Motivation in the Workplace Essay

Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

Abraham Maslow developed a Hierarchy of Needs (appendix 3) which is used to understand human motivation, management training and personal development. This hierarchy is used to determine the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential.

All employees analyze their environment and strive to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work and dedication they put into the company, in a word they are seeking justice. Justice can be defined as a person receiving what they feel they are entitled to and if they do not receive what they deserve the situation may board on injustice. Unfortunately in today’s society justice and appreciation are not given out to all those deserving (Pinder, 1998). A major problem to address is how to keep the motivation level high in a company when the employees do not feel appreciated.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides a foundational theory. It states that all employees have some basic needs that must first be satisfied in order to provide the framework for further motivation and empowerment.

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

We can define motivation as the desire and willingness to do something and the inner force that helps individuals achieve their goals. Understanding what motivates employees and what employers can do to motivate their employees has been the focus of research for many years. This is mainly because motivated employees can provide an organisation with a distinctive advantage and a competitive edge and by being more productive they can help the organisation thrive and survive. In a public service organisation such as West North West Homes we would expect staff to be motivated partly by the desire to have a positive impact on others. Someone working within a sales team

For this assignment, I am going to describe and discuss several motivation theories. Then I will compare and contrast different aspects of the theories to each other and discuss how the different theories relate to my workplace.

Many employers know that motivation is a key element of being a good leader. Yet, somehow they still seem to miss the mark when it comes to actively motivating their employees. Employee motivation ought to be a priority on any employer’s list and we are here to help guide you, as a leader, in improving your motivation game.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow established a theory of motivation to justify how people in diverse organizations behave. His human requirements theory states that humans are never completely satisfied; that they crave satisfaction and those requirements can be classified into a hierarchy based upon importance. The lowest level of importance includes peoples’ desire to satisfy their physical needs, such as hunger and thirst. Following the lowest level, individuals need basic security and stability. After physical and safety needs are satisfied, individuals have the desire to gain acceptance into a group and to establish meaningful relationships. Once this need is somewhat fulfilled, one will strive for self-confidence and personal achievement. Lastly, an individual must realize their potential or they will become dissatisfied and discontent. This theory assists managers to motivate subordinates in a diverse workplace by ensuring low-level needs are met first. Then, management will be able to pursue supervising employees as they complete more multifaceted tasks. An effective manager influences employees positively by creating a safe work environment, providing the necessary tools and resources and involving employees in decision-making processes (Maslow, 1943, 1954).

Abraham Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs, which are widely used in social work, is the conception of demand motives (Harris, J. and White, V., 2013). It includes five motivational needs: physiological needs, safety needs,

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory: Maslow focused on the psychological needs of employees. Maslow put forward a theory that there are five levels in a hierarchy of human needs that employees need to have fulfilled at work.

The Maslow Need Hierarchy Theory was proposed by Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, in 1943. The theory was one of the first theories that focus on the dispositional predictors on humans’ needs satisfaction. It states that there are five needs predictors on individuals’ psychological development: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualisation. These five stages imply the growth of humans. By these, Maslow had provided a way on understanding ones’ level of satisfaction by looking at their attitudes and behaviours, as well as how humans are motivated. The organizational and management level can thereby determine strategies to motivate employees intrinsically and extrinsically.

Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs was one of the earliest theories developed on human motivation. With the basic principle that higher-level motives could not become active before the basic needs had been met (Lahey, 2001).

Motivation at work stimulates the interest of a person in an activity. Motivation at works is very complex because there are multiple motives operating at the same time. Goals motivate and guide workers' behaviors. Specific goals are better than general goals and little difficulty is better than easy goals. The degree of expectancy determines how much effort is put forth, people will work hard if they expect the effort will pay off. Increased job enrichment which includes more control at work and a high number of tasks to perform leads to high motivation. Stress on the job reduces motivation and productivity. The specific needs to achieve and

Motivation is the desire or willingness to fulfil a goal. Within the working environment, it is essential that the company’s employees to possess / retain motivation in order to maintain optimal output. According to Maslow’s theory regarding the hierarchy of needs, it states “that human motives can be arranged in a hierarchy of priorities”. These priorities consist of Physiological, Safety, Belongingness, Esteem, Self –actualisation. This theory outlines that humans are ‘want’ beings, and once a need is fulfilled, the next need appears and demands to be satisfied. This process continues until the needs of self-actualisation, cannot be fully fulfilled, resulting in a halt of the generation of needs. In simple terms, Webfinance (2014) states “once a need is satisfied, it stops being a motivator of human beings”.