The MbM Questionnaire

Managing by Motivation
Third Edition

Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

Human Resource Development Press

Amherst, Massachusetts
The MbM Questionnaire
Managing by Motivation
Third Edition

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

Published by: Human Resource Development Press, Inc.

22 Amherst Road
Amherst, MA 01002

(800) 822-2801

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ISBN 0-87425-352-7
The MbM Questionnaire
Managing by Motivation
Third Edition

Developed by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

The MBM Questionnaire consists of a series of statements that may or may not describe
how you feel about your job and work life. You are asked to decide on the extent to which
each of the twenty statements on the next page accurately describes your own personal
views and feelings. There are no correct answers. This questionnaire is designed to help you
discover and better understand the most important factors in your own work life. Just how
useful the results will be for you will depend completely on how candid you are about
your attitudes and feelings.

Please turn the page and begin

when instructed to do so.

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

 The MbM Questionnaire
Directions: Please respond to each of the twenty statements that follow by indicating the degree to
which you personally agree with the statement. That is, to what degree is each statement consistent
with your own views and beliefs? Circle the letter that best indicates how closely the statement
reflects your own personal views, using the following key:

C = Agree Completely
M = Agree Mostly
P = Agree Partly
S = Agree Slightly
N = Do Not Agree

1. A steady job is number one for me. C M P S N

2. I prefer working independently, more or less on my own. C M P S N
3. A high salary gives clear evidence of one’s worth to the organization. C M P S N
4. Searching for what will make my happy is the most important thing in life. C M P S N
5. Job security is not especially important to me. C M P S N
6. My friends mean more to me than almost anything else. C M P S N
7. Most people think they are better than they really are. C M P S N
8. I want a job that allows me to learn new things and develop new skills. C M P S N
9. A regular income that I can count on is critical. C M P S N
10. It is better to avoid getting too close to co-workers. C M P S N
11. My self-appraisal is more important to me than anyone else’s opinion. C M P S N
12. Chasing after dreams is a waste of time. C M P S N
13. A good job should include a sound retirement plan. C M P S N
14. I strongly prefer a job that involves contact with others—customers or co- C M P S N
workers.
15. I get angry when someone tries to take credit for what I’ve accomplished. C M P S N
16. Going as far as I can, finding my own limits, is what drives me. C M P S N
17. One of the most important aspects of a job is the company’s health C M P S N
insurance plan.
18. Being part of a close-knit work group is very important to me. C M P S N
19. My accomplishments give me an important sense of self-respect. C M P S N
20. I feel best in doing what I can do well rather than trying new things. C M P S N

Please do not turn the page until you

have completed the questionnaire
or have been instructed to do so.

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D. Page 3

 Scoring The MbM Questionnaire
Directions: For each statement on the Questionnaire, you circled a letter to indicate the degree to
which you believe that statement holds true for you, reflecting your own personal views and
beliefs. On the chart below, circle the number that corresponds to the letter you circled for each of
the twenty statements. For example, if your response to statement number one was “P”—Agree
Partly—you would circle the number “3” in box number 1 on the chart below.

1 C = 5 2 C = 1 3 C = 5 4 C = 5
M = 4 M = 2 M = 4 M = 4
P = 3 P = 3 P = 3 P = 3
S = 2 S = 4 S = 2 S = 2
N = 1 N = 5 N = 1 N = 1
5 C = 1 6 C = 5 7 C = 5 8 C = 5
M = 2 M = 4 M = 4 M = 4
P = 3 P = 3 P = 3 P = 3
S = 4 S = 2 S = 2 S = 2
N = 5 N = 1 N = 1 N = 1
9 C = 5 10 C = 1 11 C = 5 12 C = 1
M = 4 M = 2 M = 4 M = 2
P = 3 P = 3 P = 3 P = 3
S = 2 S = 4 S = 2 S = 4
N = 1 N = 5 N = 1 N = 5
13 C = 5 14 C = 5 15 C = 5 16 C = 5
M = 4 M = 4 M = 4 M = 4
P = 3 P = 3 P = 3 P = 3
S = 2 S = 2 S = 2 S = 2
N = 1 N = 1 N = 1 N = 1
17 C = 5 18 C = 5 19 C = 5 20 C = 1
M = 4 M = 4 M = 4 M = 2
P = 3 P = 3 P = 3 P = 3
S = 2 S = 2 S = 2 S = 4
N = 1 N = 1 N = 1 N = 5

Totals
Safety/Security Social/Belonging Self-Esteem Self-Actualization

Definitions:

Safety and security needs center on economic and personal security, including a reasonable
standard of living.

Social and belonging needs deal with social interaction, group identity, the need for friendship and
meaningful interpersonal contacts, and the need for love and intimacy with another person.

Self-esteem needs refer to the need to feel that one is a worthwhile person and to respect one’s self.

Self-actualization needs involve the desire to achieve one’s full potential, to “be all that one can
be.”

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D. Page 5

What Do the Scores Mean?
Each of the four scales of The MbM Questionnaire has a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 25
points: Scores of 20 or more on any scale are quite high and suggest that the motives measured by
that scale are very important to you. Scores of 15 to 19 suggest that the motives measured by that
scale are moderately important. Scores from 10 to 14 are low and suggest that the motives
measured by that scale are not especially important to you. Scores below 10 are quite low and
suggest that the motives measured by that scale are not at all important to you. Use the chart
below to see how your four scores compare, one to the other. An interpretive guide follows, to help
you determine the meaning of these scores to you.

Plotting Your Scores

Plot your scores on the chart below by placing an “X” mark at about the point representing your
Total for that column. Then, connect the X’s to form a plot line. To the extent that your scores fall
within the shaded area, your responses are typical of scores obtained from various groups,
including salespersons, supervisors, team leaders, managers, and store managers. Scores that are
above the shaded area suggest that category of motives is very important to you. Scores that fall
below the shading indicate that category of motives is not especially important to you.

Safety/ Social/ Self- Self-

Security Belonging Esteem Actualization

Very High 24 24 24 25

High 22 21 21 23
Importance

Average 18 18 18 20

Low 14 13 14 16

Very Low 9 8 8 11

Page 6 Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

 Interpretive Guide
One of the most common questions managers ask is, “How do you motivate people?” There have
been many different answers and more than a few fads over the years, all in response to this
question. Some of these fads and fashions are: human relations, human resources, behaviorism,
shaping, reward and punishment, job enlargement, goal setting, job rotation… the list goes on and
on. Yet managers keep asking, “How do you motivate people? How do I get my employees to do
what I want them to, to do what needs to be done? After all, it’s my job to motivate them—but I
don’t have any guidelines. Maybe there aren’t any; maybe it’s all personality… leadership… and
luck.”

It may be, however, that the greatest part of the problem is hidden in the above complaint. That is,
the problem is in the assumption some managers make that their job is to somehow change
employees. We all sometimes think that if we could only change people by instilling in them this
thing called motivation, then their behavior would come into line with what we wish it would be.
This chain of logic is, however, incorrect. It is simply not true that managers must change
employees, must somehow put into them this mythical quality called motivation so that the
employees will perform as desired and get the job done. It is incorrect because no one can give
another person motivation. This doesn’t mean that the problem is hopeless; rather, it directs us
toward the real question: What can managers do to capitalize on the motivation that people are
born with? To answer this new question we must first think about what it is that employees want.

Over the years there have been many attempts to address this issue. In part, the answer you get
depends on whom you ask. That is, if you ask a personnel psychologist you might get a discourse
on the need for improved job evaluation and appraisal systems tied closely to rewards. If you ask a
management psychologist you might be told of the need for meaningful work. Asking the same
question of a social-organizational psychologist might get you the answer that to be motivating
work must be redefined and redesigned, with a team focus and the involvement of self-managing
work groups. Finally, ask an organizational change consultant and you could get a presentation on
the need for organizational leadership that builds an effective culture. Who is right, then? Which
answer or approach is correct?

All of the approaches just listed have some truth to them. None is flat-out wrong, but none is right
enough to be labeled as “the” answer. As you may have guessed, there is no simple answer.
Rather, there is a set of answers that, taken together, can help supervisors and managers
understand how to develop an effective approach to motivation. Where we must begin is with the
individual. Only if we start by understanding the motivation within people can we see how it
might be tapped and organizationally directed. With an understanding of what it is that motivates
people we can look at ways to apply that understanding.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation

The MbM Questionnaire measures your internal motivations, as you see them. The psychologist
Abraham Maslow developed the underlying model more than fifty years ago. He observed that we
are all born with certain built-in motives—the need for food and air, for example. Hungry infants
cry; they don’t need to be motivated to eat. As we mature into adults other motives appear. Some
are learned through interactions with others. Maslow identified five basic categories of motives,
and these categories have held up rather well in research. By understanding these categories,
managers can make use of the motivation everyone comes to work with. The MbM Questionnaire

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D. Page 7

is designed to help you understand your own motives, in the context of the five categories of
motives. You will then be better able to look for the specific categories of motives that are most
important to other individuals. That is, you will know what to look for and what kinds of
questions to ask to find out what it is that motivates another person. This way, managers can learn
what employees want, what motivates them. By providing what employees want in return for
effective job performance, managers can use employees’ motivation to get the job done.

Survival Needs. The most basic category of motives centers on survival. Such needs include food,
water, air, and shelter from the elements. We are all born with these needs and to some extent they
motivate our behavior throughout our lives. Yet, in our society, these survival needs are
reasonably well fulfilled for most people. Even when we hear, as we all too often do, of a homeless
person who has frozen to death on the street for lack of shelter from the cold, we don’t merely
think about why this person was unable to find shelter. Rather, we wonder why the individual
wouldn’t accept the offer of shelter that is almost always made to those out in the cold on a winter
night. It is certainly not likely that a person with a steady job in an organization will have any of
the most basic needs unfulfilled. Again, too frequently the working poor must rely on city shelters
or even sleep in cars or small trailers. But that’s not the same as literally struggling for physical
survival. Thus, The MbM Questionnaire doesn’t measure survival needs. Anyone completing this
questionnaire is almost certain to have survival needs fulfilled and will not be motivated to any
great extent by these very basic human needs.

Safety and Security Needs. The first scale of The MbM Questionnaire is a measure of one’s safety
and security needs. These needs are longer range than the most basic survival needs. That is, we
often speak of economic security, of a comfortable standard of living, and of a feeling of safety. In
the United States and most Western countries, organizations usually provide for these needs with
money paid directly to employees in exchange for their work. In some other countries, such as
Japan, many organizations provide living accommodations to their employees, along with
company health clinics. But in either case, the needs related to these motives are provided as a fact
of employment and membership in the organization. In American companies, pay raises are often
used to reward exceptional performance, and this may have some effect on safety and security
need satisfaction. However, unless an employee is living under very difficult circumstances, pay is
not likely to serve as a strong motivator for safety and security needs. Of course, this isn’t to say
that pay does not motivate performance. But when this is the case, it is usually because money can
be used to meet many different needs. Money is, as social commentator George Will puts it,
“fungible.” That is, money can easily be directed toward a wide range of uses and aims.

Safety and security are especially important for some individuals who, for one reason or another,
did not have these needs met in the past. Even when circumstances have changed, people may still
have intense feelings about safety and security. Such problems are not always in the distant past.
In recent years many organizations have reduced the size of their work forces dramatically. Fear of
layoffs due to downsizing has become endemic. Even companies with a history of no layoffs, like
IBM, have downsized or reengineered employees out of jobs. For people in imminent danger of
losing their jobs, safety and security are certain to be of immediate and primary concern. Thus, one
cannot ignore this category of motivation; for various reasons, some within the person and some in
the environment, concern for safety and security will always be an issue for some (and, perhaps,
for many) employees. Even so, safety and security needs are not likely to serve as strong, general
motives for most employees.

Page 8 Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

Social and Belonging Needs. The second MbM scale measures social needs, the feeling of and
need for belonging, for interaction with others in the context of a lasting relationship. For
employees motivated by such needs, an obvious managerial action might be to spend time with
that person. This would enable the manager and employee to develop a positive interpersonal
relationship. This is possible, but only to a degree. On the one hand, only supervisors and
managers who are unskilled would not bother to learn employees’ names and nicknames. Only the
most socially inept supervisors would fail to show at least superficial friendliness and personal
concern for their relationships with employees. However, no manager really has the time to
develop strong interpersonal relationships with each of many employees. One way to provide for
this need and to use social motivation productively is to design jobs that are accomplished by
groups or teams. This creates a situation in which the best way for employees to satisfy belonging
needs is to work with others to get the job done. This has the advantage of making unnecessary the
sort of socialization on the job (idle conversation and such) that may be detrimental to work
performance.

A team management approach is still another way that managers can tap the motivation related to
social and belonging needs. This might be as simple as a brief group meeting one or more times a
week, or as extensive as a formal team delegation system. There are many ways to build
productive social interaction into work so that it is beneficial to rather than detracting from task
accomplishments. One of the more interesting challenges presented by technological developments
is that of maintaining teamwork while making effective use of such innovations as groupware and
telecommuting. These and other innovations may keep employees physically apart and thus make
the very existence of a team uncertain.

Self-Esteem Needs. Many people, perhaps most, are motivated by a search for the feeling that
they are worthwhile as individuals: they matter. The need for self-esteem is the focus of the third
category of human motivation that was identified by Maslow and is assessed by The MbM
Questionnaire. Obviously, managers can be sure to praise employees for good work or for special
achievements. It’s also possible to set up jobs so that employees have a chance to feel that they
have accomplished something as a result of their work efforts. That is, repeating one or a few
simple operations over and over, without end, cannot provide a person with the sense of
meaningful task accomplishment that results in self-esteem. Managers can also design jobs so that
workers have real control over their work activities. This makes sure that employees can connect
their work accomplishments to their own efforts, a necessary condition if one is to derive self-
esteem from one’s work. Jobs can also be set up to have a “wholeness” or completeness to them,
with a clear start and finish. If possible, a real product or concrete results that one can point to can,
again, help workers develop and build self-esteem.

Still, many jobs are small in scale; managers might argue that you can’t make a big deal over every
minor task or job activity. Here the earlier suggestion of using teams might help resolve the
problem. That is, research shows that team members identify closely with the achievement of the
team, almost to the same degree as if they each had done the entire job. By using a team that has
some defined responsibility for the job, it is possible to tap both social/belonging needs and self-
esteem needs. There are many other kinds of recognition that can be used to satisfy the need for
self-esteem: formal awards, such as “employee of the month,” production records openly
displayed on bulletin boards, public praise, and so on. The list is limited only by the manager’s
imagination.

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D. Page 9

Self-Actualization Needs. The final scale on The MbM Questionnaire centers on what Maslow
thought to be the highest level of human motivation: the search for self-development and the effort
to become all that one can be. Maslow called this self-actualization. Most people want to self-
actualize, at least to some degree. Just how important a motive this is will vary from person to
person. Your score on this scale can give you an indication of the strength of your own motivation
in this regard. You may also think about and come to a better understanding of the self-
actualization needs of others. Most employees want some challenge on the job. This means feeling
that one is not merely using one’s present skills but that one is also acquiring new skills and
knowledge. Managers can pay attention to such needs and tap this motivation by acting as good
developers of people. They can plan and make developmental job assignments. Employees may be
given the opportunity to learn new skills through formal training. Managers can assign employees
new tasks and help them set new goals. These are only a few of the many ways that effective
managers create opportunities for growth and development and thus manage by motivation.

Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory

Maslow gives us a sound basis for understanding what motives people may have. Another
psychologist, Frederick Herzberg, turned the focus to what might be done to design work to
appeal to what Maslow saw as the higher-order motives, that is, self-esteem and self-actualization.
In what has become the most reprinted article of all time from the Harvard Business Review,
Herzberg argued that safety and security are ineffective motivational factors. This is because,
according to Herzberg, they aren’t really motivators at all. These needs come to one’s attention
only when they are substantially unfulfilled. Few people strive for more safety or more security
once these needs are satisfied. This may seem little more than repetition and elaboration of what
Maslow asserted, yet there is a difference: Herzberg concentrates on exactly what managers can do
to tap the higher-order motives.

Herzberg tells managers that it is important to provide employees with a reasonable salary, a
degree of job security, and safe and comfortable working conditions. However, he goes on to
explain that added focus on these matters cannot contribute to motivation or performance
improvement. Instead, Herzberg concentrates on exactly what managers can do to tap what
Maslow called the higher-order motives. In particular, Herzberg focuses on self-esteem needs and
the need for self-actualization. He observes that jobs must be designed with several factors in
mind: achievement, responsibility, meaningfulness, and recognition.

Managers must design the work to make it possible for employees to derive a sense of achievement.
This means that there must be a whole job that one can start and finish, with a product of some
sort. The work must also build in a degree of responsibility on the part of employees. An
achievement is real and personally meaningful only when one feels responsible for that
accomplishment. These and other factors relate to what Herzberg called the work itself as a
motivator. That is, the work itself should hold some meaning and interest for the employee. This
doesn’t mean tailoring the job to the interests of the worker, nor does it require that jobs be
challenging. Rather, Herzberg would have all jobs designed so that the average worker would not
be bored and would be able to use his or her abilities to do the job. Finally, Herzberg points out
that recognition for one’s accomplishments is an important motivator. Recognition should, in
Herzberg’s theory, be used extensively. Supervisors should, for example, make sure that
employees know that the supervisor is aware of employees’ accomplishments. Managers can use
formal recognition awards, too. These may be financial, non-financial, or symbolic. An employee

Page 10 Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

might, for example, receive a special bonus for developing a way to reduce costs. Or, a recognition
award could be non-financial, such as a special parking place or being taken out to lunch. Finally, a
symbolic recognition award might consist of one’s picture along with a story in the company
newsletter.

All of these job design factors are consistent with Maslow’s theory. Maslow says, in essence, that
managers must find out what the employee wants and then find a way to provide it. Herzberg
identifies many specific ways, all centered on the job. Where Maslow and Herzberg do differ is in
their assumptions about what might motivate employees. Herzberg argues that the lower-level
need categories, which he calls hygiene factors, should be provided for but must not divert
attention from the higher-order needs. In Herzberg’s theory these higher-order needs, the need for
self-esteem and for self-actualization, are the only needs that can motivate people to perform better
and achieve more.

Herzberg gives managers valuable and concrete guidance about how to motivate employees. He
explains how to build motivation into the job, through achievement, responsibility, meaningful
work, and recognition. That’s why job enrichment, a term and practice that Herzberg invented, has
become so widely accepted in organizations. Job enrichment shows managers how to make more
effective use of employee motivation.

What Works?
What makes Maslow’s theory so useful is that it reflects the way people generally think about what
they want. That is, the categories Maslow defined hold up in our everyday experience as well as in
research. Herzberg’s approach takes these concepts—the need categories—and shows managers
how to put them to practical use in the work setting. Research is clear in showing that Herzberg’s
job enrichment approach leads to improved performance as well as to increased job satisfaction.
Neither Maslow’s nor Herzberg’s ideas have proven to be completely correct or to give us a
complete answer to the question, “How do you motivate people?” Managers can, however, use
Maslow’s ideas to learn what employees want. And this can help them target their applications of
Herzberg’s approach, to best meet the needs of employees. Thus, by using some aspects of each
approach, managers can become more effective at managing by motivation.

Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D. Page 11

 Management by Motivation
There are many ways for managers to improve job performance by using the motivation that
employees bring with them to work. We’ve provided a number of specific suggestions, but these
are examples rather than prescriptions. There are three keys to management by motivation.
Maslow gives us the first key: understanding the categories of motives (or needs) as based on his
theory. This can best be explored by examining one’s own motives, using The MbM Questionnaire.

The second key opens the door to understanding what others want, specifically what employees
want and need. Maslow’s theory is the basis for this, too, but it doesn’t specify how to do it. To
find out what it is that individual employees want, managers need certain skills. They can then get
information from employees about where they stand in terms of Maslow’s framework and what
specific needs are important to a particular individual. One clue is the behavior of the employee;
managers can learn a great deal just by observing employees’ actions. But a more direct way to find
out what needs are important to employees is to ask them. One might even ask individuals to
complete The MbM Questionnaire and then discuss their scores with them. Or, a manager might
use the questions it contains as a guide for talking to employees about their needs and motives.
Managers should not assume that the motives important to employees are all that different from
their own. One consistent research finding is that rank and file employees’ motives are not much
different from the motives of their managers. Even so, managers typically believe that there are
substantial differences. That is, managers tend to think that employees are more interested in
lower-level needs, especially safety and security. But, as Herzberg points out, employees as well as
their managers are far more likely to be motivated by needs in the higher-order categories of self-
esteem and self-actualization. In any case, there is an art to asking questions in a way that shows
interest and concern and leads to discovering specific wants and needs. This takes skill; it’s easy to
turn people off with embarrassing questions or just by appearing inappropriately nosy. Some
degree of care is always appropriate when dealing with others’ feelings about people, work, and
themselves. Still, honest discussions can be very productive and help managers determine just
what it is that a worker wants. A manager can then see about finding ways to meet individual
employees’ needs.

This leads to the third key: designing jobs so that the work itself provides opportunities for
individuals to satisfy many or most of their needs. This is especially important with regard to the
need for self-esteem and the need for self-actualization, but needs for safety and security—
Herzberg’s hygiene factors—can’t be ignored. We’ve mentioned a number of specific factors here.
The work should be complicated enough to be interesting. Tasks must have a start and an end, so
that they can be completed and produce a sense of achievement. And job activities should be set
up so as to involve others in working to accomplish the task together as a team.

Although it is very difficult to change people, it is quite possible—and a lot easier—to use their
motivation to change their work behavior and improve work performance. First understand
yourself. Then understand others. And, finally, try to apply what you have learned to manage by
motivation.

Page 12 Copyright © 1986, 1990, 1996 by Marshall Sashkin, Ph.D.

About the Author
Marshall Sashkin is professor of human resource development at The George Washington
University. He teaches graduate courses in the area of management and organization
development, leadership, consulting skills, and research design and methods. Marshall received
his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and earned his
Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan in 1970. Since then he has
conducted research, taught at several universities, and consulted with numerous public and
private sector organizations (including the American Red Cross, TRW, GE, and American
Express). From 1979 to 1984 he was professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the
University of Maryland. For nine years after that, he served as senior associate in the Office of
Educational Research and Improvement, the research application arm of the United States
Department of Education. In that position he developed and guided applied research aimed at
improving the organization and management of schools. Marshall has authored or co-authored
more than fifty research reports and over a dozen books, including Putting Total Quality
Management to Work (with Kenneth J. Kiser; Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco,
California). He is the author of many questionnaire instruments widely used in both research and
executive development programs, including the Conflict Style Inventory, The Visionary Leader
(Leader Behavior Questionnaire) and The MbM Questionnaire (Managing by Motivation), all of
which are now available from HRD Press.
• Notes •