Effective Motivational Techniques in the Workplace

Motivation is a key aspect in the organization or workplace, and it is imperative to know the basic theory application and methods dealing with any problems that usually unavoidable for the employee and will come up in any work environment. This is a mandatory skills for a leader or future manager to know how important on how to motivate his or her employee to work more efficient. Motivating employees is a big dilemma for managers. To produce a higher level of performance and productivity, manager’s today are obliged to pay more attention on this matter. Every employee needs different types of motivation. In this paper will elaborate three motivational methods that a

Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation at the workplace shows the difference between two factors of motivation. The two factors being satisfiers, which are the main causes for job satisfaction (motivation), from hygiene factors which are the main causes for job dissatisfaction (demotivation to stay in the job). Examples of motivating factors are achievement, recognition, responsibility and the work itself. Hygiene factors include: working conditions, salary, relationship with colleagues, supervision, etc. An organisation needs to influence satisfiers through performance management using range of tools such as: job descriptions, supervision, performance appraisals, continuous development/training, rewards and career development.

Maslow used this concept to portray the needs and wants of individuals in the workplace. He used a pyramid scheme to aid in his portrayal of the several stages of requirements each individual faced. Maslow discovered that there were five categories of needs that each individual possessed: Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self Actualisation. In order from left to right, as each need became satisfied the next stage becomes more important to achieve, therefore, more useful as a motivator. Similarly, like Maslow, Herzberg also created multiple influential theories that helped shape managerial thought as it stands today. Herzberg’s greatest contribution to this field lies in his “Two-Factor Theory” (Motivation-Hygiene Theory). Like Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”, this theory also states that individual’s have needs and wants in the work place. As a result of multiple tests, Herzberg concluded that employee’s have two specific sets of needs in the workplace. These needs were separated into Hygiene and Motivator factors. Examples of “Hygiene” factors included wages and working conditions, whereas, “Motivating” factors tended more towards recognition and reward. There are huge similarities to be found between both Maslow and Herzberg’s concepts of motivational factors as both recognise the importance of employee’s needs and wants being

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs was introduced in the mid-1940’s by Abraham Maslow; it is one of the most popular theories of work motivation to this day. the theory was originally used specifically in a psychological setting, but was made more popular by Douglas McGregor in the late 1960’s and began to be used by not only psychologists but managers as well (Steers & Porter, 1983). The hierarchy is based on the fact that human beings have needs, Maslow took these needs and separated them into five categories: physiological needs, safety, belongingness or social needs,

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist who had developed the Hierarchy of needs model in 1940-50s, and the Hierarchy needs theory is still being used to day and for understanding the human motivation. In his hierarchy he believes that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. And when a human had fulfilled a person would seek to fulfil the next one. Maslow’s hierarchy needs is concerning the responsibility of service providers to provide a

As it was mentioned before, the key idea of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory relates to the existence of several sets of motivation and needs that govern human behavior. Hence, the major concepts of this theory include certain needs that are grouped into sets based on their place within the hierarchy of all the needs. The first version of the theory has five needs, which are divided into

Salaries play an important role especially in the first two stages of the hierarchy; we all need money to survive. Another theory is the Alderfer's ERG Theory; Alderfer has modified Maslow's hierarchy and has shortened the five needs into three, existence, needs, relatedness needs and growth needs, existence needs: refer to basic survival needs that everyone needs to satisfy. Relatedness needs: relate to interpersonal contact, social and emotional acceptance, status and caring. Growth needs: are development and sense of self worth. Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation Herzberg's theory of motivation is quite different than the other motivational theories. Herzberg stated that there were only to kinds of factors in any job, hygiene and motivation, the motivation hygiene model is based on the idea that one set determines dissatisfaction (hygiene) and the other set determines positive satisfaction (motivational theory). The hygiene set contains the company policy, administration, working conditions and job security. According to Herzberg’s findings he suggests that if these conditions were unsatisfactory they would most certainly be heading towards physiological or psychological withdrawal from the job. These conditions must be met for an individual to be motivated in work, however, other conditions and factors must be met, this proves that in order for an employee to perform his or her work in an

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who introduced the concept of the motivational needs in his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” written in 1943. He explains that humans have certain needs that need to be fulfilled and when

According to Herzberg two factor theory there are “two issues that play an important role in the workplace experience: hygiene factors and motivational factors”( Fischer and Baack, 2013 ). Hygiene factors contains wages, hours, working conditions and relationships with supervisors. Motivational factors consist of achievements, recognition, actual work or job, responsibility, and the chance for advancement or growth, and relationships with peers. Herzberg states that a person is either satisfied and driven or unfulfilled and

Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), some-time President of the American Psychological Association, is best known for his work on human motivation and in particular for his Hierarchy of Needs, which was first defined in a paper of 1943. Five basic needs are defined, all of which he considered to be hard-wired in the human species. They are arranged hierarchically, with self-actualization referring to people’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely, the tendency for them to become actualized in what they are potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one idiosyncratically is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming (Maslow, 1943, p.22). Maslow’s 1943 paper mentions cognitive needs such as the desire to know and to understand, and also aesthetics, but does not place them within the hierarchy of five.

According to Herzberg, individuals are not satisfied with lower-order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary levels or safe and pleasant working conditions. Theses individuals look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs such as achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself. Motivation-hygiene theory, based on the presence of one set of job characteristics or incentives lead to worker satisfaction at work, while another and separate set of job characteristics lead to dissatisfaction at work. Moreover he found that job characteristics related to what an individual does is the nature of the work he performs, having the capacity to gratify such needs such as achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and self-realization, leading to satisfaction. However, the absence of such gratifying job characteristics does not lead to dissatisfaction. Instead, dissatisfaction results from unfavorable assessments of such job-related factors as company

Herzberg, a pioneer in motivation theory, determined that there are two factors that motivate employees: high-order needs and low-order needs. Those high-order needs are met by intrinsic motivation, such as fulfilling our personal needs and growth: achievements, recognition, promotions, work itself, and responsibility. He refers to low-order needs as hygienic factors; those needs cannot motivate employees but can minimize dissatisfaction in the work-place. Hygienic factors include, pay, company guidelines, quality of supervision, working conditions, relationships with co-workers, and job security (Damij, 2015, p.2).

Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.

Work motivation is described as the psychological processes that direct, strength, maintain action toward a job, task, role, or project (Campbell & Pritchard, 1976; Kanfer, 1990).Motivation refers to “influence characteristics of human behaviour in organization” (Guay et al., 2010). Motivation is a persistent problem in guiding employee to work well. If an employee lacks motivation, a low energy level will be available in doing job

The subject of motivation has been an important component in both theoretical and applied literature. There are many reasons why the motivational theories have generated so much discussion. In an organization motivation has been considered an important factor because employee motivation is considered essential for an organization 's status within the business environment and the community. The two motivation theories selected for this paper is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg hygiene factors.