Motivation

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

There are four content theories of motivation. They are Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's two factor theory Alderfer's modified need hierarchy model and McClelland's achievement motivation theory.. Abraham Maslow's theory is about how people want things and what they want is based on what they already have and that they will always want more once they have something. He arranged this into a pyramid called the "hierarchy of needs" with the simpler needs at the bottom and the more complex needs at the top. The pyramid has 5 stages, starting with physiological needs, then safety needs, then social needs, then esteem needs and finally self-actualisation at the top. 

 

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Physiological needs are the basic requirements for human survival such as need for food, water, oxygen.

Safety needs are the needs for security and regularity and consistency such as steady employment, safe environment and job security.

Love/social needs are the needs for belonging and affection from friendships and families.

Esteem needs include the needs for self respect and the esteem from others. Self respect involves being confident and independent, whereas esteem from others involves recognition, reputation and status.

Self actualisation needs are the realisation of the individual’s full potential and “becoming everything that one is capable of becoming” according to Maslow.

Herezberg interviewed 200 accountants and engineers to find out when they felt good and bad in their previous jobs and why. This showed him that there were two different factors affecting motivation - hygiene and motivator factors. Hygiene factors are extrinsic and to do with the job environment, the need to avoid unpleasantness at work. Motivator factors are related to the job itself and serve to make the individual want to improve performance for job satisfaction. This can be related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the hygiene factors are the lower stages and the motivator factors are the higher stages. Hygiene factors are needed to make sure and employee is not dissatisfied whilst motivator factors are needed to motivate an employee to a better performance.

There are a number of reasons motivating me to start university. The main reason I want to get a degree is so that I can have qualifications in order to get a job when I come out. At the moment, due to the recession it is very hard to get a job for anyone, let alone an unqualified teenager. So therefore one reason for coming to university for a few years is in the hope that when I come out with a degree I may find it easier to get a good job that I enjoy. This meets my basic needs of living and safety needs as I am in a secure environment. Another reason for coming to university is the freedom of living away from home and being responsible for myself and making my own decisions. This relates to my social needs from living with peers and also my self actualisation of feeling responsible for myself in becoming an adult. I find the subject that I am studying interesting so this will keep me motivated for the 3 years to come. As I am only concentrating on one subject rather than juggling four, like at A Level, and having to do subjects which I didn't particularly like for found too hard, I should not get demotivated. But the work will also be challenging to keep me interested, relating to Herzberg's motivator factors.

A time when I felt demotivated was at secondary school. This was for numerous reasons. I felt throughout the school years that hard work was going unrewarded by not being marked properly, and being in a very competitive school where expectations were so high it was demotivating to see other students get exceptional marks that I could not compete with. Therefore my esteem needs were not being met, even though my social and safety needs were. I was also having to do subjects that I didn't enjoy and found too difficult as they didn't offer a wide variety of subjects. To change this, I left the school and started a college which offered a wider range of subjects and with students who were of similar acedemic ability. I was now more motivated to work as I had found subjects that I enjoyed and was good at without being overshadowed by the majority of other students.

In conclusion, Maslow's theory is a useful tool to be able to locate which position on the pyramid a person is. And the Herzberg theory is useful to know if the employees are satisfied with their working conditions and what they can do to improve and become more motivated.
 
Bibliography 

• Cherry, K., “Hierarchy of Needs”, About.com
• McCrimmon, M. (2008), “Herzberg and employee motivation”, Suite101.comMotivation and Personality, Third Edition, Harper and Row Publishers
• Mullins, L. (2010), Management & Organisational Behaviour, 9^th edition, Essex, FT
• Norwood, G. (2009), “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, Deepermind.com
• Reed, R. (2007), “Innocent Drinks”, growingbusiness.co.uk
• Worman, D., “20 ways to motivate employees”, Biztrain.com