Motivation theories - a brief note

Motivation can be considered as the processes that account for a person's "intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal" (Robbins, 2003). Research on motivation has been carried out for many years and it is a very mature topic in general management. Still, it remains an important topic in the academic world and business world: how to motivate employees remain a key management concern in contemporary business world. The following are the major motivation theories:

1. Motivation
2. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory
3. McGregor's theory X and theory Y
4. Herzberg's two-factor theory
5. Alderfer's ERG theory
6. McClelland's theory of needs
7. Goal-setting theory
8. Reinforcement theory
9. Equity theory
10. Expectancy theory
11. Flow theory

There are two main types of motivation theories: content theories and process theories. These motivation theories are not totally compatible with each other. For example, some of these motivation theories view intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators as independent while other motivation theories do not uphold this view. Some of them, though famous, have not been validated, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. A number of the motivation theories are not designed to be comprehensive; for instance, reinforcement theory ignores an individual's inner state. On the other hand, there are motivation models that integrate motivation theories developed by others, see Robbins (2003; chapter 6), thus, as theoretical frameworks, more comprehensive. My favoured integrative motivation model, though, is Lawler/Porter's version. Their model endorses a contingency approach on motivation. However, this model of Lawler and Porter has a major limitation in that it is not very useful to study employees in lower-level jobs that are essentially routine (Robbins, 2003, p. 179).
The notion of Motivation has been examined from time to time in business and management journals. It remains an important topic in contemporay management studies, e.g. Nohria et al. (2008), Cook and Jackson (2005) and Iun and Huang (2007).


A related blog article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/09/motivation-discussion-agenda.html

References

1. Cook, P. and Jackson, N. (2005) "Motivation Matters: The Business Energy Survey 2005", the Chartered Mangement Institute, UK.
2. Iun, J. and Huang, X. (2007) "How to motivate your older employees to excel? The impact of  commitment on older employees' performance in the hospitality industry", International Journal of Hospitality Management 26, pp. 793-806.
3. Nohria, N, Groysberg, B., Lee, L-E, (2008) "Employee Motivation: A powerful new tool", Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 78-84.
4. Robbins, S.P. (2003) Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall.