Motivation Theories Explained in 10 Minutes
Summary
TLDRThis lesson delves into various motivation theories that have evolved since the industrial revolution to understand what drives employee behavior. It categorizes theories into content and process theories. Content theories like Maslow's hierarchy, Herzberg's two-factor theory, and McClelland's achievement motivation theory focus on fulfilling needs and aspirations. Process theories, including equity theory, expectancy theory, and reinforcement theory, examine how motivation occurs and can be influenced. The lesson also touches on Taylor's scientific management and Locke's goal-setting theory, offering a comprehensive view of motivation in the workplace.
Takeaways
- 🔍 Motivation theories have evolved since industrialization, with many different approaches emerging.
- 📊 Frederick Taylor's scientific management theory (1911) was one of the first and views motivation as fulfilling needs.
- 🔺 Maslow's hierarchy of needs describes motivation as fulfilling physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs in that order.
- 🔧 Herzberg's two-factor theory divides motivation into motivators (e.g., interesting job) and hygiene factors (e.g., working conditions).
- 🏆 The three needs theory identifies achievement, affiliation, and power as key motivational drivers.
- 🧑🤝🧑 McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y categorize employees as either lazy and needing control (X) or self-motivated and ambitious (Y).
- 📈 ERG theory simplifies Maslow's hierarchy into existence, relatedness, and growth needs.
- 👥 Mayo's motivation theory emphasizes the importance of group norms and cohesiveness in performance.
- ⚖️ Adam's equity theory states that motivation is influenced by perceived fairness in treatment relative to others.
- 🌟 Vroom's expectancy theory asserts that motivation depends on expectancy (effort leads to success), instrumentality (success leads to reward), and valence (value of reward).
Q & A
What is the general concept of motivation according to the lesson?
-Motivation is driven by our needs, leading us to exhibit certain behaviors to satisfy these needs. If our needs are satisfied, we may develop new needs and exhibit new behaviors.
Who developed one of the first theories of motivation and what is it called?
-Frederick Taylor developed one of the first theories of motivation called Scientific Management in 1911.
How are motivation theories generally categorized?
-Motivation theories are generally categorized into two groups: content theories and process theories.
What is the focus of content theories?
-Content theories focus on what motivates us by looking at our needs and aspirations, and how fulfilling these needs motivates us.
What is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
-Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory that describes needs in a hierarchy, where lower-level needs must be satisfied before moving to higher-level needs. The levels are physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.
What are Herzberg's two factors in his motivation theory?
-Herzberg's two factors are motivators, which encourage you to work harder if present (e.g., having an interesting job), and hygiene factors, which cause you to become unmotivated if not present (e.g., poor working conditions).
What does McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y suggest about employees?
-McGregor's Theory X suggests that employees are intrinsically lazy and unmotivated, requiring control and supervision. Theory Y suggests that employees are ambitious and self-motivated, and will perform well under the right conditions.
What does Adam's Equity Theory state?
-Adam's Equity Theory states that high levels of employee motivation can be achieved when each employee perceives their treatment as fair relative to others.
What is the main idea of Taylor's Scientific Management?
-Taylor's Scientific Management is based on the belief that employees are motivated by money alone, do not inherently enjoy work, and therefore need to be closely monitored to ensure they are not slacking off.
What is Locke's Goal Setting Theory?
-Locke's Goal Setting Theory is based on the premise that setting the right goals can increase both motivation and productivity. The right goals must be clear, challenging, committed to, provide feedback, and not be too complex.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Motivation Theories
This paragraph introduces the lesson on motivation theories, tracing the history back to the beginning of industrialization and the development of different theories to understand employee motivation. It explains the basic idea that each individual is motivated by their needs, which in turn drive behaviors aimed at satisfying those needs. The paragraph also introduces the two main categories of motivation theories: content theories, which focus on what motivates us, and process theories, which focus on how motivation occurs.
🔍 Content Theories of Motivation
This section provides an overview of content theories of motivation, beginning with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which posits that individuals must satisfy lower-level needs before higher-level ones. It discusses Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, which identifies motivators and hygiene factors, and the Three Needs Theory, which highlights the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y are also explained, differentiating between the assumptions that employees are either lazy or self-motivated. Lastly, ERG Theory, a simplified version of Maslow's hierarchy, and Mayo's Motivation Theory, emphasizing group norms and cohesiveness, are covered.
⚙️ Process Theories of Motivation
This paragraph delves into process theories of motivation. Adam's Equity Theory suggests motivation is driven by perceptions of fairness in treatment relative to others. Vroom's Expectancy Theory states that motivation is influenced by the belief in achievable targets, the certainty of rewards, and the value of the rewards. Taylor's Scientific Management posits that employees are primarily motivated by money. The Self-Efficacy Theory links motivation to an individual's belief in their ability to perform tasks. The Reinforcement Theory discusses how positive and negative reinforcements, punishments, and extinction can influence behavior. Finally, Lock's Goal Setting Theory emphasizes the importance of clear, challenging, and attainable goals, along with commitment, feedback, and manageable task complexity.
🔗 Summary and Conclusion
The final paragraph summarizes the lesson, reiterating that motivation theories aim to explain how to motivate employees in the workplace. It highlights the distinction between content theories, which focus on our needs and aspirations, and process theories, which focus on the mechanisms of motivation. The lesson concludes with an encouragement to reflect on the various theories and their practical applications in motivating employees.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Motivation
💡Scientific Management
💡Content Theories
💡Process Theories
💡Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
💡Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory
💡Three Needs Theory
💡Equity Theory
💡Expectancy Theory
💡Self-Efficacy
Highlights
Introduction to motivation theories since the beginning of industrialization and the advent of factories.
Frederick Taylor's scientific management theory, developed in 1911, as one of the first motivation theories.
Explanation of the general concept of motivation involving needs, behaviors, and the cycle of satisfaction and change.
Distinction between content theories and process theories of motivation.
Overview of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, describing five levels: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.
Herzberg's two-factor theory, emphasizing motivators and hygiene factors in employee motivation.
Three needs theory, proposing that achievement, affiliation, and power are key motivators.
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, contrasting views on employee motivation and management styles.
ERG theory as a simplified version of Maslow's hierarchy, focusing on existence, relatedness, and growth needs.
Mayo's motivation theory highlighting the importance of group norms and cohesiveness for performance.
Adam's equity theory, which emphasizes the role of perceived fairness in employee motivation.
Vroom's expectancy theory, explaining motivation through expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.
Taylor's scientific management principles focusing on efficiency and monetary motivation.
Self-efficacy theory of motivation, involving experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological feedback.
Reinforcement theory of motivation, detailing positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.
Locke's goal-setting theory, stressing the importance of goal clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback, and task complexity.
Summary of the two main categories of motivation theories: content theories and process theories.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to today's lesson
where we're looking at
motivation theories since the beginning
of industrialization
and the advent of factories people have
been trying to figure out what motivates
employees now different people who've
tried to figure this out
have come up with different answers
resulting in many different theories of
motivation
one of the very first theories was
developed by frederick taylor in 1911
called scientific management and in a
general sense
you can think of motivation as working
as
follows now each of us has needs now
obviously your needs will be different
from my needs
but each of us is motivated by our needs
to exhibit
certain behaviors and the aim of our
behaviors is obviously to see if we can
satisfy
our needs now whether our needs are
satisfied or not
can then cause us to change our needs
and in this way
the cycle begins again with our new
needs potentially causing us
to exhibit new behaviors so for example
if you were thirsty
and your thirst is satisfied you may
develop a new need
of hunger and trying to satisfy your
hunger
now as we've already said there are many
different theories of motivation
however they can be categorized into two
groups
content theories and process theories
now
content theories look at motivation from
the perspective
of our needs and our aspirations these
theories then discuss motivation
in terms of fulfilling these needs so
you can think of content theories
as focusing on what will motivate us
process theories on the other hand look
at how people are motivated
they're concerned with the process by
which motivation occurs
and how we can adjust our processes to
alter motivation levels
so you can think of processed theories
of motivation
as focusing on how motivation occurs
so now let's jump in and give an
overview of
all of these theories of motivation
starting with the content
theories but hold on to your hats
because i'm going to go as quick as i
can
but if you'd like to dig deeper then
i've provided
links so you can learn more about all of
these theories so first we have
maslow's hierarchy of needs now maslow
describes needs
in terms of a hierarchy and the concept
being that needs at the bottom of the
hierarchy
must be satisfied before an individual
can move to the next
level and seek to satisfy those needs
now the five levels are physiological
needs such as food and water
safety needs things like being free from
war having a secure job
social needs like having relationships
and belonging to groups
esteem needs or self-esteem needs such
as receiving praise recognition and
status
and finally what maslow calls
self-actualization needs
such as wanting to be the best we can be
next herzberg's two-factor theory now
herzberg
argued that there are two factors which
are essential in the motivation
of employees motivators and
hygiene factors now motivators encourage
you to work harder if present so for
example having an interesting
job and hygiene factors cause you to
become
unmotivated if they are not present so
for example having poor
working conditions or having poor pay
next up is three needs theory and this
argues that each of us has
three needs that exist on a scale so we
have the need for achievement
the need for affiliation which means
collaborating with others with the need
to be part of a group and finally the
need for
power now managers can use the three
needs theory to set motivational targets
tailored to each of their team
next we have mcgregor's theory x and
theory y
this says that employees fault fall into
one of two categories
theory x assumes that team members are
intrinsically lazy and unmotivated
and will avoid doing work if there is
any opportunity to do so
so because of this management must build
systems of control and supervision
on the other hand theory y assumes that
team members are
ambitious and self-motivated now a
theory why manager
holds the view that if people are
provided with the right conditions
then they will perform well
now we come to erg theory now you can
think of this
as being a simplified version of
maslow's hierarchy of needs
in erg theory there are three needs
which are also arranged
as a hierarchy so first we have
existence needs
these concern your physical well-being
so having food having water and feeling
safe
we have relatedness needs needs which
concern your need
to relate to other people and finally
you have your growth needs
and these refer to our personal
development needs
and desire to perform meaningful work
the final content theory we'll look at
is mayo's
motivation theory now mayo determined
that
how well a group of employees perform is
defined by two
factors norms and group cohesiveness now
norms
meaning whether the members of the group
encourage positive or negative behavior
and group cohesiveness meaning how well
the group gets along with each other
now groups that have high cohesiveness
and positive norms
will be the most highly motivated and
therefore the highest
performing now mayo is important
because he was the first to recognize
that if you treat an employee well
they might be more productive for you
now these days that might seem like an
obvious statement but in the time of
mayo
it wasn't so that's all the content
theories covered let's take a look at
the process theories
first up is adam's equity theory now
this says that high levels of employee
motivation
can only be achieved when each employee
perceives their treatment to be fair
relative to others so for example if you
were paid
half what your colleague earns but do
precisely the same
work how would you respond well this
theory
says that you'll adjust your inputs that
is the amount of work you do
to compensate for the perceived
unfairness of receiving half the pay
the output next we have rooms
expectancy theory now this states that a
person will choose their behavior based
on
what they expect the result of that
behavior to be
and for an employee to be motivated
three factors must be
present expectancy and that's the belief
that if you put the effort in
it will be possible for you to hit your
targets meaning your targets are
actually achievable
instrumentality and that's the belief
that you will receive the reward
if you actually hit your targets and
finally finally
valence so you must value and want
the reward that's on offer now if you
multiply
these three factors together then the
higher the result
the higher the motivation
next we have taylor's scientific
management and
this theory can be broken down into two
parts first we have a philosophy about
how
employees behave and then based on that
taylor created
principles to maximize efficiency now
taylor believed
employees were only motivated by one
thing
money and because workers are only
motivated by money
then they don't inherently enjoy work
and work hard
and so because of that employers should
monitor workers very closely to ensure
they are not
slacking off next we have the
self-efficacy
theory of motivation and this is a task
specific
way of thinking about motivation the
higher your self-efficacy
the greater your belief that you can
perform a specific
task and the more your motivation so
four factors combine
to determine a person's self-efficacy
your
experience so have you done similar jobs
in the past
your vicarious experience meaning have
you seen others do it successfully
social persuasion meaning encouragement
from others will increase your
self-efficacy
and finally physiological feedback so
typically
the more at ease you are with the type
of task
the higher your self-efficacy next up
is the reinforcement theory of
motivation
so according to the theory there are
four factors which influence motivation
and you can use these factors to
encourage good behavior
and discourage bad behavior now the
first factor is positive reinforcement
and that's a reward you give
for desired behavior next we have
negative reinforcement
which is a reward you give by removing
something negative
from the environment next we have
punishment
and this is when you use the threat of a
negative consequence
to stop undesirable behavior and finally
we have extinction
and this refers to stopping someone's
learned behavior
you can extinguish the behavior by
withholding the positive reinforcement
that led to the behavior in the first
place
the final theory is lock's goal setting
theory now
this is based on the premise that if you
set the right goals then you can
increase both
motivation and productivity so what are
the right goals
well in order for the goal to be the
right one it must have clarity so it
must be clear
it must have challenge so it must be
challenging but not too challenging it
must have commitment so you must be
committed to achieving the goal
there must be feedback meaning regular
feedback boosts your commitment
and finally task complexity is something
to be aware of
a goal must not be too complicated
so in summary motivation theories
attempt to explain
how to motivate employees in the
workplace
broadly speaking theories of motivation
fall into two
categories content theories and process
theories
now content theories look at motivation
from the perspective of our needs and
aspirations
whereas process theories look at how
people
are motivated so that's it for this
lesson
we've covered a lot really hope you
enjoyed it and i'll speak to you again
soon
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