Essay on Theories of Motivation

User Generated

Xvxvg4290

Writing

Description

Option 3: Traditional Paper

Research and discuss the basic theories of motivation as well as a description of what they are.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

  • Write between 500 – 750 words (approximately 2 – 3 pages) using Microsoft Word.
  • Use APA style.
  • Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
  • Include cover page and reference page.
  • At least 60% of your paper must be original content/writing.
  • No more than 40% of your content/information may come from references.
  • Use at least two references from outside the course material, preferably from EBSCOhost. Text book, lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted toward the two reference requirement.

Reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) must be identified in the paper and listed on a reference page. Reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) must come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, online newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc. Sources such as Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, etc. are not acceptable.


This weeks Lecture:

Motivational Theories

During this lecture, we will be describing the various motivational theories and advantages and disadvantages of them.

Smart managers understand that a key factor for a successful business is the manager’s ability to motivate his/her employees. They also understand that what motivates one person might not motivate another, so it can be challenging for them to identify what motivates each person so they can use the best motivational technique.

There are numerous theories as to what motivates employees, so below we will identify and briefly describe five of them.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow created a Hierarchy of Needs model in the mid-1940s to gain a better understanding of human motivation, management training, and personal development. He believed that it was the responsibility of the organization to provide employees an environment that encourages employees to reach their potential. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a five stage model which assumes that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself. He believed that it was only when the lower level needs of physical and emotional well- being are satisfied will we be concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development. We will briefly identify and discuss each of the five needs below from lowest to highest.

  • Biological and Physiological needs – these are necessities to our survival such as air, food, water, and shelter
  • Safety needs – these needs include security, stability, and freedom from fear
  • Belongingness and Love needs – these needs include relationships with family, friends, and affection
  • Esteem needs - these needs include a sense of achievement, respect and recognition
  • Self-Actualization needs - these needs include self-fulfillment, realizing personal potential and seeking personal growth Path-Goal Theory of Leadership Robert House created the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership in the early 1970s and asserted that leaders should encourage and support their employees in reaching the

page2image544

organization’s goals. They do this by clearing the path the
employees need to take by removing any roadblocks that
might hinder them as well as increasing the rewards along the way. House developed four styles of leadership which we will briefly identify and discuss below.

  • Supportive leadership – manager care about the needs of their employees by showing concern for their well-being and encourage a friendly working environment.
  • Directive leadership - manager tell employees what needs to be accomplished by giving them specific tasks to be completed by specific times.
  • Participative leadership – manager consults with their employees and takes their opinions into consideration when making decisions.
  • Achievement-oriented leadership – manager sets challenging goals for their employees, has high standards and expectations but shows faith in the abilities of their employees to be successful. McClelland's Human Motivation Theory
  • David McClelland identified 3 motivating factors that everyone has which
    are achievement, affiliation, and power. According to McClelland, once a manager understands which motivators are important to each team member, they can adapt their leadership style assign projects based on each member’s motivators. With this information, a smart manager can use it to help their advantage to help their employees stay motivated, feel valued, and appreciated for the work they are doing. Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory
  • Dr. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard came up with the theory that successful leaders should be flexible and adapt their leadership styles based on their employee’s maturity level of employees and the specific tasks that need to be accomplished as opposed to using just one style. By remaining flexible and mastering this theory, managers are able to place the appropriate amount of emphasis on the task, as well as the appropriate amount of emphasis on the relationships with their employees based on what is needed at that time. Carrot and Stick Motivation Theory
  • Jeremy Bentham came up with this traditional motivational theory where he categorizes motivation into two basic parts, incentives and fear. He theorized that some employees are motivated by incentives such as salary raises, promotions or the need for recognition. He also theorized that other employees are motivated by fear such as the fear of being fired, being criticized by a manager or failing to complete a task properly.

User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Explanation & Answer

please find the attached file. i look forward to working with you again. good bye

Running Head: MOTIVATION THEORIES

1

Motivation Theories
Name:
Institution:
Date:

MOTIVATION THEORIES

2

Employee motivation is essential to the success of every organization. From the
definition, motivation can be thought as a combination of psychological forces that govern the
direction of an individual’s behavior, his/her level of effort and persistence in an organization
(Honore, 2009). In our today work settings, motivation is key in achieving organizational set
goals and targets. Decades of study by the social scientists on motivation have resulted to
plentiful motivation theories aimed at motivating employees.
Abraham Maslow engineered a hierarchy of needs on which an employee would not shift
to another level of needs until the previous level is fully satisfied (Drogomyretska, 2013). With
the use of a pyramid to represent the needs, Physiological needs are placed at the bottom to
represent the lowest lev...


Anonymous
Just the thing I needed, saved me a lot of time.

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Content

Related Tags