Motivation theories
Definition – Motivation is the reason why employees w_____ to work hard and
work _____________ for the business.
People work for a variety of reasons the main reason is because they need to
work to earn money to by f______ and basic necessities.
Why is productivity important?
F.W. Taylor
The most modern theory of motivation was put forward by Frederick T_______ in
a book, The Principles of Management, published in 1911.
He argued that the workplace was usually badly organised. Each worker would
approach a task in a different way. Some workers were highly efficient at what
they did, but most were not. What’s more, efficient workers had no i__________
to work hard. He also argued that workers needed to be closely s__________ so
that their work _________ could be measured. He judged that workers didn’t
want to accept r_____________ for the work they produced.
To change this, Frederick Taylor proposed that managers should approach their
task s_____________. They should find out the b____ way of doing a particular
task. Then they should t______ all the workers how to do it in this one w____.
Pay should be linked to the expected output of an efficient worker. They should
also receive a ‘f_____ d____ p_____ for a f____ d____ w_____’. The easiest
way to do this is to use a piece rate system. So w________ who worked l____
hard would receive _____ pay. This would m_________ them to work harder. A
piece rate system would also mean that managers would be forced to supervise
their workers in order to calculate their pay.
Advantages of Taylor
Disadvantages of Taylor
Example: The workers at Underworld in Coronation St get paid 50p per unit they
produce. If they produced 500 units a week what would their weekly wage packet
be? Show your working out.
The human relations school of thought
A different view of motivation emerged from an e_____________ carried out
between 1927 and 1932 at the Hawthorne Plant in C________. The researchers
initially believed in Taylor’s scientific management theories. Over a five year
period, changes were made in lighting, heating, incentive schemes, rest p______
and hours of work. Each time a change was made, output rose. This was true
even when conditions of work were put back to how they were at the s_____ of
the experiment.
Elton M_____ reported on this experiment. He concluded that output was rising
because of the a___________ that was being given to the w__________. This
motivated the workers to work more p_________. The rising productivity due to
the attention paid to workers came to be known as the H________ e________.
McGregor
Douglas McGregor published his research findings in 1960. He identified two
types of managers – those who believe in Theory __ and those who believe in
Theory __.


Managers who believe in Theory X think that the willingness to work is
mainly influenced by external factors, such as pay schemes which pay
more if more output is produced. These managers think people are
naturally l____ and have to be motivated, pushed and urged to work.
Managers who believe in Theory Y think that motivation is basically an
internal factor. Most people want to do a g____ day’s work but need a
favourable environment in which to do it.
Maslow
Abraham Maslow studied employee motivation. His ideas were published in 1954
where he proposed a hierarchy of needs, shown in the diagram below.
It has become recognised by businesses that if employees are going to be
motivated to work efficiently, the higher levels in the hierarchy must be available
to them i.e. money alone will not be the single route to increased productivity as
was thought by T________. Evidence for the higherarchy can be seen from
people who are unemployed, in that they very often lose their self-respect and
self-e_______ and they do not have the feeling of belonging to society, which
often comes from working. Maslow also suggested that each level in the
hierarchy mush be achieved before an employee can be m___________ by the
next level. For example, once s_______ needs are met, this will no longer
motivate the employee, but the opportunity to gain the respect of fellow workers
and gain esteem could motivate someone to work effectively.
Managers must identify the l______ of the hierarchy a particular job provides
and then look for ways of allowing the employees to benefit from the next level
up the hierarchy..
Herzberg: hygiene or motivation?
Frederick herzberg was an American psychologist whose research in the 1950’s
led to his t___-f________ theory. They are factors which lead to
 Job dissatisfaction – known as hygiene factors
 Job satisfaction – known as motivators.
Job enlargement and job enrichment
The work of researchers such as Maslow and Herzberg has led to ideas that
workers’ jobs could be made more satisfying through:
 job enlargement – instead of a worker doing one small task every day,
they would be able to do a variety of tasks. This would make the work
less monotonous and boring;
 Job e___________ – where workers are given some opportunities to
choose how to complete a particular job of work, usually working in a
team.