Motivating and Rewarding Employees - How do the contemporary theories explain motivation?

8 important questions on Motivating and Rewarding Employees - How do the contemporary theories explain motivation?

What are 4 early theories of motivation?

1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory
2. McGregor's Theory X and Y
3. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory
4. McClelland's Three-Needs Theory

Explain Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory

  • Each level must be substantially satisfied before the next need becomes dominant
  • Managers will do things to satisfy employees' needs.
  • REMEMBER: once a need is substantially satisfied, it no longer motivates
  • Easy to understand BUT
  • No empirical support provided for theory

What is McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y?

Based on two assumptions about human nature:
X = negative view of people that assumes workers have little ambition, dislike work, want to avoid responsibility, and need to be closely controlled to work effectively
Y = a positive view that assumes employees enjoy work, seek out and accept responsibility, and exercise self-direction
  • To maximize employee motivation, use theory Y practices - allows employees to participate in decisions, create responsible and challenging jobs, and encourage good group relations
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What is Herzberg's Two-factor theory?

(=MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY)
Intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic like job context factors are associated with job dissatisfaction.
Motivating employees: when hygiene factors are adequate, people won't be dissatisfied. To motivate people, use motivators

What is McClelland's three-needs theory?

Three acquired needs are major motives in work
  1. Need for achievement (nAch): drive to succeed and excel in relation to a set of standards
  2. Need for power (nPow): which is the need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise.
  3. Need for affiliation (nAff): which is the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships


Best managers tend to be high in nPower and low in nAff.

What are four contemporary motivation theories?

  1. Goal setting (Locke)
  2. Job characteristics model (Hackman and Oldman)
  3. Equity theory (Adams)
  4. Expectancy Theory (Vroom)

What is the goal setting theory from Locke?

The proposition that specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals, when accepted, results in higher performance than do easy goals.

Explain the integrating contemporary theories of motivation.

Xx

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