Motivation In The Work Place

Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following three types of employees: salespeople, production workers, and administrative staff. We will discuss which of these theories would or would not be most effective to motivate these employee groups and try to explain why. The motivation theories that will be discussed are: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, ERG (Aldefer), Two-Factor Theory (Herzberg), Equity Theory (Adams), and the Expectancy Theory (Vroom). Let's start with salespeople.

Salespeople

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory says that there are five levels of individual needs from self-actualization and esteem at the top levels, to social, safety and physiological levels at the bottom. Maslow felt that some of these needs are more important than others and that the important ones must be satisfied before the rest of a person's needs can be satisfied. Since a salespersons basic responsibility is to sell merchandise this motivational theory would not be a good choice for an organization to use to motivate them. The reason for this is because salespeople usually already have good self - esteem that helps them do what they do best.

Clayton Alderfer's ERG theory differs from Maslow's in that Alderfer felt that instead of five levels there were only three: existence needs, relatedness needs, and growth needs. According to the ERG theory "existence needs are the desire for physiological and material well-being, relatedness needs are the desire for satisfying interpersonal relationships and growth needs are the desire for continued personal growth and development"(Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn 2005, p.5 chpt.6). For the same reason's that Maslow's theory would not be a good choice for this organization to use to motivate their sales staff; the ERG theory is also not suited for this type of employee group.

The two-factor theory by Frederick Herzberg was based how the employees themselves felt about their jobs. The two factors are the hygiene factor which had to do with the working environment and the motivator factor which is linked to an employee's performance. These factors are not best applicable to a sales force as they are usually goal orientated and look for set objectives.

The equity theory conceived by J. Stacy Adams is based premise that "people gauge the fairness of their work outcomes relative to others, any perceived inequity is a motivating state of mind" (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005, p.10, chpt.6). This theory when applied to a sales force would not be the best method to motivate this employee group as to what is deemed fair by a team leader could be perceived as unfair by the employee.

The expectancy theory would be the motivational factor that would best be applied to a sales force. This theory which was developed by Victor Vroom states " that a person is motivated to the degree that he or she believes that (1) effort will yield acceptable performance, (2) performance will be rewarded, and (3) the value of the rewards is highly positive" (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005, p.11,chpt.6). The reasoning behind this is that sales people can best be described as the soldiers of a company. As in the military, orders are the word of the day and sales people perform best when there are clear set objectives defined, when they are provided with good training, and receive organizational support followed by performance expectations and outcomes. With this they should expect some type of reward for actualizing the set goals and fulfilling the expectations of the organization.

Now that we have looked at these motivational theories in relation to which would work best on the sales staff, let's look at the same factors as applied to the production workers.

Production Workers

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory indicates individual needs beginning with self-actualization and esteem, social, safety and physiological levels. In the United States, Maslow's view is quite popular because it is easily implemented. As a production worker this theory is more likely to operate in a flexible hierarchy, for example the higher-order needs tend to be more important then lower-order needs as individuals move up the corporate ladder. It is important for production workers to have high self-actualization and esteem to feel they have self worth with in the company they are employed. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn, studies report that needs may vary according to a person's career stage, the size of the organization, and even geographic location.

Clayton Alderfer's ERG theory is a bit different from Maslow's theory. ERG theory is broken down into existence needs, relatedness needs, and growth needs. ERG theory emphasizes a frustration-regression component. For example a satisfied lower-level can become activated if a higher-level is unable to be satisfied. If a person is frustrated in the attempt to satisfy growth need, relatedness needs can surface once again to become key motivators. This theory can be used to motivate production workers. Many employees desire existence and growth and it is desired to not be in a position of a dead-end job. With a promotion comes an increase in wages, which would result in material well-being.

Frederick Herzberg has a different approach in motivation. Workers are to report when