Motivation theories Flashcards
What are the motivation theories?
Taylor
Mayo
Maslow
Herzberg
What did Taylor believe in?
What management style does it link to?
That in order to achieve the higher productivity employees are motivated by solely money. Tasks must be small and quick with clear instructions.
Associated with Authoritarian
What is piece rate? (Taylor)
Piece rate is payment according to what employees produce.
What did Taylor do to work out his theory?
1) Observed workers doing tasks, how long, what, and what time they did it.
2) He found the most efficient workers to further investigate.
3) broke each task and broke it into smaller tasks and found out what was needed to be efficient.
4) Taylor then created a plan how to be efficient with a piece rate scheme and monetary incentives
What are the core beliefs about Taylor?
- must be high division of labour (specialisation)
- money is sole motivator
- workers don’t enjoy work
What are the positives and negatives of Taylors theory?
+ lower unit costs, higher production rate
- prevents intrapreneurship, industrial action, negative brand image
What did Maslow believe in?
What management style does it link to?
Believed that there was 5 stages of motivation for employees. The lower stages must be catered for before other stages can reached.
Links to Paternalistic
What are the 5 stages of needs in the Hierarchy of needs?
- self actualisation = intelligent needs, potential, targets
- esteem needs = self - respect, accomplishment
- Belonging and love needs/social =, intimate friendships, feeling wanted
- Safety needs = security, environment
- Physiological needs = basic needs eg food/water
How can the hierarchy of needs (maslow) motivate workers?
can motivate workers as they can feel levels of empowerment and value within a firm. Working their way up the team to the top of pyramid which could lead to promotion.
What are positives and negatives of Maslow’s theory?
+ workers are determined to progress, higher staff retention, valued employees,
- not everyone is the same, not all employees will reach the top of the hierarchy, too simplistic, cant be tested what stage each employee is at.
What did Mayo believe in?
What management style does it link to?
Workers aren’t motivated by not only money but by having their social needs also met, especially in teams.
Paternalistic
What did Mayo do to work out his theory?
He conducted the Hawthorne Experiments.
1) had many groups with changing factors in each group
2) Found out that people in the experiments are more likely to be productive as they are being monitored not the changing factors
3) He also found that the people worked in a group to help productivity
4) Called The Hawthorne Effect
What is The Hawthorne Effect?
Mayo
When a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed. And therefore the workers are only as motivated as the managers
What is the human relations of school of thought?
Mayo
this was when Mayo discovered that the managers taking more of an interest in the workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy interacting together in teamwork.
What are some positives and negatives of Mayo’s motivation theory?
+ interactive workers, better work environment, staff feel empowered, better communication
- staff distract co-workers, staff rest breaks are disrupted, experiment may not be relevant today, time consuming to introduce people
