Essays Motivation Theory

Extremely interesting is the theory proposed by Frederick Herzberg: there are two kinds of factors – motivators providing positive satisfaction (like challenging, recognition, reliability and responsibility) and hygiene factors resulting in demotivation if absent. It means that the latter are not motivators themselves, and may be not appreciated when they do exist, but their absence is a serious reason to be unsatisfied (these are, for instance, job security, salary and status, fringe benefits and so on). Hygiene does not make us healthier, but without it we will easily get sick; hence this theory is called “Motivator-Hygiene Theory” (Cofer and Appley 1967, 44).

The alternative theory that should be considered by managers is the Goal-setting Theory. When a person has some goal, this goal must possess three general features: proximity (the goal is intelligible and close in time and space), difficulty (challenge is a drive for interest) and specificity (monotony kills the interest). The goal should be neither too easy not too complicated to achieve; the chance to succeed should be substantial. There are a number of other theories, and most of them are considered pseudoscientific; still, some of them are effectively applied in motivation training.

Whatever theory we follow, we will not be ably to deny that to work effectively one needs to be motivated. “Motivated employees always look for better ways to do a job. Motivated employees are more quality oriented. Motivated workers are more productive,” Fishbein and Ajzen (1975, 19) reveal. Motivation is one of the most serious concerns of the employers throughout the globe. For a long time high attention has been paid to hard sell strategies (“by stick”) based ob pressure and outnumbering. But a lot of studies have demonstrated the doom of punishment and threats, so that is a king of dead-end strategy. “Punishment appears to have produced negative rather than positive results and has increased the hostility between “them” (the management) and “us” (the workers),” Jones (2008, 67) states. Soft sell strategies, in the meantime, include logical and emotional appeals, advice and praise. High opportunity is much more motivating. Besides, it has been revealed that persuasion is far more influential than coercion. The way one chooses decision always develops on his understanding of circumstances and conditions. In our case it is vitally important to be well-acquainted with the human’s nature. Sometimes it is enormously difficult to embrace, and sometimes everything can be explained in a very simple way. “An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the workplace and therefore effective management and leadership,” Seligman (1990, 156) warns.

There is a widely spread delusion that the best motivation factor is money. In reality, as research shows, this factor works only for a short period of time. Respect and praise, recognition and sense of belonging and empowerment turn out to be much more effective in motivating the employees (Robbins and Judge 2007, 117). The mere need for money can never be the only motivator. “Cash is way down the ladder of motivators,” Cassandra Whyte (2007, 72) notes. Elton Mayo found out that the “social contacts a worker has at the workplace are very important and that boredom and repetitiveness of tasks lead to reduced motivation” (Shippmann et al. 2000, 705). Thus satisfaction comes in aligning with the person’s fundamental motivations in life.