Comparing and Contrasting Motivational Concepts and Their Application

This essay critically evaluates and compares and contrasts different motivational concepts and their application in organizations.

Essay- Critical Evaluation
Comparing and Contrasting
Motivational Concepts and
Their Application
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Maslow's Hierarchy Theory.........................................................................................................1
Mcclelland Motivtion Theory......................................................................................................3
Four Drive Theory.......................................................................................................................6
Alderfer's ERG Theory................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
2

3

INTRODUCTION
Motivation is an essential factor which inspire individual to give their best performance
and help in reaching organization goals (Shane and Heckhausen, 2019). A powerful positive
motivation will enable the increased output of employees but a negative motivation will reduce
their performance. A key element in personnel management is motivation. Motivation provides
the different types of benefits to the enterprise and employees such as it helps to increase the
productivity, increase higher customer satisfaction, Lower labour turnover, Lower recruitment
and selection costs, Better communication and teamwork with each other. Employee engagement
is fundamental concept. Employee engagement is the level to which worker feel passionate about
their jobs, are wrapped up to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.
Employee engagement is not the same as employee satisfaction.
The present report is based on motivational concept. The report will cover the different
types of motivational theories such as Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory, Four drive theory,
McClelland’s Need Theory etc. Furthermore, report will critical evaluate and comparing and
contrasting motivational concepts
and their application.
MAIN BODY
Maslow's Hierarchy Theory
It is a motivational theory, Maslow (1943, 1954) is stated that group of people and
individual are motivated to accomplish definite needs and that some needs take priority over
others. Thus, The basic needs of people is physical survival, and this will be the first thing that
motivates the people behavior (Gonida and Lemos, 2019). Once personal needs is being satisfied
that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates people and so on. Maslow said that
individual must satisfy their personal and lower level of needs before development higher level
of needs. There are five stages of this model such as Physiological needs, safety needs, Love and
belongingness needs, Esteem needs, Self-actualization needs.
Physiological needs – This is an initial stage of and this are biological requirements for human
survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sleep. If these needs are not satisfied the
human body cannot function optimally. Maslow considered physiological needs the most crucial
as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met. Thus, there are many
1

organizations they used this theory in the business to motivate the employees. Tesco is one of the
company who fulfil the personal needs of employees by providing the food, canteen, shelter
facility to the employees.
Safety needs – This is the second stage, This contains needs for safety and security. Security
needs are necessary but not as vital as basic needs. Examples of security needs are longing for
stable job, welfare and health care, good employees around them etc. (Eleftheria and Lemos,
2019). Tesco provide the proper security to their employees like Tesco follow the health and
security act, employment act, data management act, Anti discrimination act etc. This all law
followed by the Tesco in order to satisfy the employees related to the safety and security
perspective. Thus, this activity is fulfilled the safety needs of employees as employees are
motivated and they achieve the goal of the company.
Belongingness Needs – After the fulfilment of the physiological and safety needs, the next stage
of this model is Social Belongingness Needs. It involves friendships, intimacy, acceptance,
family and affection from the society or group. Every employees who work under the group wish
that they accept them, give respect them and do care for each others. This needs helps employees
to do feel an important part of the organization which lead them to willingly participate in the
group meeting or group decision making or group planning process. It lead them to do share
information and tasks with each other. This results in improvement of group performance and
every employees related to that particular group motivated to do better performance. Like this,
2
(Illustration 1: Five needs in Maslow
Pyramid
Source: Maslow Theory of Motivation,
2019)

by fulfilling this needs, Company can enhance its employee engagement (Harrigan and
Commons, 2015).
Esteem Needs – After the satisfaction of social belongingness needs, Next need that occur is
known as Esteem Needs. Esteem Needs refers to those needs which is related to the recognition
and respect. All the employees in the organization want to be recognized and respected by their
peers, superiors, sub-ordinates and other staff of the company. There are so many employees
who don't get satisfied with high salary. All they need compliments, trusts and recognition from
others so that they can motivated and do better performance in order to get more recognition,
acknowledgement and honour. Thus, company should give these types of employees an interval
basis recognition for their performance and respect their work & decision making. So that they
can feel appreciated. It will lead them to do more work for the organization. Like this, company
can engaged them in their firm (Maslow Theory of Motivation, 2019).
Self-Actualization Needs – It is considered to be the last needs in Needs of Maslow Theory
Pyramid. This theory only can be satisfied when there will be fulfilment of all the above
mentioned 4 needs of Maslow Pyramid. This need is also known as Development Need. It refers
to the realization of own potential about what they can do. It states the degree to which an
employee have the desire to accomplish something, which they want. In the organization, every
employee is considered to be an unique. This unique make their self actualization needs to be
different. For example – some employees can get motivated by creating art or some can get
motivation through another business aspects. Thus, company should analysis their potential to do
something and accordingly assign them the tasks. So that employees don't feel pressure and low
motivation. High degree of motivation will results in employee engagement as they stick to the
organization by anyhow in order to feel motivated and joy (Einstein, Addams and Roosevelt,
2016).
Mcclelland Motivtion Theory
McClelland Motivation Theory is also known as Need Theory or Three Needs Theory.
This theory was propounded by David McClelland. Need theory is a type of motivational theory
model which explain that how needs of employees can be fulfilled and how this will affect the
actions of them at the management context. It will help them to do motivate their employees
easily (Lin-Siegler, Dweck and Cohen, 2016). This theory states that there are three basic needs
3

of employees which can help organization to get motivated and engaged employees for their
business. These three basic needs are -
 Needs of Power
 Needs of Affiliation
 Needs of Achievement
Need of Power – The need of power refers to the desire of employees to hold the position, its
related control and authority in the organization. It also involves the power of take decision
making and change it according to the needs of their own. Employees want this because of their
desire to enhance their self esteem, self respect, recognition and reputation in the company. This
need can be divided into 2 parts – Personal Power and Institutional Power. Those employees who
want to focus on the personal power, that means they want to control over others and those
employees who want to focus on institutional power, it means they want to manage the efforts
put by others in order to achieve the organizational goals. If company do fulfil this needs of
employees, they will feel like they are an important part of the organization, this would help
4
(Illustration 2: Three Basic Needs
Source: McClelland's Needs Theory, 2019)

company to get loyal employees who will think about the achievement of organizational growth
(Ferinia and Hutagalung, 2017).
Need of Affiliation – The need of affiliation means employees want to have relationships with
other staff and they want to be a part of the group or team. This need is all about the friendly and
close impersonal relationships with others. Those employees who have the desire to have high
affiliation focus on the creation of social relationships with others. They desire to feel accepted,
respected and loved by the group members. They follow all the social norms develop by the
organization. Along with this, they try to make working environment good for themselves as
well as for others too. They love to do collaboration with others and don't like the situation
where there is competition between anybody. If company is able to satisfied this need of
employees of their organization, it will help them to gain customers satisfaction as they are good
in customer service and client interaction scenario. It will make them happy as they are able to
fulfil their needs. This results in improvement in employee engagement as management team
will involve them in decision making process or planning process in order to get to know about
the customers as consumers are considered to be the core of the firm (Carsrud and et.al., 2017).
Need of Achievement – The employees who get motivated by the achievement of something or
by doing challenging tasks keep desire of achievement needs. Therefore it involves achievement
and encouragement in tasks which is considered to be challenging for the employees. Those
employees who have high degree of this need, may seek to the stand out in order to avoid
situations where there is low risk or high risk or both. They avoid low risk situation because they
don't feel like that they did achieved something by attaining success for doing tasks. They avoid
high risk situation because they observe the result as one of the chance rather than their owns
efforts. These type of employees are ready to do challenging works as they seek it as an
opportunities to grow more which help company to easily engage them in their institution
(McClelland's Needs Theory, 2019).
Compare and Contrast between Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and McClelland Motivation
Theory
According to Maslow Theory, there are 5 needs of employees which must be fulfil by the
organization in order to make them motivated and happy. In the contrast, there are 3 needs of
employees under the McClelland Theory, which make employees encouraged and satisfied with
5

their work. Every theory is different and describe the different motivators. Thus, every approach
for motivation can't be compared as their base are not same (Lăzăroiu, 2015).
Compare and Contrast between ERG Theory of Motivation and McClelland Motivation
Theory
One of the primary difference between two theories Is that McClelland Motivation states
that every person has one of three main driving motivators: the needs for achievement,
affiliation, or power and the ERG theory only has three levels. In fact, in the ERG theory, it helps
to progression upward from relatedness satisfaction to growth desires. On the other side, these
both theory is helps to motivate the people but there have different perspective and logics which
satisfy the employee at work place. These both theory helps to motivators and develop the people
through our culture and life experiences (Shane and Heckhausen, 2019).
Four Drive Theory
Meaning and employee engagement
As per this theory there are four factors which are essential to motivate the employees
and these four factors are used to improve the employee engagement and improve the
performance of the organization. The four factors are explained below:
Achieve as well as Acquire
As per this system the organization improves the employees engagement by Reward
system. This system improves the performance from the average performance to top
performance and from the poor performance to the average performance. The employee
engagement is clearly tied with the performance of the employees(Cottrell, 2017). Recognition is
basically given to the employees of the outstanding performance by giving reward to the
employees which can be in the form of cash, holiday trip, holiday, half day, etc. All these factor
makes the employees rejuvenating and this increases the productivity of the employee's
performance.
Bond as well as Belong
Organisation's culture is the main factor to improve the employee engagement which is
done by embraces teamwork, by considering employee at the top, valuing the collaboration,
employees can depend on the peer of them in order to help them, all these factors helps the
employees to perform well because all these factors motivates the employees to contribute more
to the organisation which is giving importance to them and also this increase the employee's
6

engagement by employees taking more interest in the problematic situation which may be
decrease in the sales, reasons for deviation etc(Collins, Kugler. and Gwadz, 2016).
Challenge and Comprehend
The organization must ensure that if the employees are facing challenges then simulation
is must for them for the growth of the employees. This includes providing seminars and training
for the complicated task to the employees that will built new skill and make more productive
employees. This will increase the employee engagement as the employees will be more skilled
after the training which will help the organization to quickly complete the task with accuracy.
Define and Defend
The organisation which is having strong reputation in the market can create employees
with alignment. The alignment is done by the feelings of the employees in which the feeling of
the employees are given due respect. The feeling of the employees are given care by fair, ethical,
providing good stewards and also providing value service. This will increase the employee
engagement by satisfying them by satisfying the feelings of the employees(Stol, K.J., Ralph. and
Fitzgerald, 2016).
7
Illustration 3: Four Drive Theory
(Source: Four Factors of Four Drive Theory, 2019)

Comparison and contrasting
If this theory is compared with the other theories then the following points can be taken:
If this theory is compared with the Maslow theory then this theory takes into account the
four factors for the motivation whereas Maslow considers 5 to 7 basic needs of the employees
and the needs and wants must be filled in order to motivate the employees.
This theory focuses more on training and development where as Maslow theory focuses
more on needs and wants of the employees.
The theory is also different from the Alderfer's ERG Theory which gives more preference
to the food, water, safety as well as clothing which are the basic needs of the employees.
Whereas the Four factor focused more on teamwork and giving more importance to the
employees(Morrison. and et.al, 2019).
Practical example
Google by applying this model of motivation increased the performance of the
organization by engaging more the employees. Google improved the performance of the
employees by offering the employees Europe trip if the target of selling software is achieved and
if over achieved then 10 days holiday extra will be provided. This resulted in overachieving of
the target set by Google. Also, this improved the engagement of the employees(Edwards. and
Kaimal, 2016).
Alderfer's ERG Theory
Meaning and employee engagement
Alderfer's theory makes the five factors of the Maslow's Theory into the three factors
such as Existence, Relatedness and also Growth (ERG). Model is focused on meeting the basic
existing requirement of the employees. Model considers item which includes Maslow's factors
known as physiological as well as safety needs. The other groups which is second which takes
into account the group of those who are desired people which have to maintain important
relationship. The social as well as status desires requires the interaction with the other employees
in order to do coordination(Rienties. and et.al, 2016). This model includes intrinsic model from
the Maslows Theory under which self actualization and personal development. Maslow's
interpersonal love as well as esteem needs are considered under the Relatedness category of the
Alderfer's ERG Theory. As per the theory if the needs are higher and the available resources are
not available to satisfy the needs the employees doubles the effort in order to meet the needs.
8

This theory will improve the employee engagement by knowing what are the safety and
physiological needs of the employees and this will motivate the employee to work more effective
and efficiently by increasing flexibility. The three factors are as follows of the theory:
Existence Needs
These needs take into account the basic needs which are required for the existence.
Existence considers basic physical and social needs. These needs are basic such as food, shelter
and clothing without which the employees body can not function properly and their body will
break down ultimately.
Materialistic requirements will satisfy the employees relatively and is of no use according
to Existence. The safety is also part of it in which physicals well as economical safety is
concerned. This will increase the hunger to do more work in order to achieve the basic
requirements of the employees and this will make the employees more motivated and more
dedicated towards work which will ultimately result in increasing the productivity of the
employees(Meister, 2018).
Relatedness needs
The factors such as love, friendship and also interpersonal relationship and all these
factors were considered as belongingness in the Maslow's Theory are also included in this group.
It is also the necessity of the employees to have a good relationship with the employees or people
which are working with them. The employees will always prefer good working condition in
which good working environment is must(Shiau. and Chau, 2016). The good working
environment will result in good relationship among the employees and their superiors, the
employee's colleagues and also the emplyees's subordinates. All these factor increases the labour
turnover rate.
Relatedness improves the employee engagement by creating friendly working
environment in which the employees can discuss the problems as well issues to the superiors and
which will engage the employees more as they will have the sense of safety and satisfaction.
Growth needs
The esteem and self actualization factors of the Maslow's theory are the factors which are
considered under the Growth needs. Growth needs makes the employee motivated when the
employees will have the knowledge of result of the effort the employee is making. The
consequence can be feeling of the achievement, enhancement in the knowledge, actualization of
9

goal, respect from others(Boell. and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015). If all these factors are not
present in the employee or employees then this will result in demotivation of the employes and
the employee will hesitate to work more. This will happen because the employee will be
knowing inspite of working the employee will be getting nothing extra.
Growth needs will enhance the employee engagement by working more and this will
increase friendly competition among the employees and each employee will fight for promotion
and this will improve the performance of the company as well. Because if the employee is
knowing that the growth in the organization is sure then the employee will engage them
wholly(Imms. and et.al, 2016).
Illustration 4: ERG Theory
(Source: Three factors of Alderfer's ERG Theory, 2019)
Comparison and contrasting
Theory is compared with the other theories then:
If this theory is compared with Maslow's Theory then this theory considers factors of
Maslow such as love, friendship, safety and satisfaction. Other factors are considered in different
way as per this theory.
10

If this theory is compared with the McClelland Theory then McClelland theory takes into
account power whereas this theory is more focused towards love, self-esteem etc.
As per the McCelland's Human motivation theory the employees like to solve the
problems in order to achieve the goal whereas as per the ERG theory employees do hard work in
order to fulfil basic needs of the employees(Cottrell, 2017).
If also this theory is compared with the four drive theory then this theory is more towards
the growth needs knowledge of the employees whereas the four need theory focuses more on
innovative and unique way to improve the performance of the employees.
Practice Example
When amazon was facing the issue of operation inefficiency, Amazon did analysis and
from the analysis it was found that employees are not working proper due to the comfort they
were getting. Amazon applied the theory of ERG in order to engage the employee more towards
the work. From the theory Amazon reduced the facility which was earlier the devastating factor
for the employees and the employees we are working on ERG model in which only basic facility
will be provided to the employees such as food, shelter and clothing. The employees were also
introduced to the growth factor in which the benefits of participation in this model was make
known to them. This resulted in immense participation of the employees and again Amazon was
on track by operational efficiency and making more productive the employees. The employees
were working more for the growth and salary hike now and there were less customer complaints
about the service and also quick resolution of the queries was there(Collins, Kugler. and Gwadz,
2016). The employee engagement improved just because of the end result which was known to
the employees.
CONCLUSION
As per the study it is concluded that in order to improve the employee engagement the
organization must imply the motivation theories. Because in the theory various motivating
factors are mentioned which are very important for the growth and behaviour of the employee
for the higher engagement of the employee. There are four motivation theories applied here in
the study and each motivation theory is having its own importance. Motivation helps the
employees by inspiring them and making them understand the complexity in the operations.
Motivation gives the sense of satisfaction which will help the employees complete the
complicated task with ease. Due to motivation the human behaviour is understood and based on
11

the behaviour actions are taken. Motivation keeps the talent alive and increase the productivity of
the employees by making the employees more effective and efficient.
12

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boell, S.K. and Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., 2015. On being ‘systematic’in literature reviews.
In Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems (pp. 48-78). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Carsrud, A. and et.al., 2017. Motivations: The entrepreneurial mind and behavior. In Revisiting
the Entrepreneurial Mind. (pp. 185-209). Springer, Cham.
Collins, L.M., Kugler, K.C. and Gwadz, M.V., 2016. Optimization of multicomponent
behavioral and biobehavioral interventions for the prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS. AIDS and Behavior. 20(1). pp.197-214.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Edwards, J. and Kaimal, G., 2016. Using meta-synthesis to support application of qualitative
methods findings in practice: A discussion of meta-ethnography, narrative synthesis, and
critical interpretive synthesis. The Arts in Psychotherapy. 51. pp.30-35.
Einstein, A., Addams, J. and Roosevelt, E., 2016. Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Eleftheria, N.G. and Lemos, M.S. 2019. Motivation in Education at a Time of Global Change:
Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice', Motivation in Education at a Time of
Global Change (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Volume 20).
Ferinia, R. and Hutagalung, S., 2017. Linkage Between McClelland Motivation Theory,
Interpersonal Relationship, Employee Engagement and Performance of Nurses at
Adventist Hospital. Advanced Science Letters. 23(11). pp.10955-10958.
Gonida, E.N. and Lemos, M.S. 2019. Motivation in Education at a Time of Global Change:
Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice. In Motivation in Education at a Time of
Global Change: Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice (pp. 1-12). Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Harrigan, W.J. and Commons, M.L., 2015. Replacing Maslow’s needs hierarchy with an account
based on stage and value. Behavioral Development Bulletin. 20(1). p.24.
Imms, C. and et.al., 2016. ‘Participation’: a systematic review of language, definitions, and
constructs used in intervention research with children with disabilities. Developmental
Medicine & Child Neurology. 58(1). pp.29-38.
Lăzăroiu, G., 2015. Work motivation and organizational behavior. Contemporary Readings in
Law and Social Justice. 7(2). pp.66-75.
Lin-Siegler, X., Dweck, C.S. and Cohen, G.L., 2016. Instructional interventions that motivate
classroom learning. Journal of Educational Psychology. 108(3). p.295.
Meister, D., 2018. The history of human factors and ergonomics. CRC Press.
Morrison, G.R. and et.al., 2019. Designing effective instruction. Wiley.
Rienties, B. and et.al., S., 2016. Analytics4Action Evaluation Framework: A Review of
Evidence-Based Learning Analytics Interventions at the Open University UK. Journal of
Interactive Media in Education. 2016(1).
Shane, J. and Heckhausen, J. 2019. Motivational theory of lifespan development. In Work Across
the Lifespan(pp. 111-134). Academic Press.
Shiau, W.L. and Chau, P.Y., 2016. Understanding behavioral intention to use a cloud computing
classroom: A multiple model comparison approach. Information & Management. 53(3).
pp.355-365.
13

Stol, K.J., Ralph, P. and Fitzgerald, B., 2016, May. Grounded theory in software engineering
research: a critical review and guidelines. In 2016 IEEE/ACM 38th International
Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) (pp. 120-131). IEEE.
Online
Four Factors of Four Drive Theory. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.managerwise.com/four-drive-model/>.
Maslow Theory of Motivation. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.project-
management-skills.com/maslow-theory-of-motivation.html>
McClelland's Needs Theory. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://businessjargons.com/mcclellands-needs-theory.html>
Three factors of Alderfer's ERG Theory. 2019. [online]. Availabel Through:
<https://businessjargons.com/alderfers-erg-theory.html>
14