Research Essay (Essay Plan) 1. Outline classical theories of motivation and illustrate their application in different business situation. Discuss their usefulness to the 21st century business manager. Part 1: Introduction * (Why) are theories of motivation still relevant to the 21st century business manager? In today’s market, organizations always put pressure on enhanced communication, globalization and improved technology to find variety of ways of winning business.
(Dransfield, 1996: 297) This has made it necessary for organizations to significantly rely on the intelligence of their workforces. (Why) are they important/useful? What does the 21st century business management need? * What is motivation? What are classical theories of motivation? Part 2: 3 types of Motivation theory Approaches to motivation are underpinned by motivation. We can simply classify the most influential theories into three types as instrumentality theory, content theory and process theory. The first on is Instrumentality theory. Rewards and punishments serve as the means of ensuring that people behave or act in desired ways.This is emerged in the second half of the 19th century with its emphasis on the need to rationalize work and on economic outcomes, such as Scientific management by F W Taylor and Skinner’s concept of conditioning (1974) The second on is Content theory, which focuses on the content of motivation.
It states that motivation is essentially about taking action to satisfy needs, and identifies the main needs that influence behavior. Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow and Two-factor model by Herzberg are two examples representing this type. The last one is process theory.It focuses on the psychological processes which affect motivation.
By reference to expectation theory (Vroom, 1964), goals (Latham and Locke, 1979) and perceptions of equity (Adams, 1965) * How can the classical theories of motivation help the present nowadays? Part 4: Maslow’s needs hierarchy Maslow’s needs hierarchy, put forward by Abraham Maslow in 1954, states that people are motivated by their current needs and that these needs are structured hierarchically. We have to satisfy the needs at the bottom of the hierarchy before we can move up to satisfy ‘higher needs’.Maslow just grouped the needs into five categories, i. e.
physiological, safety/security, social and self-fulfillment. - Physiological needs: The needs we have at the most basic level. At work, this level would refer to basic working conditions: a decent canteen, toilets, washing facilities. - Safety/ Security: At work this would mean job security, salary, pension - Social: Being part of a work group or team - Self-esteem: This might mean praise from the boss of recognition of a job well done - Self-fulfillment: This would mean needing a stretching and challenging job. - Needs may very from culture to culture.
For example, Japan social needs and self-esteem needs are likely to be more important whereas in the USA self-fulfillment needs are more likely to dominate. <People, Psychology and Business> Lita de Alberdi - How does this generally use in the daily life? - Daily examples with different business industry IN-TEXT: (de Alberdi, 1997) ENT OF TEXT: de Alberdi, L. (1997) Part 5: - Two-factor model by Herzberg - How does this generally use in the daily life? - Daily examples with different business industry Part 6: - What does the 21st century business management need? How can we apply the classical theories of motivation to the daily uses Maslow’s needs hierarchy - Put forward by Abraham Maslow (1954) - People are motivated by their current needs and that these needs are structured hierarchically; that is, we have to satisfy the needs at the bottom of the hierarchy before we can move up to satisfy ‘higher needs’. - Maslow grouped needs into five categories.
- Physiological, Safety/Security, Social, Self-esteem, Self-fulfillment - Physiological needs: The needs we have at the most basic level. At work, this level would refer to basic working conditions: a decent canteen, toilets, washing facilities. Safety/ Security: At work this would mean job security, salary, pensions - Social: Being part of a work group or team - Self-esteem: This might mean praise from the boss of recognition of a job well done - Self-fulfillment: This would mean needing a stretching and challenging job. - Needs may very from culture to culture. For example, Japan social needs and self-esteem needs are likely to be more important whereas in the USA self-fulfillment needs are more likely to dominate.
<People, Psychology and Business> Lita de Alberdi ERG Theory 1) This is similar to the Maslow’s needs hierarchy, which describes the needs as a hierarchy (2) It is proposed by Clayton Alderfer (3) The letters of ERG stand for three levels of needs: Existence, Relatedness and Growth (4) Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy, the ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be pursued simultaneously (5) It allows the order of the needs be different for different people (6) It acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the person may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy Herzberg’s motivators and hygiene factors Frederick Herzberg proposed a two-factor theory motivation in his book Work and the Nature of Man. - The two groups of factors are ‘Hygiene/Maintenance factors’ and ‘Motivators’. - Hygiene/ Maintenance factors: These were things in the environment casing dissatisfaction, such as working conditions, job security, salary, quality of supervision and interpersonal relations - Motivators: These were things like feelings of achievement, responsibility, or satisfaction at doing the job well, such as the development of his/her job, responsibility, a sense of achievement and the challenging of the work. The hygiene factors are satisfactory in order to avoid dissatisfaction. To increase happiness in the job the second group of factors is important. - The basics must be adequately taken care of; people need to work in a decent environment.
It is also important to stress achievement in the job so that people feel they are doing something worthwhile of which they can feel proud. - Nevertheless his theories provide useful insights for managers, in drawing attention to the contribution of ‘job enlargement’, and ‘job enrichment’ to job satisfaction. <People, Psychology and Business> Lita de Alberdi lt;Developing Management Skills for Leadership> Chris Parker and Brian Stone Mcclelland’s Three-Needs Theory (1) There are three acquired needs that are major motivators in work. These three needs are the needs for achievement, which is the drive to succeed and excel in relation to set of standards; the need for power, which is the need to make others behave in a way that would not have behaved otherwise; and the need for affiliation, which is the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships. (2) People with a high need for achievement strive for personal achievement rather than for the trappings and rewards if success.They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it’s been done before.
They prefer jobs that offer personal responsibility for finding solutions to problems. <Management> Stephen P. Robbins and Mary Coulter Pearson Hall 10th Edition P. 360 McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y assumptions - McGregor suggested that much managerial action derive from assumptions about human behavior.
He presented Theory X and Theory Y assumptions, arguing that most people tend to support one theory more than the other. Many leaders assumed theory workers were motivated solely by money and had no innate desire to work recognized as Theory X. - Theory Y leaders believe workers sought more than financial gain from employment. Thus, a poor performance by a group of workers may be the result of a work environment lacking stimulation and challenge for employees.
- If leaders adopt a Theory Y style, motivation will be expressed by greater delegation within the organization allows those further down the hierarchy to have greater authority. Train and reviewing the business’s culture will also be taken place. McGregor felt that Theory Y was best suited to professional services and knowledge workers, and was particularly conductive to participative problem solving. - In practice an organization is unlikely to have managers who conform entirely to either of the models presented, but the managers will combine, in one proportion or another, characteristics of each model. Moreover, the appropriate combination will differ as between organizations, in a company facing rapid technological change the theory Y style is likely to predominate.Whereas the theory X style will be called for a company in which most operations have become routinized and profits are being squeezed by vigorous competition from rivals.
- Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.
| - | Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction.Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization.
Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations. | <Developing Management Skills for Leadership> Chris Parker and Brian Stone <Organization and Management> Shaun Gregson and Frank Livesey <People and Organizations> Malcolm Surrudge lt;50 Management Ideas You Really Need to Know> Edward Russell http://managementstudyguide. com/theory-x-y-motivation.
htm Doubts have been cast by Herzberg et al (1957) on the effectiveness of money because, they claimed, while the lack of it can cause dissatisfaction, its provision does not result in lasting satisfaction. There is something in this, especially for people on fix salaries or rates of pay who do not directly benefit from an incentive scheme.They may feel good when they get an increase, apart from the extra money, it is a highly tangible form of recognition and an effective means of helping people to feel that they are valued. But this feeling of euphoria can rapidly die away. Other dissatisfactions from Herzberg’s list of hygiene factors, such as working conditions or the quality of management, cam loom larger in some people’s minds when they fail to get the satisfaction they need from the work itself. However, it must be re-emphasized that different people have different needs and wants and Herzberg’s two-factor theory has not been validated.
Some will be much more motivated by money than others. What cannot be assumed is that money motivates everyone in the same way and to the same extent. Thus it is naive to think that the introduction of a performance-related pay scheme will miraculously transform everyone overnight into well-motivated, high-performing individuals. Nevertheless, money provides the means to achieve a number of different ends.
It is a powerful force because it is linked directly or indirectly to the satisfaction of many needs. It clearly satisfies basic needs survival and security, if it is coming in regularly.It can also satisfy the need for self-esteem and status – money can set you in a grade apart from your fellows and can buy you things they cannot to build up your prestige. Money satisfies the less desirable but still prevalent drives of acquisitiveness and cupidity. Money may in itself have no intrinsic meaning, but it acquires significant motivating power because it comes to symbolize so many intangible goals. It acts as a symbol in different ways for different people, and for the same person at different times.
As noted by Goldthorpe et al (1968) from their research into the ‘affluent worker’, pay is the dominant factor in the choice of employer and considerations of pay seem most powerful in binding people to their present job. Do financial incentives motivate people? The answer is yes, for those people who are strongly motivated by money and whose expectations that they will receive a financial reward are high. But less confident employees may not respond to incentives that they do not expect to achieve. It can also be argued that extrinsic rewards What do we need for the 21st century management? 1) Rapid growth of internationalization and global competition increase the number and significance of MNCs in recent years, resulting in the increased mobility of human resources (2) The effective management of human resources is increasingly being recognized as a major determinant of success or failure in international business. There is also a growing recognition that the success of global business depends most importantly on the quality of management in the MNC (3) Shortage of international managers is becoming am increasing problem for international firms.
The implementation of global strategies are increasingly constrained by shortages of international management talent which constrain corporate efforts to expand abroad (4) The movement away from more traditional hierarchical structure towards the network MNC organization has been facilitated by the development of networks of personal relationships and horizontal communication channels, and it has been argued that HR plays a more significant role in network organization. (5) Process consultation will never be the only form of management consulting.But in many ways it is particularly suited to 21st century needs and conditions. The 21st practice of process consultation will increasingly make use of these variables in analysis, diagnosis, and prescription for organizational development. The goal of the consultancy will not simply be to fix a situation but the creation of a better organization. Consultants who combine subject expertise with process helpfulness may be the ones most suitable for 21st century organizations, but the need for process consultation will be enduring.
Scullion, H. and Linehan, M. 2005) International Human Resource Management, Palgrave Macmillan <http://www. manage2001.
com/pc. htm> Bibliography: 1. Parker, C. and Stone, B (2003) Developing Management Skills for Leadership, Pearson Education Limited 2. Lita de Alberdi (1990) People, Psychology & Business, University of Cambridge 3.
Shafto, T (1993) The Foundation of Business Organization (2nd Edition), Stanley Thrones (Publishers) Ltd 4. Burnes, B (1992) Managing Change, Pitman Publishing 5. Dransfield, R. , Davies, W. , Howkins, S.
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