What is Motivation ?

degree to which a person

wants and chooses to behave
in certain ways.
What triggers Motivation?
Motivation begins with a need, and
searches for a way to satisfy it then

Theories of Work Motivation

CONTENT THEORIES
Focus on the factors that motivate people.
PROCESS THEORIES
Focus on the processes that increase or
reduce motivation

Content theories are

primarily concerned with what
specific needs or motives
energise people. If you feel
hungry (a physiological need),
you will feel a compulsion to
eliminate or satisfy that need
by eating

Process Theories
Why and how
Seek to understand the
thought processes that
take place in the minds of
people and that act to
motivate behaviour

 Content Theories of Motivation

aslows Hierarchy of Needs

 ERG theory is a more valid version of a need hierarchy, by

allowing more than one need to be operating
simultaneously

Existence

Relatedness

Growth

Herzberg : Two-factor
Theory of Motivation

McClellands Three Needs Theory

Need for Achievement (nAch)
The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a
set of standards, to strive to succeed
Need for Power (nPow)
The need to make others behave in a way
that they would not have behaved otherwise
Need for Affiliation (nAff)
The desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships

McGregors Theory X and Theory Y

Two distinct views of human beings: Theory X

(basically negative) and Theory Y (positive).
Managers used a set of assumptions based on
their view
The assumptions
molded
Theory X
Theory Ytheir behavior toward
employees
Workers have little
Workers are selfambition
Dislike work
Avoid responsibility

Copyright 2011 Pearson Education

directed
Enjoy work
Accept
responsibility

7-13

 MBO is a systematic way to utilize goalsetting.

Corporate goals are broken down into
smaller, more specific goals at each level
of organization.
Four common ingredients to MBO
programs:
Goal specificity
Participative decision making

Equity Theory
People will be
motivated
to the extent that they
perceive equity

Motivation is affected when

social comparison in the
workplace leaves people
feeling that work outcomes
are unfair or inequitable:
felt negative inequity
felt positive inequity

Felt negative inequity exists

when an individual feels that
they have received relatively
les than others have in
proportion to work inputs.
Felt positive inequity exists
when an individual feels that
they have received relatively
more than others have.

 Employee behaviors to restore equity:

1. Change inputs (slack off)

2. Change outcomes (increase output)
3. Distort/change perceptions of self
4. Distort/change perceptions of others
5. Choose a different referent person
6. Leave the field (quit the job)

Vrooms expectancy theory

Individuals are viewed as making conscious
decisions to allocate their behaviour towards
work efforts and to serve self-interests.
The three key terms in the theory are:
Expectancy
Instrumentality
Valence

Expectancy theory argues that work

motivation is determined by individual beliefs
about effort-performance relationships.

Instrumentality: The probability

that the individual assigns to a
level of achieved task
performance leading to various
work outcomes.
Valence: Represents the values
that the individual attaches to
various work outcomes

xpectancy theory

 Integrating process motivation theories

Predicting work performance and satisfaction

EMPOWERMENT ?
the process by which
managers delegate power to
employees to motivate greater
responsibility in balancing the
achievement of both personal
and organizational goals