Motivation Theories, Talent Management, Performance Appraisal, and Leadership Approach

Student’s Last Name 1
Human Resource Management
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Student’s Last Name 2
Question 1.
Motivation theories are classified into content and process theories. Content theories
focus on individual goals and needs as factors that motivate people. Example of the content
theory is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory (Managementstudyguide.com, 2018). On the other
hand, process theories deal with how motivation occurs. One example of this theory is Vroom’s
Expectancy theory. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs is based on five needs within every individual.
The needs are presented in a pyramid tier with the based need having to be satisfied first before
an individual goes to the higher level in the tier.
(Managementstudyguide.com, 2018)
Physiological needs are the basic human wants such as food, air water, and other basic
amenities. Safety needs include the need for security and protection. It involves both physical,
emotional and environmental protection (Lester, 2013, pp.16). Further, social needs encompass
the need for friendship, care, love, and affection. Esteem need include confidence, self-respect,
attention, status, and recognition. Lastly, self-actualization is the urge to achieve one's potential.it
involves the desire to acquire additional knowledge, experience growth, and self-satisfaction.
According to this theory, unsatisfied needs motivates individuals. As one satisfies the need of the
lower level, he is motivated to address the next level need.

Student’s Last Name 3
Vroom’s Expectancy theory places emphasis on the process of motivation. It aims at
explaining how an individual makes a choice from the available actions. This theory is further
explained under the variables of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence (Parijat and Bagga,
2014, pp.7). Expectancy is based on the belief that an added effort will result in an increased
performance. Instrumentality, on the other hand, is on the belief that hard work is always
rewarded. Lastly, Valence is the value an individual place on the reward of success. In this
theory, if a person does not see the correlation between effort and performance, he will not be
motivated.
I have recommended these theories because Maslow Hierarchy of needs will address
employee’s internal motivators while the expectancy theory will provide the process through
which the employees can get motivated. The difference between these two theories is that
Maslow’s Need theory focuses on the individual needs while the Expectancy theory is more
inclined on the results by equating effort and performance.
The implication of Maslow’s theory is that managers should offer better salaries, provide
job security, encourage teamwork and offer jobs that utilize the competence and skills of
employees. Expectancy theory implications are that managers should correlate between preferred
outcomes and performance and also reward employees for their good performance (Chemolli and
Gagné, 2014, pp.576). The limitation of Maslow’s theory is that not all employees have the same
set of wants and needs. On the other hand, the limitation of Expectancy theory is in its
application as not many organizations correlate directly performance with reward.
Question 2.