As Most Theories on Motivation Are Ethnocentric In Nature, They Have Little Value in A Geocentric World - Essay Example

As Most Theories on Motivation Are Ethnocentric In Nature, They Have Little Value in A Geocentric World’. Critically Discuss the Above ment Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Ethnocentrism and Geo-centrism 4 3.0 Motivational Theories 5 4.0 Conclusion 12 References 13 Bibliography 16 1.0 Introduction The motivation theory of an organisation is based on the need satisfaction of individuals. Different theories of motivation have been proposed by different scholars in different ways in order to understand the motivational levels of employees along with job satisfaction. In the motivational theories, the concept of ethnocentrism has been included. Ethnocentrism denotes that the attitude of an individual is to consider the outside group as lower and one’s own group as higher. This signifies that ethnocentric behaviours are included in certain organisations and accordingly a few theories of motivation have been depicted. All the theories of motivation are proposed by considering the psychological factor of individuals rather than social and socio-psychological factors. In these theories, the human psychology is provided prior importance thus it may not be used in all the conditions of global environment. The geo-centric approach is not considered in motivational theories. Geo-centric approach focuses on staffing of various individuals from all over nations in order to hire the best one for company’s growth. Ethnocentrism is not beneficial for present globally changing scenario. In this paper, it has been discussed precisely about the reasons that ‘several theories of motivation are ethnocentric in nature but they are not geo centric’. Several theories of motivation have been discussed in this paper along with relevant reasons. 2.0 Ethnocentrism and Geo-centrism Ethnocentrism is considered as types of attitudes as well as behaviours of various individuals. Ethnocentrism behaviour involves cooperation of members within groups and absence of cooperation outside groups. An individual with ethnocentric behaviour considers one’s group as superior and outside group as inferior and disgraceful. The implication of ethnocentrism is not only present in war and conflict rather it may be available in consumer choice. It also arises from the competition between individuals. There is no precise difference between the evolutionary procedures in order to deal with own group members and members of other groups (Axelrod & Hammond, 2003). In ethnocentrism facts, the psychological aspects of individuals possess both negative and positive outcomes. It may also cause misunderstanding and intercultural-willingness-to-communicate may get decreased. When the sensitivity of intercultural communication increases, the competence level also rises, but ethnocentrism acts as ‘an obstacle to intercultural communication competence’. The sensitivity of intercultural communication as well as multiculturalism encourages cultural diversity and maintains cultural appreciation so as to motivate the people for eliminating ethnocentrism (Dong & Et. Al., n.d.). The policy of ethnocentrism may lead to “cultural myopia” and the staffing of ethnocentric brings restriction in the development of opportunities in host nations (Hill, 2008). The staffing policy of geo-centric refers that the best individuals are required for the vital jobs in an overall organisation in spite of the nationality. This approach facilitates to develop strong unifying cultural aspects with informal networks of management. This strategy can be effectively utilised by an organisation employing either transnational or global strategy (Hill, 2008). The multinational corporation follows geo-centric staffing policy that may assist to develop global leadership opportunities for the corporations that had been apprehended through the staffing policies of ethnocentric as well as polycentric approach. It is possible to improve the sharing of cross-cultural knowledge along with learning all over organisation. There will be prospect for developing identity and mindset of MNC as well as their global competency (Vance & Et. Al., 2010). There is a great advantage of using geo-centric approach as it assists firm to utilise its human resources efficiently and as a result both organisations and individuals would be benefited. The international executives perform in diverse cultures. The disadvantages also exist in geo-centric policy due to the dilemma regarding the immigration laws and high cost for strategy executions (Hill, 2008). 3.0 Motivational Theories Maslow’s Theory The theory of motivation initiates with the concept of need that is related to physiology and psychology for stimulating an individual to achieve goals. Motivation means “act of stimulating someone or oneself to get desired course of action to push right button to get desired reactions”. Various factors of motivation are present within an individual that urge one to attain goals. The factors may be both monetary and non-monetary (Management Consulting Courses, n.d.). The theories of motivation have been proposed by different scholars in various ways. The need theory of Maslow covers five basic needs of human namely psychological need, safety need, social need, esteem need and self actualisation need. The psychological need is the initial need of motivation theory. The psychological need and consummatory behaviour provide channel for all kinds of other needs of motivation. This need is considered to be pre-potent of all other needs. Individuals try to fulfil the psychological needs at the initial stage. When the other needs remain unsatisfied then the individual is dominated by psychological need. After gratification of this need, safety need augments in an individual that tempts them to get safety and security from the surroundings, or organisation in which they work. The needs are related to the psychological status of an individual and it has no connection with the society. The satisfaction of these two needs facilitate to the development of social need. An individual here strives for love as well as belongingness needs in order to fulfil the basic need (Maslow, 2000). The esteem need is the fourth need that takes place only when the first three needs get fulfilled. People have a desire for stability, prestige, self-respect and self-esteem. When this need gets accomplished, an individual develops self-confidence, strength and capability. The dissatisfaction of this need may develop inferior feeling, weakness, less confidence and discouragement. The last need includes self-actualisation need. This type of need varies considerably from person-to-person. This need develops prior to satisfaction of other needs (Maslow, 2000). The need theory of Maslow is entirely based on psychological concept. It has no connection with the perspective of socio-psychological and psychological concepts. His theory may only be valuable culturally (Dye & Et. Al, 2005). Maslow’s theory of motivation has been criticised by Hofstede. He was of the opinion that the pyramidal theory was completely based on ethnocentric nature. The theory failed to relate the differences between intellectual and social needs that arose in both individualistic as well as collectivist society. The theory was generally proposed on the basis of individualistic perspective as he belonged to the United States (Osten, 2011). The need of an individual in individualistic society is much self-centered compared to an individual in collectivist society. Individualistic society focuses on the development of self by means of self actualisation which is placed above self improvement. The hierarchy of need was developed from the perspectives of individuals, thus the self actualisation which was positioned at the top most stage of the hierarchy was not indicated as the need of collectivist society. In the collectivist society, motivation need for acceptance and community was given much priority than the need for individuality and freedom (College of the Red woods, n.d.). As the theory is based on ethnocentric behaviour of an individual, it has no importance in the geocentric world. In the present global scenario, ethnocentric behaviour is not much beneficial in an organisation. McClelland Theory The motivational need theory of McClelland refers that there are certain needs which are acquired by means of environmental interaction. The three motives in relation to theory are ‘need for achievement’, ‘need for power’ and ‘need for affiliation’. The three motives have an impact on the behaviour of an individual in an organisation’s work environment. An individual with strong need for achievement are opened to the workplace for attaining success by own efforts. Power motivation follows the promotion rates of managers that exhibit different patterns of motives. The motive for affiliation acts as negative factors for the performance of managers since it creates the managers to worry more for individuals and interfere with rationality as well as objectivity (Montana & Charnov, 2008). The motivational theory of McClelland is ethnocentric in nature. His theory was criticised and argued by Maehr as the cultural meaning of achievement widely facilitates to understand the differences in motivated behaviour without considering the ethnocentric judgments. The motive for achievement of McClelland provides emphasis to competition and accomplishment of individuals at the cost of cooperation and group goals (Kaplan & Et. Al., 2009). Maehr considers that the cultural significance of achievement has extensively helped to understand the variations within motivated behaviour by avoiding the casting of ethnocentric judgments. He argued that the theory of McClelland was suitable for the social scientific research. The motivation theory was considered as culturally myopic and did not result in intra-individual differences related to motivation behaviour (Kaplan & Et. Al., 2009). The need for respect, money and duty are avoided in ethnocentric observation of the world as provided by Maslow and McClelland (Slater & Strange, 1997). Herzberg Theory Fredrick Herzberg, in order to understand the motivation and attitude of an employee, conducted studies in order to determine the factors that generate satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the work environment of employees. The job satisfaction factors are different from the job dissatisfaction factors. Motivation-hygiene theory has been developed by him to understand the results. The satisfiers are termed as ‘motivators’ and dissatisfiers are termed as ‘hygiene factors’ (ABAHE, n.d.). Human needs are of two types that involve psychological need, those taken care by money and the psychology that is required to attain and grow. In this theory, the management provides both hygiene factors for employee satisfaction and intrinsic factors to satisfy the employees with their jobs. Job Enrichment is essential for intrinsic motivation (ABAHE, n.d.). The theory was not proposed by considering the society of individuals rather an individualistic perception has been included here. In an individualistic society, such theory can be applied which follow policy of ethnocentrism, but in collectivist society geo-centric policy is used. ERG Theory Alderfer in his need theory of motivation had identified three motives of human needs such as existence (E), relatedness (R) and growth (G). This theory was quite dissimilar from the McClelland’s and Maslow’s theories. According to this theory, R does not require pre-fulfilment of E and G does not require pre-satisfaction of R. All these needs are required to be fulfilled vice versa for effective motivation. Existence need of this theory is similar to the physiological as well as safety needs of Maslow. Relatedness need is related to the social and esteem need of individuals. Growth need of Alderfer relates to the top need of Maslow, i.e. self-actualisation need (Khuluzauri & Syed, 2010). In the theory of ERG, the concept had been drawn from the individualistic perspective and not through collectivism. This theory greatly relates to the Maslow’s need theory. Vroom’s Theory Vroom’s theory of motivation, also known as expectancy theory, refers that behaviour of an individual result from ‘conscious’ choice among various substitutes with a view to ‘maximise pleasure’ and ‘minimise pain’. The vital elements of this theory are Expectancy (E), Instrumentality (I) and Valence (V) (Management Consulting Courses, n.d.). An individual is concerned with the level of performance and have a preference over the level that provides them with positive results. Expectancy relates to the strength of the confidence and belief of an individual regarding the choice of attainment of specific job performance. Instrumentality means probability of belief that connects one result with another result. Variance is the emotional orientations that an individual keeps with regard to outcomes. These three factors are related to the psychological perspective of an individual that strive for motivational force (Management Consulting Courses, n.d.). The theory lacks in social aspects of an individual and is only focused on individual aspects. Collectivism policy has no involvement with Vroom’s theory. Individuals only think for the welfare of their own benefits. Moreover, McClelland, Herzberg, Alderfer and Vroom’s theory had been derived from Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of need theory’. As Maslow’s theory is based on individualistic approach of the United States and the other collectivism approaches had been avoided, these three theories also follow the same perspectives. These theories may not be reliable in present multinational companies where all the individuals are hired from the global corner. The individual providing emphasis to ones’ own perspective may not be able to function in global scenario. In the ethnocentric approach, managers, leaders and specialists are hired from the local area or culture where the parent organisation has been located. Various issues may arise due to ethnocentrism in organisation. This includes the level of international staff sensitivity as well as adaptation into the local condition. The motivation of local employees perceives that there is constraint management growth and promotional opportunities for local individuals and dual standards of employment promotion and terms are present for expatriates and local employees (Morden, 2007). In the global business market, ethnocentric policy had no role rather it creates biasness in an organisation. The multinational companies prefer to follow geo-centric approach for the development of the business rather than the ethnocentric approach. In order to achieve a competitive edge in the market, MNCs are avoiding these theories which have no connection with the reality in present scenario as they primarily focus on ethnocentric policy. The ethnocentric policy in an organisation limits its growth and creates biasness thereby hindering its growth. The above mentioned theories have been criticised for several unreliable approaches. The theory is confined only to the United States. The other regions were not focused while propounding the theories. 4.0 Conclusion With reference to the above discussion, it has been observed that the motivation theories are developed by considering the environmental scenario of an organisation. The theories are considerably different from the present viable scenario of business environment. The ethnocentric aspects are more related to the need theory of motivation, but the geocentric approach has no connection to the theories. The motivational theory of Maslow, McClelland, Herzberg and Alderfer focused primarily on individualistic features of an organisation. In present global business organisation, the individualist policy is not beneficial rather it brings biasness in an organisational environment. This factor can hinder the growth prospect of an organisation which in turn can make the organisation to remain confined within its local boundary. The globalisation aspect in the modern day scenario has caught the imagination of the global business community. Thus for a business to make progress in the global marketplace, it needs to make efficient use of motivational theories. The various scholars such as Maslow, Herzberg and others had developed the theories by mainly focusing on the United States which is an individualistic nation. Thus, their theories remain limited to a particular approach of individualism. The ethnocentrism has become an old concept compared to geo-centrism. 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