David McClelland has contributed to another well-known content theory by developing the Acquired Needs Theory. McClelland’s research shows people are not born with particular characteristics or had acquired them in childhood development, but learn them as adults (Wood et al, 2010) and that all motives are learned (Thrash &Elliot, 2001). According to him, individuals acquire needs from culture of society by learning from the events that they experience, mostly in early stage of life. This was proven by one study where executives were engaged in activities and used role models who were high achievers resulting in the acquisition of effective business skills that caused a higher business growth than those that were not given the training (Wood et al, 2010)
The three main needs that people learn and which serve as motivators in organisations are: achievement; affiliation and power. Once they are learned, these needs may be considered as personal predispositions that influence the views that people have towards work situations and that influence their perception of certain goals.
Need for achievement
McClelland defined need for achievement as “behavior towards competition with a standard of excellence” (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, and Lowell, 1953). McClelland and his associates found that people with a high need of achievement will set goals for themselves that are attainable but which contain some degree of difficulty and effort to be accomplished. “Those who strive for excellence and success without consideration of some reward have a high level of achievement motivation” (McClelland, 1961, cited in Maqsud &Coleman, 1993). Individuals with high need for achievement will make every effort for excellence and avoid failure, take calc...
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Each individual is different from one another and will have a different set of needs. The key element to effective motivation lies first in recognizing these differences and developing appropriate strategies to enhance motivation of each employee. When these different strategies of motivation are grouped together, they offer a valuable resource for producing an appropriate environment to reach higher performance. In order to motivate all employees to perform at their best, there is a need for managers to establish and encourage an atmosphere which will inspire them. Motivation continues to remain a challenge among managers today. Tools and ideas are accessible to leaders and managers to support them. Studying the theories of Herzberg, McClelland, Vroom, and Maslow can provide solutions to these problems and managers can be successful in motivating their employees.
Alderfer, C. (1969). An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Needs. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, vol. 4, pp. 142 - 175.
In the 1940s Abraham Maslow created his famous theory of needs and set the groundwork for David McClelland who in 1961 launched his book, “The Achieving Society” (Mind Tools, n.d.). McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory explores the thought that “needs are acquired throughout life…needs are not innate, but are learned or developed as a result of one’s life experiences” (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2007, p.27). In this theory are three types of needs: need for achievement-desire for success, mastering tasks, and attaining goals; need for affiliation-desire for relationships and associations with others; and need for power-desire for responsibility, control, and authority (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2007). Therefore, management, hospitals, and organizations must determine what the needs of their employees are in order to properly motivate
Achievement Motivation (also termed need for achievement, N-Ach) refers to an individual's desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills to meet high standards of excellence. It includes the intense, prolonged and repeated efforts to accomplish something difficult, to work with singleness of purpose towards a high and distant goal and to have the determination to win.
Motivation play an important role in today’s work environment as motivated employees are more productive employees. However, the ways how we motivate the employees have to be improved from time to time as employees are being more demanding and that they are more concern about their needs than before. Motivational strategies have probably affected the most by employee concerns and values (Greiner 1986, p. 82). ‘A motivational strategy is any effort to induce employees to initiate and sustain activities that can directly or indirectly improve service productivity’ (Greiner 1986, p. 82). Motivation can have an effect on the output of your business and concerns both quantity and quality. For example, if you are in a manufacturing company, your business actually relies heavily on your production staff to make sure that quality product are being produce and being delivered to your client at the right time. However, if your production employees are lack of motivation they will be not motivated to produce the amount of product demanded, thus will be very costly. In the essay below, we will be discussing on the strength and weaknesses of McClelland’s acquired needs theory and the expectancy theory.
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Studies have found that high employee motivation goes hand in hand with strong organizational performance and profits. Therefore, managers are given the responsibility of finding the right combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy employees’ needs and encourage great work performance. This becomes a bit more challenging as employees’ needs change from one generation to another. Three of the biggest challenges a manager faces in motivating employees today are the economy and threats to job security, technological advances, and company cultures that primarily focus on the bottom line.
Employee motivation has always been a central problem in the workplace, and, as an individual in a supervisory position, it becomes one’s duty to understand and institute systems that ensure the proper motivation of your subordinates. Proper motivation of employees can ensure high productivity and successful workflow, while low worker motivation can result in absenteeism, decreased productivity rates, and turnover. A large body of research has been produced regarding motivation, and much of this research is applicable to the workplace. Due to the nature of man, motivation varies from individual to individual, and, because of this, there is no one system that is the best for ensuring worker motivation in every organizational situation, and, as a product, many theories have been created to outline what drives people to satisfactorily complete their work tasks. Throughout the course of this document, the three main types of these motivational theories will be outlined and examples of each, as well as how these theories can be used to further strengthen and sustain worker motivation....
Research has shown that motivation in an employee is an important factor which determines his performance. Motivation is the “driving force within individuals” (Mullins, 2007, p. 285). It is the concerned with finding out the reasons which shape and direct the behaviour of the individuals. The people act to achieve something so that they can satisfy some needs (Gitman and Daniel, 2008). It is important for the manager to understand this motivation of individual employees in order to inspire them and devise an appropriate set of incentives and rewards which would satisfy the needs that they have individually (Kerr, 2003). Once these needs are expected to be met in return for some specific behaviour or action, they would work more diligently to have that behaviour in them and to achieve that objective (Meyer and Hersovitch, 2001). Since it would lead to early and fuller achievement of the company objectives as the individual would work more diligently, it would lead to better organizational performance (Wiley, 1997).
Robbins and Judge define motivation by means of three elements. The first element is defined as being the process that account for an individual’s intensity which is concerned with how hard a person tries. The second element is direction that benefits the organization and the third element is persistence which is a measure of how long a person can maintain effort. Motivation is also driven by certain situations that vary between individuals and within individuals, at different times. (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.186) These elements should not only be expected from employees but from managers as well.
The first concept of needs is physiological needs. Man’s needs are to have the ability to be organize . The best way to be organize is hierarchy. At the lowest level , it is important for person to have pre-eminent. A person at the lower levels needs to provide a shelter and food . Another need to that needs to fulfill is safety needs. A man’s need to feel safe from danger, threat , and deprivation. In organization , employees needs to feel safe from discrimination and unpredictable administration . Social needs is another aspect a person need in business. A person needs to belong by accept from their co-workers, and management. It is also important for manager to motivate their employees . Ego needs are important as well. It is important for employee to have high self -confidence and self -esteem . Employees needs to have self-fulfillment ( when a person discovered potential). It is important for person be motivate because they will have confidence to complete
The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that’s easier said than done! Motivation practice and theory are difficult subject, touching on several disciplines.
In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which motivate their action. Meanwhile according to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people’s behavior at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives which will help “move” their employees to act.Theories such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. The intrinsic reward or also be known as motivators factors is the part of Herzberg motivation theory. Motivators are involve factors built into the job or the studies itself such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job such as interpersonal relationship, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966. There have two factors that are called hygiene fac...
Motivation is therefore the force that transforms and uplifts people to be productive and perform in their jobs. Maximising an employee's motivation is necessary and vital to successfully accomplish the organisation's objectives and targets. However this is a considerable challenge to any organisation's managers, due to the complexity of motivation and the fact that there is no ready made solution or an answer to what motivates people to work well (Mullins, 2002).
Motivation is the force that transforms and uplifts people to be productive and perform in their jobs. Maximizing employee’s motivation is a necessary and vital to successfully accomplish the organization’s targets and objectives. However, this is a considerable challenge to any organizations managers, due to the complexity of motivation and the fact that, there is no ready made solution or an answer to what motivates people to work well (Mullins,2002).
Motivation, as defined in class, is the energy and commitment a person is prepared to dedicate to a task. In most of organisations, motivation is one of the most troublesome problems. Motivation is about the intensity, direction and persistence of reaching a goal. During the class, we have learned a substantial theories of motivation and many theories of motivations are used in real business. Each theory seems to have different basic values. But, they all have been analysed for one reason, recognising what motivates and increases the performance of employees. Ident...
People’s behaviour is determined by what motivates them. The aim of this essay is to discuss the essence of the motivation and psychological strengths, its evolution, a brief overview of the key theories of the employees’ motivation and behaviour analysis. The main task is to understand how motivation affects employee behaviour and to clarify the importance of motivation. In this essay I will discuss and produce definitions and examples to answer the main question of what is the driving force and how do people’s needs influence performance at work?