Motivation

 

According to John Adair, one of Britain´s most important motivational theorists, motivation is what causes a person to act covering all the reasons for which that person chooses to act in a certain manner(Adair, 2006). There are several theories that talk about motivation but the most influent one is Maslow´s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow´s theory suggests that people are motivated by their desire to satisfy specific needs, those needs are classified in 5 categories: physiological needs, safety needs, social belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. This theory became the basis for the theory x and the theory y, which says that employees can be divided in two categories: the ones belonging to the x category become costs for the company meanwhile Y employees are considered assets.

The ERG theory suggests that people are motivated by 3 types of needs: existence, relatedness and growth needs. Alderfer´s theory also proposes that all of them can be satisfied at the same time.

McClelland´s theory talks about three acquired needs: achievement, affiliation and power. Achievement is the need to do things better with a standard of excellence, affiliation refers to the need of being liked and having good relations with others and power refers to the capacity of influencing other people.

Herzberg´s theory established that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent states. Motivators are job factors that influence job satisfaction and hygiene factors can prevent job dissatisfaction.

The social exchange theory says that individuals make social decisions based on perceived benefits or costs; it also explains that individuals will always want to maximize rewards and minimize costs when relating to others.

The expectancy theory doesn´t focus on needs like Maslow and Herzberg´s theories, it focuses on outcomes. It basically says that people are easier to motivate when they have expectations of what will happen if they do certain things and it also proposes that people can become more productive if they believe their efforts will be rewarded.

In fact there isn´t a perfect theory or a perfect formula that managers can use in all situations to achieve the same results, cultural differences should be taken into account when motivating employees. Two countries are known for having the highest levels of motivation and job satisfaction: Denmark and India, but they have very different drivers of motivation influenced by the cultural features. Again, culture has an important role that managers should not underestimate.I found this video and I would like to share it with you:

QUESTION

In multicultural organizational contexts what could be a good strategy to keep people motivated towards a common task?

Managers have to understand that regardless of their nationality, people are always driven to accomplish needs, so in multicultural contexts the key to support the motivation of employees is understanding what motivates each of them (which needs they wanto to fulfill), to find this out managers should have direct channels of communication with the staff, and by observing them managers can also find possible motivators. After having meetings with the employees, managers can stablish rewards systems that take into account their motivational factors like providing more vacations or giving them more recognition (if that is important to them), other times employees just want to redesign their jobs to make them more satisfying, so managers should develop the skills to translate into actions and policies what the employees want.

REFERENCES

Business dictionary. Expectancy theory. (Online). Retrieved on March 3^rd 2011. Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/expectancy-theory.html

Lefter, V., Aurel, M., Virgil, M., Ramona,P. Employees motivation theories developed at an international level.(Online).Retrieved on March 3^rd 2011. Available at: http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/54.pdf

Adair, J.(2006).Leadership and motivation. The fifty-five rule and the eight key principles of motivating others. London: Kogan page.

RSA.ORG. The surprising truth about what motivates us. Retrieved on March 7th,2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc 

flashcards:organizational behavior chapter 6. Retrieved on March 3rd 2011.Available at: http://quizlet.com/1365820/organizational-behavior-chapter-6-flash-cards/

Motivating a turtle.(image)Retrieved on March 7th,2011 from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://alfombraroja.do/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/motivacion_tortuga.jpg&imgrefurl=http://alfombraroja.do/%3Fp%3D16932&usg=__Q8kiQ_Upp3rafveAt-EHZCSWu6Q=&h=311&w=549&sz=63&hl=es&start=0&sig2=Q3e_CLS3xy-C9itm3FZ60A&zoom=1&tbnid=nvB62A2zza4lNM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=160&ei=BV54TZkRrL3RAeLBifsD&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMOTIVACION%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26biw%3D1579%26bih%3D699%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=462&oei=BV54TZkRrL3RAeLBifsD&page=1&ndsp=38&ved=1t:429,r:35,s:0&tx=94&ty=61