Motivation Theories

Motivation can be defined as the process of arousing and sustaining goal-directed behaviors. But what factors trigger this process? And how can one control the factors that arouse motivation? How can a company promote positive motivation? The human brain is a complex machine that still has not been fully explained to this day. Biological forces are one thing that motivate us, but others can argue we are totally in control and can make conscious

decisions on how to act. There are many theories explaining what motivates us, especially what motivates us within the workplace.

The first and probably most well known theory of motivation is called Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, which was derived from theorists William James, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. It is consistent and has been tested in working populations.

Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs is often shown as a pyramid, with the most basic needs at the bottom and the higher needs at the top. The bottom levels are called deficiency needs, and the top level is called being needs. From the bottom to the top, the needs are: Physiological, Safety/Security, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and Actualization (Motivation and Personality, 1987).

The first and bottom level is called the physiological level. The body's main goal is to achieve homeostatis, or a balance. This can be achieved by eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, breathing, and living a healthy lifestyle. When a person becomes hungry for example, getting food into their system becomes the most important thing. They will ignore all the other needs and focus on getting food. When the physiological needs are not met, a person can feel sick, be in pain, or in constant discomfort.

When the physiological needs are met, the need to feel safe and secure will arouse within ourselves. The second level is just this, safety and security. In society, it is extremely important for there to be security. Sometimes, if the need is great enough, the need for safety will outweigh the physiological needs. For example, in Kosovo during the Kosovo War, many of the people who resided in Kosovo chose to flee to a secure area for safety rather than an inseecure area even though the insecure areas had better access to food and water (Motivation and Personality, 1987).

Once the physical needs and safety needs are met, the need of love and belonging becomes apparent. This is basically relationships in general, contact with other people, sexual and non sexual, being part of a group, and having a family. This need includes feeling loved by other people and having a sense of acceptance. They also want to feel needed. If these needs are not met, then people feel depressed and can have severe social anxieties (Motivation and Personality, 1987).

The needs of Esteem and Actualization are the two being needs. The need for esteem can be broken down into two parts - the need for respect and recognition by others, and the need for self-respect. The first part, the need for respect and recognition by others plays a large part in the workplace, probably more than the other needs. While you have control over your levels of safety and your physical needs, the feeling of respect comes from others and in that you have no control of how people feel about you. A lack in respect and recognition can lead to severe depression, social anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness.

Self-actualization, a term that was originated by Kurt Goldstein, is the instinctual need of a human to make the most of their unique abilities and to feel satisfied in doing so. Maslow described it as:

Self Actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is. (Psychological Review, 1949)

A musician must make music, the artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation. (Motivation and Personality, 1954.)

A self-actualizing person embraces the facts and realities of the world (including things about themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them, are spontaneous in their ideas and actions, are creative, are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives, feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life, and have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority (Motivation and Personality, 1954.)

In David McClelland's theory, the Learned Needs Theory, he claimed that one's needs are shaped by their life experiences and acquired

over time. He breaks down these needs into three categories - affiliation, power, and achievement.

People who have a strong drive for achievement, who are achievement 'oriented', always want to succeed and have others see them succeed. They thrive on feedback and need to have it regularly. They rarely take part in activities where there is a high chance for them to succeed, it is too easy and not seen as a genuine achievement. Also, they do not partake in activities where there is a low chance of success, failure is not acceptable in their eyes. These people prefer to work alone, the sweet taste of success has to be their own, however, if working with others is a must, then they have to work with other achievement oriented people, to ensure success. These people should be given challenging projects that have reachable goals. They need to have constant feedback, such as money, although there are a number of other positive things that can be used as feedback (Jones, 119).

Those who need to have many relationships and the need for other people to accept them are the Affiliation oriented types. These people conform to fit in with others and will rarely voice a conflicting opinion. They conform because it is the "norm" and feel others will accept them if they are similar to the others within the group. These types of people prefer to work in groups and in a workplace with a lot of social interaction, such as customer service or where they can have a lot of interaction with clients. They work best when the relationships they are in and around are positive and cooperative (Jones 123).

If a person has a strong need for power, they can be one of two types. One is the need for personal power and the other is a need for institutional power. A person who has the need for personal power wants to be in charge and direct other people, and this is often seen as dictatorship or being bossy, and therefore undesirable. A person who has the need for institutional power wants to be in charge of other people to organize them to