Theories of Motivation

There are a number of different views as to what motivates workers. The most commonly held views or
theories are discussed below and have been developed over the last 100 years or so. Unfortunately
these theories do not all reach the same conclusions!
Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1917) put forward the idea that workers are motivated mainly by pay.
His Theory of Scientific Management argued the following:
􀁦 Workers do not naturally enjoy work and so need close supervision and control
􀁦 Therefore managers should break down production into a series of small tasks
􀁦 Workers should then be given appropriate training and tools so they can work as efficiently as
possible on one set task.
􀁦 Workers are then paid according to the number of items they produce in a set period of timepiece-
rate pay.
􀁦 As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximise their productivity.
Taylor’s methods were widely adopted as businesses saw the benefits of increased productivity levels
and lower unit costs. The most notably advocate was Henry Ford who used them to design the first ever
production line, making Ford cars. This was the start of the era of mass production.
Taylor’s approach has close links with the concept of an autocratic management style (managers take all
the decisions and simply give orders to those below them) and Macgregor’s Theory X approach to
workers (workers are viewed as lazy and wish to avoid responsibility).
However workers soon came to dislike Taylor’s approach as they were only given boring, repetitive tasks
to carry out and were being treated little better than human machines. Firms could also afford to lay off
workers as productivity levels increased. This led to an increase in strikes and other forms of industrial
action by dis-satisfied workers.
Mayo
Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better
motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work (something that Taylor ignored). He introduced
the Human Relation School of thought, which focused on managers taking more of an interest in the
workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy
interacting together.
Mayo conducted a series of experiments at the Hawthorne factory of the Western Electric Company in
Chicago
He isolated two groups of women workers and studied the effect on their productivity levels of changing
factors such as lighting and working conditions.
He expected to see productivity levels decline as lighting or other conditions became progressively worse
What he actually discovered surprised him: whatever the change in lighting or working conditions, the
productivity levels of the workers improved or remained the same.
From this Mayo concluded that workers are best motivated by:
􀁦 Better communication between managers and workers (Hawthorne workers were consulted
over the experiments and also had the opportunity to give feedback)


􀁦 Greater manager involvement in employees working lives (Hawthorne workers responded to
the increased level of attention they were receiving)
􀁦 Working in groups or teams. (Hawthorne workers did not previously regularly work in teams)
In practice therefore businesses should re-organise production to encourage greater use of team working
and introduce personnel departments to encourage greater manager involvement in looking after
employees’ interests. His theory most closely fits in with a paternalistic style of management.
Maslow
Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) along with Frederick Herzberg (1923-) introduced the Neo-Human
Relations School in the 1950’s, which focused on the psychological needs of employees. Maslow put
forward a theory that there are five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled at
work.
All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy (see below) and only once a lower level of need has been
fully met, would a worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy
satisfied. For example a person who is dying of hunger will be motivated to achieve a basic wage in
order to buy food before worrying about having a secure job contract or the respect of others.
A business should therefore offer different incentives to workers in order to help them fulfill each need in
turn and progress up the hierarchy (see below). Managers should also recognise that workers are not all
motivated in the same way and do not all move up the hierarchy at the same pace. They may therefore
have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from worker to worker.
Herzberg
Frederick Herzberg (1923-) had close links with Maslow and believed in a two-factor theory of motivation.
He argued that there were certain factors that a business could introduce that would directly motivate
employees to work harder (Motivators). However there were also factors that would de-motivate an
employee if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder

(Hygiene factors)
Motivators are more concerned with the actual job itself. For instance how interesting the work is and
how much opportunity it gives for extra responsibility, recognition and promotion. Hygiene factors are
factors which ‘surround the job’ rather than the job itself. For example a worker will only turn up to work if
a business has provided a reasonable level of pay and safe working conditions but these factors will not
make him work harder at his job once he is there. Importantly Herzberg viewed pay as a hygiene factor
which is in direct contrast to Taylor who viewed pay, and piece-rate in particular
Herzberg believed that businesses should motivate employees by adopting a democratic approach to
management and by improving the nature and content of the actual job through certain methods. Some
of the methods managers could use to achieve this are:
􀁦 Job enlargement – workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily
more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.
􀁦 Job enrichment - involves workers being given a wider range of more complex, interesting and
challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of
achievement.
􀁦 Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.