K O T E B E U N I VE R S I T Y O F E D U C A T I O N

BUINESS AND ECONOMICS FACULTY

MBA PROGRAM

MOTIVATION CONCEPTS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

BY
SHEWAYIRGA ASSALF (ASS. PRO.)

2022 G.C
 Motivation: It’s Meaning and Role
• Motivating in an organizational context is the process by which a
manager induces others to achieve organizational objectives as a
means of satisfying their own personal desires.
• It is virtually impossible to determine a person's motivation until
that person behaves or literally moves.
• By observing what someone says or does in a given situation, one
can draw reasonable inferences about his/her underlying
motivation.
• Motivation is a process that gives behavior, purpose and
direction.
• By appealing to this process, managers attempt to get individuals
to willingly pursue organizational objectives
 A Simple Model of Motivation
 A simple model of the motivational process has just three
elements. Needs, goal-directed, behavior and need satisfaction.
 People behave in ways that they feel are most likely to satisfy
their needs.
 These needs are wishes, want or desires for certain tangible or
intangible outcomes.
 People need such tangible items as clothes, homes, stock
portfolios, large offices and company cars, they need such
intangibles as feelings of achievement, recognition and personal
growth.
• People engage in goal directed behavior in an attempt to satisfy
their needs.
• Working for one company is one kind of goal-directed behavior.
 CONT..
• An unsatisfied need is the starting point in the process of
motivation.
• A deficiency of something within the individual, it is the first link
in the chain of events leading to behavior.
• The unsatisfied need causes tension (physical or psychological)
within the individual, leading the individual to engage in some
kind of behavior to satisfy the need and thereby reduce the tension.
• For example, an achievement-oriented person is driven by the
desire to succeed and is motivated by a desire for a promotion
and/or accomplishment in order to satisfy the need.
• UNSATISFIED NEED
• TENSION
• BEHAVIOR
• REDUCE TENSION
• SATISFACTION
CONT…

1. Unsatisfied need

3. Need satisfaction 2. Goal-directed behavior

Figure 4.2 The Motivation Process

 Motivation Theories
 Theories of motivation can be divided into two
categories.
1. Content theory
2. process theory
 Content theories address the question of what causes
motivation.
 Often referred to as need theories, they are concerned with

identifying the reasons underlying employees’ behavior.

Process theories deal with the question of how behavior is

started, directed, sustained and stopped.

 A. Content Theories of Motivation
 There are three major content theories of motivation :

1. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,

2. The Two-factor theory of Frederic Herzberg, and

3. The Achievement Motivation Theory of David

McClelland.
1. Maslow’s Need-Hierarchy Theory
Abraham Maslow's need-hierarchy theory is one of the most
widely known theories of motivation.
The critical part of this theory is that needs are arranged in
hierarchy.
The lowest-level needs are the physiological needs, and the
highest level needs are the self-actualization needs.
According to Maslow, people are motivated to satisfy five
categories of inborn needs.
These needs are presented in the following box in a hierarchical
form of ascending importance, from low to high.
 Maslow’s Five Level of Needs
 Physiological Needs: Are needs for food, water, rest, air, sex and so
forth.
 Safety or Security Needs: Include the need for security and
stability, as well as freedom from fear or threatening events or
surroundings.
 Social Needs: Include the need for friendship, affection,
acceptance, and interaction with other.
 Esteem Needs: Include both a need for personal feelings of
achievement (self-esteems) and a need for recognition or respect
from other.
• Self-actualization Needs: Include feelings of self-fulfillment and
realization of one's potential.
• That is, the need to fulfill oneself by making maximum use of
abilities, skills, and potential.
Maslow’s Five Needs…
Maslow's theory assumes that a person attempts to satisfy the
more basic needs (physiological) before directing behavior
toward satisfying upper-level needs.
Unsatisfied needs can cause frustration, conflict, and stress.
Unsatisfied needs that motivate an individual in the organization.
Unless satisfied, they may lead to undesirable performance
outcomes.

Implications of the Hierarchical nature of Needs

The fact that need can be arranged in a hierarchy has several
important implications for managers.
First, needs at the lower levels must be satisfied first, only then
can higher needs be addressed.
 Implications of the Hierarchical nature of Needs
A second important implication is that lower-level needs
form a foundation on which the higher levels are built.
Only when lower level needs remain satisfied can
mangers hope to motivate workers via the satisfaction of
higher level needs
• For example, when an employee whose lower-
level needs have been satisfied suddenly faces a threat to
her or his job security, that employee’s attention will
immediately shift to the lowest level of needs
 Implications of the Hierarchical nature of Needs…
• A third implication revolves around Maslow’s notion of prepotency,
according to which individuals are assumed to progress from
motivation by needs at lower levels in the hierarchy to motivation by
needs at higher levels.
• Thus, if a subordinate is currently motivated principally by the
pursuit of safety needs the manager can be confident that, once those
safety needs are met, the person will next seek to satisfy social
needs.
•A fourth implication is the idea of sufficiency. A person almost never
feels that a need is totally satisfied.
•Most people want more money, security, friends, esteem and self-
confidence, no matter how much they have achieved.
•Thus individuals move up the hierarchy not when a need is totally
satisfied but when it is sufficiently satisfied.
 Critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has great intuitive appeal, which
perhaps best explains it opportunity as a way of thinking about the
causes of motivation.
First of all, most of us reorder the levels of the hierarchy at some
time in our lives.
Second, it is extremely difficult to determine for prestigious career
moves individual is currently is currently motivated
• A third difficulty arises in the measurement of a person’s needs.
 2. Herzberg’s two-­factor theory
•Herzberg developed a motivation theory known as the two-factor
theory of motivation.
•The two factors are called the dissatisfies-satisfiers or the
hygiene-moti­vators or the extrinsic-intrinsic factors.
•The original research that led to the theory gave rise to two specific
conclusions. These are:
• There is a set of extrinsic conditions, the job context, which re­sult in
dissatisfaction among employees when the conditions are not
present.
• If these conditions are present, this does not necessarily motivate
employees.
• These conditions are the dissatisfies or hygiene factors, since they
are needed to main­tain at least a level of no dissatisfaction.
Herzberg’s two-­factor theory …
ey include: Salary, job security, working conditions, status,
• Th

company procedures, quality of technical supervision, and quality

of interpersonal relations among peers, with superiors and with
subordinates
 There is a set of intrinsic conditions - the job content - when present in
the job, builds strong levels of motivation that can result in good job
performance.
 If these conditions are not present, they do not prove highly satisfying.

 The factors in this set are called the satisfiers or motivators and include:
achievement, the work itself, recognition, the possibility of growth,
responsibility, and advancement.
 These motivators are directly related to the nature of the job or task it.
When present, they contribute to satisfaction.
 This, in turn, can result in intrin­sic task motivation.
Comparison of Herzberg and Maslow
•There are notable similarities between the theories of Maslow and
Herzberg.
•Both men arranged needs in a hierarchy and both recognized
physiological, safety, Social, esteem and self actualization needs
(although Herzberg used different labels).
•From a managerial viewpoint, there are also important differences
between the two theories.
•Maslow’s work was based on the belief that the same factors led to
satisfaction (and therefore could be motivating) that when absent,
led to dissatisfaction.
•Herzberg’s work provided evidence that on the contrary, there are
fairly distinct types of factors that can elicit goal oriented behavior.
Comparison of Herzberg and Maslow …
1. Hygiene factors that can be used to elicit a satisfying level of
motivation at best.
2. Motivators that can serve to stimulate an excellent level of
motivation once the
 hygiene needs have been sufficiently satisfied.
An important implication of the two-factor theory is that
managers must be careful not to emphasize hygiene factors as
the basis of need satisfaction when such lower-level needs are
already satisfactorily met.
Likewise, they should not waste the resources associated with
offering motivators as incentives before hygiene needs to be
satisfied.
Critique of Herzberg’s Theory
•It must be noted that the support for Herzbeerg’s theory is more
anecdotal than research based.
•In fact, much of the research that has been done to further test
Herzberg’s ideas has failed to confirm his findings.
•Nevertheless, numerous companies have adopted
recommendations stemming from Herzberg’s research.
 3. McClelland’s Achievement Theory of Motivation
•In a theory that he and his colleagues have been developing for decades,
David McClelland argues that organizations offer individuals
opportunities to satisfy three higher-level needs: the need for
achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation.
•His most widely reported findings are that the need for achievement is
positively associated with managerial performance and success and that a
need for achievement can be developed in aspiring managers.
•The need for achievement lies on Maslow’s hierarchy between esteem
and self-actualization needs.
•Individuals who exhibit high achievement orientations are characterized
by moderately high levels of risk taking, a desire for concrete feed-back
on their performance, a desire for problem-solving responsibility, and a
tendency to set moderate goals.
 McClelland’s Achievement Theory of Motivation…
oLike the need for achievement, the need for power lies between the
needs for esteem and self-actualization on Maslow’s hierarchy.
oThis need is an expression of an individual’s desire to control and
influence others.
oSeen as a positive attribute, as McClelland intended, the need for
power is closely related to the desire to assume a position of leadership.
oMcClelland’s need for affiliation is essentially identical to Maslow’s.

oIt reflects the desire to have close, cooperative, and friendly relations
with others.
oIndividuals with high affiliation needs most often succeed in jobs that
require high levels of social interaction—jobs wherein interpersonal
relationships are especially critical to performance.
McClelland’s Achievement Theory of Motivation…
•McClelland has used the results of his research to identify
three types of managers: institutional managers, personal-
power managers and affiliation managers.
•His work has shown that the need for achievement can be
developed in managers and that the probable outcome is
improved managerial and organizational performance.
• Organization development that stresses competitive
methods for achieving task goals and the importance of goal
achievement has been found to increase managers’ goal-
oriented behavior.
Evaluation of McClelland’s Achievement Theory
Like any other theory on motivation, McClelland’s theory has been
criticized, the criticisms often being unfair.
In the first place, the critics question whether motives can be taught
to adults.
Considering psychological literature suggests that the acquisition of
motives normally occurs in childhood and is very difficult to change,
once it has been established.
McClelland, however, counters that there is strong evidence from
politics and religion to indicate that adult behavior can be drastically
altered in a relatively short time.
The second criticism of this theory questions the contention that
the needs are permanently acquired
McClelland is the only theorist who argues that the needs can be
changed socially through education or training.
 Evaluation of McClelland’s Achievement Theory…
 The third criticism relates to the methodology used by McClelland and his
associates to advocate the theory.
 Employees with high achievement needs thrive on work that is
challenging, satisfying, stimulating and complex.
 Employees with low achievement needs prefer situations of stability,
security and predictability.
 They respond better to considerate supervision than to impersonal, high-
pressure supervision and look to the workplace and co workers for social
satisfaction.
 McClelland’s research also suggests that managers can, to some extent;
raise the achievement needs level of subordinates by creating the proper
work environment-permitting their subordinates a measure of
independence, increasing responsibility and autonomy, gradually making
tasks more challenging and praising and rewarding high performance.
B. Process Theories of Motivation
• Process theories of motivation try to explain how goal-oriented
behavior is started, directed, sustained, and stopped.
There are three major process theories of motivation:
1. The expectancy theory of Victor Vroom,
2. The equity theory of J. Stacy Adams, and
3. Reinforcement theory, popularized by B. F. Skinner
 1. ExpectancyTheory

•Most modern process theories of motivation are built on Victor

Vroom’s view of motivation as a process that governs individual
choice.
•He believed that people are in a nearly constant state of motivation.
• Thus, to Vroom, the key to being a successful manager is to show
subordinates how focusing their efforts on the achievement of
organizational goals will lead to the greatest achievement of their
personal goals.
•The expectancy theory is built around three concepts: valence,
expectancy and instrumentality.
Expectancy Theory…
•Valence: people have preferences (valences) for various outcomes
or incentives that are potentially available to them.
•Valence refers to the personal value workers place on the rewards
they believe they will receive for performing.
•It is the importance that the individual places on the potential
outcome or reward that can be achieved on the jobs.
•Expectancy: people have expectancies about the likelihood that an
action r effort on their part will lead to the intended performance.
•Workers will be motivated by the belief that their performance will
ultimately lead to payoffs for them
 Expectancy Theory…
•Expectancy refers to the perceived relationship between a given level of effort
and a given level of performance.
•Managers can influence the employee’s expectancies positively by matching
people to jobs.
•Instrumentality: it refers to the relationship between performance and reward.

•It provides answer to such questions ‘Will I be rewarded if I perform the job
well?’
• It is a probability that a person assigns to the performance-outcome link.

•In general, an individual’s motivational force is directed toward that

combination of expectancies, instrumentalities, and valenced outcomes
which is expected to provide the greatest overall satisfaction of needs. The
relationship can be expressed as:
Motivation = valence times expectancy times instrumentality.
Evaluation of Expectancy Theory
•The expectancy model has been both appreciated as well as
criticized.
•One of the appealing characteristics of the expectancy model is
that it provides clear guidelines for increasing employee motivation
by altering the person’s expectancies, instrumentation and outcomes
valences.
• Secondly, expectancy model is a cognitive theory.
• Individuals are viewed as thinking, reasoning beings who have
beliefs and anticipations concerning future events in their lives.
• They do not simply act impulsively.
• It is model which values human dignity
 Evaluation of Expectancy Theory…
•Third, the expectancy theory helps managers see beyond what Maslow and

Herzberg showed that motivation to work can only occur when work can
satisfy unsatisfied needs.

•Vroom’s theory implies that managers must make it possible for an

employee to see that effort can result in appropriate need satisfying

rewards.

•This may require special efforts, for example, affirmative action to correct

the damage caused by any discriminative action in the past.

•In any case it is necessary to build and maintain a climate of expectancies

that will support requisite level of motivation to work.

 Equity Theory
•A second prominent process approach to motivation is equity theory, as
popularized by J. Stacy Adams.
•It addresses the issue of whether a person believes that he or she is being
fairly treated compared to the treatment of others who are in a similar
situation.
•This theory is based on the belief that in determining the focus of their goal-
directed behavior, employees make two fundamental evaluations:

i. What am I giving to the organization?” Inputs that are considered include

effort, experience, education, skill, and training.

ii. “What outcomes will I receive—especially in comparison with the

outcomes enjoyed by other employees who perform similar tasks in the

organization?” Outcomes that are considered include such rewards as
pay, fringe benefits, bonuses, working conditions, and status indicators.
 Equity Theory
•Like any other theory, the equity theory is also alternatively known as
the “social comparison” theory, or the “inequity theory”.
•True to its name, the equity theory is based on the assumption that
individuals are motivated by their desire to be equitably treated in their
work relationships.
•When employees work for an organization, they basically exchange
their services for pay and other benefits.
•The equity theory proposes that individuals attempt to reduce any
inequity they may perceive as a result of these exchange relationships.
•For example, if employees perceive that they are either overpaid or
underpaid, they will be motivated to restore equity.
•Four terms are important in the theory:
Equity Theory
1. Person. The individual for whom an equity or an inequity
exists.
2. Comparison other. Any group or individual used by a person
as a reference regarding inputs and outcomes.
3. Inputs. Characteristics which individuals bring with them to
the job-education, skills, experience and so on. These are
subjectively perceived by a person.
• Outcomes. Pay, promotion, fringe benefits, and so one received
from a job.
• These are also subjectively perceived by a person
• The theory proposes that the motivation to act develops after the
person compares input/outcomes with the identical ratio of the
comparison other.
 Equity Theory
•Inequity is defined as the perception that person’s job inputs/outcomes
ratio is not equal to the inputs/outcomes ratio of the comparison other.
•The basic equity proposal assumes that, upon feeling inequity, the
person is motivated to reduce it.
•Further, the greater the felt inequity, the greater the motivation to
reduce it.
•Thus, inequity as a motivation force will act as follows.
•When attempting to reduce inequity, the person may try a number of
alternatives, some of which are:
1. Person altering his or her inputs
2. Person altering his or her outcomes
•
Equity Theory
1. Person distorting his or her inputs and outcomes cognitively.
2. Person leaving the field.
3. Person trying to alter or cognitively distort input and outcomes
of the comparison other, which force him or her to leave the
field.
4. Person changing the comparison other.
•In making these evaluations, individuals create mental ratios to
assess the equity inherent in their work situations. The individual
feels that equity exists when she or he judges these two
relationships between inputs and outcomes to be mathematically
equal in value:
•Personal outcomes/personal inputs = others’ outcomes/others’ inputs
 Equity Theory
•When inputs exceed outcomes, the person feels dissatisfied, angry,
or unappreciated.
•When outcomes exceed inputs, the person feels a sense of guilt at
having ‘cheated’ his or employer.
•Supporters of equity theory believe that either of the two negative
feelings affects motivation and induces the individual to behave in
such a way as to establish a sense of equity.
•Such behaviors include working less hard to overcome feelings of
being under compensated or working harder to overcome guilt.
•Other workers who perceive inequity may attempt to change the
work behaviors of their fellow employees in order to restore equity.
 Evaluation of the Theory
•Like any other theory of motivation, the equity theory has
advantages and limitations.
•On the advantage it may be stated that the theory has generated
extensive research, with many of the results being supportive.
• Second, the theory recognizes the influence of social comparison
processes on motivation.
• Individuals are concerned not only with the absolute amount of
rewards they receive for their efforts, but also with the relationship
of this amount to what others receive.
• They make judgment as to the relationship between their inputs
and outcomes and the inputs and outcomes of others.
• Any perceived injustice motivates them to restore equity.
 Evaluation of the Theory
•Third, compared to the content theories, the equity theory adopts a
realistic approach to motivation.
•The equity theory posits that a major share of motivated behavior is
based on the perceived situation rather than on the actual set of
circumstances.
•The equity theory has its share of criticism. The central theme of
the model is the judgment of the treatment.
•The difficulty is that not everyone appreciates the concept of
fairness equally.
•Equity predictions therefore, are more likely to apply to people who
are morally mature, that is, individual guided by a normal system in
which the fair distribution of rewards is a fundamental tenet.
3 Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory
• Skinner is a behavioral psychologist whose theories of behavior
have been applied to the motivation of employees.
• According to Skinner, people are conditioned by the outcomes of
their past responses to similar situations.
• Skinner’s reinforcement theory is offensive to some people,
because it implies that an employee’s future behavior is largely
predetermined, thus contradicting the belief in free choice.
• Skinner’s position, however, is that employees learn from prior
work experience to perform tasks that lead to desirable outcomes
and to avoid tasks that lead to undesirable outcomes.
Reinforcement theory is based on a simple four-step model
•THANKS!!!