1.4.5 Motivation in Theory

Motivation in Theory

Key Definitions

Motivation: The way a business is able to encourage productivity and efficiency, and an overall good approach to work within their staff.

Scientific Management Theory: A management theory that claims money is the only reason people work and using money as the motivation to get people to work harder.

Human Relations Theory: A management theory that claims people desire to be a part of a supportive team that promotes development and growth in the workplace.

Hierarchy of Needs Theory: A motivational theory that claims there are 5 interdependent levels of basic human needs that need to be satisfied in a specific sequence in order to achieve the desired motivation. 

Two-Factor Theory: A theory that states there are two kinds of factors: factors that motivate and factors that can cause dissatisfaction (hygiene factors).

Hygiene Factors: Factors that could potentially demotivate workers, such as pay, working conditions, and social status.

Job Enrichment: Providing employees with more opportunities for work within the business by redesigning the job to make it more challenging.

Division of Labour: When a task is subdivided into a smaller number of activities enabling workers to specialize and become more efficient at their job. 

Job Satisfaction: The sense of well-being and achievement that stems from having and doing a satisfying job. 

Piece Rate: Paying workers a wage per product produced by the employee, such as £3 per pair of jeans made.

Productivity: A measure of efficiency that looks at the output per employee.

F. W. Taylor and Scientific Management Theory

Taylor is one of the earliest researchers into business motivation theories. He has a massive influence over the 20th century business world, with his writing and work still rooted in business practice in America, Europe, Japan and the former Communist countries. 

Taylor believed that people only work to earn money. He saw it as the task of the business manager to create a system that maximises efficiency, generating the profit needed to enable the worker to earn a higher wage. Taylor believed that people were only motivated by the economic motive of 'self-interest', so the best way a manager could motivate their staff would be to offer a 'carrot' (a financial incentive) and a 'stick' (a threat to the employee).This can make Taylor seem like a bully, but he believed he was operating for the good of his employees. 

Taylor's influence in the business world drew less from his theories but more from his activities and experience. His methods involved the following:

• Observe how his workers work; record and time what they do, when they do it and how long they take to do it (this became known as time and motion study)
  
• Identify the most efficient workers and see how they have worked to achieve their greater efficiency
  
• Break the task down into smaller 'component' parts so that it can be done quickly and repeatedly
  
• Devise the equipment used specifically so that tasks can be done quicker
  
• Set out exactly how the task should be done by the employee, so that the instructions are followed exactly whether they are right or wrong instructions
  
• Create a pay scheme to reward those who complete or beat any tough target outputs, but it penalizes those who cannot or will not achieve the set productivity

Taylor was interested in the practical outcomes of targets and goals, not the psychological part. Before Taylor became prevalent skilled workers chose their own way of working and they had varied, demanding jobs. After Taylor these workers were more likely to have limited repetitive tasks, and they would be forced to work at the pace set by the manager. One of these workers influenced by Taylor was Henry Ford, creator of the Model-T, the first mass-produced car in the world.

Elton Mayo and the Human Relations Theory

Mayo was influenced by the motivational methods of Taylor early in his career, and one of his mills in Pennsylvania had a department with a labour turnover of 250% compared to the 6% in the other departments of the mill. He moved on to work at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company, and his experiments there became known as the "Hawthorne Experiments". 

Between 1927 and 1932 Mayo conducted a series of tests and experiments at Hawthorne. The first of these was the 'Relay Assembly Test', in which a series of experiments were carried out on six volunteer female assembly staff who were separated from their workmates. The results were recorded and discussed with the women involved. Every 12 weeks a new working method was tried within the group, such as:

• Bonus methods, such as the individual versus group bonuses
• Rest periods
• Refreshments
• Work layouts

The new method was discussed fully with the operators before every change in working method was implemented. Every change brought increased productivity almost without exception. At the end of the experiment the women went back to normal and the productivity and output increased to its highest level - the women also claimed they were less tired than they felt at the start of the experiment. Due to some resistance from the operatives the experiments initially progressed rather slowly. Progress also slowed when one of the women retired, however she was quickly replaced by a younger woman who quickly became the unofficial leader of the group. 

Mayo's Conclusions

Mayo drew the following conclusions from his experiments at Hawthorne:

• The women gained more satisfaction from the freedom and control over their working environment
  
• Mayo: "What actually happened was that six individuals became a team and the team gave itself wholeheartedly and spontaneously to co-operation in the experiment"
  
• Group norms and expectations are crucial and may be influenced more by informal than official group leaders
  
• Communication between workers and managers influences employee morale and output significantly
  
• Workers are affected by the level of interest shown in the workers by their managers - the influence of this upon motivation is known as the 'Hawthorne Effect'

The consequences of Mayo's work were enormous. His experiments influenced many researchers and writers, effectively opening up the fields of industrial psychology and industrial sociology. Many academics followed Mayo's approach in what became known as the 'human relations school of management'. Businesses also responded to this, reasoning that they needed an organisational structure to cope. In Taylor's era the key person was the engineer, and the winners from Mayo's work were the personnel departments in the business - they grew throughout America and Britain during the 1930s as companies tried to achieve the Hawthorne Effect. 

Maslow and the Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow was an American psychologist who believed that everyone had the same needs, all of which could be organised strategically in a hierarchy. At the base of the hierarchy are the basic physical needs such as food, warmth and shelter. When left unsatisfied these become the primary motivators for a business, and when satisfied there are other things they desire, such as job security and job stability. The hierarchy can be seen below:

Interpretation:

Maslow’s Level of Human Need	What it Means for the Business
Physical Needs, e.g. food, shelter, warmth	Pay levels and working conditions
Safety Needs, e.g. security, a safe structured environment, stability, freedom of anxiety	Job security, a clear job role/description, clear lines of accountability (e.g. only one boss)
Social Needs, e.g. belonging, friendship, contact	Team working, communications, social facilities
Esteem Needs, e.g. strength, self-respect, confidence, status and recognition	Status, recognition for achievements, power, trust
Self-Actualisation, e.g. self-fulfilment: “To become everything that one is capable of becoming” claims Maslow	Scope to develop new skills and meet new challenges, and to develop one’s full potential

Ever since the theory was first put forward in 1940 the writers have argued about its implications and what it means. Among the key issues raised by Maslow with the Hierarchy of Needs are the following:

• Do all humans really have the same set of needs? Are there some people who just need a job to earn money?
  
• Do different people have different degrees of need?
  
• Can anyone's needs ever be fully satisfied?

Maslow's work had huge influences on the writers who followed him, especially Herzberg. The hierarchy is also used in other academic areas, such as Pyschology and Sociology.

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

Herzberg's theory is possibly the strongest motivational theory done so far, and it stems from research conducted into factors affecting worker's job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It was carried out on 200 accountants and engineers in Pennsylvania. Despite it being a limited sample, the conclusions drawn by Herzberg are still valid and influential today. 

Herzberg asked his employees to describe recent events that had given them exceptionally good feelings toward their jobs, and he then asked for reasons why. He found that there were 5 key factors that stood out as the strong determiners of job satisfaction:

• Achievement
• Recognition for these achievements
• The work itself
• Responsibility
• Opportunities for advancement

The last of these factors were determined as the most important for sustaining a lasting change in worker attitudes. He pointed out that these factors concerned the job itself, not the issue such as pay or work status. Herzberg called these 5 factors the 'motivators'.

Researchers then went on to ask about what would give the workers exceptionally bad feeling about their jobs, and he also asked them for reasons why. This showed that there were another 5 key factors that stood out as the strong determiners of job dissatisfaction:

• Company policy and administration
• Supervision
• Salary
• Interpersonal relations
• Working conditions

Herzberg concluded that the common theme for these factors was that they surrounded the job, instead of being the job. He called these the 'hygiene' factors because of the fact that if they were fulfilled they would prevent dissatisfaction, in the similar way that good hygiene would prevent disease. Preventing dissatisfaction is not the same as to increase satisfaction.

So basically, motivators have the power to create job satisfaction, and hygiene factors have the power to reduce job disatisfaction. It is important to note that Herzberg saw pay as a hygiene factor, not a motivator, as not enough pay can be seen as a grievance, but high pay can be taken for granted in the future. 

Movement and Motivation

Herzberg was keen to emphasize the difference between movement and motivation. Movement is when someone in the business does something. Motivation is when someone wants to do something but hasn't done it yet. This distinction is essential to understanding Herzberg's theory. 

He had no doubts that financial incentives could be used to boost internal productivity, but his worries about the use of 'bribes' was that they would never stimulate people to work their hardest and do their best in work - people would just do enough for the bonus. Another problem would be the fact that bribing people to work harder at something they didn't want to do would just build up resentments inside the business and backfire against the employer.

Herzberg advised against the use of piece rates as they would achieve movement in the business, but by reinforcing worker behaviour it would make them inflexible and more resistant to change. The salaried, motivated employee would work harder, care more about quality and think about improving working methods - potentially to the point where they welcome and embrace change. 

Job Enrichment

Herzberg's work had such an impact on businesses because he didn't only analyse the motivation, but he also came up with a method for improving it. He developed job enrichment, which involved giving the people the opportunity to improve their skills and use their ability to better their work. He suggested that, for the job to be more enriched, it would have to contain the following:

1. A complete unit of work

People need to work on more than just a small repetitive job, they need to work on a more challenging task. 

2. Direct feedback

Wherever possible a job should enable the worker to immediately judge the quality of the work they have done. Direct feedback would give the worker the satisfaction of knowing exactly how well they performed. 

3. Direct communication

This helps people feel committed and in control of their work as they are able to communicate directly, instead of via a supervisor or a 'contact person'. 

Herzberg's Conclusion

Herzberg's original research has been followed up in many different countries all over the world including Russia and Japan. His main insight was to show that, unless the job was in itself interesting, there was no way that a job could be made satisfying, and he did this successfully. Companies such as Volvo and Toyota switched the way their factories were laid out - instead of having individual workers doing simple repetitive tasks, they would provide more complete units of work. The workers would be grouped into teams, focusing on significant parts of the manufacturing process.