Motivation in Workplace - Essay Example

The earlier theories of motivation include the work of many pioneers in the field such as Herzberg, Maslow etc and attempted to analyse and evaluate the motivation within work environment. However, the literature on the subject has evolved over the period of time to include many important and new topics also. This essay will look into the motivation concepts and theories as outlined in the work of Maslow, Aldefer, and Herzberg besides discussing the motivation theory of acquired needs. It is also important to understand that this paper will attempt to analyse above mentioned theories with respect to FBI- an American agency involved in criminal justice.

Maslow's theory of motivation is one of the earliest attempts to study motivation and it advocated a systematic and staged process of motivation. According to this theory, in order to motivate an employee, it is necessary that first the physical needs of the employee are taken care off. . FBI agents though might have a good pay and most of their physical needs are fulfilled however their social security and safety stage may not be achieved. One of the most critical flaws in Maslow's theory of motivation is the fact that it advocates that an employee cannot proceed to next stage if her needs at the earliest stage are not fulfilled therefore though given the nature of the job of FBI agents, their social security and safety may not be guaranteed by their employer.

In this regards, Maslow's theory of motivation may not be the appropriate theory to achieve employee motivation until it allow the skipping of various stages of motivation.Aldefer's theory of motivationAldefer's ERG theory is another attempt to look at the motivation in much broader level as compared to the Maslow's theory. ERG theory is also a hierarchical in nature as that of Maslow's however it attempts to reduce the stages of motivation and classify the human needs into three classes or stages.

Existence, Relatedness and Growth are three stages of motivation as outlined by Aldefer.The first level of motivation which is of existence suggest that in order to motivate an employee it is important that the employee's physiological needs are fulfilled first and then followed by the security needs. Since FBI is a crime investigation agency and most of its employees are directly involved into crime investigation which involve possible threat to the life therefore again like Maslow's theory, the safety needs of the employee are not being guaranteed by FBI.

It is important to note that FBI has in place different benefits for its employees including Health Insurance benefits, life insurance benefits, retirement