Chapter 14 - Motivation & Morale
B-Com Part 2 Management Notes
http://karachiboardnotes.blogspot.com/Chapter 14 - Motivation & Morale
* Motivation
* Characteristics of Motivation
* Moslow's theory of motivation
* Salient features of Maslow's Needs Model
Q.1. How would you define motivation? Set out the importance of motivation in an organisation.
OR
What is motivation? Explain the term motivation. What does motivate people in an organisation?
Meaning and Definition of Motivation
Success at work is not a matter of only technical expertise but also dependent on the interest of the worker. Creating interest in people to give their best to the work and the workplace is the key to motivation. For this purpose, the managers should know why people act as they do and what will make them to give their best on their jobs.
Some important definitions of motivation may be given as follows:
Carroll Strartle
Motivation is a reported urge or tension to move in a given direction or to achieve a certain goal.
Micheal Jucius
Motivation is the art of stimulating someone or oneself to set a desired course of action or push the right button to get the desired action.
E.F.I. Brech
Motivation is a general inspirational process which gets the members of the team to pull their weight effectively, to give their loyalty to the group, to carry out properly the tasks that they have accepted and generally to play an effective to play an effective part in the job that the group has undertaken.
Weihrich and Koontz
Motivation is a general term applying to the entire class of drives, desires, needs, wishes and similar forces. To say that managers motivate their subordinates is to say that they do those things which key hope will satisfy these drives and desires and induce the subordinates to act in a desired manner.
In sum, motivation is a psychological process which is related to human side and through which the desires, needs or tensions of the employees are understood and they are inspired in such a way that they proceed in a desired direction, provide maximum help in the achievement of specified goals, keep on the drive to work, continue to cooperate with each other, develop and maintain the sense of belongingness towards the enterprise, feel satisfied and their morale remains high. Thus, motivations are the process of steering a person's inner drives and actions towards certain goals and committing his energies to achieve these goals.
_________________________________
Q.2. Describe the characteristics, nature and features of motivation.
Characteristics Or Features of Motivation
Some important features of motivation may be brought out as follows:
1. Personal and Internal Feeling
Motivation is a psychological phenomenon, which is generated within an individual in the form of an energetic force that drives him to behave or not to behave in certain ways. These are some environmental and other forces that trigger these drives.
2. Art of Stimulating Someone Or Oneself
A manager can use motivation to inspire not only his subordinates, but to motivate himself also. For self-motivation, he has to take following steps
- He should set a goal for himself and should not close sight of it.
- He should supplement his long term objectives with short-term goals.
- He should learn a challenging task every year.
- He should make his job a different one with a view to improving objectives for his position and increasing his productivity.
- He should develop an area of expertise by building on his strengths and developing his weaknesses into strengths.
- He should give himself the feedback and reward himself by celebrating his accomplishment.
3. Produces Goal - Directed Behaviour
Motivation is closely intertwined with behaviour. As a Behavioural concept, it directs human behaviour toward certain goals.
4. Motivation can be either Positive or Negative
Positive motivation is also known as Carrot Approach and includes use of additional pays, incentives, praise possibility of becoming a permanent employee etc. Negative motivation is also called Stick Approach and implies punishment, such as reprimands, threat of demotion, threat of termination, etc.
5. The Central Problem of Motivation is HOW
Motivation is necessary for successful achievement of goals. However, it is a complex process because different employees have different needs, their motives are varied and needs and motivates change from time to time. Moreover, motivation is partly logical and partly emotional. Further, people satisfy their needs in many different ways. Hence, the central problem of motivation is how to inspire such a typical group of individuals towards attainment of goals in a concerned manner.
6. Motivation is System Oriented
Motivation is the result of interplay among three sets of different factors:
- Influences operating within an individual, for example, his needs, tensions, motives, values, goals etc.
- Influences operating within the organisation for example, its structure, technology, physical facilities, various processes, the nature of job, advancement avenues etc.
- Forces operating in the external environment, for example, society is culture, norms, values, customs, government policy regarding the business of the enterprise etc.
7. Motivation is a Sort of Bargaining
Inducements from the side of the enterprise and contributions from the side of the employees.
8. Motivation is different from Satisfaction
Motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want or goal. Satisfaction refers to the contentment experienced when a want is fulfilled. In other words, motivation implies a drive toward an outcome and satisfaction is the outcome already experienced.
___________________________
Q.3. Describe the Maslow's theory of Motivation.
Theories of Motivation
Different management scholars to explain how behaviour is energized, gets started, sustained, directed or stopped have propounded several theories.
Maslow's Needs Hierarchy Theory
Maslow's need priority model is one of the most widely referred to theories of motivation. Abraham Maslow, a clinical psychologist, thought (1943) that a person's motivational needs could be arranged in a hierarchical manner, starting in an ascending order from the lowest to the highest needs and concluded that once a given level of needs (set of needs) was satisfied, if ceased to be a motivator. The next higher level of need to be motivated in order to motivate the individual. Although the hierarchical aspects of Maslow's theory are subject to question and often not accepted, his identification of basic needs has been fairly popular.
The five categories of needs may be described as follows:
1. Physiological Needs
These are the basic needs for sustaining human life itself: needs for food, drink, shelter, clothing, sleep, sex etc. Man can live on bread alone, if there is no bread. But once these basic needs are satisfied, they no longer motivate.
2. Safety Needs
Safety or securing needs are concerned with freedom from physical or psychological (mental) harm, danger, deprivation or threat, such as loss of jobs, property, food, clothing or shelter.
3. Social Or Affiliation Or Acceptance Needs
These are belongingness needs emanating from human instinct of affiliation or association with others. These include owners, love and affection, needs of mutual relations, identification with some group etc. These are the needs more of mind and spirit than of physique.
4. Esteem Needs
This set of needs represents higher level needs. These needs represent needs for self-respect, respect of others a general feeling of being worthwhile, competence, achievement, knowledge, independence, reputation, status and recognition.
5. Self-Actualization Needs
This set of higher order needs concerns with reaching one's potential as a total human being. It is the desire to become what one is capable of becoming, i.e. to maximum one's capacity and abilities in order to accomplish something appreciable and self-fulfilling. It is a need for being creative or innovative, for transforming self into reality.
__________________________________
Q.4. Describe the salient features of Maslow's needs model.
Salient features of Maslow's Needs Model
1. The urge to fulfill needs is a prime factor in motivation of people at work. Human beings strive to fulfill a wide range of needs. Human needs are multiple, complex and interrelated.
2. Human needs form a particular hierarchy or priority structure in order of importance.
3. Lower-live needs must be at least partially satisfied before higher-level need emergy. In other words, a higher-level need does not become an active motivating force until the preceding lower-order needs are satisfied. All needs are not felt at the same time.
4. As soon as one need is satisfied, the individual discovers another need which is still unfulfilled.
5. A satisfied need ceases to be a motivator, i.e., does not influence human behaviour. Unsatisfied needs are motivators, i.e., they influence human behaviour.
6. Various need levels are independent and overlapping. Each higher-level need emerges before the lower-level need is completely satisfied.
7. All people to a greater or lesser extent; have the identified needs.
Critical Evaluation of Maslow's Model
1. Human needs cannot be classified into clear and only specified categories, i.e. their hierarchy cannot be definitely specified. The determination of higher and lower levels is dependent on people's cultural values, personalities and desires. For example, the higher-level need of an Indian worker may be the lower-level need of an American worker.
2. It is not necessary that a time only one need be satisfied. In other words, needs of more than one levels may be fulfilled jointly, for example: physical and esteem needs, Maslow's model does not explain this multi-motivation fact.
3. Some of the assumptions of Maslow's theory are not always found in practice.
4. It has been found by some scholars like Lawler and Suttle that physical and safety needs may be probably satisfied, but high-level needs do not appear to be rather satisfiable.
Though Maslow may not be the final answer in motivation, yet his model does make a significant contribution in terms of making management aware of the diverse needs of human beings at work, their diverse motives. Needs may not be the only determinants of human behaviour but they are definitely important for understanding such behaviour.
____________________________________