Maslow's Theory Of Motivation And Employees In The Workplace

An unmotivated employer at the workplace is likely to show low productivity, lack of effort to complete a task and desire to leave the job, whereas, a motivated employee will likely to be more productive, creative, and persistent with their job (Amabile, 1993).

Maslow (1943) in his theory introduces five hierarchy of needs from lowest to highest. These needs are related to employee motivation and performance. According to Maslow (1943) when a need for an employee is well satisfied, for example, psychological needs, the next higher need arises which is safety. Guzzo (1979) suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be assumed as separating extrinsic (lower order needs) and intrinsic (higher order needs). However, this theory is criticised as it has not been supported by empirical evidence. Humans have unique needs and leaders cannot accept every single individual follows a usual pattern of need up to the

Motivators such as achievement and success lead to positive satisfaction while hygiene factors such as poor working conditions, low salary and lack of benefits create negative job attitudes (Herzberg et al., 1959). Therefore, motivators are known as intrinsic and hygiene factors as extrinsic. An effective leader should be able to improve any factors that dissatisfy employees. Avoiding doing this could lead to unmotivated employees’ who are not satisfied with their jobs. Thus, motivators cannot be used until all the hygiene factors have been fulfilled (Boeree, 2006). Herzberg’s theory is criticised for lack of evidence to prove that motivators indeed improve employee motivation (Armstrong, 2001). Additionally, Herzberg does focus too dependently on workplace-related factors without acknowledging the fact that some employees may have personal and family issues that could influence their motivation and performance in the