before thinking about
satisfying other needs.
 2. One Gets Stereotype

If one employee falls under the need for achievement matrix than chances are
that he or she will get stereotyped and may never work in that department where the
need for power or need for affiliation is required even if the employee has required
qualification for the particular job. In simple words, one cannot move to other
departments of the company not because he or she is not qualified rather due to being
stereotyped.

3. Difficult to find Position Matching the Needs

Once a company has identified people needs but it may be possible that positions
matching the needs of the employees in the company are more or less resulting in a
problem for the top management of the company. Hence for example, if there are 10
positions in the company for people having a need for power but if the employees
having a need for power are 20 than the company will find it difficult to accommodate
all the employees.

That is the reason why any company thinking of applying this theory into
organization should take into considerations all the points and then take the decision.
Vroom Expectancy Theory of Motivation
Vroom's expectancy theory realized that an employee's performance is based on
individual factors such as personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities. He
stated that effort, performance and reward are linked in a person's motivation. He uses
the variables Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valence to account for this.

Expectancy is the belief that increased effort will lead to increased performance i.e. if I
work harder then it leads to better performance. This is affected by such things as:

• Having the right resources available (e.g. raw materials, time)

• Having the right skills to do the job
• Having the necessary support to get the job done (e.g. supervisor support, or
correct information on the job)

Instrumentality is the belief that if you perform well that a valued outcome will be
received i.e. it will be accompanied with some rewards. The degree to which a first level
outcome will lead to the second level outcome. i.e. if I do a good job, there is something
in it for me. This is affected by such things as:

• Clear understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes –

e.g. the rules of the reward 'game'
• Trust in the people who will take the decisions on who gets what outcome
• Transparency of the process that decides who gets what outcome
Valence is the importance that the individual places upon the expected outcome. For
the valence to be positive, the person must prefer attaining the outcome, to not
attaining it.

Valence refers to the emotional orientations people hold with respect to outcomes
[rewards]. For example : The depth of the want of an employee for extrinsic [money,
promotion, time-off, benefits] or intrinsic [satisfaction] rewards). Management must
discover what employees value and give the reward accordingly.

The three elements are important behind choosing one element over another because
they are clearly defined: effort-performance expectancy (E>P expectancy) and
performance-outcome expectancy (P>O expectancy).

E>P expectancy: our assessment of the probability that our efforts will lead to the
required performance level.

P>O expectancy: our assessment of the probability that our successful performance
will lead to certain outcomes.

Crucially, Vroom's expectancy theory works on perceptions – so even if an employer

thinks they have provided everything appropriate for motivation, and even if this
works with most people in that organisation, it doesn't mean that someone won't
perceive that it doesn't work for them.
However, it could equally apply to any situation where someone does something
because they expect a certain outcome. For example, I recycle paper because I think
it's important to conserve resources and take a stand on environmental issues
(valence); I think that the more effort I put into recycling the more paper I will
recycle (expectancy); and I think that the more paper I recycle then less resources
will be used (instrumentality).

Thus, Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation is not about self-interest in rewards

but about the associations people make towards expected outcomes and the
contribution they feel they can make towards those outcomes.

Limitation of Expectancy Theory of Motivation

• Somewhat idealistic because it assumes that effort and performance will
directly lead to the desired outcome
• There are other inputs that should be considered, such as education and
overall capacity, rather than effort alone