MOTIVATION

Motivation encourages employees to do their job properly. In other words, motivation makes employee perform optimally. If employee is demotivated, the work is not productive. Unmotivated employees are likely to spend little or no effort in their jobs, avoid the workplace as much as possible, exit the organization if given the opportunity and produce the low quality work. On the other hand, employees who feel motivated to work are likely to be persistent, creative and productive, turning out high quality work that they willingly undertake. 

There has been a lot research done on motivation by many scholars. But few topics on motivation are done on research which is:-

1)      Motivation Theories  
2)      Ways to encourage employee motivation
 3)      Measures of motivation  
4)      Principles of motivation 
5)      Ways of making your firm more exciting 
 6)      How to motivate your people problem  

These were not sufficient. There are some missing links like:-- 
1)      Strategic  Performance 
2)      Salary is not a motivator anymore 
3)      How to effectively reward  employees 
4)      Turning Motivation Theory into Practice
5)      Measures of motivation 
6)      Self-Theories and Employee Motivation 

There are two of the most popular models of motivation are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s two-factor model. Both are widely accepted and most recent research builds on  the ideas presented in these two models. 

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Abraham Maslow presented his model of motivation in 1954. There are five levels of needs for humans. According to Maslow’s you wouldn’t be able to motivate someone with positive feedback (an esteem factor) if their basic physiological needs aren’t meet. This makes sense if you apply it to the workplace. If someone gets paid enough to put food on the table for his or her family, he or she isn’t going to care too much about a ‘good job’ sticker!

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 

HERZBERG’S TWO FACTOR MODEL

Herzberg came up with one of the more popular motivation theories. He felt that certain conditions or ‘hygiene factors,’ had to be in place for employees to be satisfied, but these did not necessarily motivate the employees.

HYGIENE FACTORS                                                                            MOTIVATORS

Status                                                                                                        Being able to achieve

Security                                                                                                    Being recognized

Work Conditions                                                                                     Given responsibility

Work Relationships                                                                                Growing and learning in the job           

Pay

Bureaucracy

                                                     

For example, if an employee is working below  the minimum wage, it is not likely that s/he will  be motivated until a perceived fair rate of pay is given. At the same time, if an employee is well paid, Herzberg believed that a pay rise would not have been a lasting motivational effect. 

Herzberg suggested that once the hygiene factors were met, employers should focus on recognizing the achievements of the employee and providing opportunities to learn and grow. So, the motivation theories of Maslow and Herzberg were similar to this regard.