Work Motivation: What Are The Theories?

Work motivation has been a major concern for years, yet now that the main body of the work force is shrinking due to baby boomers retiring soon, it is even more important for employers to turn to motivation theory in order to increase productivity and a sense of well-being for their employees. A theory can be applied to any group of people, yet most theories are written for a general population and don't take into account individual differences in their emotional makeup or their intellectual capacities.

One of the oldest workplace motivational theories around is one that was developed by Sigmund Freud. This theory basically states that humans are weak and lazy and will do anything to avoid work. While we know now that this generalization is only applicable to some individuals, it has its uses in acknowledging that some people need to be motivated to work, through rewards and bribes. A basic motivation technique following this theory would be to offer extra payment for extra work. Workers need to get something in order to be productive.

Douglas McGregor offered the complete opposite theory regarding work motivation. He believed that it was the satisfaction of a job well done that drove people forward, and that the payment and reward of completing duties was purely secondary. This motivation theory suffers from the same problems as the previous theory, in that it is too general to apply to everyone. It is true that some people can be self motivated to do more at work in order to gain satisfaction from completing tasks, but a lot of people need more than that in order to go the extra mile at work.

This brings us to a work motivation hypothesis that covers a bit of both the theories previously mentioned. This is the famous theory by Abraham Maslow that covers the hierarchy of needs of a person. With this theory, a person's basic needs have to be met in order to move on to the next stage, and so on. This means that things like safety and security must be met well before you start addressing esteem needs. Managers who use this theory need to make sure they are operating at the right stage for their employees.

Work motivation theories can be useful for managers to make decisions on how to address things like morale and performance. In order to use these theories appropriately, a good manager will consider which motivation techniques are the best fit for their team. Ideally, each employee will be assessed and then it will be determined whether they are the kind of person who is motivated by payment, whether they are self motivated to achieve satisfaction through tasks, or whether they need to have certain needs addressed first before trying other techniques.

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