MBA505 Business Psychology- Theories of Motivation

In this report, I will discuss the importance of applying psychological theories in organisational management for creating the sense of job satisfaction among the employees as per my practical experience. The other topics will consist of the reasons of dissatisfaction of employees and the ways of removing those by applying some famous motivational theories within their respective job premises (Haile, 2015). Nowadays each and every individual wants to be more productive in their particular job for which they are assigned in a particular job position. For this, continuous application of motivational activities is essential in business organisations.  

Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction

The term job satisfaction implies a definite feeling of an employee about a particular job position. Alternatively, job dissatisfaction means feeling dissatisfied about the job for which an employee is assigned to a company. Job dissatisfaction of an employee mainly arises from the feeling named grievance. A grievance is often just a symptom of an underlying problem. The problem affects both of the employees and management as well as the work environment of a business organisation. Workplace grievance is also defined as any discontentment including the claim of unfair treatment (Haile, 2015). By applying the motivational theories, the reasons influencing job dissatisfaction can be removed from its root for the sake of developing betterment of the employees. In this regard, “Henne and Locke Model” can be used as analysed below:  

                                                                           Figure: Henne and Locke Model

                                                                          Source: (Henne and Locke, 2015) 

The above model designed by Henne and Locke is consists of an alternative plan. The reason for the dissatisfaction of a job can be belonged to an emotional state.  Application of this model can bring harmony in that particular situation (Henne and Locke, 2015).  By placing the correct person in the correct position at the right time is another way of creating job satisfaction among the employees.

The factors leading to job satisfaction are a good relationship between management and employees, proper leadership practices, advancement, recognition, personal growth, support and feedback and having a clear vision, direction of objectives and goals. Job satisfaction can be increased when these factors will present at the optimal level within the job premises and the activities related to the job (Currie, 2015). With the proper and timely application of some motivational theories such as Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Hawthorne Effect, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, a sense of job satisfaction and improvement can be built in the minds and hearts of the employees.

Psychologist Frederick Herzberg has developed the Two-Factor Theory of Motivation that is also identified as Motivation-Hygiene Theory. The identified theory consists of the ways of motivating the employees for creating most productive and the happiest workforce through improving both hygiene factors and motivator. Besides, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs describes the importance of physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualisation needs for the delivery of optimal productivity by the employees. On the other hand, Hawthorne effect can be considered as another motivational theoretical concept, introduced by Henry A. Landsberger. Landsberger has noticed that there is tendency present in some people to improve. As a result, they perform better and work harder when they are being observed by someone.

Description of the selected job

I joined a company after my graduation in the post of marketing assistant. My job was full time, and I was extremely satisfied with my job. As a marketing assistant, the core area of my job was to support the marketing manager’s work. Besides, I was given the responsibility of developing and implementing sales strategies and marketing campaigns for the purpose of maximising the company profit. Alternatively, I was also responsible for distributing and compiling statistical and financial like budget spreadsheets, analysing questionnaires, helping to organise market research and most importantly hosting and organising customer visits and presentations (Leavitt, 2017). The parties with whom I had to deal with were consumers, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, legal firms, consultancies, local authorities, and public and private sector organisations, etc. Though graduate students with any degree can join as a marketing assistant, the students having marketing, statistics and business subjects in their course curriculum have got some extra advantages in this particular field (Falcon, 2008).

The management was searching for some key skills for the post of a marketing assistant. For this reason during my interview, the interviewers examined my confidence, organisational skills, adaptability, commercial awareness, creativity, communication skills, numerical skills and good networking skills (Jarvis, 2015). I was totally satisfied with the management as my job profile and pays were absolutely equivalent to my degree and skills. Meanwhile, I was introduced to Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. With the application of this theory the management usually motivates the employees so that they can work harder with enthusiasm and encouragement. The two factors of this theory are motivator factors and hygiene factors. Motivator factors have been applied for the purpose of employee motivation and satisfaction. But the absence of hygiene factor leads to a situation where employees get dissatisfied with their respective jobs.

Theories of Motivation

There are many motivational theories present that can be applied for the purpose of motivating and encouraging the employees to deliver best possible performance. In this context, three main theories can be discussed with proper explanations and implementations. The first theory of motivation is known as Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. The developer of this theory is psychologist Frederick Hertzberg. In the year 1950, Hertzberg came with this theory which brought a revolution in the premise of employee motivation and satisfaction (Olejniczak and Yasuyuki, 2014). After analysing 200 engineers’ and accountants’ response about their negative and positive feelings about their work, Hertzberg found a theory that influenced employee satisfaction and motivation. The inventor named this theory as Two-Factor Theory. According to his theory, the employees must enjoy their work, they must feel recognised and their career progression. The two factors of this theory are the motivator factor and the hygiene factors.

The factor leading towards employee motivation and satisfaction for the purpose of doing hard work is known as motivator factors. On the other hand, the absence of some factors such as company policies, salary, benefits, and the relationship of the management with the employees and workers can lead the employees to lack of motivation and dissatisfaction about their job. The identified theory helps in motivating employees leading by examples (Sedgwick and Greenwood, 2015). Notably, the theory also makes sure that the employees feel supported and appreciated. The theory can be applied to the workplace for providing all the feedbacks regarding the employees and their activities. Application of this theory ensures some positive feelings in the minds and heart of the employees. Such positive feelings will encourage the workforce to give their best shot. However, the employees can be encouraged by the working environment and condition.

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, individual needs can be set in a chain of command or scale. At the bottom, it is equivalent to the requirements that are most imperative early in life are certain basic needs. These needs are the motivations that drive human behaviour. The needs recount straightforwardly to biological endurance such as needs for foodstuff, clothing, and shelter. At the next level, security requirements must be met as well. Maslow’s fundamental needs are certainly the most evident of human needs (Piche?re, Cadiat and Probert, 2015).

After psychological and safety requirements are satisfied, the third level of human requirements can be identified as interpersonal needs and feelings of belongingness. Such human need involves friendship, family, intimacy and other needs of belongings that are a motive to form bonds. All human have a need to feel respected. Esteem presents the typical human desire or motive to be accepted and valued by others. The next need is a need for self-actualisation. The particular stage of necessitate refers to what a person’s complete impending is and the realisation of that prospective. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can achieve in life. The following diagram illustrates the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs:

                                                                       Figure: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

                                                                                  Source: (Lollar, 2014)

Hawthorne effect is another famous theory of motivation which was described in the year of 1950 by Henry A. Landsberger (Merrett, 2006). After completing many social experiments about the influence of some physical condition on the productivity of the employees at Western Electronics’ factory of Hawthorne, the author invented the theory. In this theory, it has been mentioned that after the management has made a significant change, the productivity of employees can be increased (Sedgwick, 2011). In this context, it has been concluded by the researchers that the employees will become motivated to deliver hard work when they are given right pay equivalent to their performance. The identified theory suggests if the employees know that they are in observation then only the employees will do hard work (Roos and Van Eeden, 2008). If the management can show that they care about the employees and their respective working conditions, it may also lead the employees to motivation and satisfaction (Molaee, Dortaj and Sadipour, 2016).

Analysis in relation to my own experience

In the company where I was appointed as a marketing assistant, Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory was given most of the priority for the purpose of motivating and satisfying the employees. The essential hygiene factors such as disburse, corporate and administrative policies, corporeal working conditions, fringe benefits,  paid leaves, interpersonal relations, significant job status and job security were accurately present and timely maintained by the management at that company (Korzynski, 2013). The non-existence of appropriateness in these hygiene factors may lead the employees to dissatisfaction and de-motivation about their job.

In other words, it can be stated that when the hygiene factors are adequately and reasonably present in a job profile, an employee can be satisfied and motivated about the particular job for which he or she has been appointed. Besides, the motivator factors such as a common sense of accomplishment, acknowledgment, growth and promotional chance, meaningfulness of the job and accountability are mainly responsible for providing direct support and motivations to the employees. The motivating factors help the employees to deliver a superior level of performance. These factors influence and encourage me a lot to deliver the best possible performance as per my abilities and skills (Rubinstein, 2007). For me, these motivator factors symbolised some important psychological needs those were actually perceived as additional benefits. 

Conclusion

In the conclusion, it can be stated that the organisations involved in any types of business activities must apply and maintain business psychologies and motivational theories at work place. Proper support and required motivation should be provided by to the employees. Such type of support and motivation will surely encourage and influence the employees to do hard work for their self-interest as well as for the company’s betterment. By providing training to the employees for become expert in their own specialised field, organisational management can increase the potentiality of workforce.

Training processes are numerous in number but coaching and mentoring are the most famous and helpful training process among them. Mentoring and training have a significant amount of impact in this regard. The management of a business organisation should make the choice of best motivational theory among various theories of motivation. Selection of the theory must be done on the basis of particular product or service whichever the company is producing or supplying. Further the selection should also be made the present situation and circumstances in which the employees are working at that particular company. Dissatisfaction of the employees about their job is very harmful to a business organisation. On the other side, if the employees are truly satisfied with their job, success can be guaranteed.

References

Currie, D. (2015). Managing employee well-being. 1st ed. London: Spiro Press.

Falcon, H. (2008). Exploring the motivating factors that contributed to the founding of a Biblical worldview leadership training organization. 1st ed.

Haile, G. (2015). Workplace Job Satisfaction in Britain: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data. LABOUR, 29(3), pp.225-242.

Henne, D. and Locke, E. (2015). Job Dissatisfaction: What are the Consequences?. International Journal of Psychology, 20(1), pp.221-240.

Jarvis, M. (2015). The psychology of effective learning and teaching. 1st ed. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Korzynski, P. (2013). Employee motivation in new working environment. International Journal of Academic Research, 5(5), pp.184-188.

Leavitt, H. (2017). Leadership, Employee Needs and Motivation. PsycCRITIQUES, 12(7).

Lollar, D. (2014). An Operationalization and Validation of the Maslow Need Hierarchy. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 34(3), pp.639-651.

Merrett, F. (2006). Reflections on the Hawthorne Effect. Educational Psychology, 26(1), pp.143-146.

Molaee, Z., Dortaj, F. and Sadipour, E. (2016). Unmotivated Motivating: Toward Motivating L2 Learning, Based on Demotivating Factors. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 217, pp.9-15.

Olejniczak, T. and Yasuyuki, K. (2014). Bureaucracy and Culture: Toward Two-Factor Theory of Organizational Control. Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, 22(1), pp.70-87.

Piche?re, P., Cadiat, A. and Probert, C. (2015). Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. 1st ed. 50 minutes.

Roos, W. and Van Eeden, R. (2008). The relationship between employee motivation, job satisfaction and corporate culture. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 34(1).

Rubinstein, G. (2007). Two behavioural indicators of dependency and the Five-Factor Model of personality. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 80(3), pp.333-342.

Sedgwick, P. (2011). The Hawthorne effect. BMJ, 344.

Sedgwick, P. and Greenwood, N. (2015). Understanding the Hawthorne effect. BMJ, p.h4672.