Motivation: Exploring Content Theories and Management Implications

This report delves into the realm of motivation, focusing on content theories within a management context. It begins by differentiating between content and process theories, highlighting the advantages of need-based approaches. The report then examines the framework of motivation theories, providing insights into their conceptualization and origins. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is analyzed in detail, addressing its levels and criticisms. Following this, Herzberg's theory of motivation, which distinguishes between hygiene and motivator factors, is discussed, along with practical applications for organizations. McGregor's Theory X and Y, which classifies employees based on managerial perceptions, is also explored. Finally, the report considers the criticisms of behavioral science research, particularly in light of Hofstede's work on cultural dimensions, examining how societal norms and culture influence human behavior. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the different theories of motivation, providing valuable insights for managers and organizations aiming to enhance employee motivation and productivity.

Running Head: Motivation- Content Theories
Motivation: Content Theories
Content Theories

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Management Summary: Motivation is the urge behind an individual’s actions, desires &
needs. It is what causes an individual to get up with strength every day and deliver what is
expected out of him, or even exceed the expectations. Motivation is a very generic concept
which is used in every sphere of life, may be it personal or professional. Motivation is a need,
rather than being just a concept (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015)
In this report, we will be discussing about different theories of motivation. Starting with how
content theory is different than process theory. We will understand the advantages of need
based theory over process theories and in the process, also see certain real life examples
proving the claims of the theories in discussion. Moving forward, framework of motivation
theories will be studied, which will provide a detailed insight on the conceptualization, origin
and understanding of the theories.
Maslow’s theory, which is a hierarchical need based theory will be discussed at length,
identifying what are the levels of motivation of an employee and how an individual sitting at
one level of need can attain the higher level of need (Botana & Neto, 2015). Maslow’s theory
had faced a lot of criticism in the past, related to its existence and lack of evidence to prove
the theory, the same will studied in the first half of the report.
Moving forward, Herzberg theory of motivation, which says that there are motivation and
hygiene factors behind the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of employees, will be discussed in
detail. Also, we will understand what organisation and managers can do in order to turn
hygiene factors into motivators in order to make the working environment plea2sant and
comfortable for the employee. (Miner, 2015)Another famous and relevant theory,
propounded by McGregor will be discussed in detail, moving carefully from the theory X and
theory y, which differentiates employees based on the perception of mangers, will be studied
in length. (Lawter, Kopelman & Prottas, 2015) At last, the report will focus on the criticism
of behavioural science research under the light of Hofstede’s work of cultural dimension,
here we will see, how society, norms and culture shapes and changes human behaviour.

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Table of Content:
Introduction................................................................................................................................5
Motivation Theories: The building Block..................................................................................6
Content Theory.......................................................................................................................6
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.......................................................................................6
 Herzberg Motivation theory........................................................................................7
 Alderfer’s ERG theory................................................................................................7
 McClelland’s Needs theory.........................................................................................7
Process Theory.......................................................................................................................7
 Reinforcement Theory.................................................................................................7
 Vroom’s expectancy theory.........................................................................................7
 Adam’s equity theory..................................................................................................8
 Locke’s Goal setting theory.........................................................................................8
Process Theories V/s Content Theories..................................................................................8
Maslow’s Theory.......................................................................................................................8
Physiological Needs...............................................................................................................9
Safety Needs...........................................................................................................................9
Love/Belonging/Social needs...............................................................................................10
Self-esteem needs.................................................................................................................10
Self –Actualization needs.....................................................................................................10

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Maslow’s Theory Criticism......................................................................................................11
Lack of hierarchical structure of needs................................................................................11
Lack of causality...................................................................................................................11
Need & satisfaction of needs is a psychology feeling..........................................................11
Absence of hierarchy of needs.............................................................................................12
Testing of the theory.............................................................................................................12
The hierarchy is situational..................................................................................................12
Needs other than stated in Maslow theory...........................................................................12
Herzberg Theory......................................................................................................................12
Hygiene Factors....................................................................................................................13
Motivator factors..................................................................................................................13
Application of the theory......................................................................................................14
Eliminate Job Dissatisfaction............................................................................................14
Create condition for job satisfaction.................................................................................14
Job enlargement................................................................................................................14
Job enrichment..................................................................................................................14
Empowerment...................................................................................................................14
Criticism of Herzberg theory...................................................................................................15
Detractors of the theory........................................................................................................15
Job satisfaction & Productivity............................................................................................15
Outliers/Indistinct personalities............................................................................................15

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Motivators and hygiene factors being independent..............................................................15
McGregor Theory.....................................................................................................................15
Theory X...............................................................................................................................16
Y-Theory..............................................................................................................................16
Criticism of behaviourism theory in light of Hofstede’s work:...............................................17
Failure to demonstrate adequate generalization in human behaviour..................................17
Inability to explain the development of human language....................................................17
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
References:...............................................................................................................................19

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Introduction: Motivation is a term which is coined from the word “motive”, meaning need,
wants, desires or something that drives an individual. In context of management, motivation
can be understood as a tool which the employers/managers use to derive productivity out of
their employees. Since the conceptualization of human organization, thinkers have been
scratching their head to understand the answer to the question, what motivates people? A lot
of thinkers, subject matter experts and management guru’s came up with different theories,
which answers the baffling question, what motivates people!! (Reeve, 2014)
Thus coming to the topic of this report writing, here we will discuss, the different schools of
management thinking, develop an understanding of content & process theory. Gaining an
insight into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and analyse some of the criticism the theory
faced. Moving forward we will also read about the famous Hertzberg theory and understand
what are the factors that satisfy an employee and keep him motivated and what are the factor
of dissatisfaction or the hygiene factors, cumulatively how an organisation takes care of its
motivating and hygiene factors to keep its employee motivated. Every theory has some
criticism attached to it, similar is the case with Hertzberg, further in the report, we will
analyse the flak this theory received. In the later stage we will touch upon McGregor theory
of X & Y, which is an extension to Maslow’s hierarchy level of needs, its criticism, its
adoption & its relevance in the present context. In the end, we will see how Hofstede’s theory
of cultural dimension can be used to explain and draw criticism to behavioural sciences.

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Motivation Theories: The building Block
As explained above, a lot of theories were propounded since the evolution of human
organisation. The figure above shows the tree of motivation theories. All the theories fall into
the branches of content & process theories. Let’s study content & process theory in length,
their differences and what criticism has reduced some of the process theories to content
theories (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2013)
Content Theory: Content theory can be understood as “what” motivates people to
individual needs which leads to their goals. They help in understanding the employee needs
for job satisfaction, it helps to understand “what” is required by an employee to feel
motivated, to feel energized and push himself up every day, a step closer to his goals. It
focuses on the internal factors of the employees that energize and direct his behaviour
towards his goals. It can also be called as need theory, as it focuses on the individual needs of
an employee. (Shafritz, Ott & Jang, 2015) This is one of the earliest theories to be rolled out,
in organization it has a great impact, but in academic circles, they don’t have too much
relevancy, as some of the theories are difficult to prove. Content theories are further
categorized into:
Motivation
theories
Content
Maslow Need
Hierarchy
Herzberg’s
Motivation-
Hygiene Theory
McClelland's
Theory
Alderfer’s ERG
Theory
Process
Vroom’s
Expectancy
Theory
Adam’s Equity
Theory
Goal Setting
Theory
Reinforcement
Theory

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 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs- It ranges needs from a higher to lower level, starting
from basic needs to self-actualization needs. It is a need based hierarchy theory.
 Herzberg Motivation theory: This theory deals with satisfaction and dissatisfaction
factors related to working of an employee, calling them as motivation & hygiene
factors.
 Alderfer’s ERG theory: This is a theory in psychology; it further laid the steeping
stones for development of Maslow’s need hierarchy theory. ERG (Existence,
relatedness & growth) theory is concerned with satisfaction of human’s basic need for
his existence, relatedness & growth (Lazaroiu, 2015)
 McClelland’s Needs theory: It is also popularly called as acquired need theory, it
states that an individual acquires a set of needs through his life experiences, which
falls in the category of need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation
(Locke, 2015).
Here it can be established that the content theories focus on an individual’s need, his desires
and wants, which motivates him to excel and keep moving forward every day. By focussing
on individual needs of employee managers tend to keep them motivated and thus in turn
extract productivity from them (Antonakis & House, 2013)
Process Theory: Unlike the content theories which say “What” motivates individual,
process theories says “How” the human behaviour is motivated. The theory is concerned with
“how” the process of motivation occurs and what process can influence the motivation. For
management implication, this can be understood as: How people make choices to work hard
or not and these choices are based on their, individual preferences, available rewards &
possible work outcomes. Understanding what motivates an individual is really important,
only once we have got the clarity of the motivation process in general, then we can go about
motivating an employee(Nuttin, 2014) There are number of theories of motivation. Let’s see
them in brief:
 Reinforcement Theory: The theory is loosely based on the assumption that
behaviour of an individual is governed by its consequences, called as operant; hence
this theory can also be called as operant conditioning. Punishment, positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement and extinction are some of the factors
governing this theory (Carr & Mutinelli, 2017)

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 Vroom’s expectancy theory: Vroom suggested that the individual performance is
based on knowledge, experience, skills and ability to work. The three factors
responsible are, Expectancy, Instrumentality & valence (Pariat & Bagga, 2014)
 Adam’s equity theory: This theory states that, employee feel motivated if they are
treated equitably and receive what they consider is fair for their effort and cost. This
theory is based on social exchange theory ( Pepper & Gore, 2015)
 Locke’s Goal setting theory- This theory states that setting specific, work oriented
goals, challenging performance and commitment to those goals are some of the key
determinant of motivation (Pervin , 2015)
Therefore, the objectivity of the process theories can be understood by simply saying that
understanding how human behaviour is motivated. Once we have assessed, how to motivate a
human behaviour, we can go around with the different theories to motivate him towards his
goals.
Process Theories V/s Content Theories:
Process Theories Content Theories
This theory reflect the psychological
processes that affects the productivity of
the employees
It focuses on the changing needs of an
individual
It answers the question, how a behaviour
of human can be motivated
It answers the question “what” is needed by
an individual to be motivated
It includes, Reinforcement, Expectancy &
goal setting as pillars to process theory
It includes Maslow’s theory, Herzberg &
McCledden theory
This theory underlines the effect of
behavioural patterns in fulfilling the
expectation of an individual
It outlines the reason for motivating an
individual
Maslow’s Theory:

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Maslow’s theory is a content theory which focuses on the needs of human for motivation. He
has brilliantly come up with this theory, where in, all the needs of a human being are
arranged in hierarchical order, starting from the lower level needs to higher level of needs.
Maslow suggested that everyone has certain needs, and certain needs require higher level of
pursuance is comparison to others, hence the hierarchy. Maslow was right in the saying that
motivation is person’s attempt at fulfilling his five needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem
& self-actualization (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014). Let’s see what each of these needs
symbolize in the real world:
Physiological Needs: These are some of the basic needs of an individual, food, water,
breathing, sex, place to stay; these are some of the very trivial needs of any human being for
existence. These needs are recurring in nature, and it is that once these physiological needs
are fulfilled he can go about thinking of higher level needs. In management context, these
needs can be met by providing an employee with salary, incentives, breaks during work,
reasonable work hours etc. After the physiological needs are fulfilled, an individual moves up
in the hierarchy (Taormina & Gao, 2013)
Safety Needs: The second ladder in hierarchy of needs is safety needs, once the basic or
physiological needs of a human are done; he sets a foot forward in the future. The next
baffling question clouding is head is, what about the future, what will he do in the future,

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food and clothing, creating an asset for himself , how to keep his basic needs be satisfied. He
must have safety in old age too; he must be prevented from uncertainties in life, hence come
the safety needs. Pension plans, gratuity etc. can be used by management to take care of his
safety needs (Maslow, 2013). Some example how management can take care of an
employee’s safety needs be:
 Economic: monthly income, salaries & other monetary benefits
 Psychological: Providing job descriptions, avoiding abrupt changes, solve
employee’s problem
 Physical: Working environment, rest periods, proper working hours.
Love/Belonging/Social needs: This is the third ladder in Maslow’s hierarchy theory, a
human by nature, needs to have a sense of belonging, he wants to feel loved and accepted in
the society. He does not want to feel isolated and get into depression. Friendship, family &
intimacy all work in satisfying the social needs. When these needs become dominant, a
human strive for meaningful relationship with other people. Hence, in many organisations,
there are a lot of informal group, whose only purpose is to help the employees not feel
boredom and feel sad (Germak & Robinson, 2014). Management can further help an
employee with his social needs by:
 Encouraging social interaction: Create a team spirit, periodically praising,
team activities
Self-esteem needs: After getting a sense of belongingness, an individual gradually moves
forward to other need which is esteem needs, he wants people to recognize him and his
worth. An employee stays in the company not because of just the salary and material benefits
but also if he is thought of as worthy of his job and being continually praised for his work
(Orenstein, 2013). This need manifests an individual in 3 forms:
 The need for status
 The need for power
 The need for recognition
Self –Actualization needs: This is the highest level of human need, which is concerned
about the desire to develop and realize one’s full potential; it is about becoming everything
one can be in their lives. A human concentrates on the feedback received from his manager

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related to work, and he sets to improve on his flaws to achieve the goals. Hence, people are
always not satisfied by basic safety and money, they also focus on what they want to be in
life, utilize their potential to the fullest. Self-actualization can be fed into an individual in an
organisation by providing appropriate trainings & encouraging creativity (Krems, Kenrick &
Neel, 2017)
Hence, it can be said that Maslow’s need theory gives a good understanding of human needs
for motivation. The credibility of Maslow theory can be owed to its simplistic language and
understanding of the same for managers. The theory is dynamic in nature, provided the
reason that motivation is a changing forces which changes from level to level. It gives
organisation a great insight on what needs motivates an individual at a level and how the
management can use the same in their advantage and motivate the employee and increase his
productivity (Jerome, 2013)
Maslow’s Theory Criticism:
Maslow’s hierarchy theory is one of the most popular models in leadership, because of its
simple writing, easy understanding and relevancy in today’s modern world. Despite this fact,
the theory has faced a lot of criticism, some of the points of criticism can be mentioned as:
Lack of hierarchical structure of needs: A lot of researchers have actually proved that there
is a lack of hierarchical structure of needs which is stated by Maslow, every individual
though has certain needs, but it’s not necessarily, always climbing the ladder up , for some
people self-actualization needs are more relevant & important then have basic needs. Famous
example of this is Mahatma Gandhi; he deprived himself of his basic needs for attaining self-
actualization, similarly, for some, self-esteem means much more than safety & basic needs.
Therefore, the structure of needs is predominantly not applicable to all and it a situational
concept (Kaur, 2013)
Lack of causality: It states that a need is a result of certain behaviour in an individual, but at
the same time no such claim can be proved with much effectiveness, and hence the causality
relation fails, giving critics a chance to pan down the theory.
Need & satisfaction of needs is a psychology feeling: There have been instances in
abundance, where an individual is completely unaware of his own needs, and hence the
satisfaction of the same is not possible. At the same time, he is thinking only of the self-