Introduction:

Man’s work, conduct and any other activities are significantly conditioned by the degree of
his motivation, regardless of whether the origin of the motive is internal (impulse within
man, the individual) or external (incentive by the external influences). Modern companies
and other business entities pay great attention to improving the form, manner, technique
and instruments of the employee motivation. Science and experience have shown that
employees who are well motivated show more wishes, desires, creativity, innovation,
greater company loyalty and increased satisfaction in their work. Good employee
motivation creates a good business climate, strengthen relationships and builds a good and
sustainable organizational behavior.

Motivation Defined:

A motive is a reason for doing something. Motivation is concerned with the strength and
direction of behaviour and the factors that influence people to behave in certain ways. The
term ‘motivation’ can refer variously to the goals individuals have, the ways in which
individuals chose their goals and the ways in which others try to change their behaviour.

THEORIES IN MOTIVATION

Motivation theories are tools managers can use to increase production, profits, employee
retention rates and employee satisfaction levels. As a manager, you may aim to increase employee
motivation in order to help your company achieve its business goals. Using motivation theories
can include offering incentives, addressing needs or providing rewards to motivate your team to
meet a specific goal.

There are many theories of motivation. Some of the famous motivation theories include the
following:

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow postulated that a person will be motivated when his needs are fulfilled.
The need starts from the lowest level basic needs and keeps moving up as a lower-level
need is fulfilled. Below is the hierarchy of needs:
 Physiological
 Safety
 Social (belongingness and love)
 Self-esteem
 Self-actualization

Image 1:
The leader will have to understand the specific need of every individual in the team and
accordingly work to help fulfil their needs. 

2. Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Hertzberg classified the needs into two broad categories namely hygiene factors and
motivating factors.

Image 2:

Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential for existence of
motivation at workplace. These do not lead to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if
these factors are absent / if these factors are non-existent at workplace, then they lead to
dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors symbolized the physiological needs which the
individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled. Hygiene factors include:

 Pay
 Company Policies and Administrative Policies
 Fringe Benefits
  Physical Working Conditions
 Status
 Interpersonal Relations
 Job Security

Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be regarded as

motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction. These factors are inherent
to work. These factors motivate the employees for a superior performance. The motivators
symbolized the psychological needs that were perceived as an additional benefit.
Motivational factors include:

 Recognition
 Sense of achievement
 Growth and promotional opportunities
 Responsibility
 Meaningfulness of the work

3. Mcclelland’s Theory of Needs

McClelland affirms that we all have three motivating drivers, and it does not depend on our
gender or age. One of these drives will be dominant in our behaviour. The dominant drive
depends on our life experiences. 

The three motivators are:

 Need for affiliation
The affiliate theory proposes that humans desire to belong to a group and feel accepted by
other people. This theory can help managers identify if an employee might work well on a
team and grow from the experience. Employees who feel motivation from affiliation often
have highly developed interpersonal skills that can help them generate strong and
meaningful relationships with their coworkers.
 Need for achievement
Some employees naturally strive to become successful and important. These individuals
may be competitive and maintain a high standard for their work ethic. They typically have
a strong desire for recognition after completing a task and may ask for feedback on their
performance.
 Need for power
Some employees are interested in influencing others, making an impact on their coworkers
and positively affecting the workplace. These types of employees usually enjoy leading
groups of people, distributing tasks and coordinating events. They may attempt to motivate
their coworkers to achieve short-term and long-term goals. Allowing these employees to
apply their leadership skills can generate feelings of motivation in large groups of
employees, which can lead to job satisfaction.

Image 3:
 4. Incentive Theory

The incentive motivational theory suggests people feel motivated by reinforcement,

recognition, incentives and rewards. The incentive theory also proposes that people may
display certain behaviors in order to achieve a specific result, incite a particular action or
receive a reward. Here are a few examples of incentives in the workplace:

 Bonus
 Praise
 Opportunity
 Promotion
 Salary or wage
 Paid vacation or time off

5. Competence Theory

Competence theory proposes that people often want to engage in specific activities to
display their skills, intelligence and abilities. If an employee successfully demonstrates
their intelligence in front of their peers, it can motivate them to feel competent in a
particular area. Feeling competent may increase how confidently they perform tasks, which
can improve productivity and efficiency. Confident employees may also feel encouraged to
learn more in-depth information in order to share it with their peers and receive
recognition.

6. Expectancy Theory

The expectancy theory suggests that people may perform certain behaviors if they think
those actions may lead to desirable outcomes. You can apply the expectancy theory in the
workplace if you're interested in improving your team's productivity, effort or efficiency.

Expectancy theory, when properly followed, can help managers understand how
individuals are motivated to choose among various behavioral alternatives. To enhance the
connection between performance and outcomes, managers should use systems that tie
rewards very closely to performance. They can also use training to help employees
improve their abilities and believe that added effort will, in fact, lead to better performance.

MOTIVATING BY JOB DESIGN

Job Design is a psychological theory of motivation that is defined as the systematic and

purposeful allocation of tasks to groups and individuals within an organization. Job design
involves specifying the contents, responsibilities, objectives, and relationships required to
satisfy the expectations of the role.

The five core characteristics of job design are:

1. Skill Variety

This refers to the range of abilities needed to perform a job. Monotony is not what many
people look for in their dream job; conversely, employees want to be able to enlist various
skills throughout their employment so as to not get bored. Employee motivation will
increase if your team members are using a variety of diverse skills in their positions, rather
than one set skill repeatedly.

2. Task Identity

Task identity means the extent to which a job involves completing an identifiable piece of
work from start to finish, with a visible outcome. Motivated employees will be more likely
to complete tasks if they identify with them and have seen them through from start to
finish. And if you encourage employees to identify with a task, they are more motivated to
complete it and achieve the outcome. Employees who contribute a small piece to multiple
projects, but never see the outcome will identify less with their work, creating lower
employee motivation.

3. Task Significance

The extent to which a job is important to and impacts others within and outside of the
organization is known as task significance. When employees feel that their work is
significant to their organization, they are motivated to do well and this will lead to
increased employee productivity. If they feel that their work is going unnoticed, or isn’t
affecting anyone, this will cause employee engagement to take a hit and your team will be
less motivated to complete tasks.

4. Autonomy

Autonomy measures each employee’s level of freedom and ability to schedule tasks.
Employees like to be able to make decisions and have flexibility in their roles. Most
employees will have lowered motivation if they feel they have no freedom or are being
micromanaged. When an employee’s success depends on their own capabilities and drive,
they feel a greater sense of responsibility for their efforts.

5. Job Feedback

This refers to the degree to which an employee receives direct feedback on their
performance. Your team needs feedback in order to motivate employees long-term.
Managers need to provide feedback on performance throughout each employee’s tenure,
and not just at an annual or biannual performance review.

Job Design Methods: Rotation, Simplification, Enlargement and Enrichment of Jobs!

Achieving good job design involves administrative practices that determine what the
employee does, for how long, where, and when as well as giving the employees choice
where ever possible. In job design, you may choose to examine the various tasks of an
individual job or the design of a group of jobs.
1. Job Rotation

It is one of the methods of job design which is an answer to the problem of boredom. Job
rotation moves employees from one task to another. It distributes the group tasks among a
number of employees. With job rotation, a given employee performs different jobs but,
more or less, jobs of the same nature.

2. Job Simplification

Here the jobs are simplified or specialized. A given job is broken down into small sub-parts
and each part is assigned to one individual. Work simplification is done so that less-trained
and the less paid employees can do these jobs.

3. Job Enlargement

It is the process of increasing the scope of a job by adding more tasks to it. The related tasks
are combined. Job enlargement involves expanding the number of tasks or duties assigned
to a given job. Job enlargement therefore, naturally is opposite to work simplification.
Adding more tasks/ duties to a job does not mean that new skill and abilities are needed to
perform it.

4. Job Enrichment

It involves designing a job in such a way that it provides the workers greater autonomy for
planning and controlling his own performance. It seeks to improve tasks, efficiency and
human satisfaction by building into people’s jobs, greater scope for personal achievement
and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for
individual advancement.