During
the past years, many psychologists and management gurus have conducted
extensive research on various aspects of employees’ motivation and according to
Bartol and Martin (1998) the major theories of employee motivation can be
classified into three categories as follows.
- Needs
theory
- Cognitive theory
- Reinforcement theory
The
most popular Needs theory is well known as Maslow’s motivation theory of
hierarchical needs which includes five basic levels of needs which should be
satisfied consecutively (Stephens, 2000). Alderfer (1972) proposed an
alternative to Maslow’s theory known as ERG theory which consolidated five
levels of Maslow’s hierarchy into three levels namely existence (E),
relatedness (R), and growth (G). Herzberg et al. developed the two factor
(motivators and hygiene factors) theory in employee motivation and Herzberg
argued that eliminating the cause of dissatisfaction (through hygiene factors)
would not result in a state of satisfaction (or motivation). But satisfaction
would occur only as a result of the use of motivators (Oscar,Ali and
Erdener,2005). In the meantime, McClelland (1985) studied three types of needs
namely achievement, affiliation and power.
As
far as the cognitive theories are concerned, one of the best known cognitive
theories can be mentioned as the expectancy theory of employee motivation by Vroom (1964) who initially
argued that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the
strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and
on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual (Robbins, 1993). Hence,
Equity theory of motivation identifies that individuals prime concerns are not
only the actual rewards they receive for their efforts, but also with the
relationship of this amount of rewards what others get. Especially, when the
employees perceive that there is a mismatch or an imbalance in their outcome
versus input compared to the others, tension is created. Equity theory revolves
around three main assumptions and firstly, it is assumed that employees build
their own beliefs about constituting a fair and equitable return for their
contributions of their jobs. Secondly, it assumes that people tend to compare
what they perceive to be the exchange they have with their employers. The other
assumption is that when employees believe that their own treatment is not
equitable relative to the exchange they perceive others to be making, they will
be taking necessary measures which they deem appropriate (Carrell and
Dittrich,1978).According to the goal-setting theory, to motivate employees,
they should be given specific, measurable, challenging, time bound and
attainable organizational goals for which there should be rewards for the goal
accomplishment (Locke and Latham,2006).
The
reinforcement theories proposed by Skinner (1938) represents the inverse of cognitive theories which
suggests that the theories do not relate with human cognitive process.
According to reinforcement theory, employees’ behavior can be explained by the
consequences in the environment and owing to that it is not necessary to look
for cognitive explanations. Instead, it is highly relied on a concept called
the law of effect, which states behaviors having pleasant or positive
consequences are more likely to be repeated and behaviors having unpleasant or
negative consequences are less likely to be repeated (Bartol and Martin, 1998).
References
Alderfer,
C. P. (1972) Existence, relatedness, and
growth: Human needs in organizational settings. New York: Free Press.
Bartol, K.M. and Martin, D.C. (1998)
Management. 3rd edition. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Carrell, M.R. and Dittrich, J.E.
(1978) Equity theory: the recent literature, methodological considerations and
need directions. Academy of Management
Review, Volume 3 pp 202-10.
Locke,E.A. and Latham, G.P. (2006)
New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory. Current
directions in psychological science, 15 (5) 265-268.
McClelland, D.C. (1985) Human Motivation. Glenview: Scott.
Oscar,W.D. Ali,K. and
Erdener,K.(2005)Determinants of business student satisfaction and retention in
higher education: applying Herzberg’s two-factor theory. International Journal of Educational Management, 19(2) 128-139.
Robbins, S. (1993) Organizational Behavior. 6th edition.
Englewood Cliffs:Prentice Hall.
Skinner, B. F. (1938) The behavior of organisms: an experimental
analysis. New York: Appleton-Century.
Stephens,
D.C. (2000) The Maslow Business Reader.
Abraham H. Maslow. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Vroom, V.H. (1964) Work and motivation. New York: Wiley.
