Theories of Motivation: Analysis of Maslow and McClelland

Theories of Motivation: Analysis of Maslow and McClelland â€Å"Why are there multiple theories of ‘motivation in organizational behaviour? Discuss this question by including a critical evaluation of two theories of motivation.† The purpose for writing this essay is to describe different motivational theories by concentrating on how managers motivate employees in an industry with a high level of turnover and low levels of motivation. This essay will mainly evaluate Maslows hierarchy of needs theory and McClellands Needs of Achievement theory and it will include other theories to support the argument.   Many organisations face difficulties when trying to motivate their staff to complete a given task. If the employees are motivated the company is likely to be successful and achieve set goals. To be able to understand motivation and the way it works, first we have to understand human nature itself. In some cases this could be a straightforward process however in others it could be very complex. There has to be an effective management and leadership to guide employees through the motivation stages. Many companies believe that pay is the prime motivator, however nowadays people may want to exceed acknowledgment, participation and heightened sense of worth at the workplace. This is where empowerment plays a very important part in a companys progression as it is supported by R.French. â€Å"Empowerment is the process by which managers delegate power to employees to motivate greater responsibility in balancing the achievement of both personal and organisational goals†. (French, R., Rayner, 2008, page page 184) By empowering employees this will make the staff more satisfied, productive and motivated throughout their working hours. Throughout the years many theorists have tried to explain what motivation is by designing theories describing how managers should stimulate their staff. The two approaches to motivation are Content and Progress theories and they were published in 1950s. Content theories explain the specific factors that may stimulate people within the organisation by analysing the individuals needs and trying to assume what can motivate their behaviour. On the other hand a Process theory highlights the thought process by examining how and why individuals decide one action over another at the organisation.   This theory mainly focuses on the persons beliefs and how certain performances will lead to rewards such as pay raise and promotion. While both content and progress theories are central in helping us to understand motivation this essay will focus on the content approach in particular the classic motivational theory of Maslows hierarchy and David McClelland needs for achievement.   Abraham Maslow created the Hierarchy of needs theory in 1940-50s and to this day its still popular with managers. He developed the hierarchy to understand human motivation, management training, and personal development by creating five distinct levels. Maslow designed two main strategies lower order needs and higher order needs. Lower order needs includes Physiological needs (these are the most basic human needs such as food, and water etc) moving one level up is safety needs (which would be need for security, protection and stability). After an individual has exceeded the lower order needs mentioned above, he or she moves on to higher order needs which are Social needs (need for love, affection, relationship with another person), Esteem needs (respect, self esteem, need of esteem from others etc) and after achieving the previous 4 levels the person progresses to the desired level Self actualisation will motivate both employees and employers. (French R, 2009, page160) However with every motivation theory there has always been disadvantages. Maslow himself has been critical about the theory he created and in a statement he said:â€Å"My motivation theory was published 20 years ago and in all that time nobody repeated it, or tested, or really analyzed it or criticised it. They just used it, swallowed it whole with only the minor modification† (Wilson, F.M 2004, page 146) In approaching this problem Maslows work has faced a great deal of criticism to whether or not the concepts are different depending on culture. In countries such as Japan and Greece lower order needs such as security motivates employees to work harder more than self actualisation. (R. Rayner, 2009, page 162). Unfortunately those countries have lower employment opportunities; therefore residents mainly focus on security needs rather than self actualisation. Whereas some managerial companies disregard the lower order needs and go directly to higher order needs such self esteem and self actualisation. â€Å"Hall and Nougaim have found that as managers advanced, safety needs became less important while higher order needs were more important but this could be explained by a process of career change and advancement†. Wilson, F.M (2004, page 147) The above two statements suggest that people do not follow the traditional process of the hierarchy. Maslow believes that individuals are motivated by unmet needs which are in a hierarchical order; people have to keep moving up the hierarchy in order to succeed, this method has not been followed due to cultural difference and managerial configuration. Touching onto Alderfers ERG theory he argues that Maslows theory is not flexible and as a result of this people may become frustrated as they are not able to move to the next stage. Alderfer has minimized Maslows 5 stages into 3 levels: existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs.   This theory is more flexible as people can downgrade a level if they cant achieve the higher stage. After having evaluated Maslows hierarchy theory, this essay will now focus on McClelland need for achievement theory. Peoples needs keep changing as well as their career occupations. Some seek the need for achievement as a way of motivating themselves at the workplace. Over the years this observable fact has fascinated David McClelland. After spending 20 years studying at Harvard University McClelland and his associates tried to identify the urge to achieve. They began a long research using Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) as an evaluation of individual needs of different people. This is a technique that asks people to develop a spontaneous story for each photo. David McClelland used the feedback from people and collected data and facts on motivation. After a series of tests using the TATs technique, David McClelland was able to identify three needs, which he believes are important in understanding human motivation and behaviour. These are; the need for achievement (nAch), need for affiliation (nAff) and need for power (nPower). Need for achievement is concentrating on those individuals who seek to excel and therefore tend to avoid low and high risks situations. They have a desire to achieve something superior and get to the bottom of problems as well as completing difficult tasks. They need regular feedback from managers in order to view their progress of their achievement. On the other hand need for affiliation is about creating harmonious connections with other individuals. This group of people may perform well in customer service and consumer interactions situations. Last of David McClelland needs is need for power, this assemblage of people are mainly focused on taking control over others, manage their behaviour or be in charge. Like Maslows Hierarchy theory, David McClellands acquired needs theory has its disadvantages and criticism from other theorists. Erikson proposes that ‘The need to achieve is a behaviour that is only acquired and developed during early childhood therefore if its not mastered at an early stage it cannot be achieved in adult life. French, R. Rayner C, Rees. G, Rumbles.S, Organisational Behaviour, 2009 However on the other hand McClelland argues that the need to achieve is behaviour and it can be done through training in adulthood Ref: R, French, Organisational Behaviour, 2009, page 164 McClelland has already put into practice training in countries such as Kakinda and India and taught people to think, talk and act as high achievers. Other critics have disagree with the influencing attributes of entrepreneurs are dominant. High needs of achievement individuals are continuously competing with standards of excellence. Further, they are involved with tasks of moderate difficulty. ‘The argument that need for achievement is the dominant motive disposition for entrepreneurs may be in conflict then with other research (Langan- Fox and Roth 1995) Wilson, F.M (2004). Organisational behaviour and work. Oxford University press, page146 (Lowry 1982:63) TAT test was also criticised by organisations due to the length of the examination and the complexity in conducting it. Taking an overlook at the most well know motivational theories, I have been overwhelmed by the demand and expectations each author expects from the individuals. Theorists such as Maslow believe that individuals are motivated by unmet needs which are in a hierarchical order; people have to keep moving up the hierarchy in order to succeed.   Whereas Herzberg states that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not on the same range. He believes motivation can cause satisfaction or no satisfaction, as well as hygiene factors can cause dissatisfaction when absent and no dissatisfaction when present. McClellands need for achievement takes it future as he underlies Maslows Hierarch theory self-actualization. However McGregors Theory Y equals much of Maslows self-actualization level of motivation. His theory focuses on self-direction, self-control, and maturity control motivation. Reward systems are an important factor when managers want to motive their staff.   I believe that fulfilling extrinsic aims is a very common method used to motivate individuals at their work place. Managers can not follow just one of the above theories as each individual has different ways in which they are motivated. I believe that motivation cannot be forced onto an employee; it has to come within them. If a certain person does not enjoy their work environment it will be impossible for them to be motivated. Over the years theorists have tried to create a theory to accommodate the needs both employers and employees, therefore at the present time we have a huge variety of motivational theories to choose from. Having closely looked at Maslows hierarchy of needs theory and McClellands acquired needs theory ,I have come to a conclusion that both theories demonstrate peoples motivation needs, however this a complex process because most individuals are not aware of their motives, their needs and expectations keep chancing.   Each of the above theories has its advantages as well as disadvantages; its up to the individual to choose which one of them works best.

The A Bomb :: essays research papers

The Atomic Bomb The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16,1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico and was developed, constructed and tested by the Manhattan Project. The new device represented a completely new type of explosion. All explosives before this time got their power for the rapid burning of a chemical compound like gunpowder. These bombs could only do a limited amount of damage. This new group of nuclear explosives involved getting energy sources from within the nucleus of the atom. The Atomic bomb gained its power from the fission of all of the atomic nuclei in several kilos of uranium. A Ball about the size of a baseball made an explosion equal to about 20,000 tons of TNT. An atomic bomb can also be called a fission bomb because it uses fission to release the nuclear power from the fuel. The fuel is usually either Uranium-235 or plutomium-239. Uranium-235 has an extra property that makes it useful for both nuclear power production and for nuclear bombs - it is one of the few materials that can undergo induced fission. If a neutron runs into a Uranium nucleus, the nucleus will absorb the neutron, become unstable and split immediately. As soon as the nucleus captures the neutron, it splits into two lighter atoms and throws off 2 or 3 new neutrons. These neutrons then hit other uranium atoms and a chain reaction is started. An incredible amount of energy is released, in the form of heat and gamma radiation. In order for these properties of U-235 to work, a sample of uranium must be enriched. Weapons-grade uranium is composed of 90% or more U-235. In a fission bomb, the fuel must be kept in small and separate masses. These must be small enough to not support fission otherwise the bomb could explode before it is meant to. These masses are called subcritical masses. Critical mass is the minimum amount of fissionable material needed to keep a nuclear fission reaction going. Because the masses are separate there had to be ways to bring them together to detonate the bomb. There are two ways to detonate an atomic bomb. The first is the gun-triggered device and the second is the implosion device. In both of these types, neutrons had to be introduced to start the fission. This was done by making a little neutron generator out of a small pellet of polonium and beryllium, separated by foil.

Process of Learning Essay

Learning is an invisible process in which the behaviour is modified in order to attain certain goals. It is a process in which an individual acquires and develops knowledge, understanding, skills, interests and attitude that are necessary to meet life’s situations. This paper briefly analyzes the process of learning. Introduction â€Å"Learning is the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his ‘cruiser’† (Mark K. Smith). Learning can be considered as a product and also a process. It is the end product of the various experiences we come across in our life. At the same time it is a continuous never ending process as well. Even from the birth day itself the learning process starts. Learning and Behaviour Learning is observable through the behaviours of a person. An observable change in behaviour can be witnessed after a person learned something. For example, we know that small kids do not know much about the dangers of fire and they will be usually attracted towards fire. But once if they happened to come in contact with fire, they will experience the burning effect of fire and will never play with fire again. In this case we can say that the child learned to behave properly with fire and we can observe Process of Learning 3 the changes in behaviour of the child before and after experience with fire. So we can conclude that learning is characterised by change in behaviour. Behaviorism, as a learning theory, can be traced back to Aristotle, whose essay â€Å"Memory† focused on associations being made between events such as lightning and thunder. The theory of behaviorism concentrates on the study of overt behaviors that can be observed and measured (Good & Brophy, 1990). It views the mind as a â€Å"black box† in the sense that response to stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind. Some key players in the development of the behaviorist theory were Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and Skinner. (Brenda Mergel) (James Atherton) Process of Learning 4 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was the first to conduct experiments to study how learning and behaviour are connected. The experiment was performed on a dog. He started to give food to his dog after ringing a buzzer. The experiment was repeated for 7 days and after 7 days he started to ring the buzzer alone and did not give any food to the dog. Still he found that the dog secreted saliva in the same measure as before. â€Å"Because a bell consistently rang before food appeared, Pavlov’s dog learned to salivate at the mere ringing of the bell; this is a conditioned response. † (Michael g. Maxwell) So it is clear that our learning and behaviours are interconnected. Learning and Thinking â€Å"Learning implies the acquisition of knowledge from experience, while thinking involves the conscious processing and use of knowledge. † (Michael g. Maxwell) Learning has definite connection with thinking as well. Nobody can say that he has learned something without thinking. For example, we know that lightning and thunder, both occurs at the same time. But we have seen the lights of lightning first before hearing the thunder sound. Though we have learned that both lightning and thunder occurred at the same time, in order to explain the delay of thunder in reaching us, we must think in terms of the velocity of sound and velocity of light. Only after we thought about the velocity differences, we can say that we have learned thunder and lightning properly. So learning definitely leads to thinking which may lead to the modification of behaviours Process of Learning 5 Behaviour and Thinking in terms of learning Learning leads to thinking. Thinking leads us to arrive at conclusions which will force us to change our behaviours. So in that sense both thinking and behaviour are interlinked with each other. Without thinking, no behavioural changes can happen. Same way without learning, no thinking can take place. For example, everybody knows that smoking is injurious to health. If a smoker, happens to meet a person who is suffering from cancer because of his smoking habit, may think about the consequences of his smoking habits and hence times he may change his smoking behaviour. Thus we can conclude that both the learning theories with respect to thinking and behaviour are connected to each other. Conclusion Learning is a complex process which stimulates thinking which will be resulted in the modification of behaviours. Learning is a continuous process which starts from birth and ends at death. It can be considered as a process and a product. Process of Learning 6 References 1. Mark K. Smith (1999, 2003), learning theory, Retrieved on February 8, 2009 http://www. infed. org/biblio/b-learn. htm 2. Brenda Mergel, Instructional Design & Learning Theory, Retrieved on February 8, 2009, http://www. usask. ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda. htm 3. Michael g. Maxwell, Learning and thinking: what science tells us about teaching Retrieved on February 8, 2009, http://www. studentsfriend. com/onhist/learning. html 4. James Atherton, Behaviourism, Retrieved on February 8, 2009, http://www. learningandteaching. info/learning/behaviour. htm

Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 essays

Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 essays Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 I will never forget that day, 11 November 1975 to be exact. To me it is a day of rememberance. This whole contraversial issue began when the the Senate blocked a bill that appropriated funds for the payment of government expenditure, with the goal of forcing the Government to call a lower-house election. Such action was unprecedented in Australian Federal politics. My party ignored such calls, and attempted to pressure Liberal senators to support the bill and also explored alternative means to fund government expenditure. On October 14: Minerals and Energy Minister, Rex Connor, resigns after being shown to have misled Parliament over ongoing negotiations for overseas loans with Tirath Khemlani. He is replaced by Paul Keating. On October 15: Every metropolitan newspaper in Australia calls on the Government to resign. Fraser announces that the Senate will delay the two money bills until Whitlam calls an election. On October 16: The Senate blocks the money bills, whilst the House of Representatives passes a motion of confidence in the government. On October 16-November 8: The Parliament debates the constitutional crisis, with the House consistently reaffirming its confidence in the government. Both sides of politics conduct rallies around the country. Public opinion polls show a swing to the government. The Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, speaks with both me and Fraser on a number of occasions. On November 10: The Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Garfield Barwick, a former Liberal Government minister, sees the Governor-General. Later, he gives Kerr a letter that the Governor-General releases the next day to support his decision. On November 11: the Governor-General of Australia dismissed me from my leader ship and appointed the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, as the care-taker Prime Minister on the conditions that Fraser would call for a general election. ...

buy custom The Company Database essay

buy custom The Company Database essay The company database should include the below information and tables that have to be included. The specific information should seek to indentify a specific aspect in the company. Tables are listed for clarity before designing a database so that the designer may have a clear view of the information required to be included in the data base (Davis, 2010). Below is a set of tables with the relevant information for each table Company table Information to be included in the data base tables - The companys name - The city that the company is situated in Suppliers table - The names of each supplier - The city of each supplier Purchases table - The name of the company doing the purchases - the purchase date of the transaction - The number of items bought by each company or client - The date of each transaction Employee table - The name of each employee - The ID of each employee - City of each employee - Sex of each employee - Data of birth of each employee Departmental table - The ID of the department - The name of the company Perimeters to a database are included to restrict access to such database for parties tat are not required to access private information or those who do not have permission to access the database according to Moody Shanks (2002), such perimeters for access should be defined to allow only the intended party to log on or affect any change in the data base. An example of these perimeter conditions is as follows. Logon credentials Contact name User Name Security R Logon status The last logo Eg. Steve Jones Jones01 Administrator Active 10/06/09 6:03PM Group table administrator Manager Standard Restricted Browse Create or edit group Delete My groups Delete Other users groups Create/delete/edit my activities Custom activity management Manage my resources Update my activities Manage my priority list Buy custom The Company Database essay

Unemployment in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Unemployment in the UK - Essay Example To understand more about the unemployment in the United Kingdom, it is of vital importance to elaborate the different types of unemployment. The types of unemployment indicate the causes of unemployment in any country. There could be many reasons or causes for the unemployment. In this paper, the causes and types relevant to the unemployment in the UK are discussed. Below are three common types of unemployment: Cyclical/Keynesian or Deficient-Demand Unemployment: This type of unemployment is associated with the Gross Domestic Production (GDP). In this type of unemployment, the rate of unemployment goes up when the GDP goes negative. Seasonal Unemployment: As obvious with the name, the seasonal unemployment refers to the seasonal opportunities. As the businesses related to the hotel reservation have some peak seasons. Their businesses are at peak in vacation months like December. February is mostly their off season. Hidden Unemployment: People get frustrated when they constantly struggle to get jobs but unfortunately, they fail to obtain suitable positions. After some time, frustration makes them hopeless and government do not really count them so they are not reflected in the statistics. Such state refers to the hidden unemployment phase. The claimant count and the labor force survey are the most successful and accurate ways to measure unemployment (Gillespie, 2007, pp.347-60). The claimant count refers to the number of applicant applying for the Jobseeker’s Allowance. However, it is not possible that all clamant applicants get successful. Due to the rigid requirements, one can fail to claim. Such applicants cannot be reflected in the total claimant count therefore, it is necessary not to just rely on this record. Another way to measure unemployment is the labor force count (Worswick, 1991, p.15). This way is quite reliable than the first one, only because this way, interviews with the help of people in measuring individuals who wish to do some

Case study p565 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Case study p565 - Essay Example The risk associated with oral health includes xerostomia, sipping coffee, and minor diabetes. On the next appointment, the selected patient brought back the 24-hour recall food diary without mentioning specific foods so as not to create a bias. â€Å"The caries promotion potential of diet â€Å"calculated was eight, which considered a moderated risk for caries. For xerostomia patients, this understanding could be significant if it comes from intake of drugs and undergoing treatment. If a patient has a mouth that is dry, they would be prone to damages of the tongue and a risk of dental caries infection. Base on the dental charting, the patient has an obligation to ensure that she maintains good health for her dental structure. More so, the O’Leary score was low. Another health concern in dental caries was using of hard brush wrongly. Application of much energy when brushing using hard brush may result to fractures in the gums and teeth. The doctor instructed the patient to switch to chewing sugar free gum and take water that has fluoride. Fluoridated water does not only maintain the health of a patient’s teeth but can also ensure that the patient does not suffer from having a dry mouth. The doctor recommended â€Å"Nutrition and your Oral Health† and â€Å"Caries Risk† pamphlets for the patient to get more information about dental health. On the third appointment, the patient acknowledged the doctor’s recommendation during the previous appointments. She had started chewing sugar free gum and enhanced on the intake of water every day. This nutritional counseling project is essential to me as a learner because I realized that every case is different. The recommendation resulted from what the patient needed and was a modified base on scientific evidence. It motivated the patient and enhanced her dental