In the past few decades several theories have been presented to explain worker motivation and in some cases the lack of such motivation.  Some of the basic theories will be described.  This is by no means meant to be a thorough treatise on the subject of motivation, but rather an introduction to some of the issues that might be involved. Hopefully, a rudimentary understanding of motivation will be helpful in understanding the actions of ourselves and our colleagues.

THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
(ref. "A Theory of Human Motivation" by A. H. Maslow in Sutermeister)

The hierarchy of needs theory is based on the premise that people are motivated by the desire to fulfill their needs.  People seek goals to satisfy their needs.  Once a need has been satisfied, that need no longer acts as a motivator.  In the absence of any other needs, there would be no motivation.  According to Maslow, there are a series or levels of needs that explain motivation in people.  There are five such levels of needs.  These needs fall into a hierarchy as shown below:
* self actualization needs (highest level of need)
* self esteem needs
* social (love needs or the need to belong)
* safety or security needs
* survival or physiological needs (lowest level needs)

The most primitive or lowest level needs are the physiological needs.  Examples include the need to eat, for water, to have clothing for comfort, to have adequate sleep, etc. (mostly those needs which can be characterized as bodily needs).  As such they tend to be temporal in nature.  If there is no food, Maslow states that "man lives by bread alone" but when there is plenty to eat, food ceases to be a motivator.

The second level consists of safety needs.  If this need is paramount, individuals become safety-seeking tools.  While most citizens might not think consciously about the need for safety, citizens do expect some sort of stability or predictability in their surroundings.  An adult in a society that is not threatened by wild animals, extremes of temperature, criminals, tyrants, etc. may not be consciously aware of the need for safety.  Such adults are not motivated by safety needs.  In a broader sense, citizens may feel the need to have financial security in their retirement years, for stability in their place of employment, for constancy in their housing arrangements, insurance against various losses, etc.  The need for order is apparent in the general tendency in societies to have religions and to organize into groups.  The need for security may be as much an emotional need as it is a physical one.

The third level consists of the love needs.  This is associated with the need to belong. It is a basic need for other people.  It is the need to feel a part of a group.  For example, it is natural to have friends, for adults to marry, and in general to share affection with other people.  We can easily be associated with dozens of different groups of people. The love need is not to be confused with sex, as sex may even be considered as a physiological need.  Love needs are more associated with the exchange of affection and the need to be accepted by others.

The fourth level consists of the esteem needs.  Esteem needs are essentially the need for individuals to have a stable and high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect and the esteem of others.  Esteem is the result of real capacity, achievement and respect from others.  Self-esteem leads to self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world.  This level of need really has two components. One is associated with feelings of personal worth, adequacy, and competence.  The second is the need for respect, admiration, recognition, and status in the eyes of others.

The highest level need is self-actualization.  Self-actualization consists of being all that one can be.  This is clearly the most difficult need to truly understand.  It is associated with the unique expression of oneself.  It is an active state in which an individual achieves personal growth.  It occurs when one reaches one's innate personal potential. This need may be associated with a compulsion to put one's talents or abilities to work. The need for self-actualization is associated with an inner drive, essentially apart from the influence of others.  It is often linked with creative expression.  However, it is never a fully satisfied need, i.e., the need continues and the individual is never self-actualized.

Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs states that the lowest level needs must generally be satisfied before the next level of need will emerge.  If all the needs are unsatisfied, the lowest level need will typically provide the greatest motivation, while the desire to satisfy the higher level needs is diminished.  Once a low level need is satisfied, the next level of need emerges as the subsequent goal to attain.  If the lower need again emerges, the higher needs become weaker motivators.

In simple terms, the lowest level need that is not satisfied is the primary motivator.  In reality, the other needs do not actually disappear, but their influence as motivators may be diminished.

As a manager, it is important to understand the level of needs that others have.  This is at the root of developing effective incentive programs and in maximizing productivity.
 

THE MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY OR THE TWO-FACTOR THEORY
(ref. Work and the Nature of Man by Frederick Herzberg, Cleveland World Publishing Company, 1966)

Frederick Herzberg has developed a theory on the premise that worker mental health is associated with performing meaningful work.  His theory grew out of a research study conducted with 200 accountants and engineers.  The research consisted of personal interviews being conducted with each subject.  The essence of the interview was to ask, "Can you describe, in detail, when you felt exceptionally good about your job?" and "Can you describe, in detail, when you felt exceptionally bad about your job?"

The responses showed that the accountants and engineers generally stated that some content aspects of the job were associated with feeling good about the job.  Herzberg called these job content factors.  Concerning experiences in which people felt bad about their job, Herzberg  noted that these tended to be associated with surrounding or peripheral aspects of the job.  Herzberg called these context factors.  With this general categorization, Herzberg concluded that job content factors were satisfiers and that job context factors were dissatisfiers.

It is noteworthy that rarely were content factors mentioned as dissatisfiers or that context factors were rarely mentioned as satisfiers.  From this Herzberg concluded that  the opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather that the absence of satisfaction is simply no satisfaction.  Similarly, the opposite of dissatisfaction is no dissatisfaction, rather than satisfaction.  Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are discrete feelings and they do not occur on a continuum, i.e., they are not polar opposites on the same scale.  In other words, one set of factors can lead to satisfaction while anther set of factors can lead to dissatisfaction.  Thus, this is called the two-factor theory.

The job content factors or satisfiers were generally classified as relating to some of the following:
 Achievement  Recognition
 Work Itself  Responsibility
 Advancement  Growth

These factors are motivators that can be realized when completing a job, solving problems, seeing the results of one's efforts, being recognized for a job well done, performing interesting work, successfully completing a (difficult, demanding or challenging) task, having control over one's own job, being given responsibility for the work of others, upward movement in the organization, increased opportunities, and learning new skills.

The job context or environmental factors associated with dissatisfaction were classified as relating to the following:
 Company Policy Company Administration
 Supervision  Working Conditions
 Salary   Interpersonal Relations (with superiors, peers, etc.)
 Status   Job Security
 Personal Life

These are "hygiene" factors which include feelings about the inadequacy of company management, poor lines of communication, poor direction as to the tasks to be performed, unclear lines of authority, lack of authority to complete a task, incompetent supervisors, excessive amount of work, poor environmental conditions (light, temperature, space, ventilation), poor wages, lower than expected salary increases, restrictions because of status (work conditions, worker liberties, etc.), company stability, compulsory transfers to undesirable locations.

Herzberg's theory bears considerable similarity to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Herzberg noted that the higher level of needs, the growth needs, are the only true motivators.  The content factors tend to motivate by their presence while the context or hygiene factors dissatisfy individuals when they are deficient, i.e., dissatisfiers are deficit needs.  For example, poor working conditions are commonly named as the source of dissatisfaction, but good physical working conditions are rarely named as being the source of worker satisfaction.

If a firm is to motivate its workers, it must be cognizant of the fact that the lack of dissatisfiers does not create satisfaction.  Workers may be very dissatisfied if fringe benefits are lacking, but they are rarely the source of great satisfaction.

Another way of considering satisfaction and dissatisfaction is to consider the difference between job enrichment and job enlargement.  A worker that is asked to do a more challenging task (job enrichment or vertical loading) will probably be more satisfied than will a worker who is simply expected to do an increased amount of the same work (job enlargement or horizontal loading) that has been performed in the past.  Management must simply realize that hygiene factors and motivators are different and that both must be addressed.

Job enrichment or vertical job loading is associated with the content factors given above. To maximize satisfaction and thus to motivate workers, the following actions might be considered:

* Remove some job controls
* Increase worker accountability for their own work
* Give workers complete units of work to produce
* Give greater job freedom or additional authority to workers
* Make periodic reports directly to the workers (not through the supervisor)
* Introduce new and more difficult tasks
* Assign specialized tasks to workers so they can become experts

Subsequent research of the two-factor theory on construction workers has shown that there might be a subtle difference in the motivation of construction workers.  In essence, Herzberg stated that workers will be motivated when they are satisfied.  For construction workers, there may be a slight twist to this causal relationship.  What is so special about construction work is that each structure is unique.  As a result, workers derive a strong sense of pride and satisfaction from having completed a project.  Thus, the drive or motivation for construction workers may be to complete their projects as a means of realizing the satisfaction that accompanies this effort.  While this may explain a different relationship between satisfaction and production, management can utilize the two-factor theory to good advantage even on construction projects.  They must simply make it possible for workers to efficiently complete their construction tasks.  While the above may appear to be a contradiction, it might also be argued that this is further validation of the two-factor theory.  Note that even though a construction project may take months to complete, daily satisfaction surely accompanies the work as it is done.