Motivational Theories: What Makes Employees Perform?

What motivates employees to perform productively and at their best? Is it the money? Is the sense of fulfillment? Is it because they are not bored? Everyone is different and likewise there are different motivational theories. Remember that theories are statements that need to be proven and some motivational theories have not been conclusively established as fact. However, the motivational theories can give you insight into what makes employees perform and allow you to fine tune your management style.

Motivation Because of Human Needs

Probably the most famous of motivational theories is the five-level pyramid of human needs model presented by Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg. The pyramid has the physiological needs at the base followed by needs for safety, social interaction, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Self-actualization is at the top of the pyramid. This theory points out that not everyone is motivated in the same way. When the physiological needs are met by providing enough money for sustenance, the employee seeks to have the next higher level (safety) met. As the need at each level is met, the employee seeks the next higher level.

Pay Motivation

This was another of the early motivational theories and was presented by Frederick Winslow Taylor around the turn of the 19th century. The theory takes the position that people work for money and job satisfaction is irrelevant. If you give employees the right tools, pay, and incentives to be productive then they will do so. The theory also says that because most employees do not like to work, they must be closely watched. This theory makes the assertion that employees can be given more tasks to complete in a given amount of time and will remain motivated as pay increases commensurate with productivity. The drawback to this theory is that it allows managers to place greater workloads on employees to include repetitive tasks.

Employee Motivation and Meeting Social Needs

Ellen Mayo introduced this theory in the first half of the 20th century and it asserts that employees are motivated by meeting their social needs along with pay. This is where the term “human relations” became popular in organizations and managers were petitioned to start taking a personal interest in their employees’ lives and count their workers opinions as important. It was also asserted that employees enjoy working with each other thus the social aspect became obvious.

Democratic Approach of Employee Motivational Theories

Frederick Herzberg, who was mentioned earlier with Maslow, was also responsible or another employee motivational theory. It is a theory of two elements that together instill employee motivation. These two elements are called motivators and hygiene factors. The first element, motivators, addresses the job and asserts that there are certain critical elements that must be present for an employee to come to work. For example, employees need to have acceptable opportunities for recognition, promotion, and increasing responsibility. Then, there are hygiene factors that could de-motivate employees if they are not present. Pay is viewed as a hygiene factor and if unacceptable then it is a de-motivator.

Herzberg’s theory states that managers should use a democratic approach in their style and make the jobs of their employees more inspiring through the methods of job enlargement, job enrichment, and empowerment. Similar to other motivational theories, job enlargement deals giving employees more tasks with more variety to keep interest levels high. Job enrichment deals with making each task more complex and challenging so that employees are proud of their accomplishments. And finally, empowerment transfers some of the decision making process to the employee.