Motivation is an inner physiological state which creates willingness to work in a person and this is reflected in the action and behaviour of a person. Motivation in management means applying the processes and practices in the organisation which stimulate the employees work efficiently and effectively, so that goals of the organisation can be achieved. Organisation uses various processes to motivate the employees as every organisation wants to utilize its human potential fully.
Before some years, there was no consideration for motivation aspects but it is being considered very important aspect of management practices which cannot be ignored. Any organisation is run by the human beings although there are machines those are making work very easy but still these machines are also operated by human being only. Therefore, it is very essential to take care of the employees those are working the organisation.
Success of the organisation depends on the employees of the company. If any company has loyal, dedicated and efficient employees, that company can compete any competition prevailing in the market and attain success. Therefore, for converting the employees of the organisation into human assets and retaining them for long term, various practices are required for example training and development, clearly defined goals, rewards, benefits, scope for growth and many more. All these strategies motivate the employees to work efficiently (Kuvaas, Buch, Gagné, Dysvik, and Forest, 2016).There are many benefits of motivation like:
Increase employee satisfaction- Motivation increase satisfaction among employees. Dissatisfied employees think of leaving the organisations which increase the employee turnover ratio of the organisation, while motivation stimulate stability of the employees. A company has to incur significant amount on the training and development of the employees. If an employee leaves an organisation, then cost and time put on the development of an employee go waste. Stability of employees increases goodwill of the company which ultimately benefits the organisation (Cerasoli, Nicklin &Ford, 2014).
Converts negative attitude into positive attitude-Motivation helps in converting negative attitude of the employees into positive attitude. For example if employees are financially weak then increase in his remuneration motivates him to work hard.
Improves performance level-Motivation improves performance level of employees as motivated employee will be more satisfied and will perform efficiently. Employees with high moral will be more loyal towards company.
Healthy work environment-Motivation helps to develop feeling of harmony among employees which minimizes the occurrence of disputes and conflicts among the employees. It also develops team sprit among the employees which improves the coordination between different departments. It improves productivity of various departments which helps the organisation to achieve its goals.
Various theories have been introduced by different authors for the motivation. In this report we will discuss about some of the famous theories of motivation like Maslow ‘need hierarchy theory, McGregor Theory, Herzberg theory and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory and their applications and criticism.
The Hierarchy of Need Model was developed by Abraham Maslow in 1940-1950 in USA. This theory revolves around the fact that if an employee grew in an atmosphere where his needs do not get satisfied, he will not function as a healthy and well-adjusted person. It states that it is the responsibility of the employer to provide an environment at workplace which enables and encourage the employee to fulfil his own set goals and organisational goals. The idea of the Maslow’s theory is based on the fact that human beings are motivated by the needs unsatisfied needs, and lower needs must be satisfied before higher needs can be taken into consideration (Najjar, & Fares, 2017).
Physiological needs- Physiological needs are main foundation of the hierarchy of needs model and come under the lowest level of hierarchy. These needs include basic needs those are very much essential for the survival of all human being such as air, water, food, clothes, shelter. For example if a person is hungry and needs food, then at that time only food can fulfil his needs. Once these need get satisfied a person moves to the other needs. These physiological needs can be fulfilled by money and incentives.
Safety needs- Once the physiological need of an employee get satisfied he or she moves to the another level of hierarchy those are safety needs which include physical, environmental and emotional safety and protection. These needs are about to keep the environment safe and comfortable for the employees. If an employee does not feel safe in the environment of the company he or she cannot perform at their best level For instance- Job security, protection from animals, family security, health security, law and order, stability and many more (Maslow, 2013).
Social needs- Social needs are fulfilled through pleasing and fulfilling relationships with others. It states that a person needs to be accepted by various groups and there is requirement of meaningful relationships where a person can enjoy interactions and get out of the boredom. Examples of these needs include belongingness, love, affection, family, friends, relationships and many more.
Esteem needs- When a person satisfies his physiological, safety and social needs, he tends to strive for feelings of self-esteem. An employee works in an organization not merely to get salary but he also wants that his work should be recognized. For this he must be considered worthy of job and a promotion can be the best way for recognising the capabilities of an employee. Esteem needs can be of two types one is internal esteem needs which include self- respect, confidence, competence, achievement and freedom and another is external esteem needs which include recognition, power, status, attention and admiration.
Self-actualization need- Self-actualization is the highest level of the hierarchy of needs. It arises when a full potential of a person is realised. At this stage a person strives to become what he is capable of becoming and what to be at his full potential. This includes the urge to become what you are capable of becoming / what you have the potential to become. Examples of self-actualization need include the need for growth, self-contentment, desire for gaining more knowledge, social- service, creativity and being aesthetic. But these needs never fully get satisfied as these keep on growing as a person grows himself (Rawat, 2016).
Maslow states that this theory can be implemented in every management of organisations for motivation and development of employees.
Recognition of the accomplishments of employees- Esteem needs of the employee can be satisfied by recognising the accomplishments of the employees. For example Best employees certificate or awards can be given to the employees those achieve targets set by the organization or improve the level of customer’s satisfaction which ultimately enhance the performance of organisation. But for the application of this rewards should be clearly defined and linked to the performance.
Providing Job Security- Most of the employees motivates to work in the organisations those provide job security to them as it is linked to the financial security, which is very much essential. If a company terminates its employees after completion of particular project then employees will be less interested to work in that type of organisation.
Healthy Work Environment- Healthy work environment in the organisation is essential to perform effectively as it increases efficiency of the employees. Various activities and events can be organised in the organisation those provide opportunities to the employees of getting socialise which fulfil their social need. It also releases stress of the employees so that they can perform efficiently. For example festival can be organised in companies which should involve each employee of the company, team lunch should be organised by the team leader, so that all members of team can interact, annual day celebration or picnic is also planned by some companies to make the employees feel refreshed.
Providing various benefits-Incentive linked plans can be created to satisfy the basic need of employees in terms of monetary compensation which motivate customer s to work effectively, in the same way health benefits can be provided to the employees. When an employee reach at the self-esteem stage, they need more challenging job responsibilities those provide him recognition.
Maslow’s theory has been criticized on some of the following ground:
Rigid Model-The main limitation of the theory is that all employees are not governed by same set of needs. Each employee is motivated by different needs at the same point. Some people may not be satisfied with the basic needs but they have urge for self-actualization needs. For example if the work is related to artistic then employee will strive for recognition even if his basic needs do not get satisfy.
Hierarchical in nature-Needs cannot be hierarchical in life as life is much complicated and uncertain. It has been seen that feeling of belongingness is required by an employee and itself provides sense of security and happiness therefore, it cannot be put on third level. Needs of a person are psychological in nature and employees sometimes are not aware of their needs so it is difficult for managers to assess their needs.
Criticism from other countries-Maslow’s theory got criticism from countries like China, Japan and Korea as culture of these countries is different, in these countries social needs and security needs are important than self-esteem and actualization needs. Some author states that it is theoretical in nature for example there are some of the employees those do not get chance of reaching at self-actualization life (Greenberg & Baron, 2003). This theory considers broad aspects of needs, there are many points those are not considered into it.
McGregor introduced Theory X and Theory Y in 1960 for understanding the factors which motivate an employee at work place. This theory states that employees are motivated to work from two different managerial styles and provides different assumptions those are as follows:
Theory X assumes that employees are average in nature and like work which is repetitive in nature. They try to escape from challenges and avoid responsibilities. Therefore, close supervision and strictness is required at each stage for these types of employees by the managers. It states that if employees come under the theory X then manager should apply authoritarian style to control the employees.
According to this theory if employees escape from their work then punishment should be imposed on them. In this theory authority is not delegated to the subordinates and control remains centralized with the management. Salary and appraisals can be based on the some tangible criteria’s like Sales target or product output to motivate these employees.
Employees are always reminded that they are required to complete their task on right time, otherwise punishment will be imposed on them. It is considered in this theory that employees need job security and are not ambitious (Bojadziev, Stefanovska-Petkovska, Handziski, & Barlakoska, 2016).
Theory Y assumes that employees consider their job as relaxing and normal. They enjoy more responsibilities and challenges in life. They consider it as part of their growth. They always require more responsibilities in life for motivation.
These kinds of employees do not require any kind of strictness, external control and threat to work as they use self-direction and self- control for organising their task in much better way and to achieve their goals. They are fully dedicated towards their task. They link their own set goals with the organisational gaols and perform accordingly.
These type of employees feel more loyal towards the company when their job is challenging and consider their job more rewarding and worthful. If more responsibilities are completed as required then this itself brings recognition for the employees, which ultimately motivates them to work hard and achieve more in future.
This theory states that efficiency of an employee can be utilized for resolving organisational problems and it stimulate the employees to take initiative in the organisation. Employees consider themselves as part of the organisation and become more creative and innovative, which ultimately benefits the company, because cost of supervision and control get reduced.
For applying any kind of theory in an organisation and choosing any managerial style, there should be effective supervision of employees of the company. According to that only it can be analysed that which theory will be best suited for the employees and should be applied on the them.
If the employees of the company dislike working and avoid responsibilities, an authoritarian style may be applied. But if employees feel proud in taking more responsibilities and challenges then a company should adopt participative style of management.
If the employees do not have any ambitions in life and they can only be attracted to work hard if their productivity is linked with targets. There should be monetary benefits linked with the targets achieved.
This theory can also be applied to the organisation where production is done at very large scale and unskilled workers are working. At this stage close supervision can be done for the employees. Theory X can be implemented in the organisations where productivity of the employees should be very high.
Theory X is also suitable when company is hiring freshers in the organisation as they require to learn a lot at each stage for sometime and perfect guidance is required to gain output of their productivity and skills. But this theory is not applicable when a team of expert with previous experience is hired. They tend to work with self-direction and interference with their work may demotivate them which ultimately create conflicts in the company.
Theory Y can be implemented in the organisations where thinking process of employees is involved and employees required to take decisions related to their work themselves. This theory is best suited to the organisations where work is knowledge based and related to provide professional services. In this theory employees are motivated to improve their expertise and knowledge because their suggestions and expertise will be ultimately beneficial for the organisation for achieving its organisational. In this type of work environment employees grow and develop with their organisation (Dusterhoff, Cunningham & McGregor, 2014).
Theory X style of management requires very strict and rigid working environment where trust on the employees is very less, therefore, close supervision is required for controlling the employees. But this threat and strictness at the work place may create dissatisfaction among employees and they may get demotivated to work which would lead to less cooperation from the employees’ side. Employee turnover ratio may increase because of this approach and it may badly affect the reputation of the company. Employees may try to avoid accountability for their task and keep blaming other employees for any faults.
Managers those follow theory X want their employees should behave in the way as they are expecting but it is not possible sometimes, because each employee has different style of work.
Theory Y style of management emphasis on creating an working environment where there is no interference from the management and employees work in quiet free manner, but it becomes unrealistic sometimes every employee is not self-directed and self-motivated.
Theory X and Theory Y work on the predefined assumptions but it’s not always true that all the employees of the company either fall into theory X or theory Y.
Implementation of theory X and theory Y at the same time becomes quiet difficult as it creates discrimination among employees of the company. Employees may feel various hurdles while working.
It becomes quiet difficult to deal with the managers of an X theory boss. Managers those are applying theory X in the company are sometimes very rude and result oriented. They highly emphasis on the results and do not care about the human beings.
Frederick Herzberg introduced a two-factor theory for understanding attitude of employees towards motivation in 1959. It is also called motivator-hygiene theory. This theory states that there are some factors at the work place those create job satisfaction while some factors create job dissatisfaction. It also states that opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction but no satisfaction, in the same way opposite of dissatisfaction is no dissatisfaction (Maringe &Jenkins, 2015).
Hygiene Factor- These factors are those factors which are required to be available for the motivation of employees at workplace. These factors do not create satisfaction for the employees if these are available but create dissatisfaction if these are not available at workplace (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 2010). Therefore, these factors are also called dissatisfies or maintenance factors which include:
Motivational Factors- These factors are also called satisfiers as these factors motivate the employees to work efficiently. These factors are intrinsic in nature as these are related to psychological needs of the employee.
Each person is motivated by different factors, therefore seniors should analyse that what are the factors which motivate a person to work efficiently.
By applying the Herzberg’ two factor theory in the organisation job dissatisfaction can be reduced from the organisation. There are following measures ( Baah, & Amoako, 2011):
Management should avoid the things those are not liked by the employees of the company about the company like they should treat all the employees equally and fairly. Sometimes there is discrimination prevailing in the company which creates dissatisfaction among the employees.
Management used to think that increase in financial reward only motivates the employees, but after applying this theory it is being realised that clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the employee and clearly stated policies also motivate employees. Because they are well aware that what is expected from them from the management (Dessler, 2005).
Application of this they states that potential of an employee should be fully utilized at the organization, it motivated an employee to work hard. If a job is designed in a way where an employee is not fully utilized, he may face motivation problem there. Therefore, a job should be designed in a way where a person feel challenged while working and aspires to work hard. A job can be designed by understanding skills and capabilities of a person and analysing his goals at individual level then his goals can be linked to the goals of the organisation.
There are four scenarios in the combination of these factors:
High Hygiene + High Motivation- This is the situation where the employees have few complaints and they are highly motivated. In this situation employees do not have complaints related to their work and their motivation level is high.
High Hygiene + Less Motivation- In this situation employee have fewer complaints but they are not motivated to work hard in the organisation.
Low Hygiene+ High Motivation- In this situation employee find their job more interesting and challenging but their monetary benefits are not according to that.
Low Hygiene + Low Motivation- In this situation employee are not motivated to work hard and they are highly dissatisfied with lot of complaints.
This theory has been criticized on following grounds:
Not Conclusive- This theory was applicable on upper level professional or managerial level professional because they like more challenges and responsibilities in their job. But the lower level employees are highly motivated by the high pay scale and other monetary benefits. Factors those have been considered in this study, this work differently for the other category of employees. This theory mainly focus on the employees those are unskilled and their job is monotonous and repetitive in nature.
Wrong Methodology- This theory was also criticized on the other ground also. It considers only the extreme cases of bad and good. It does not consider average cases. Therefore, applying this theory becomes difficult sometimes as information can be subjective and not based on the calculations. Therefore, there can be biasness in the decision making.
Focus on Job Enrichment- Job enrichment has been considered main factor in this theory for making job more interesting and challenging so that an employee can feel more satisfy while working but there are some other factors as well like attractive pay structure, cordial relationships with peers, subordinates and other colleagues of the company which motivate an employee to work efficiently.
Correlation of satisfaction with productivity- It is being seen that if employees of the company are satisfied then their productivity increases. It’s a behavioural aspect and there is no direct relationship between employee satisfaction and productivity.
Greet Hofstede introduced the cultural dimension theory which describe that how the culture prevailing in the society can affect the value of the people.
Every organisation follow different practices and policies which make its organisation culture different from the culture of the other organisation. The organisational culture of any company is reflected in the behaviour of the employees of the company. It also decides that how they will behave with other employees and with the external people. It finally also affects the productivity of the employees (Choi, Im, & Hofstede, 2016).
According to this theory there are six factors which affect the culture of the organisation those are as follow:
Power-Distance Index- This is the index which reflects the degree of inequality prevailing or accepted in the organisation or company between people those have power or between people those do not have power ( Daniels & Greguras, 2014). It can be distributed in two categories:
In this type of organisation power is distributed among employees equally irrespective of their designation in the organisation.
In this type of organisation managers and team leader are treated differently. They are provided more benefits and responsibilities in comparison to the other team members.
When there is high level of power-distance index, then there will be centralization of authority in the organisation and hierarchical structure will be complex. There will be huge gap between salary, respect and authority.
Ehen there is low level of power-distance index, then there will be decentralization of authority in the organisation and seniors and subordinates will be treated equally.
Individualism versus Collectivism- This index shows that how much people are connected with each other in the society. It also reflects the importance an employee gives on achieving individual goals or on achieving collective goals.
When there is high level of this index it shows that there is weak connection among the employees and they avoid taking responsibilities of the actions of others. In this employee loves challenges to grow himself on individual front.
When there is low level of this index it shows that employees are well connected with their groups and loyal towards that. They always keep ready to take responsibility of the actions of the other team members as well. In this emphasis is put on maintaining harmony in the group.
Uncertainty- Avoidance Index-This index reflects the level of resistance made by the employees for any uncertainty and change.
If the level of this index is high, it shows that people are reluctant to change. They avoid uncertainty and want to work in their comfortable zone. Employees want to work in predefined and rigid organisation structure.
If the level of index is low it shows that people are open for change and love challenges to acquire new skills. They are flexible and innovative in nature.
Masculinity versus Femininity- This index show the culture prevailing in the organisation related to gender biasness.
Under masculine society more importance is given to man over woman. This type of culture gives importance to power, status and all materialistic things (Neuliep & Johnson, 2016).
Under femininity society more importance is given to the values, humanity, and cordial relationship with everyone. Equal importance is given to man or woman.
Long term Orientation versus Short term Orientation- This index is based on the aspect of stability of the employees.There are some companies those focus on building long term relationships with their employees. The employees also want to make long term career in the organisation.
There are some organisation those are not concerned with retaining the customers for long term and employees those are concerned with short term career and leave the organisation as soon as they get the better opportunity (Piepenburg, 2011).
Indulgence versus Restraint- This index describes that how much a company concerned about the personal needs of the employees. The company which is concerned about the needs of the employee organises activities for the enjoyment of the employees. The company which follows restraint keep the organisational structure rigid and strict.
It has been seen that power-distance index work differently in different countries. In countries like Malaysia, employees do not initiate to work until they are supervised by the seniors. In Central American Countries there is low index of individualism versus collectivism, employees like to work into groups if they feel well connected with the group.
Masculinity Versus Femininity index is high in some countries like Japan, there female are not able to cope up with their work requirement because of long working hours. Most of the organisations still follow the rigid hierarchical structure in the organisation where opportunities for female are less in comparison to countries like Sweden where there is focus on equality.
In some countries like eastern European countries Indulgence score is very low as they follow predefined rigid structure.
Hofstede theory focus on the cultural aspects but there are many other factors also which effect the behaviour of the people of that country like political, social and economic factors prevailing in that country ( Hofstede,1980).It is seen that culture is complicated to understand and subjective in nature.
While introducing the study only some people of the few countries were surveyed and on the basis of that only, theory was developed while each country has different cultural values those must be taken care.
This theory is based on some rigid criteria’s like high or low level of any index. For example power distance index, this level can be analysed on the basis of high or low while there are some categories those fall between high or low, but has not been considered into this.
Globalisation has created many changes in the culture of any country and there is mix of cultures. No culture has its original characteristics, therefore suitability of this theory into today’s world becomes difficult.
Conclusion
Maslow ‘need hierarchy theory, McGregor Theory, Herzberg theory and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory has been discussed in this report. Each theory has different perspective and inculcates some problems in it. Maslow’s theory states that an employee is motivated to work through his needs, if one need is satisfied he moved to another need and then that need motivates him to work. Herzberg’s theory divided the factor into two parts. One type of factor is that those are required to be fulfilled if not provided to employees it creates dissatisfaction, and other type of factor is that which are if provided to the employees creates motivation. McGregor has developed two factor theory one is theory X and another is theory Y. Theory X includes the employees those avoid responsibilities and theory Y includes the employees those like to take more challenges and responsibilities. There are different kinds of managers under both the theories. Under theory X there are strict mangers while under theory Y there are lenient managers. Hofsted’s cultural theory explains the behavioural aspect of human beings. This theory states that the culture prevailing in any country affects the behaviour of the employees.
By analysing all the theories it can be concluded that each theory has some constraints and which theory is best suited for what kind of organisations, it depends on the various aspects like behaviour of the employees, type of work in the organisation and culture prevailing in the company and many more. Therefore, all the aspects should be considered closely for applying any theory into the organisation.
Reference
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