Motivation

Motivation as the oxford sociology dictionary define it: “as the need to perform well or the striving for success, and evidenced by persistence and effort in the face of difficulties, achievement motivation is regarded as a central human motivation”.

There are 5 important theories of motivation that are:

1.Maslow's: This theory proposes 5 levels of needs, starting from a base of biological needs and ending in self actualization, this theory says that is people is motivated is when they feel their needs.

2. McGregor’s: says there is two types of motivation, Theory X refers to people that feel motivated for satisfying their lower order needs, they Only like to work because they need or want the Money. And Theory Y, which says that individuals seek to satisfy the higher order of needs; so they are responsible, committed to their jobs, and contribute to the goals of the organization.

3. Herzberg’s: this theory talks about satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the workplace depending in two different factors:
1. Motivation factors
2. Hygiene factors

4. Alderfer's ERG: Is the evolution of Maslow´s theory, this theory says that, needs can be satisfied simultaneously and doesn’t have an order.

5. McClelland's: this theory says that people have 3 needs that motivate independently the individuals, that are :
1. Achievement,
2. Power
3. Affiliation.

References:

http://www.enotes.com/oxsoc-encyclopedia/achievement-motivation


Questions:


1. What are the Hawthorne Studies? explain its importance for studying motivation at the workplace and its influence over diverse motivation theories. (include key findings and limitations)

Answer:

The Hawthorne Studies is an experiment that was created to analyze if the lightening in a the workplace influenced the productivity of the employees, this experiment show as result that the employees have a better result and work better if when they were working the think that they were observed.

With this studies then it start making experiments and analyzing the different factors that influenced employees at the moment of working and achieving results in a period of time, the results show that things like as lighting, moments of rest, water breaks, give comfort to the individual in his work area and stimulate work but weren’t the best alternative to improve productivity.

These studies show also that the best motivators for stimulating jobs to employees are the recognition of their work, the communication between the chain of command, the feeling of belonging to the organization and incentives that make them improve their motivation.

The Hawthorne studies can be analyzed with the Macgregor’s theory that tells that there are two types of motivation, the motivation X that is that the employees are motivated by money and the Motivation Y that is that the employee need to feel that he belong to the organization and participate in its goals in order to assume more responsibilities.

References:

http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Hawthorne_Effect.html



2. Based on the class activity about "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", please answer the following question: ¿Which motivation theory do you think has the most relevance for understanding the behavior of Griffin and fostering her motivation at work?

Answer:

According to the Flight 001, Motivating Employees the theory that is more relevant to motivate employees in the organization is the McGregor's Theory Y beacause is the most relevant for understanding and describing Emily Griffin’s behavior in her workplace.

The example for this theory that propose that the main source of motivation is that employees can contribute to organizations goals by applying their knowledge and increase the participation in the organization, in the case of me Griffin she is working in the lower order needs in flight 001 and she wants to work in the is the higher order needs, she want to have more responsibility, and have more decision power and improve her knowledge.

References:
• Article "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", class activity.