Motivation Theories

McClelland achievement and acquired needs theory

In McClelland book 'The Achieving Society', we study about his acquired needs theory. He describes that an individual's specific needs can be achieved at some time and can be shaped on the basis of life experiences of individuals. The three types of motivational need McClelland had purposed. An individual motivation and effectiveness in specific job functions are affected on the basis of these three needs.

Achievement motivation

The each individual is 'achievement motivated' and hence seeks in achieving, attaining the realistic but dynamic goals, and development in the job. There is a strong need for providing the answer for achieving and progress, and a demand for a sense of accomplishing. People who have greater demand and need for achievement tends to excel and thus be aware and avoid the both low-risk and high-risk environment. People who tend to avoid low-risk situations as they can easily attain goal and it is not a real achievement. In high-risk situation people see the result of the chance rather than theirs own effort. High n-ach person prefers in the job that has a moderate probability of success such as 50% chance. They like in working alone or with other achievers that perform high.

Authority/power motivation

The individual is 'authority motivated'. This driver helps the individual by creating the needs that are influential, effective and to make an impact in the organization and themselves. There is a powerful need for leading and for their ideas for prevailing. There includes the motivation and need which helps in increasing individual status and prestige. A person's power is divided into two types such as personal and institutional. Those who require personal power can direct others, and this need can be perceived as undesirable. Individual that requires the institutional as known as social power tries to organize the efforts of others people for achieving the further the objective of the business. Managers with a greater need for social power become more effective than those people that tend to require a greater need for personal power.

Affiliation motivation

The n-affil individual is 'affiliation motivated', and has a demand and want for friendly relationships between the people along with the effective interaction after being. They need close relationships with other people and feel that they are accepted by other people. The affiliation driver enhances motivation and needs to be respected and liked. These persons include the team players. They conform norm of their work team to whom they show their performance. High n-affil people work in the company that tends to provide significant personal interaction. They show their performance in the customer service and client interaction situations.

McClelland's needs theory defines that people acquire the combination of these characteristics. Some person has a strong bias for particular motivational needs and this motivational which is 'mix' consequently, have impact on the behaviour and working/managing style.McClelland’s achievement motivation theory argues that a powerful 'affiliation-motivation' develops towards the goal of managers due to their need and has impact on the decision-making ability of managers. A powerful 'authority-motivation' generates the work ethic and commitment to the company, and while persons are determined for the role of the leadership, they lack ability for possessing the required flexibility and people-oriented skills.McClelland's motivation theory defines that the persons that have powerful 'achievement motivation' tend to be the best leaders, although there may arise the tendency for need too much of their workers in the expectation that people are oriented to the achievement motivation and results driven, which of course most people are not.

Equity Theory of Motivation

The important role of the equity theory is the way or method of balance or equity. As per this motivation theory, a single people motivation level is directly related to his perception of equity, fairness and justice practised by the organisation. Greater the individual’s view of fairness, higher will be the level of the motivation and vice versa. While determining fairness, worker compares in the way of contribution to result such as compensation and also compares the peer of equal method. The output-input ratio is the method that is used for making such a comparison.

Negative Tension state

Equity is looked at the time when this ratio is equal. If such ratio is unequal, it directly involves in “equity tension”. The scholar Adams called such things as a negative tension state that motivates individual for doing something right for relieving this tension. A comparison between 2 employees such as X and Y for understanding this point has been made.

Moderating Variables

The moderating variables include the factors such as gender, salary, education experience level and so on. Individuals with greater better knowledge and skills are more informed. Thus, they tend to compare themselves with the people that work outside or is outsiders such as, males and females compare for their sex. It has been seen that payment is made less for female than males in comparable jobs and also females are given fewer salary expectations than male for the same nature of the work. Thus, a women worker who uses another women worker as a reference tends for leading to a lower comparative standard. Workers that have greater experience have knowledge of the company very well and compare themselves with their own colleagues, while workers with less experience compare themselves with their own experiences and knowledge for making comparisons.

Assumptions of the Equity Theory

• The theory defines that the people compare with their own rewards and also with what others get.
• Employees believe that they get the fair and equitable outcome for their contribution to their works.
• Employees determine their equitable return by comparing their inputs and results with those of their workers in the company.
• Employees who view themselves in an inequitable environment tends to reduce the inequity through distorting raw materials and result psychologically, by directly altering inputs and/or outputs, or by leaving the company.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

The Victor Vroom of Yale School of Management in 1964 developed the expectancy theory of motivation. Vroom stress is dealt with the result but not on needs like Maslow and Herzberg. The theory describes that the intensity for performing the particular manner is not independent but is dependent on the intensity of a belief that the performance must be related to a definite outcome and on the appeal of the final outcome to the individual or team. The Expectancy theory tells that workers motivation is a result of an individual needs for a reward (Valence), the likelihood that the hard work will lead to future predicted performance (Expectancy) and the expectation that the performance will foster for the reward (Instrumentality). In short, Valence is the term that is associated with a single person about the predicted outcome. It is the predicted but not the real satisfaction that a worker expects to receive by achieving the goals or objective of the company. The trust of believing that the better efforts will result in better performance is called expectancy. Expectancy is affected by the forces like possessing the competent skills for performing the job, availability of optimum and specific resources, availability of important information and getting the essential help through completing the job. Instrumentality is the understanding or belief that when you do better, then a potential outcome raises. Instrumentality is influenced by the forces or factors like believing in the people who receives the expected outcome, the method of deciding which people get what outcome, and developing the cordial relationship between performance and result. Thus, the expectancy theory involves the following three relationships: Effort-performance relationship: the likelihood where the individual’s effort is be recognised based on the performance appraisal given to him or her. Performance-reward relationship: It tells about the extent to which the workers have faith that receiving a good performance appraisal leads to business rewards. Rewards-personal goals relationship: It includes the attractiveness or appeal of the potential reward for the individual. These 3 forces interact together for creating a motivational method for a worker to work towards pleasure and avoid pain. The formula for this force is, Valence of outcome x Expectancy act will result in outcome (Instrumentality) = Motivation Force

First Order result is the behaviour that results directly from the effort an employee expends on the job.Second Order Outcome is anything good or bad that results from a first-order outcome.

References

Dessler, Gary.a Framework for Human Resource Management.Florida:Pearson Education Asia, 2002.

https://sites.google.com/site/motivationataglanceischool/vroom-s-expectancy-theory