MOTIVATION
What is motivation?
Motivation is the willingness of an employee to work hard or
to do extra effort to achieve goals that is perceived as
being meaningful and worthwhile
Demotivation exists when an employee has no interest/
enthusiasm for their work.
Motivation
“The desire to achieve a goal.”
“Some have the drive to achieve goals on their own but others need to
be pushed!”
◦
Motivation: The intrinsic and extrinsic factors that stimulate people to
take actions that lead to achieving a goal.
Intrinsic motivation: Comes from the satisfaction derived from working on
and completing a task. ( come within an individual employee)
Extrinsic motivation: Comes from external rewards associated with
working on a task, for example pay and other benefits.
Why motivation is important?
The benefits of having a highly motivated workers:
■ Higher morale and job satisfaction- which leads to improved productivity and quality
■ Better Industrial relations - reduces the chances of conflict in the workplace
■ Lower absenteeism- staff have incentives to turn up for work
■ Lower staff turnover- reduces the costs of hiring replacement staff
■ Improves corporate image- helps to attract customers and potential employees
■ Higher profitability- generated from combining the above benefits.
Warning signs of poor motivation in
the workplace
◦ High absenteeism rates – percentage of workforce that miss work without valid reasons
◦ High labor turnover rates – number of staff who leave as a percentage of the total
workforce
◦ High wastage level – a high percentage of defective output or substandard work
◦ Increasing number of customer complaints – because of the poorer quality of output
◦ Low-quality output – workers are more likely to make mistakes and care less about
quality
◦ Poor punctuality – poor timekeeping
◦ Increasing number of disciplinary problems – corrective measures are put into place to
deal less productive staff
Impact of motivation.
• Growth: High levels of labour productivity and low labour
turnover will support businesses in increasing the volume of
sales by providing increased output cost-effectively.
• Higher profits: Having well-motivated and very productive
employees assists businesses in producing products more
efficiently leading cost per unit to decrease. this helps to
increase profit
Motivation theories
motivation theories are based on considering what
motivates people and how motivation occurs.
Frederick Winslow (FW) Taylor (1911)- scientific management
◦ Taylor advocated that paying the workers more would motivate them
to produce more. His theory was known as the scientific management
under which it was assumed that money is the primary motivator and
would increase productivity. Also he stated that employees are
selected based on their abilities and not on what they MIGHT
potentially do.
◦ He brought a method of payment referred as the piece-rate system,
where the employees would be paid for each unit produced and
where division of labour was applied in the production process to
improve efficiency and output.
Federick W.Taylor scientific approach:
◦ Select workers to perform a task
◦ Observe them performing the task and note the key elements of it
◦ Record the time taken to do each part of the task
◦ Identify the quickest method recorded – he made use of division of labour
◦ Train all workers in this quickest method (specialization) and do not allow them to
make any changes in it. clear instruction were given to them on their duties.
◦ Supervise workers to ensure that this “best way’ is being carried out and to time
them to check that the set time is not being exceeded
◦ Pay workers on the basis of results-based on the theory of economic man.
Criticism of Taylor
◦ Ignoring the non-physical contributions of workers. difficult to implement in the service sector where
the jobs is focus on mental.
◦ He ignores non-financial factors which can motivate workers
◦ It is outdated as people are innovative and independent thinkers, thus will not follow instruction blindly.
◦ Division of labour and specialization make room for monotony and boredom which leads to job
dissatisfaction.
◦ Increasing wages does not always lead to increased output.
◦ it creates fears among workers due to constant supervision.
◦Note: many businesses are employing low paid workers
and they are using the scientific managementBangladesh workers
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) –
hierarchy of needs
Maslow believed that money not the only motivator as people can be motivated by needs
which can be emotional and mental (psychological) that human have.
“Our needs determine our actions- we will always try to satisfy them and we will be
motivated to do so.”
There are 5 needs that Maslow pictured into a pyramid- referend as the hierarchy of needs
Hierarchy of needs
He suggested that people
would need to be satisfies with
their lower level needs before
they could progress to higher
level needs.
Motivation theories
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Understanding of each of the needs
◦ Physiological needs (or basic needs) are the needs that must be met for people to survive, e.g. water, food, air,
warmth and sleep. The income from employer should be enough to meet essential needs.
◦ Security needs (or safety needs) are the demands necessary to make people feel safe and stable. Businesses
can provide job security, sick pay, maternity leave and pensions for retirement.
◦ Social needs (or love and belonging needs) refer to the human desire to be accepted as part of a friendship
group or member-good communication among colleagues / no form of discrimination.
◦ Esteem needs -the desires for recognition and self-respect. Internal esteem needs indicate that people need to
feel good about themselves (perhaps from a sense of achievement) whereas external esteem needs signify the
desire for recognition by others (such as having status at work).
◦ Self-actualization- It refers to the forces that drive people to become the best that they can be. Businesses can
encourage this by providing opportunities for personal development and promotion. ( sense of achievement)
Limitations to Maslow
● Not everyone has the same needs as is assumed by the hierarchy
● In practice it can be very difficult to identify the degree to which each need has been met and which
level a worker is 'on'
● Money is necessary to satisfy physical needs, yet it might also play a role in satisfying other levels of
needs such as status and esteem
● Self-actualisation is never permanently achieved - as some observers of the hierarchy have suggested.
Jobs must continually offer challenges and opportunities for fulfillment otherwise regression will
occur.
● There is no quantitative measure to calculate to what extent individuals are satisfied with each
level before they can aim to attain the next level.
Task 2 - Group task Maslow’s Hierarchy
Cut out the cards and lay them onto the template in
the correct section
Proff. Frederick Herzberg (1959)- 2
factor theory
◦ Proff. Herzberg investigated on what are the factors that caused satisfaction and
dissatisfaction at work and he categories the results into 2 factors affecting the
level of motivation in the workplace which are (i) hygiene factors (physical
aspects) and motivators (psychological aspects)
◦ Note: he has interviewed white collar job employees.
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5XZi_7IL4g
◦ https://youtu.be/f_qyDfZYfXQ
Hygiene factors
◦ Hygiene factors (or maintenance factors) are aspects of work that do not motivate
but must be met to prevent dissatisfaction,
◦ He also suggested that hygiene factors become an expectation and these factors
do not motivate an employee to work any harder.
◦ These factors allow the employees to meet their basic needs.
◦ Example of hygiene factors would be salary, working conditions, relationships with
others, company policy, status, job security and administration.
Motivators
Motivators are factors that bring job satisfactions – factors that lead to
the psychological growth of workers and hence increase satisfaction
and performance at work.
Job satisfaction resulted from 5 main factors- achievement, recognition
for achievement, responsibility, advancement and the work itself
(promotion, interesting tasks and personal growth).
He argued that the use of motivators would help to improve the nature
and content of a job.
Motivation theories
Herzbergs two factor theory
Motivating factors
Achieving aims
Chance of promotion
Responsibility
Interesting work
Recognition
Personal development
Hygiene factors
Pay
Working conditions
Job security
Quality of supervision
Staff relationships
Company policy
Herzberg Cont’
Herzberg suggested that managers could achieve worker motivation through three key areas:
Job enlargement- is adding additional activities within the same level to an existing role.
This means that a person will do more, different activities in their current job. It increases
the scope of the job. It is also called the horizontal expansion of job activities.
Job enrichment- involves giving workers more complex and challenging tasks to exploit
their potential. This should contribute to workers feeling a greater sense of achievement.
Examples of job enrichment include adding extra tasks (also called job enlargement),
increasing skill variety, adding meaning to jobs, creating autonomy, and giving feedback.
Job empowerment -entails delegating decision-making power to workers over
their areas of job, helping to boost their overall morale.
example
◦ When I was working at a company early in my career, they added a stage. My job got
larger as I went from one venue to take care of two. Simple enlargement.
◦ Ironically, that same company seems to have plans for me. Shortly after, I was given
more responsibility and allowed more autonomy. My boss was comfortable with my
work and my decision making. My job description broadened and I was allowed to
take more control. Job enrichment
Herzberg Reflection
◦ Herzberg's arguments also presented problems for managers as he claimed that
individuals are unique and therefore what motivates one worker does not
necessarily motivate others.
◦ Furthermore, people's moods and priorities affect their level of motivation, so
what motivates someone today does not necessarily motivate the same person
tomorrow. (Movement v/s Motivation)
◦ A business could offer higher pay, improved working conditions, and less heavyhanded supervision of work. These would all help to remove dissatisfaction but they
would all be quickly taken for granted. If work is not interesting, rewarding or
challenging then workers will not be satisfied or will not be motivated to offer their
full potential whatever the pay level offered to them.
Herzberg criticism
◦It is argued that it does not apply to many occupations,
especially those in low-skilled and low-paid jobs, where job
enrichment and empowerment are not features of the work. He
used professional workers and skilled engineers in his research
sample, so the findings might not be representative of other
workers.
◦Moreover, some employees may not want enriched jobs as this
involves extra responsibility and stress.