there are many workplace motivation theories

But can they contribute to your company culture and support your employees during the cost-of-living crisis? Find out... 

Employee motivation is key to your success, as it's the drive and energy your employees bring to their work every day. If it's lacking, then you might struggle with productivity and lower output, which could see you struggling to reach business goals. Whereas motivated employees are more likely to be innovative, happier, and boost your reputation.  

If you're looking into ways to improve motivation at work, then you might have already come across theories by Maslow, Herzberg, McGuire, Winslow, McKellend and Drucker, to name a few. These experts have changed the way we engage and inspire our teams, but that doesn't mean that the industry isn't open to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Here's an overview of three workplace theories of motivation favoured by workplace engagement experts and how these theories contribute to successful company cultures.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Psychologist, Abraham Maslow, first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation and his subsequent book Motivation and Personality. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs.

This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements, including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security.

Maslow’s theory states that:

• Each individual's needs must be satisfied at the lower levels before they progress to the higher, more complex levels
• When low-level needs are satisfied, individuals are no longer motivated by them
• As each level of needs is met, individuals progress to higher-level motivators
• All the needs are always present

Every person is capable of and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualisation. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower-level needs. Life experiences, including divorce and loss of job, may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy. Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualised because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.

Frederick Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors

Herzberg was the first to show that satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work nearly always arose from different factors and were not simply opposing reactions to the same factors, as had always previously been believed. He showed that the presence of certain factors truly motivates (motivators), whereas the absence of others tended to lead to dissatisfaction (hygiene factors). These hygiene factors need to be addressed and resolved before motivators can be effective.

Herzberg’s research proved that people will strive to achieve hygiene needs because they are unhappy without them, but once satisfied, the effect soon wears off.

Examples of hygiene needs (or maintenance factors) in the workplace are:

• Policy
• Relationship with supervisors
• Work conditions
• Salary
• Company car
• Status
• Security
• Relationship with subordinates
• Personal life

True motivators were found to be other completely different factors, such as:

• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work itself
• Responsibility
• Advancement
• Personal growth

Pink's Theory of Motivation

Motivational author, Daniel Pink, released his New York Bestseller, Drive, in 2010. In the insightful work, Pink argues that the carrot and stick approach, while effective in the 20^th century, is not relevant for today’s workforce. By combining scientific knowledge from the last 30 years with an appreciation of what today’s businesses actually want, Pink has devised a straightforward and modern approach which can be tailored to suit an organisation’s needs.

Drive examines the three elements of true motivation:

Autonomy

This is all about our need to direct our own life and work. To be able to be motivated, we need to be able to control what we do, when we do it and who we do it with.

Here are a few ways you can apply it:

• Time: Focus more on the output rather than the time or schedule, allowing employees to have flexibility over where and when they can complete tasks.
• Technique: Don't dictate how employees should complete their tasks. Provide initial guidance and then allow them to tackle the project in the way they see fit, rather than having to follow a strict procedure.
• Team: This can be one of the hardest forms of autonomy to embrace: allowing employees some choice over who they work with. By providing open-source projects and tasks, they have the ability to assemble their own teams.
• Task: Allow employees to have regular creative days where they can work on any project or problem that they wish. Evidence shows that many new initiatives are generated through creative free time.

Mastery

Create an environment where mastery is possible. To foster an environment of learning and development, four essentials are required:

• Autonomy
• Clear goals
• Immediate feedback
• Goldilocks tasks - not too difficult, and not too simple

Purpose

Place equal emphasis on purpose maximisation as you do on profit maximisation. The attainment of profit goals has no positive impact on a person's wellbeing, and can actually have the opposite effect! Organisational and individual goals should focus on purpose as well as profit. Many successful companies are now using profit as the catalyst to pursuing purpose, rather than the objective.

This refreshing angle on motivational theory has been a topic of discussion for many in the industry, including Jevita Nilson - who, in an article from Checkside Online titled Motivation revamped: A summary of Daniel H. Pink’s new theory of what motivates us, supports Pink’s theory of self-determination.

Both Nilson and Pink explain that:

SDT proposes humans have an innate drive to be autonomous, self determined and connected to one another, and that when that drive is liberated, people achieve more, and live richer lives.

Nilson devised a number of initiatives around Pink’s revised motivation theory which can assist organisations to motivate their employees effectively - well worth a further read if you're a professional charged with engaging your workforce. 

Arrange a call with our team of engagement experts to find out more.

Content for this blog has been provided courtesy of the IPM and is incorporated into the IPM Diploma in Motivation. To find out more about the diploma or to enrol click here.