MOTIVATION

MOTIVATION: comes from the Latin word movere which means to move. Over the years, many theories have surged to try to explain what encourages people to move and much effort has been destined to the motivation of employees within organization given that motivation and performance are deeply related. International employee motivational theories can be divided in two groups:

  - CONTENT THEORIES: focus on specific elements that motivate the employees and that deal with their need and wants.

      The most influent theory is MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS which classifies people’s need in Physiological-Security and safety-Social -Self esteem-Self actualization. When an inferior rank need is satisfied the next level need becomes dominant and it becomes the most important motivational factor.

Source: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Abraham Maslow: http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp

      Alderferer developed de ERG THEORY, which in opposition to Maslow’s hierarchy stated that the classification wasn’t progressive and that all the needs had to be accomplished at the same time.

<!   FREDERICK HERZBERG’S TWO FACTORS THEORY: The theory considers that motivation and the increase of work performance can only be obtained through the action of the motivational factors, while the contextual factors only represent necessary conditions of the workplace. 

<!   THEORY X AND THEORY Y (DOUGLAS McGREGOR): Separates employees in two categories. Theory X: employees that must be forced and penalized in order to receive the expected performance. Theory Y: perceive effort at work at something natural and don’t have to be pushed because obtains motivation by the content of his work. 

Source: Las 8 teorías más importantes sobre la motivación . (2009, July 6). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Pensamiento Imaginactivo: http://manuelgross.bligoo.com/content/view/554740/Las-8-teorias-mas-importantes-sobre-la-motivacion.html

   - PROCESS THEORIES: focus on the psychological forces that affect motivation. These are more useful to managers because they offer more realistic principles on motivation techniques.

<!   THE EXPECTANCY THEORY: motivation is only possible when there is a clear relation btw the work performance and its results, and between the results and an unsatisfied need.

<!   THE GOAL SETTING THEORY (LOTHAM and LOCKE): motivation and performance is higher when employees participate in goal setting and when there are specific objectives that even if difficult are accepted and receive feedback.

<!   THE EQUITY THEORY: refers to people’s perception on the way they are treated in comparison with others.

<!   THORY OF GROUP PERSONALITY AND GROUP NEEDS: ADAIR developed the idea that working groups resemble individuals in that even if they are unique, they also have common needs. He identified three areas of needs that interact and influence one another: Task, team and individual.

<!   Adair also developed THE FIFTY –FIFTY RULE which implies that an important part of motivation lays within a person, but that there is also a substantial that they can’t control.

     Ed Muzio, president and CEO of Group Harmonics explains six drivers of motivation within organizations and makes emphasis on the importance of motivation in improving communication and trust between employees. The reason I include this in my blog is that in my opinion motivation is everything but a well-defined managerial area given that it allows as much diversity as there can be. Even of Ed Muzio is not a recognized theorist, the six factors he mentions (trust, results, power, assistance, form, structure) gives a clear vision of how motivation may work.

Source: Six Hidden Factors of Motivation. (2010, August 8). Retrieved March 2, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ_VuA_noYk

 DISCUSSION: What is the role of culture in all this motivation theories?

As it was said before, throughout the years many theories have surged to try to explain how employees found themselves motivated and have a better performance within organizations, but globalization is posing bigger challenges to managers around the world in the task of motivating employees given that most of the well known theories fail to adapt themselves to a multicultural environment in today’s international business scenario. This assumption takes into account that no motivation strategy works for all individuals, not even those belonging to the same culture. In this way, managers are finding harder to motivate groups of employees from different backgrounds, this meaning that they belong to different cultures, have a different history, and come from different economic and political systems in their home country. In this context, cross-cultural management appears as an alternative to adapt traditional theories to nowadays cross-cultural business scenario.

When I think about motivation Nelson Mandela and Clint Eastwood’s film Invictus jump into my head. For those who haven’t seen it, it is about a South African man who spent many years in jail and afterwards became president of his racially and economically divided country, called his people to unity and succeeded. Watch the official trailer to see how he fulfilled this epic task. 

Source: Invictus Official Trailer HD. (2010, July 7). Retrieved March 2, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gfROs1ZtsA