Theories Of Motivation Analysis

Introduction The goal of any organization is to have a workforce that works to its fullest potential. When the workforce is constantly moving in the direction towards the achievement of the mission statement a leader can often say they have a highly motivated workforce. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the organization’s leadership and upper management to find a way to bring out the best in their employees. Finding research-based strategies and techniques to truly motivate employees is a necessary skill that all leaders must possess.

Literature Review

Theories of Motivation

Organizations attempt to motivate employees without taking into account the nature of human motivation (Hansen, Smith & Hansen, 2012). The failure by

Herzberg’s theory suggests that removing dissatisfying factors from a job does not necessarily guarantee satisfaction, in other words, the opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction but rather there is a dual continuum where the opposite of “satisfaction” is “no satisfaction” and the opposite of dissatisfaction is “no dissatisfaction” (Robbins et al., 2013). Robbins et al., (2013) further point out that organizations should emphasize intrinsically motivating factors such as achievement, recognition, job compatibility, responsibility and growth.

Giancola (2011) and Hansen et al. (2012) also discuss Deci who distinguishes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Deci’s self-determination theory of human behavior suggests that people have three innate needs: competence and self-motivation and, relatedness, which relates to having a sense of being connected to others and doing work that has a higher purpose (Matheson, 2011). Extrinsic motivation according to Deci has more to do with rewards, more about control and is less concerned and supportive of autonomy (Giancola, 2011; Hansen et al.,