Motivation Assignment: Preprint
Motivation Assignment: Preprint
Motivation Assignment: Preprint
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Motivation Assignment
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Andria Biggs
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Being a more mature student, I have had plenty of opportunities to witness many
different types of motivation in my career. I have received and rewarded many different types of
motivators, throughout a myriad of situations. I have found that, much like leadership styles,
there is not necessarily a “right” or “wrong” motivational theory. Rather there are many
different motivation techniques and tools whose use and effectiveness are highly situational.
The effectiveness of motivation techniques can be dependent on many factors such as the
type of organization or job purpose, what goal the motivation technique intends to accomplish,
the person who is receiving the motivator, and the person who is offering it. Other
administrative factors, such as budget, equity, and human resources can also have a bearing on
So let’s look closer at some of the different motivation theories, examples, why, and
under what circumstances they are effective. First, we’ll start with one of the forefathers of
motivation theory, Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow 1943). While
Maslow’s Need Theory contains broad categories and assumes the fulfillment of one need at a
time, it nonetheless still bears out in its basic theory even today.
Maslow’s first need is Physiological, the need for food, water, and shelter. People are
motivated because they have to survive. They go to work to pay their bills. The very basis of
this need could be addressed by ensuring the organization pays a living wage. There isn’t a need
for an excessively high wage at this stage as the need is only concerned with providing basic
living conditions. There are, however, other ways to utilize Maslow’s first need motivation other
than money. For example, one motivator that I have learned is very valuable to help sustain this
lower order need, is food. Think, when the company has a luncheon, snacks, donuts in the break
room, employees always show up and usually in a good mood. Food is such a primary
sustainability need, that the receiving of it brings a sense of comfort and happiness to the
receiver.
While Maslow doesn’t allow for concurrent need fulfillment, you can see how this simple
act can also provide some measure of Maslow’s middle-order fulfillment, Safety, as well. Yes,
food can also represent safety. Sadly, we are all familiar with the term “food insecurity”. When
an employee knows that if they forgot their breakfast, or cannot afford one, that they will be able
to fulfill that primary need at the workplace, it makes them feel safe in that environment.
Let’s also look at how this same simple motivator can even go a step higher to Maslow’s
third order of need, Love. In the organizational setting, it can better be described as socialization
and acceptance. When employees gather for a luncheon, celebration, or event they are able to
interact in a more relaxed environment and enjoy socialization. While food is not the answer to
everything, it will not, for example, fulfill Maslow’s higher-order needs of Esteem or
Actualization, it is amazing how such a small motivator can sometimes accomplish so much.
In fact, we can also illustrate food as a motivator in Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
(Herzberg 1959). Herzberg opined that job motivation theory can be sorted into one of two
different categories; Hygiene and Motivation (Herzberg 1959). Hygiene factors cover the basic
needs of employment; salary, job security, benefits, and working conditions. Motivation factors
cover the higher-order needs; achievement, opportunity, recognition. Similar to our Maslow
comparison, food does not fulfill any higher-order need, but it can contribute to several lower-
order Hygiene factors such as working conditions and even perceived benefits.
Its also not focused on performance, but rather quality of life. Most of us can agree that,
important factor with workers. This simple, and fairly inexpensive, perk can contribute to that
motivator in most cases is a fixed-interval reward and is often based on performance measures.
What theory of motivation would this fall under? Well, the obvious choice might be Vroom’s
Expectancy Theory (Vroom 1964). Employees believe that their effort will lead to higher
performance, that their performance will lead to rewards, and that the reward is desirable.
While a motivator such as we’ve discussed is firmly rooted in Expectancy Theory, there are
ways to incorporate other motivational techniques that will increase even broader program
effectiveness.
employees are aware of the bonus percentages each position is paid and that all levels of
employee bonuses from line-floor employees to executives, seem equitable to the referent
(Adams 1963). We can even take the idea of equity a step further and introduce a tool of the
theory of Procedural Justice (Rawls 1971). The organization can ensure the decision-making
process for performance evaluation is fair by ensuring that the auditors of the performance
(usually the employees’ direct supervisor) are fair-minded and by negating some of the inherent
bias using formal performance grading methods and tools, such as numerically awarded
performance surveys.
Last, let’s take a closer look at positive behavior and how to reinforce it. Ivan Pavlov, the
forefather of reinforcement theory and his dogs were the first to illustrate that positive
reinforcement would trigger a conditioned response, giving rise to the notion of Behavioral
Conditioning (Pavlov 1902). Later, B.F. Skinner would further develop this idea into the four
types of Operant Conditioning (Skinner 1938). We have used some fairly simple and basic types
of motivational examples throughout this discussion, so let’s continue in that vein. Take for
instance, how an employee may react if when they submit a stellar report for the organization,
they were given ten or twenty dollars right there on the spot.
I have personally seen spot bonuses have an immediate effect on an employee’s need for
self-esteem and self-actualization (Maslow 1943). The employee feels valued for both the
recognition and for their own creativity and problem-solving skills. And while the reinforcement
of this motivator is a variable rate, both unexpected and unpredictable, it is effective in that
employees would often present more consistent excellence in their work in hopes of receiving
the “surprise” bonus. Let’s also note here, however, that the type of “spot bonus” matters. It is
not necessarily a good idea to walk around on the production floor or office handing twenty
dollar bills out to employees, and in fact, using cash can actually have a less effective impact.
A better system of rewards for this type of small, sporadic motivator, might be the use of
gift cards or gift certificates. For example, using gift cards to restaurants, coffee houses,
relaxation spas, or book stores instead of cash is still monetarily linked but has the advantage of
introducing a personal aspect to the positive reinforcement (Skinner 1938). This has the added
let’s say, they give each manager five twenty dollar gift cards a month to distribute as spot
bonuses, then they can predict the cost of the spontaneous rewards system at one hundred dollars
motivation in practice can take on many forms and multiple uses. The motivators exampled in
this discussion are fairly simple and inexpensive, but the motivators can range widely in
complexity, type, and expense. The most important measurements of a motivational technique or
tool are its effectiveness with the audience it intends to motivate, its equity, and its fulfillment of
its purpose.
References:
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. (1959). The motivation to work (2nd ed.). Oxford,
England: John Wiley.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Rawls, John, 1921-2002. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass. :Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press,
Pavlov, I. (1902)
Rehman I, Mahabadi N, Rehman CI. Classical Conditioning. [Updated 2019 Jun 18]. In:
StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2019 Jan-. Available from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National
Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).