Motivation is the driving force in which help people to pursue their aims. Motivation can be both intrinsic; a personal motivation or extrinsic; motivation from external sources. People are motivated to achieve their goals and become persistent with motivation when successful in achievement. Motivation can encourage and enhance employee’s performance within a business environment resulting in improved service from the company achieving market sales and growth.
Content theories of motivation discuss how people pursue their personal needs in aim of getting a successful result. One content theory is McClelland’s theory of needs which states that driven behaviour is explained by three forces; the need for achievement, the need for affiliation and the need for power. People with the need for achievement will be highly motivated to achieve certain tasks in which they set out for themselves in order for them to achieve their aims including taking part in certain activities which they feel will benefit their success. The need for affiliation describes a person’s willingness to feel a part of a group and to conform to the behaviours within the group encouraging social connections. Lastly the need for power describes the need for a person to have control on themselves and their lifestyle around them willing to achieve by being motivated by power and the need for organisation and delegation.
The motivation for starting my degree course
The motivation for me to progress to my degree course has occurred from my desire to achieve my goals of graduating with a degree to pursue a career in business. This has sprung from my willingness to want to learn and enhance my skills in the business sector to take forward with me to future job prospects. The completion of my A level exams and results from previous education has given me motivation and confidence to pursue a degree course for the length of 3 years. This shows the need for achievement through gaining my A level qualifications giving me the drive to study a degree course at university. My driven behaviour of entering on to a degree course has also come from my motivation to want to seek a wider social group of friends. This represents my need for affiliation which can also be highlighted by my choice to join the football team as a society of the university. This has allowed me to join social groups to make new friends and motivated me to consistently participate in the team. Two forces of motivation from McClelland’s content theory have contributed to personally motivate me to start a degree course. This strong drive of motivation will encourage me to be consistent in completing my work throughout my time at university to progress to years two and three and beyond this. McClelland’s content theory of motivation is effective in explaining factors which will personally contribute to encourage behaviour that will help towards specific goals. McClelland’s theory can help to identify personal goals and motivations which can be a provision in ultimately achieving specific goals.
When I was demotivated in a part time job role
A period of time when I have been most demotivated was at work when I had a job at a lettings agent. The work was repetitive and unstructured giving me little incentive to work hard for the time I was there. This caused demotivation within my job role resulting in a slow work process and this did not benefit my drive to succeed. This can relate back to McClelland’s model explaining that I did not have the motivational factor of a need for achievement reducing the chance of driven behaviour of success. The hours of my work occurred around a time of slow movement in the market reducing the amount of customers in the shop which added to my demotivation in the work place as I had less work to complete. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is also a content theory as an explanation for motivation. This theory explains that employees must be given a minimal requirement to be motivated I.e. basic physiological needs such as water and light and these needs must be met by the company before the employee can progress onto the next stage of motivation in the workplace. The other stages consist of safety needs being met followed by social, ego/esteem and self-actualisation needs being the top stage in employee motivation. When I was demotivated at work this would have fitted in between safety and social needs as the tasks were repetitive and I only worked with one other employee therefore there was little social communication other than with the few customers which would enter the shop during the day. This caused reduced self-esteem levels resulting in less confidence during work.
Aldefer’s ERG theory is another explanation which can be used to define the different factors affecting motivation in the workplace. This theory consists of three factors affecting motivation; existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. Firstly existence needs describes an employee’s basic physiological needs such as food, water and light in the workplace which can link to Maslow’s physiological needs. Relatedness needs describe employees need to interact socially with others, receiving public recognition from other staff members and having a positive social life within the workplace. Finally growth needs describes an employee’s self needs such as self-esteem progressing to self-actualisation. ERG theory explains that an employee’s actions at work are motivated by needs concurrently. Therefore employees may be more motivated by certain needs than others I.e. they may be highly satisfied with relatedness needs forming strong social friendships with other employees however lack motivation due to reduced existence needs which in turn may reduce their self-esteem. The theory also explains that if these needs are not met by a company, their employees will become demotivated and this will have a huge effect on their capacity of work done affecting their staff turnover and therefore future sales growth. Aldefer’s theory can explain my demotivation at work as both my relatedness and growth needs were not met. Due to work in a small environment there were few employees surrounding my job role and this in turn had a knock on effect in that my self-esteem decreased reducing my willingness to work hard to succeed in my job. This caused demotivation resulting in a poor work ethic, lack of concentration and lack of drive to complete work successfully.
Herzberg’s two factor theory consists of hygiene factors being met but also having motivators within the workplace which will encourage motivation of employees. Examples of motivators within the workplace may be employees gaining achievement, responsibility and recognition from subordinates. This can encourage growth and maturity of the business through persistence of motivators aimed at employees improving team morale. Meeting hygiene factors is another factor in Herzberg’s theory to motivate through employee working conditions, salary, company policy and admin and status within the company. When demotivated at work, I didn’t have the high status to make me feel a part of the business faculty and therefore had little impact on the company’s growth strategies due to being part time. However the company’s biggest motivator was their salary which gave me as an employee the motivation to maintain my job at the company. From Herzberg’s two factor theory, the work itself as a motivator was the most discouraging as there was little variance in the tasks given and therefore reduced my concentration levels and commitment to the work. This therefore culminated in a decreased work ethic within employees and lower productivity having negative effects on the businesses performance.
How I became more motivated within my job role
My motivation levels began to increase within my part time job when more staff were hired. This improved the work ethic as social needs were met by the company when looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. My commitment to the job role also improved giving me an increased drive to complete tasks on time and to a better quality. This in turn improved the businesses output and therefore staff turnover reduced benefiting the overall performance of the business.
Overall, In conclusion I believe that each theory does not explain the exact processes which occur in motivating staff in the work place alone. However, the theories contrast when comparing different motivational strategies and each theory can help to identify the different motivations that occur for employees. Aldefer’s theory is more individualistic and shows a broad understanding of the different needs an employee must reach to become motivated however both Maslow’s and McClelland’s theories overlap in understanding of needs being achieved to allow employees to reach the next step in the motivation process showing a more stable approach which can be related to different jobs within a company.
Reference List
Union.umd.edu 2006, union (online) Available from: www.union.umd.edu/GH/basicneeds/index.html [Accessed 22nd November 2011]
Google.co.uk 2011, Google (online) Available from: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=alderfer%27s+erg+theory&gbv=2&rlz=1W1ADFA_enGB450&oq=aldefers&aq [Accessed 22nd November 2011]
Wikipedia.org 2011, Wikipedia (online) Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation [Accessed 22nd November 2011]
