Motivational Theories

Motivational Theories

On October 1st, 2003 Mergers, Inc.'s shareholders approved an acquisition of 123 Insurance. With the upcoming merger the management has expressed concern about the employee's morale and motivation. The management has assigned a team to do a study of our current morale and motivation status here at 123 Insurance. To get an idea on how to address our employee's motivational needs, a survey was created and given to all 123 employees. The survey asked fifteen questions and had the participant rate each one on a varying scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree, while one being strongly degree to five as strongly agree. In the following paper we will outline the survey, demographics, results and planned

actions for 123 Insurance employees.

* Goals; to compile data which will assist the management in keeping individual motivation high throughout the transition period and beyond.

* Technique used: A fifteen question, multiple choice surveys was given to all 123 Insurance employees. From this group we selected a cross section of the company of seven surveys to ensure a true diverse response.

In selecting which seven surveys to be used in the final analysis, we wanted to cover three areas, position, years with company, and gender. Selected surveys included;

* Position: two from management personal, two from professional, two from clerical, and one from admin support.

* Years with company: two with ten or more years, two with six to nine years, two with three to five years and one with less than two years.

* Gender: four women and three men.

After we broke down the demographics we wished to cover, we compared the surveys answers to motivational theories. The first theory used was McClelland's Theory of Needs. David McClelland and others have proposed three major relevant motives or needs in the workplace.

1. The need for achievement (nAch)- the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards , to strive to succeed

2. The need for power (nPow)- the need to make others behave in a way they would not have behaved otherwise

3. The need for affiliation (nAff)- the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships (Robbins, 2000)

NEED Demographic

Position Demographic

Years with company Demographic

Male Demographic

Female

Achievement

nAch

Total points

118 Management-2

Professional-1

Clerical-2

Admin support -1 0-2-1

3-5-2

6-9-2

10+ 1

2 4

Power

nPow

Total points

95

None 0-2

3-5

6-9

10+

None None

Affiliation

nAff

Total points

101 Professional-1 0-2

3-5

6-9

10+1

1 None

The survey questions were evenly mixed with five of each style of question (nAch, nPow, & nAff) for a total of fifteen questions. Using the following demographics each group ranked their highest "need" as follows;

Of the three "needs" the one "need" that scored the highest was the need for Achievement, followed by Affiliation and Power respectfully.

Reviewing the survey we find that achievement is the highest "need", using this information we can plan a motivational plan to help maintain this "need" during the merger. The first and most important "need" will be to ensure the employees that with the merger their jobs are secure and they will not be replaced. The next Item will to set up training for all 123 employees in the new procedures that will be required. By giving our employees the training to learn the new techniques they will know the company is concerned about their success and fulfilling their achievement goals. The training should be comprised of both companies' so we can capitalize not only on training but also some early team building.

With the merger comes new competition with the mixture of both workforces. We must be diligent in keeping this competitive nature to a minimum and do not let it fester into a distraction of new and former employees working in a negative workplace. To relieve this new tension we need to promote team building techniques as soon as practical, this will also address the next need of affiliation. Team building should be one of management's top priorities prior to and after the merger. Some suggested team building ideas are sports day. A day set aside for letting both groups get together and play basketball, volleyball etc. It will put every one in a relaxed atmosphere and get people introducing themselves outside of the constriction of the working environment. A company picnic to introduce all the new team members with the old members and their families.

Goal setting; while the survey helped us to understand the personnel's "needs", we also applied the personal survey to other motivational theories. The Goal setting theory is a good fit for those who place achievement as their number one need. This theory states that intentions-expressed as goals-can be a major source of work motivation. We can say with a considerable degree of confidence that specific goals lead to increased performance. Therefore difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than easy goals (Locke, 1968). However for this theory to work we must set clear goals for our employees to reach for. These goals can be difficult but not impossible to achieve, they must not be simple goals that are used just to appease the worker.