Theories of Motivation

 It is adequately documented in the literature that several thinkers from Adam Smith to Abraham
Maslow and others have studied human behavior from different perspectives – economic,
psychological, behavioral, etc., to understand what motivate people to do the things they do. In
the process, they developed several theories of motivation. This section presents a brief review
of some of the theories and empirical evidences on the relationship between motivation and
productivity. Broadly speaking the theories of motivation can be classified in to content theories
and process theories. The former deals with what motivates and are concerned with identifying
people’s needs and their relative strengths, and the goals they pursue in order to satisfy these
needs. The main content theories include Maslow’s hierarchy needs; Herzberg’s two factor theory and McClelland’s achievement motivation theory. Process theories on the other hand,

place emphasis on the actual process of motivation. These theories are concerned with the

relationships among the dynamic variables which make up motivation and with how behavior is

initiated, directed and sustained. Examples are expectancy –based models, equity theory goal

theory and attribution theory (Uzonna, 2013).

The most popular theory of motivation in the classical literature is perhaps that of a

United States psychologist, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory. Maslow (1943)

discussed five levels of employee needs: physiological, safety and security, social, esteem or

ego and self- actualizing. According to this theory, people have many needs which motivate

them to work, that those needs are arranged in a hierarchical manner in such a way that lower

level needs (physiological and safety) had to be satisfied before the next higher level social

need would motivate employees to work hard and increase productivity.

The second theory of motivation is the two factor theory or motivator and hygiene theory

developed by Frederick Herzberg (Herzberg, 1966). Motivators or intrinsic factors such as drive

for achievement and advancement, being treated in a caring and considerate manner and

receiving positive recognition are inherent in the job itself and which the individual enjoys as a

result of successfully completing the task, produce job satisfaction and motivate employees to

work harder. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as salary, benefits and job security are external

to the task and often determined at the organizational level can lead to dissatisfaction and lack

of motivation if not present in positive degrees. Uzonna (2013) argues that one important

element of Herzberg’s theory is that knowing employee needs can help us motivate today’s

young, ambitious and knowledge and technology-based workers. Given the fact that these

workers already command high paying jobs, we can infer that money or cash rewards alone

does not provide enough of an incentive as a motivator for performance. This implies that to

motivate workers, organizations need to look beyond monetary rewards.

Victor Vroom developed the expectancy theory based on the belief that employee effort

will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards. Rewards may be either positive

or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated.

Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated to work

harder (Vroom, 1964, as cited in Malik, et al, 2011: 39). This theory was further developed by

Porter and Lawler (1968).

Another theory is the equity theory of motivation developed in the early 1960’s by J.

Stacey Adams, a psychologist. The theory proposes that a person's motivation is based on what

he or she considers being fair when compared to others (Redmond & Housell, 2015). It

recognizes that motivation can be affected through an individual's perception of fair treatment in social exchanges. When compared to other people, individuals want to be compensated fairly

for their contributions to the organization. A person's beliefs regarding what is fair and what is

not can affect his motivation, attitudes and behaviors which will in turn affect subsequent

performance. When applied to the workplace, equity theory focuses on an employee's work compensation relationship or "exchange relationship" as well as that employee's attempt to

minimize any sense of unfairness that might result. According to the theory, underpayment

inequity induces anger and distress while overpayment induces guilt. (Redmond & Housell,

2015).

Lastly, B.F. Skinner's reinforcement theory states that those employee behaviors that

lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will

not be repeated (Skinner, 1953, as cited in Malik, et. al., 2011:39). A reinforcer can therefore be

seen as a reward or incentive to behave in a certain way. Reinforcers may be tangible like food

or money and they can be intangible like approval or praise. The implication is that

organizations should reinforce employee behaviors that lead to positive outcomes and

discourage those behaviors that lead to negative outcomes. This can be achieved through staff

training and development, among other strategies.

References

Adams, J. S. (1963). Towards an Understanding of Inequity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,

67, 422-436.

Aibievi, S. (2014). Training as an Essential Tool for Increasing Productivity in Organizations: Uniben in

Focus. Current Research Journal of Social Sciences 6, 35-38.

Aremu, I. (2017, May 20). The key to economy recovery is motivated and skilled workforce. Daily Trust.

Retrieved on June 1, 2017 from https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/labour/-the-key-to-economyrecovery-

is-motivated-and-skilled-workforce/189972.html

Bawa, M.A. & Jantan, M. (2005). Human Resource Practices as Determinants of Employee Turnover: An

Empirical Investigation. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 10(2), 69-78.

Griffeth, R. W.. & Gaertner, S. (2001). A Role for Equity Theory in the Turnover Process: An Empirical

Test. Researchgate. Retrieved on April 14, 2017 from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/211386914.

Haider, M., Aamir, A, Abdulhamid, A & Hashim, M. (2015). Literature Analysis on the Importance of Nonfinancial

Rewards for Employees’ Job Satisfaction. Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences, 8(2), 341-354.

Retrieved March 13, 2017, from www.aupc.info.

Herzberg, F. B. (1966). Work and the Nature of Man. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company.

Lawler, E.E. & Suttle, L. (1973) Expectancy Theory and Job Behaviour. University of Michigan and Yale

University: Academic Press, Inc.