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Lecture notes of 6 pages for the course Behaviour in organisations at QUB (Chapter 6)
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Chapter 6 – motivationWhat is motivation?
A choice about where to direct your energy, how persistently and how much effort to put
into achieving a goal
Work motivation is responsible for why employees decide to do something, how much effort
they are willing to put into it and how long they are going to sustain it
Effort – measure of intensity that maximises workers’ potential capacity to work in a way
that is appropriate to the job
Persistence – application of effort to work-related tasks
Direction – persistent high levels of work-related effort should be channelled in a way that
benefits the organisation
Effort and persistence refer to quantity of paid manual or knowledge work, direction refers
to quality of work being done
Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivator:
Stem from a person’s ‘internal’ desire to do something, self-applied
E.g.: pure interest in a project, sense of professional achievement, positive recognition by
peers, feeling of self-accomplishment, professional pride
Intrinsically motivated people tend to seek out new challenges and explore new ways of
doing things and learning
Extrinsic motivator:
Stem from outside the individual and are generally applied by others higher in the
organisation’s hierarchy
Include tangible rewards – pay increase, bonuses, promotion, profit sharing
Some potential motivators have both intrinsic and extrinsic qualities (e.g.: an employee receiving a
promotion that also results in more interesting and satisfying work and additional pay).
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are strongly influenced by the values, ways of thinking, behaviours,
and social factors typical of a society.
Content theories of motivation: workers with needs
, Content theories of motivation assume that all workers posses a common set of basic needs. They
relate to built-in needs or motivators.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
Abraham Maslow proposed that people
have a built-in set of five basic needs,
which can be arranged in a hierarchy
Basic needs will be addressed first, then
the advanced ones
Self-actualisation is the ultimate
motivator – it is insatiable.
Reconfiguration of work structures to give
empowerment may offer this.
Once a person satisfies a need a one level
in the hierarchy, that need ceases to
motivate them, only the need in the next
level up in the hierarchy will motivate them
The theory is difficult to apply to the workplace - focuses on the individual rather than the
group, so hard to apply to a group setting
Difficult for managers to know which need is predominant at any given time
Needs do not often group together as predicted
McGregor’s theory X and theory Y
Theory X (basis for autocratic management approaches):
o Employees are inherently lazy, dislike work, and will do as little as possible
o Most employees dislike responsibility and prefer direction
o Employees want only security and material rewards
Theory Y:
o Employees like work and want to undertake challenging tasks. If the work and
organisational environment is appropriate, employees will willingly work without
need for coercion or control
o People are motivated by needs for respect, esteem, recognition, and self-fulfilment
o People at work want responsibility
McClelland’s theory of needs
Workers are motivated by the need to satisfy six basic human needs:
o Achievement
o Power
o Affiliation
o Independence
o Self-esteem
o Security
Employees differ in the extent to which they experience need for achievement, affiliation,
and power
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