Theories of Motivation and their Application in Modern Workplace Essay

This essay delves into the core concepts of motivation theories and their practical applications within the contemporary workplace. It begins with an introduction to motivation, differentiating between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and emphasizing its importance for organizational success. The essay then explores several prominent theories, including Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Theory X and Y, and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, providing detailed explanations and real-world examples, such as how companies like Tesco utilize these theories to enhance employee motivation. The essay also highlights the significance of motivation for overall organizational performance, concluding that the appropriate application of motivational theories is crucial for fostering a productive and engaged workforce, ultimately contributing to the achievement of business objectives.

Individual Essay
(Theories of motivation and their
application in Modern Workplace)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
THEORY OF MOTIVATION.........................................................................................................3
Maslow’s need of Hierarchy theory.......................................................................................3
Theory of X and Y..................................................................................................................4
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory Model....................................................................................5
Importance of Motivation.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Motivation is a procedure that provides guidance, takes initiative and maintains goals-
oriented behaviours. Motivation helps in activating the behaviour of an individual by including
emotional, cognitive, social and biological forces. It is considered as internal process through
which an individual needs a desire that change either in environment or self (Rita and et. al.,
2018). The person needs motivation either for sustaining life or increasing well being and
growth. Generally, motivation is of two types they are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic
motivation. The Extrinsic motivation are those which arises from outside of workers and include
rewards such as praise, social recognition and money whereas intrinsic motivation is those which
are inside the individual for example hobbies as people like to pursue them. Motivating
employees is very important in an organisation as they are the key for success (Ritala, Vanhala
and Järveläinen, 2020). If an employee is motivated, they will give productive outcomes and
contribute their best in achieving goals and objective of Company. The Essay is based on theory
of motivation and how they are applied in modern workplace.
THEORY OF MOTIVATION
The Theory of motivation is an understanding of what drives an individual to work towards
a particular outcome or goals. The Employee who is motivated gives their more productive and
the productive person is more profitable for Company. There are various motivation theories
which include Maslow’s Hierarchy theory, Theory of X and Y, Herzberg two factor theory,
Vroom Expectancy Theory, McClelland’s Need Theory and many other theories. Following are
the discussion of some of the prominent theories:
Maslow’s need of Hierarchy theory
It is one of the known theories of motivation which is based on human needs. The
Hierarchy theory states that humans are motivated to fulfil their wants and needs in a hierarchical
order. The order starts with most basic need before moving on to more advanced needs. The
Goal of this theory is to reach the last stage of hierarchy which is self actualisation (Yashin and
et. al., 2018). There are five stages in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs; he believes that an
individual must needed to completely satisfy their one stage to begin pursuing further stage. The
theory contains five stages they are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongings need,
esteem needs and Self actualisation needs. The Physiological need is on lowest pyramid of

Maslow’s hierarchy needs which includes water, breathing, shelter, clothing, food and
reproduction. Maslow states that these needs must be fulfilled before people goes for next level
of fulfilment. The other need is safety need it is including protection from theft and violence,
health security, financial security and well being in Organisation and Society. The Third level of
Maslow’s Hierarchy need is love and belongings need which includes love acceptance and
belongings. The Esteem need is for appreciation and respect after fulfilling the above three
levels, the esteem needs play an important role in motivating behaviour (Babaeinesami, 2019).
Ref:
For example company like Tesco uses Maslow hierarchy theory for motivating their
employees they fulfil physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualisation needs. They
accomplish the basic need of staff members by providing them safe working environment,
cleaning facilities and airflow as company wants to make their employees feel comfortable and
they are working in improving the health and well being of people in their workplace. Tesco also
treat their staff members with respect and allow them to take risk and they even not criticized or
humiliate their workers. Tesco also gives everyone an opportunity to be heard, they create a
sense of community which fulfils the belongings need. Tesco organises employee recognition
program for their people so that they can appreciate the performance of staff members, company
also make their worker feel valued and important which fulfils their Esteem need (Nasif, 2020).
The Organisation also gives an opportunity to their employees to think big, to have a vision for
future and creative that helps in making self actualisation need accomplish.
Theory of X and Y
Theory of X and Y is a theory of human management and work motivation. The theory was
proposed by Douglas McGregor, he develop two theories by which company address and

perceive employee motivation. The theory X determines that staff members are naturally
unmotivated and do not want to work, it is based on assumption regarding typical worker. The
typical working style disfavour working, abstain responsibility and have little ambition. Theory
Y determines that employee is internally motivated, work to better themselves and enjoy their
job. The Manager considers the employees as an important and asset (Barashev and Li, 2019).
For Example, Tesco understand that workers need motivation in their day to day lives. They
know what breaks or moves the person; the lazy or non motivated staff must be given equal tasks
as that of theory Y. The theory X employees must work with people of theory Y so that they can
also work like Theory Y workers and feel encouraged while working. The company also
motivates Theory X people by praising them for the little efforts when they put (Marzani, Soyez
and Spannowsky, 2019).
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory Model
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory Model is also known as two factor theories and argues that
there are mainly tow factors which Company can adjust to influence motivation in Workplace.
The two factors are Motivating factors and Hygiene Factors, the presence of motivating factors
makes employee work hard and they found within the actual job only (Guillen Guiral, 2018). If
there is an absence of hygiene factor it will create an impact on employees, they work less hard.
Hygiene factors include pay, fringe benefits, status, interpersonal relations, etc.
For example, Tesco also apply Herzberg’s Theory in their Workplace they remove the
hygiene factors first and focus on motivation and Job enrichment. They firstly identify any
demotivating factors and remove them so that work can be effectively and efficiently done. The
factors can be low compensation, bad company policies, poor working condition or mixture of
these things. Then they focus on the things which can increase the quality of jobs and employees
working experience. The leaders come with various ways through which they can motivate their
workers so that they can give productive outcomes. The managers of Tesco also talk to staff
members and team member personally and take feedback from them so that they can fulfil the
needs and requirement of Workers.
Importance of Motivation
For any organisation motivation is important part for managing and inspiring employees and
improves their efficiencies. It is the responsibility of Company to motivate their staff members
so that they can give their best efforts in achieving goals and objectives. With the help of

motivation they can transform worker’s knowledge and talents into actual performance. The
person who is demotivated with their work can affect the overall performance and efficiency of
Organisation. The best way to motivate employees is to fulfil their needs and requirements and
ensure that they remain happy with their work. Through Motivation process worker’s
productivity can be increased and their morale level also get boost.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being concluded that motivational theories are important
for any organisation and it must be applied appropriately. As the motivational theories helps in
motivating employees and make them to give their best in Company. If Staff members are
motivated, they contribute their productive in achieving the target of business. If employees are
unmotivated, they feel lazy while working which also create an impact on their performance and
they can’t contribute their best in achieving goals and objectives of Organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Rita, M and et. al., 2018. Moderating effect of organizational citizenship behavior on the effect
of organizational commitment, transformational leadership and work motivation on
employee performance. International Journal of Law and Management.
Ritala, P., Vanhala, M. and Järveläinen, K., 2020. The Role Of Employee Incentives And
Motivation On Organisational Innovativeness In Different Organisational
Cultures. International Journal of Innovation Management, 24(04), p.2050075.
Yashin, S. N and et. al., 2018, April. Contradictions in the Motivation of Top Managers of
Corporation by the Method of Economic Added Value. In International Conference
Project “The future of the Global Financial System: Downfall of Harmony” (pp. 114-
125). Springer, Cham.
Babaeinesami, A., 2019. The investigation of effective factors on employee motivation: a case
study. EuroMed Journal of Management, 3(2), pp.155-169.
Nasif, S., 2020. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Guillen Guiral, B., 2018. Motivating companies and motivated employees? An analysis of
motivation in the workplace.
Barashev, A. and Li, G., 2019, January. Dissatisfaction on crowdsourcing platform: two-factor
theory approach. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on E-Education, E-
Business, E-Management and E-Learning (pp. 315-319).
Marzani, S., Soyez, G. and Spannowsky, M., 2019. Introduction and Motivation. In Looking Inside
Jets (pp. 1-6). Springer, Cham.