Organization Behavior Motivation - Case Study Example

Application of motivation theories Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Table of content 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Motivation theories 3 2.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs 3 2.2 Alderfers ERG theory 4 2.3 Herzberg’s Two- Factor theory 4 2.4 Adam’s equity theory 5 3.0 Similarities and differences 5 3.1 similarities 5 3.2 Differences 6 4.0 Application 7 4.1 Hierachy of Needs & ERG theory 7 4.2 Herzberg’d Two-factor theory 8 4.3 Adam’s Equity theory 9 5.0 Conclusion 9 References 10 1.0 Introduction Motivation theories seek to explain how and even why human behavior is activated. The theories can be categorized into two broad classes: content and process theories. Content theories explain what motivates people and it focuses on individual goals and needs. Content theories include theories from Maslow, Herzberg, McCelland and Alderfer. Process theories are those theories that explain how motivation occurs. They include theories from Vroom, Locke, Porter and Adams. This essay will focus on the motivational models of Maslow, Aldefer, Herzberg and Adams and the similarities and differences of these theories. It will also discuss how a manager could apply each of these theories to help reduce the problems of involuntary absenteeism in the workplace. 2.0 Motivation Theories 2.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to Mullins (2005), needs are divided into five levels and people seek to satisfy higher needs when their lower needs have already been fulfilled. When a lower need is fully satisfied, it ceases to be a motivation for human behavior. Needs can only be a source of motivation if they are not satisfied. First level needs are known as the physiological needs and they include food, air and water. The 2nd level needs are known as safety or security needs and they include health, job safety, well being, and safety against work accidents and protection against emotional harm. The third level needs are known as social needs. This is the need to feel a sense of belonging, to be loved and to be accepted. Individuals satisfy through affection, friendship, family and acceptance. The fourth level needs are known as self esteem needs. This is the need to have self respected and to be respected by others. This need provides satisfaction in terms of self confidence, achievement, power, recognition, attention, and prestige status. The highest level need is known as self actualization need. It is the drive to realize ones full potential. This can be through growth, self fulfillment and achieving ones potential (enotes,2012) . 2.2 Alderfer’s ERG Theory Alderfer simplified the hierarchy of needs by Maslow by categorizing them into 3 broad classes known as ERG, where E stands for Existence needs, R stands for Relatedness needs as well as G for Growth needs. Existence needs are the same as Physiological and security need of Maslow’s theory while relatedness needs are the same as to social and esteem needs by Maslow. Growth needs are those needs that relate to achieving one’s full potential and they are similar to Self actualization needs by Maslow’s. 2.3 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory According to Akrani (2010), Herzberg argued that there are two factors affect motivation and they do so in different ways. The first set of factors is known as hygiene factors. This refers to those factors that cause dissatisfaction if an employee views them as inequitable or inadequate. However, adequacy of these factors does not significantly motivate the employees. That means that presence of these factors means that employees are simply not dissatisfied but not satisfied. These factors are intrinsic and they involve job security, remuneration, working conditions, and company policy and job security. The other set of factors is known as motivators. These are factors that affect satisfaction and they include recognition, achievement, growth, advancement and responsibility. If these factors are inadequate, they prevent job satisfaction but contribute very little to job satisfaction. Therefore, when these factors are present, employees tend to be satisfied but absence of these factors leave employees not satisfied and not necessarily dissatisfied (Mullins, 1996). 2.4 Adam’s Equity Theory According to Adam, individuals are normally motivated by their view of the reward structure as being fair or unfair in relation to the inputs. The theory argues that if a person perceives the reward system to be fair as compared to those that are given to others in similar position in other organization, then the person feels satisfied. Employees seek to strike a balance (equity) between what they bring to the organization (inputs) and the outcomes that they receive from this job (enotes,2012) . 3.0 Similarities and differences between these theories 3.1 Similarities Maslow, Alderfer and Herzberg’s theory are all content theories. They are all associated with the forces that are within an individual. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Alderfer’s ERG Theory and Herzberg Two factor theory are similar in the following ways: All theories use a hierarchical scale where needs in one stage must satisfied to a large extent before moving on to the needs in the next level (Cherry,2012) All theories argue that individuals behave the way they do in the process of trying to satisfy their intrinsic needs (Cherry,2012) Herzberg’s hygiene factors are the same as Physiological, Social and safety needs by Maslow as they both have the same criterion which is the working condition, salaries, job security and others. Also the Herzberg’s motivators are similar to Maslow’s self actualization and self esteem needs (Akrani,2010). Just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ERG theory and 2-factor theory, Adam’s equity theory argues that high levels of motivation as well as positive outwork from employees can only be received if they perceive that they are being treated fairly. The idea of the Equity theory was to strike a balance between input and outputs. If this balance favors employers, the employees will work hard to strike a balance between the inputs and the output (enotes,2012). 3.2 Differences According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the lower level needs have to be satisfied completely before moving to the other higher level needs. However according to Alderfer’s ERG Theory, although these needs are a hierarchy, one class of needs may remain stronger than the other. He suggests that over on need may be activated at a time. He also suggested that needs in the lower levels need not be satisfied fully before the higher level needs become a motivators. Alderfer’s theory also argues that if a person is not in a position to satisfy their higher level needs, they will move backwards to the lower level needs which will then become a motivator. The differences between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two-factor theory are summarized in the table below: Maslow’s Theory of Motivation Herzberg’s theory of Motivation This theory is on the basis of the concept of human needs and their satisfaction The theory is based on motivators which include recognition, growth opportunities and achievement It is based on a hierarchy of five human needs Based on hygiene and motivating factors where Hygiene factors are known to dissatisfy while motivating factors usually motivate individuals Nature of Theory: It is descriptive and simple and is based long experience about individual needs The theory is prescriptive and It proposes the motivating factors that can effectively be used Stages: Maslow argued that every stage of the 5 needs have to be satisfied largely or completely before moving on to the next stage It proposes that there were only two stages (hygiene and motivators) instead of 5 Motivators: any need can be a motivator so long as it is not satisfied it is not satisfied. It suggests that satisfying each stage is a motivator Lower level needs are not motivators while the higher order needs are motivators. Satisfying the hygiene factors only makes the employee to be neutral in state and motivation and satisfaction comes from stage 2 (motivator) Source: Akrani (2010) 4.0 Application of the motivation theories Employers must constantly motivate their employees to reduce absenteeism, labour turnover and increase productivity. This section analyses how employers can use each of the motivation theories described above to motivate workers and hence solve the problem of abseenteism. 4.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and Alderfer’s ERG theory Maslow recognized that the very basic need have to be satisfied before moving on to the other needs. Employers should ensure that the basic salary they give to the employees is enough to cater for food, shelter and clothing. To cater for these needs, the employer could provide for housing allowance to the employees. To address the security need, the employer must consider the physical as well as the psychological safety. The employer should ensure that the working environment has no safety hazards such as untapped electrical wires, boxes, broken furniture and even equipment which could cause injury to the employee. Employers should also consider hiring employees based on employment contract to give the employee a sense of security for their job (Ken & Param, n.d). To cater for the social needs of the employee, the employer should consider developing programs that offer opportunities for employees to participate and interact with each other. The employer may even provide for a networking period after work for people to socialize. The employer could organize for group luncheons to give employees a chance to learn and share ideas. To meet the self esteem needs, the employer should ensure that they recognizing employee’s accomplishments, acknowledging their knowledge and expertise and respect the employees. To meet the self actualization needs, there is need is need to provide coaching, training, mentoring and provide employees with growth opportunities such as promotion (Ken & Param n.d) . Alderfer’s ERG theory relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Existence needs are similar to Maslow’s two level needs and therefore the employer should ensure that the employee has fair salary to cater for shelter, food and clothing. Relatedness needs are similar to Maslow’s 3rd and 4th level needs and the employer should provide employees with chances to interact and recognize them for their accomplishments. Growth needs are similar to Maslow’s Self-actualization needs. In a work setting, the employer should provide opportunities for growth while building the employee’s self esteem (Beardwell, I. et al.,2004) 4.2 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory According to Lindner (1998) Hygiene factors provides the employee with a favourable environment for motivation. If the employer is unable to give these factors, the employees will have job dissatisfaction. For this reason, the employer should ensure that the company’s policies are favourable, give a competitive salary, ensure job security and ensure favourable working conditions. Herzberg suggests that employers should motivate their employees by embracing a democratic style of leadership as well as improving the content and the nature of the job so as to motivate the workers. Motivating factors are those that relate to the work itself. These factors create a positive as well as a lasting effect on the performance of the employee as well as motivate the employees in their place of work as they fulfill life’s basic and psychological growth. An employer should seek to provide employees with motivating factors as they increase the productivity and efficiency of the employees. Employers can help the employees to feel more appreciated and hence reducing absenteeism by providing these factors. For a highly skilled, middle class and well paid employees, the employer should seek to provide motivators while for a young, unskilled, low paid worker, the employer should seek to provide hygiene factors. (Lindner,1998) . 4.3 Adam’s Equity Theory According to Adam’s equity theory, employees are usually motivated to reduce the inequity. Employees measure their inputs and output and for these reason the employer should seek to strike a balance. For instance, a worker who feels that they are under paid or under rewarded may resort to working less hard. In such a case, the employer should ensure that there is competitive pay for all workers and that they are rewarded for accomplishments (Lindner, 1998). 5.0 Conclusion From the above analysis, the motivation theories analyzed indicate that motivation is as a result of many factors some being external and others internal. The theories have their similarities as well as their differences. However from all the theories analyzed above, we can conclude that motivation has a direct impact on the performance of the job and hence absenteeism. Employees who are not motivated will not work as productively as they would if they were motivated. Employees who are not motivated will find all reasons to stay away from work or coming to work late as it is no longer a motivation. For this reason, employers should seek to motivate their workers so as to reduce the problem of absenteeism. References Akrani G (2010) Frederick Herzberg's Two Factor Theory - Motivation Hygiene Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/06/frederick-herzberg-two-factor-theory.html Beardwell, I. et al. (2004) (4th Edition) Human Resource Management a Contemporary Approach Prentice Hall, Harlow enotes (2012) Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://www.enotes.com/maslows-hierarchy-needs-reference/maslows-hierarchy-needs enotes (2012) Motivation and Motivation Theory Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://www.enotes.com/motivation-motivation-theory-reference/motivation-motivation-theory Cherry K (2012) Hierarchy of Needs-The Five Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm Ken Shah & Param J. Shah (n.d) Theories of Motivation Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://www.laynetworks.com/Theories-of-Motivation.html Lindner J. R (1998) Understanding Employee Motivation. 36 (3) Retrieved on 9th March 2012 from http://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.php Mullins, L (1996) (4th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour, Pitman Publishing, London Mullins, L (2005) (7th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Edinburgh Read More