Empirical Project
Maslow’s Theories of Motivation:
Jeri M. Rose
Bellevue University
MSM 510
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Motivation is one of the most important concepts in Human Resource Development.
Within organizations it is common to hear that a particular employee is not motivated resulting
in his or her performance taking a backseat. This is one of the reasons companies spend an
enormous amount of money and time arranging training sessions and events to motivate the
employees. Motivation is one of the easiest concepts to understand, yet one of the most difficult
to implement (Joseph, 2010). It can be understood as the desire or drive that an individual has to
get the work done. When faced with a task, it is the motivation to accomplish it that determines
whether an individual would complete the job according to the requirements or not. The
unfortunate alternative is the absence of motivation leading to poor performance and loss of
competitiveness resulting in loss of productive resources for the organization. Motivating
employees begin with influencing worker’s behavior because everyone has different
personality traits, habits, wants and needs within themselves.
Purpose
As we know, there are many theories of motivation. This section will discuss Human
Resources within a workplace highlighting Maslow’s Theories of Motivation. Maslow’s need
hierarchy theory hypothesizes that individuals are motivated according to five level of needs,
which start from basic need and then go on to the need for recognition and finally, the need to
actualize one’s vision and reach the highest stage of personality. To illustrate and test Maslow’s
Theory, Kodjo Joseph and Changjun Dai (2010) created a research study designed to zoom in on
certain factors in simulating HR at a Utility Company by showing the order of importance or
preference of the ten factors ( Job security, Sympathetic help with personal problems, Personal
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loyalty to employees, Interesting work, Good working conditions, Tactful discipline, Good
wages, Promotions and growth in the organization, Feeling of ownership, Full appreciation of
work done) and learn of the relevant findings.
Methodology
The current study that was performed consisted of a detailed survey approach and
explained thoroughly to the participants. Over a period of one month data was gathered at a
utility company in Cote d’Ivoire (West Africa). There were 143 participants and 120 (85 males
and 35 females) actually participated in the research, which results in 83.91 % response. The
16.08% is non response and due to workers being out of the office for numerous reasons. The
workers were told to use a scale of one to ten; one being the most important and ten being the
least important in regards to what motivates them to do their work. These motivations were the
ten factors listed above.
Findings
The findings illustrate the results of the questionnaire, in which workers were to rank the
importance of the ten motivational factors taken from Kovach (1995) in order to measure the
different factors that stimulate them most while doing their job. The participants ranked the ten
motivational factors as follows: 1 interesting work, 2 good wages, 3 full appreciation of work
done, 4 job security, 5 good working conditions, 6 promotions and growth in the organization,
7 feeling of being in on things, 8 personal loyalty to employees, 9 tactful discipline, and 10
sympathetic help with personal problems. Relating these results to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy
of needs (1970), showed the researcher that these ranked motivational factors correspond
generously to the hierarchy of needs. Interesting work (20.83%) is the Self-Actualization needs,
Good wages (16.67%) is the Psychological needs, Full appreciation of work (15%) falls within
the Esteem needs, and Job security (12.50%) corresponds with the Safety needs (Kovach, 1995).
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Conclusion
According to Maslow’s theory, it is understood that depending on the need-level of a
worker, certain rewards may or may not work for them. The lower-order need (good wages
in this study) is the second ranked motivational factor (psychological need) and need to be
satisfied externally whereas the third and fourth ranked motivational factors are in the high-order
needs and need to be satisfied internally. Adam’s theory of motivation (1965), when a human
resource (HR) finds himself/herself in a situation of inequity, he/she becomes unsatisfied and
will mobilize all his/her energy to reduce those inequities through thoughts and behavior.
Overall, point made is the fact that Maslow’s motivational theory shows that Human Resource
management should always focus on satisfying their employees needs on the lower end in order
for them to move up to the higher end which results in complete motivation.
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References
Adams, J. S. (1965) Inequity in Social Exchange. In L. Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press.
Joseph, K. E., & Dai, C. (2010). Human resources motivation in a workplace A case study of a
utility company in abidjan, cote D'ivoire. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in
Business, 1(12), 151-159
Kovach, K. A. (1995) Employees Motivation: Addressing a Crucial Factor in Your
Organization's Performance", Employment Relations Today, Vol. 22, NO. 2. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.), New York: Harper and Row.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior, New York: Free Press.