Employee Motivation Theories & Application

Motivational Theories in HR
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Executive Summary
In the contemporary management practices people are important. As a result, Human
Resource Management has undergone drastic changes to adopt new approaches to its operations.
The adoption of strategic personnel management continues to revolutionize the industry.
Employees have become an integral aspect of success and performance in business organizations.
Research into this explains that there are embedded factors within individual workers that
encourage and discourage them from performing different functions. These studies point at
motivation as the ingredient for a positive outcome. This discussion is about theories that dissect
and interpret motivation as a factor of organizational best practice. It critically evaluates its use in
Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). Some scholars have also tried to define the
concept of motivation and its dynamics in improving performance. These studies have gone ahead
to use these approaches as prescription to diverse problems arising in personnel management. The
theories also support the existence of contemporary organizations in the cross border globalized
system. The analysis of these dimensions brings about an integrated approach of using motivational
factors in an organization.

Motivational Theories in HR
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Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Background information..............................................................................................................3
3. Maslow’s Theory of Needs..........................................................................................................4
4. Hertzberg’s Theory......................................................................................................................5
5. McClelland’s Theory of Needs....................................................................................................6
6. Alderfer’s ERG theory.................................................................................................................7
7. Comparative Analysis of the theories..........................................................................................8
8. Intrinsic verses extrinsic factors of motivation............................................................................9
9. Importance of Motivation..........................................................................................................10
10. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11
11. Bibliography...........................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
Motivation has different applications in SHRM. Before describing it as solution, it is
necessary to understand its conceptualization. The English dictionary defines motivation as
people’s desire or willingness to perform a task (Oxford Dictionaries, 2017). It goes further to highlight
that something motivational is what encourages people to achieve a set goal. This means that
hunger motivates human beings to search for food and the government uses tax incentives to
motivate investors for business venture. Motivation is more than an emotion because it has an
objective or a goal. Psychologists search for deeper meaning and implications of motivation (Huitt,
2011). Professional theorists refer to motivation according to different application. It has different
advantages including behavior change, perception influence and cognitive development. The
conceptualization of motivation is useful in studies featuring children, adults, employees, and
learners among others. Some view it as an inborn attribute (Wacjman, 2013) while others believe in
the external influences from social life (Siemens, 2014). For a complete study of motivation in
organizational management, scholars unearth objectivity in its ability to influence action or desired
behavior. This discussion highlights Maslow’s Theory for intrinsic factors and Hertzberg‘s
approach to explain dissatisfaction. Also included is McClelland’s approach of Acquired Needs,
which explains the social factor. The discourse adds Alderfer’s ERG theory for physical and social
needs. The discussion gives a comparative analysis of the four theories.
2. Background information
The reason behind employee engagement is the performance factor (Gruman & Saks, 2011).
Changes in the global environment place emphasis on high scores in job performance. This is
partly because of the competent environment, which forces organizations to push their employees
towards performance. In an organization, people succeed or fail depending on their inner drive.
Both individual employees and their respective teams need motivation. Organizational behavior
looks at what makes people to behave in a certain manner. Modern organizations use data based
solutions to solve existing problems. The scientific approach to management provides
multidimensional approaches in devising solutions. That is why HR practices acknowledge that
Psychology is an important part of organizations. It describes the nature of human behavior using
proven ideas and approaches. The quest to achieve performance targets people as individual
contributor to quality management. SHRM becomes the formula for shaping personnel behavior,
competencies and talents (Schuler, et al., 2013). The engagement of employees explores factors that

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enhance positive responses and outcomes. Since the broad spectrum involves numerous attributes,
it is best to breakdown the analysis into simpler elements. Motivation as one of the drivers of
success comes with different approaches propagated by different theorists.
3. Maslow’s Theory of Needs
Abraham Maslow’s theory propagates that people have different levels of motivation, which create
a desire for better working conditions, social and psychological needs (Bratton & Gold, 2012). The
theory supports the role of job security in motivating employees to stay in the job. Job retention is
one of the challenges in HR practices because the best employees are hard to retain. A person’s
state of mind determines their potential for success because of the inbuilt self-motivational ability.
Job satisfaction encourages workers to remain in the organization.
Figure 1: Maslow theory of need showing what motivates people (Rencher, 2016)
HRM relates with the recruitment process, performance management, organizational
development and employee wellness. Motivation in Maslow’s view comes from the needs that the
job meets (Rencher, 2016). These are basic needs through an income, financial security, workmate
relation and respect. That is why motivation shapes strategic policies to ensure self-actualization of
individuals. The reward system motivates employees to search for jobs in organizations, which pay