Motivation Theories: A Guide to Application in the Modern Workplace

This essay provides an overview of several motivation theories, including Incentive Theory, McClelland's Human Motivation Theory, Competence Theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Wants Theory, and Expectancy Theory, and discusses their application in the modern workplace. It explains how incentives like bonuses, opportunities, and promotions can motivate employees, and how McClelland's theory highlights the needs for affiliation, achievement, and power. The essay also covers competence theory, emphasizing the importance of demonstrating abilities and skills, and Maslow's hierarchy, which outlines the different levels of needs that individuals seek to fulfill. Finally, it explores expectancy theory, focusing on the belief that individuals choose behaviors based on expected outcomes, highlighting the core variables of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of trust and keeping promises when providing incentives to foster employee motivation and productivity.

ESSAY
Theories of Motivation and How
to Apply Them in the Modern
Workplace
Introduction 2

Incentive Theory 2
McClelland's Human Motivation Theory 3
Competence Theory 5
Maslow's Hierarchy of Wants Theory 6
Expectancy Theory 7
References 9
Introduction
The essay provides a brief overview of several motivational theories, including Maslow's Need
Hierarchy Theory, Herzberg's Dual-Factor Theory, Expectancy/Valence Theory, and
Reinforcement Theory. Some general tips for inspiring employees are made based on the
research. Recognizing that no single theory of motivation contains all of the answers, an attempt
has been made to incorporate the most effective motivational elements from each of the theories.
By drawing on a variety of sources, a more thorough understanding of the process and
difficulties associated with inspiring individuals can be attained.
Incentive Theory
The incentive psychological feature hypothesis says that people are motivated by recognition,
rewards, incentives, and other forms of reinforcement. People can exhibit certain behaviours to
achieve the desired outcome, inspire action or get an item of memorabilia according to the
motivational theory. Here are a few examples of workplace incentives:
Bonus:

A bonus could be a reward you'll offer to associate worker supported their performance
Opportunity:
Providing opportunities like paid coaching or continued education could offer your team
associate incentive to extend their data in a very specific field and develop their talent sets.
Promotion:
An associate worker's sense of importance and growth will be enhanced by a promotion, which
is one of the most powerful incentives a manager can offer.
In the 1940s and 1950s, psychologists like Clark Hull built on earlier drive theories to develop
incentive theory. The motivation hypothesis says that people are pushed away from actions that
may have bad effects and forced toward behaviours that produce rewards rather than focusing on
additional intrinsic causes behind motivation.
McClelland's Human Motivation Theory
Probably safe to say that Maslow's desire hierarchy theory is the most well-known theory of
motivation. Human desires are at the heart of Maslow's theory. Hierarchically classifying human
desires, he relied on his clinical training to make this determination (McClelland, 1987).
Understanding McClelland's would like the theory can help managers determine what their
employees desire, allowing them to put their employees in positions where they may grow and
achieve their goals.

This type of motivation can be explained by McClelland's theory of wants, which breaks down
what and how wants are formed and how they need to be approached. A theory of motivation
created by David McClelland, a United Nations agency associate scientist from the United
States, centres around three key elements: action; power; and affiliation.
According to McClelland's theories, which date back to the 1960s, we are all driven by one of
four basic desires regardless of our age, gender, ethnicity, or culture. As McClelland stated,
McClelland's theory of noninheritable wants states that a person's desires are generated over time
by his or her life experiences.
In the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this hypothesis is regarded to be an extension of
it. According to McClelland, no matter what their background, culture, or economic status,
everyone has these three types of psychological feature desires. These types of motivation are
based on personal experiences and, as a result, reflect the opinions of the people who possess
them.
Need for affiliation
According to the affiliate theory, people yearn for a sense of belonging and approval from others.
Managers can determine whether or not their associates are capable of working together and
learning from one another by employing this strategy.
Need for action
Some employees are compelled to strive to be successful and indispensable. These individuals
are also competitive and have a high standard of conduct or work ethic.
Need for power

some staff have an interest in influencing others, creating an effect on their coworkers and
touching the work. These varieties of staff sometimes relish leading teams of individuals,
distributing tasks and coordinating events. they'll decide to inspire their coworkers to realize
short-run and long goals
Competence Theory
Understanding ability motivation theory will assist you in inspiring your team to exert greater
effort, be more persistent, and take on more difficult projects. By comprehending this theory of
learning motivation, team leaders or managers can utilise appropriate praise and feedback to aid
personnel in becoming more motivated to master new abilities.
According to competence theory, individuals desire interaction in specific activities to
demonstrate their abilities, intelligence, and skills. If associate worker succeeds in demonstrating
their intelligence ahead of their peers, it inspires them to feel competent in a highly visible area
(White, 1959). While feeling competent may increase, confidence enables individuals to execute
tasks, which may enhance productivity, and ability theory posits that individuals typically seek
participation in specific activities to demonstrate their abilities, intelligence, and talents. If
associate worker succeeds in demonstrating their intelligence ahead of their peers, it inspires
them to feel competent in a highly visible area. Feeling competent may increase as individuals
gain confidence in their ability to do tasks, which may result in increased productivity and
effectiveness.
Benefits of competence theory
Employees who succeed after attempting new abilities or jobs and receiving positive
reinforcement might assign a self-reward system as well as a collection of mastery goals. This

may have a long-lasting favourable effect on their confidence. Because employees have
internalised their own set of standards, they can no longer rely on others to judge their
performance or motivate them to continue. Rather than that, they will be expected to proceed on
their own as a result of their recognition of their competence in space.
Individuals who regard themselves as exceptionally good in one area will also display increased
effort and tenacity, as well as a predilection for more difficult jobs. Individuals with great
abilities are more likely to have a strong sense of self-worth and shallowness, which can affect
all aspects of their lives, from relationships to jobs.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Wants Theory
Maslow's hierarchy could be a psychological theory that outlines the categories of wants
someone should meet to achieve additional complicated wants (Singh & Behera, 2016). The
hierarchy of wants includes 5 levels, including:
Physiological:
To meet physiological wants, or basic survival wants, you'll be able to make sure you have
adequate water, shelter, consumer goods and food. in a very work setting, associate employees'
wages could enable them to satisfy their physiological wants.
Safety:
This level refers to the necessity to feel protected. within the work, this would like could align
with staff feeling safe within the work and feeling a way of job security.
Socialization:

To meet socialization wants, staff could attempt for or her coworkers to just accept them, look to
form friendships at work or on job teams to feel a way of happiness. A work could fulfil this
would like by making opportunities {for workers|for workers} to bond by hosting employee
lunches and team-building activities.
Esteem:
Employees usually reach this level by receiving recognition, which might facilitate them feel
assured in their work and increase their shallowness. Recognizing their achievements associated
with providing feedback area unit 2 ways you'll be able to use to assist build an employee's
shallowness.
Self-actualization:
To reach this level, staff could look to realize complicated, long or personal goals. Self-
actualized staff might also feel intended to finish work goals effectively
Expectancy Theory
The expectancy theory of motivation or the expectation theory is the belief that a private can opt
for their behaviours supported by what they believe can cause the foremost helpful outcome.
This theory relies on what proportion of price someone places on completely different
motivations, leading to a choice they expect can offer them the best come for his or her efforts
(Lawler & Suttle, 1973).
According to Lawler & Suttle, to help produce a correlation between the efforts and performance
that compose expectancy theory (1973), explore the subsequent 3 core variables:
Expectancy

o Raw materials and resources
o Skills to perform the task
o Support and data from supervisors
Some of the foremost common factors related to your level of expectancy include:
Self-efficacy: the assumption in your ability to with success perform will impact your motivation
levels.
Goal difficulty: the issue-level of your goal could influence the result you expect from your
work.
Control: the amount of management you are feeling you've got over your performance will
influence the efforts you create.
Instrumentality
Instrumentality is the belief that the reward you receive can depend upon your performance
within the work(Wabba & House, 1974). For a souvenir to possess a positive impact on
someone’s future contributions at work, it ought to follow some basic guidelines:
● The reward a team member will expect to receive ought to be communicated.
● An individual ought to trust that their manager or supervisor can offer them associate
applicable rewards for their efforts.
● The worker ought to have clear expectations for his or her reward.
An employee’s performance at work will cause many various varieties of rewards. a number of
the foremost common rewards include:
● A pay increase
● A promotion

● Recognition
● A sense of accomplishment
Generally, instrumentality will increase if you are feeling that you just have additional
management on, however, why or once you can receive rewards.
Valance:
Valence is the importance you place on the expected outcome of your performance. This usually
depends on what your wants, goals, values and sources of motivation area unit.
Keep guarantees once giving incentives:
As a manager or supervisor, having a team that trusts you is important for work motivation. for
instance, if you promise your team cookies as a souvenir for exceptional their daily quotas,
fulfilling your promise will develop worker trust. it should conjointly inspire your team to reply
absolutely to future rewards or incentives, which can increase their overall productivity.
References
Lawler, E. E., & Suttle, J. (1973). Expectancy theory and job behavior. Organizational
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5073(73)90066-4
Singh, T., & Behera, M. P. (2016). Application of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need
Theory: Impacts and Implications on Employee’s Career Stages. Training &
Development Journal, 7(2), 43. https://doi.org/10.5958/2231-069x.2016.00007.x
Wabba, M. A., & House, R. J. (1974). Expectancy Theory in Work and Motivation:
Some Logical and Methodological Issues. Human Relations, 27(2), 121–147.
https://doi.org/10.1177/001872677402700202
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence.
Psychological Review, 66(5), 297–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040934
Zhang, R., & Lang, C. (2018). Application of Motivation-Opportunity-Ability Theory in
the Consumption of Eco-fashion Products: Were Chinese Consumers Underestimated?
Chinese Consumers and the Fashion Market, 119–141. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-
10-8429-4_6
McClelland, D. C. (1987). Human motivation. CUP Archive.