Motivation theorists

Motivation theorists

1. Elton Mayo

   • Mayo believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work
     • Mayo introduced the Human Relation School of thought focusing on
       • Managers taking more of an interest in the workers
       • Treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions
       • Realising that workers enjoy interacting
   • WORKERS ARE BEST MOTIVATED BY
     • Better communication
     • Greater manager involvement
     • Working in groups or teams
   • businesses should re-organise production to encourage greater use of team working and introduce personnel departments to encourage greater manager involvement in looking after employees interests.
     • His theory most closely fits in with a paternalistic style of management.

2. FREDS TWO FACTOR THEORY

   • Motivators – job satisfaction
     • Factors that directly motivate employees to work harder
       • E.g. Achievement, responsibility, recognition, enhancement, promotion, progression, development, opportunity, variety/creativity
   • Hygiene factors – dissatisfaction
     • Factors that can demotivate if not present but do not actually motivate employees to work harder
     • Associated with the working environment
     • Closely linked to Maslows lower order needs
       • E.g. security, supervision, interpersonal relationships, company politics, status, working conditions, salary
   • Hygiene factors are as important as motivators because they need to be present at work
   • Hygiene factors help employees avoid being demotivated at work, by themselves they will not positively motivate employees
   • Managers therefore need to provide hygiene factors and also motivators in the form of satisfying work.
   • Limitations
     • He concluded his findings from a sample of 200 accountants and engineers
     • He was also criticised for making too little of the role of groups and teams in the workplace

3. Taylor

   • Workers do not naturally enjoy work and so need close supervision and control Therefore managers should break down production into a series of small tasks
     • •Workers should then be given appropriate training and tools so they can work as efficiently as possible on one set task.
       • •Workers are then paid according to the number of items they produce in a set period of time- piece-rate pay.
         • As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximise their productivity
   • Taylor's methods were widely adopted as businesses saw the benefits of increased productivity levels and lower unit costs.
     • However workers soon came to dislike Taylor's approach as they were only given boring, repetitive tasks to carry out.
       • Firms could also afford to lay off workers as productivity levels increased.
         • This led to an increase in strikes and other forms of industrial action by dissatisfied workers
   • Taylor's approach has close links with the concept of an autocratic management style (managers take all the decisions and simply give orders to those below them) and Macgregor's Theory X approach to workers (workers are viewed as lazy and avoid responsibility).
   • Key summary for Taylor:
     • Workers given one repetitive task so they can learn to master it
     • Managers should give orders and closely control workers
     • Workers should be paid per item they produced – piece rate

4. McGreggor

   • McGregor developed two theories of human behaviour at work: Theory and X and Theory Y.
     • He did not imply that workers would be one type or the other. Rather, he saw the two theories as two extremes - with a whole spectrum of possible behaviours in between.
   • Theory X workers:
     • Individuals who dislike work and avoid it where possible
     • Individuals who lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led
     • Individuals who desire security
     • The management implications for Theory X workers were that, to achieve organisational objectives, a business would need to impose a management system of coercion, control and punishment
   • Theory Y workers
     • Consider effort at work as just like rest or play

5. Maslow

   • 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.
   • All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy and only once a lower level of need has been fully met, would a worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied.
     • For example a person who is dying of hunger will be motivated to achieve a basic wage in order to buy food before worrying about having a secure job contract or the respect of others.
   • A business should therefore offer different incentives to workers in order to help them fulfil each need in turn and progress up the hierarchy.
     • Managers should also recognise that workers are not all motivated in the same way and do not all move up the hierarchy at the same pace.
       • They may therefore have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from worker to worker.
   • Key summary for Maslow:
     • •Workers motivated by having each level of need met in order as they move up the hierarchy
     • •Levels of needs are: Physical, Security, Social, Self-esteem, Self-fulfilment
     • •Workers must have lower level of needs fully met by firm before being motivated by next level