Motivation Theories- the Foundation to Employee Motivation
In the past, employees
were not given much of a thought, not more than just another input into the production of goods and services. Employee motivation was not the main concern of the managers.
However, as the time passed by the ‘Hawthorne Experiment’ a research conducted by Elton Mayo in 1924, basically changed the way of thinking about the employees. the study of Elton Mayo pointed out the fact that money does not motivate employees to use their full potential, but instead it is the employee attitudes that keeps them going and linked with behaviour. As a result, this gave rise to what is known as the Human Relations approach to management which lead the managers to focus mainly on the needs of employees and thus finding ways to motivate them.
Even though the managers began to concentrate on motivating employees thereafter, this was not an easy task to do, as understanding the employees and motivating them needed careful consideration. If not so ever, then the time and money spent on motivating employees may be of no use to the organization or the employee, if the employees were motivated the wrong way.As a result, to understand the whole concept of motivation and help the managers carry out the strategy, it is important to look into the theories of motivation, which developed soon after the study of the Hawthorne Experiment.
The motivation theories developed, as a result of the researches carried out by the theorists focusing understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated. Hence so, let us have a closer look at four of the good motivational theories that explains what motivates employees, in order to understand and do the best possible way to motivate them.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Theory
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is one of the important theories that provide an insight to understand what basically motivates employees and how it should be done if the employees are to be motivated. Maslow identified five levels of needs. They are,
Self Actualization ( level 5 - highest level)
Esteem ( level 4 )
Social belonging & love needs ( level 3)
safety ( level 2 )
Physiology ( level 1 - lowest level)
These five levels of needs have to be satisfied if the employees are to be motivated. In other words, it is said that motivation is thus driven by the existence of these unsatisfied needs. Maslow pointed out the fact that, in order to motivate the employees, first of all the lower level of needs have to be met before the next higher level of needs. What he meant by this was that only once the lower level of needs have been satisfied the employee will be motivated to satisfy the next higher level of needs. For example, an is at the lowest level of the hierarchy will only be motivated by a good pay well enough to afford his basic needs rather than safety of his work area and stability of the job etc. As a result, the hierarchy of needs theory highlights the fact that employees do differ from each other, and if they are to be motivated it is thus vital to look into their needs first and then come up with the suitable motivation techniques effectively.