History of Motivation Theory

11 Key excerpts on "History of Motivation Theory"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Understanding Motivation and Emotion

  • Johnmarshall Reeve(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  34 Chapter 2 Motivation and Emotion in Historical Perspective · Flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) · Intrinsic motivation (Deci, 1975) · Goal-setting theory (Locke, 1968) · Learned helplessness theory (Seligman, 1975) · Reactance theory (Brehm, 1966) · Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) · Self-schemas (Markus, 1977) Each of these 13 mini-theories of motivation will be discussed in the chapters to come. For now, it is important to note the major shift in thinking about the nature of motivation away from a single grand theory to a host of diverse mini-theories. It became increasingly evident that any one grand theory was simply unable to carry the whole burden of explaining motivation (Appley, 1991). In addition, the first journal devoted exclusively to the topic of motivation and emotion emerged in 1977, Motivation and Emotion. This journal has focused almost all of its attention on the empirical exploration of mini-theories of motivation. Three historical trends emerged to explain why motivation study left behind its grand theories to embrace the new tradition of mini-theories: 1. Active nature of the person 2. Cognitive revolution 3. Socially relevant questions Active Nature of the Person The purpose of drive theory was to explain how an animal went from inactive to active (Weiner, 1990). The midcentury assumption was that animals (including humans) were naturally inactive, and the role of motivation was to arouse the passive to become the active. So drive, like all early motivational constructs, explained the instigating motor of behavior. As a point of illustration, a common midcentury definition of motivation was, “the process of arousing action, sustaining the activity in progress, and regulating the pattern of activity” (Young, 1961, p. 24). Motivation was the study of energizing the passive. The psychologists of the second half of the century saw things differently. They emphasized that the person was always getting to and doing something (Lewin, 1951).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour for Managers and Engineers

  A Group and Multicultural Approach

  • Duncan Kitchin(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 8: Organisational Structures ). Despite this need to study a number of aspects of organisational behaviour at the same time, we have to discuss them separately, but this and other chapters will make crossreferences to other chapters and relevant topics.

  We need to be careful when we look at theories, as they almost all have been developed (and tested, if tested at all) in the United States or European countries. We should question whether people differ enough between countries for the theory to be less than generally applicable.

  The standard textbook discussion of motivation looks only at the motivation of individuals, which is rather strange given the prevalence of group and team working in modern organisations, and particular national cultures (remember the individual versus collectivist nature of different national cultures, as discussed by Hofstede (2001), in Chapter 3: International Cultural Differences ).

  In the next sections of this chapter we will look at theories of individual motivation. A recurring theme will be self-actualisation, which implies that jobs are more motivating if they have been enriched by increasing the range of skills to be exercised and the degree of responsibility and empowerment that the workers are encouraged to accept (see Hackman and Oldham, 1980). Finally, we will go on to look at the motivation of groups.

  MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS

  Theories about motivating individuals have long been subdivided into two subsets. There are theories about what motivates individuals, and these are called content theories. There are also theories about how individuals are motivated, and these are called process theories. The distinction will become clearer in the subsequent discussion.

  CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

  Maslow’s theory

  Maslow (1943) was essentially a social psychologist, some of whose work was applied to individual motivation.

  He proposed that all people had needs that could be arranged in a hierarchy. The needs were about these individuals as people, and about these people as individuals. We could talk of these needs as life needs, because in Maslow’s writing there was nothing to suggest that these needs could only be met through work, but we need to remember that these are the people who go to work with the same set of life needs

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Industrial and Organizational Psychology

  Research and Practice

  • Paul E. Spector(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  This chapter discusses job performance in terms of several popular theories, with a focus on motivation rather than ability. (In Chapter 10, we will explore other things that affect performance, as well as other forms of work behavior, such as turnover.) This chapter begins by defining motivation in the context of the work environment. It then introduces work motivation theories and provides a brief overview of the nine theories to be covered. Each theory is next discussed in greater detail, along with the research evidence for its validity. Theories of Employee Motivation Work Motivation Theories 185 What Is Motivation? Motivation is defined as an internal state that induces a per- son to engage in particular behaviors. From one perspective, it has to do with the direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior over time. Direction refers to the choice of specific behaviors from a large number of possible behaviors. For example, an employee might decide to volunteer for an extra work project that will require him or her to work overtime instead of going home on time and watching television. Intensity refers to the amount of effort a person expends at doing a task. If an employee is asked to sweep a floor, the person can exert a lot of effort by sweeping hard and fast or exert a little effort by sweeping softly and slowly. Persistence refers to the continuing engagement in a behavior over time. An employee might try to accomplish something over an extended period of time, such as studying to pass the CPA exam to become a certified public accountant, even though it might take several attempts. From another perspective, motivation is concerned with the desire to acquire or achieve some goal. That is, motivation derives from a person’s desires or wants. Some people, for example, are highly motivated to acquire money. It is presumed that a high level of motivation to have money affects the behavior relevant to acquiring it.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Motivating Humans

  Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs

  • Martin E. Ford(Author)
  • 1992(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  4. Two-Factor Theory. Another theory that bears a striking resemblance to the ideas developed by Maslow and Aldefer [3] is Herzberg’s two-factor theory. This theory attempts to distinguish “hygiene factors” (i.e., elements of the job context associated with survival and stability maintenance goals, such as pay and job security) from “motivator factors” (i.e., job elements associated with personal growth and development such as autonomy and creativity). Moreover, it attempts to differentially link these two sets of factors with job satisfaction and dissatisfaction: whereas motivator factors are seen as the key to job satisfaction, hygiene factors are hypothesized to be the primary determinants of job dissatisfaction. This intriguing idea has helped two-factor theory maintain its status (despite modest empirical support) as one of a handful of prominent work motivation theories (Pinder, 1984).

  5. Drive Theory. The emergence of drive theory as the dominant theory of motivation in the middle part of the century was a particularly unfortunate event in the history of motivational theorizing. Although it helped elevate motivation to the center stage of psychological science, its eventual demise seemed to be associated with the rejection of motivation as a worthy topic for psychological study—a conceptual dismissal that may still not be fully reversed. Drive theory’s effort to conceptualize motivation in terms of internal states of arousal was not only incompatible with the behavioristic stream of influence that followed, it was also incongruent with the cognitive “revolution” whose seeds were planted in the 1950s and 1960s (a revolution that may have been facilitated by Tolman, the one major theorist who insisted on adding cognitive concepts to the basic drive theory paradigm).

  The awkwardness of trying to explain behavior without accepting the motivational significance of people’s thought processes is illustrated by the introduction and elaboration of the drive theory concept of a “fractional anticipatory goal response.” This concept was invented to try to explain how behavior can be future-oriented in the absence of any conception about the future. Interestingly, this was also a major issue in the early development of control system models of human functioning [31]. It was not until motivational scholars fully accepted the idea that cognitive representations of desired and expected futures could direct and regulate current behavior that theories of motivation were able to account for the variability, flexibility, and creativity in human behavior patterns.

  6. Field Theory

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Motivate and Reward

  Performance Appraisal and Incentive Systems for Business Success

  • H. Kressler(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Further Developments Consequently there was a growing interest in both empirical and theoreti- cal studies into the cause and essence of the motivation to work, as well into the various ways in which motivation functions. We are not likely to find one satisfactory and all-embracing definition of the motivation to work. Aspects of each theory and hypothesis can be disputed. On the other hand, if one wishes to develop and apply a person- al concept for a business, office relationships or even a manner of leader- ship, it can only be beneficial to reflect upon the essence and principles of motivation. As already indicated, motivation is a highly personal affair. As such it does not depend on the confirmation or rejection of particular theories. What is peculiar to the diverse theories and hypotheses of motivation is the systematic examination of a phenomenon that is otherwise rather difficult to define. Becoming familiar with some of these definitions or attempts at definition has the advantage of creating a contemplative backdrop, from which the motivation phenomenon and thereby an analysis of personal motivation behaviour is more easily accessible. Furthermore, on this basis the effect that personal behaviour might have on the motivation of others can be better understood. Definitions of motivation derive from highly personal thought processes and privately formed concepts of the phenomenon. Perhaps that may sound a little esoteric, but it is not. As with so many aspects of leadership and the working world, motivation concerns a fundamen- tal human trait. This applies in part to target setting, judging people, assessing situations, deciding courses of action, planning for the future, estimating risks, communicating, criticizing and having ‘aspirations’. These and many other activities and thought processes are by nature peculiar to humans.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Psychology and Work

  • Christine Hodson(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Motivation at work

  Introduction The behaviourist model of motivation Maslow’s hierarchy of needs McClelland: the need for achievement Job satisfaction Summary

  Introduction

  One of the main concerns of organisational psychology is to discover the motivation for working. Perhaps we should start by defining motivation. A motivator is something which induces a person to act. Motivation can therefore be described as purposive behaviour directed towards achieving a goal. The goal may be physiological, for example, a thirsty individual will be motivated to find something to drink and their behaviour will be directed to that end. However other goals may be much more complex. In the early days of psychology attempts were made to list the basic human needs that motivate human behaviour. The lists became so long that the attempt was quietly abandoned!

  In the previous chapter we examined Warr’s view of what work has to offer the individual but the questions of why we choose to work at all, where we choose to work, and how much effort we expend whilst there, still need answering.

  The behaviourist model of motivation

  Behavioural theory is based on the theories of operant and classical conditioning and is extended to social learning theory. It suggests that our behaviour is governed, or shaped, by the responses we meet in our environments. We will repeat behaviours which we find pleasant and which meet our needs, we will stop behaviours which produce no response and we will actually avoid unpleasant activities. This theory was highly influential in the early development of organisational psychology, particularly as it was taken up by Taylor (1911).

  Conditioning theory

  Classical conditioning

  Classical conditioning involves learning by association. If event A is consistently followed by event B then they will become associated. Event A will cause people and animals to anticipate event B. If you have a dog or cat and feed it on tinned food you will have observed that opening any tin produces a response from your pet. Your cat may wrap itself round your legs in an affectionate manner and your dog is likely to become excited. They have learned that open tins are often followed by food in their bowls.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Organizational Behavior

  • Michael A. Hitt, C. Chet Miller, Adrienne Colella, Maria Triana(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Thus, environmental factors can also play a role in performance. This brings us to our definition of work motivation. We know from the preceding discussion that ability and certain environmental factors exert influences on performance that are separate from the effects of motivation. Motivation, then, refers to forces coming from within a person that account for the willful direction, intensity, and persistence of the person’s efforts toward achieving specific goals, where achievement is not due solely to ability or environmental factors. 3 Several prominent theories offer explanations of motiva- tion. Most of the theories can be separated into two groups: those concerned largely with content and those concerned largely with process. In the next two sections, we consider theories in each of these two groups. Content Theories of Motivation Content theories of motivation generally focus on identifying the specific factors that moti- vate people. These theories are, for the most part, straightforward. Three important content theories of motivation are Maslow’s needs hierarchy, McClelland’s need theory, and Herz- berg’s two-factor theory. Hierarchy of Needs Theory One of the most popular motivation theories, frequently referred to as the hierarchy of needs theory, was proposed in the 1940s by Abraham Maslow. 4 According to Maslow, peo- ple are motivated by their desire to satisfy specific needs. Maslow arranged these needs in hierarchical order, with physiological needs at the bottom, followed by safety needs, social and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and, at the top, self-actualization needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is presented in Exhibit 6‑1. In general, lower-level needs must be sub- stantially met before higher-level needs become important. Below, we look at each level and its theoretical implications in organizational settings. 1. Physiological needs Physiological needs include basic survival needs—for water, food, air, and shelter.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior

  • Craig C. Pinder(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  to raise people’s consciousness, not to specify particular actions in particular contexts. Since we cannot be sure what specific parts of any theory may be fallible or not, we assert that it is inappropriate to make authoritative statements based on the theory” (p. 346).

  Complicating Models of Work Motivation

  In Chapter 1 , we discussed the tension that has often occurred in the application of work motivation theory between those who want simple solutions (one- or two-factor models, for example) and those who insist on developing, testing, and offering models that seek to capture more of the complexity of human motivation, attitudes, emotions, and behavior in complex organized settings. A recent review of the literature by Latham and Pinder (2005) offered 10 major conclusions about the development of theory and research in work motivation over the past 10 to 30 years. In a nutshell, the authors concluded (among other things) that models have become more complex and, presumably, more realistic, cautions offered by critics such as Brief and Dukerich (1991) notwithstanding. Therefore, in this section, we examine the forms and means by which work motivation theories and models have become more complex and we attempt to derive some principles for future development of the field.

  Occam's Razor vs. Requisite Variety: Context and Mediating Factors in Work Motivation Theory and Research

  Our definition of work motivation (seepage 11) indicates that it is “a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual’s being” (emphasis added). Hence, contrary to prevailing beliefs of just 50–60 years ago, we view work motivation as an internal psychological process resulting from the interaction between the individual and the environment, or context in which the individual exists. Indeed, in their Annual Review of Psychology chapter devoted exclusively to work motivation in the late 1970s, Korman, Greenhaus, and Badin (1977), consistent with Cronbach (1975) , warned against the potentially ephemeral nature of moderator variables in human affairs. (Context variables would be categorized as moderators in this view.) As mentioned in Chapter 1 , the fields of psychology and organizational behavior underwent a round of controversy and debate during the 1980s over the relative importance of dispositions (the force of main effects attributable to stable human characteristics) and contexts (cf. Chatman, 1989

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Supervisory Management

  The Art of Inspiring, Empowering, and Developing

  • Donald Mosley, Donald Mosley, Jr., Paul Pietri, , Donald Mosley, Donald Mosley, Jr., Paul Pietri(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Kurt Lewin, famous 2. Explain the relation- ship between perfor- mance and motivation. EXHIBIT 7-3 Factors Affecting an Individual’s Job Performance Job Performance Personal Motivation Personal Abilities, Skills Level of Organizational Support Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 7: Motivation 197 for his work in the study of groups, once said there is nothing so practical as good the- ory. The remainder of this chapter focuses on the important theories of motivation, with emphasis on their application to effective supervision. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory One theory particularly significant and practical was developed by psychologist Abraham H. Maslow and is known as the hierarchy of needs. Of all motivation theories, it is prob- ably the one best known by managers. The key conclusion drawn from Maslow’s theory is that people try to satisfy different needs through work. 8 Principles Underlying the Theory The two principles underlying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory are (1) people’s needs can be arranged in a hierarchy, or ranking of importance, and (2) once a need has been satisfied, it no longer serves as a primary motivator of behavior. To understand the signifi- cance of these principles to Maslow’s theory, let us examine the hierarchy of needs shown in Exhibit 7-4. Physiological or Biological Needs At the lowest level, but of primary importance when they are not met, are our physiological or biological needs. “Man does not live by bread alone,” says the Bible, but anything else is less important when there is no bread.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning

  • Sanna Jarvela(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier

    (Publisher)

  Motivation – Commonly defined as an internal state or condition and sometimes described as a desire or want that drives people’s behavior and gives it direction. Based on the expectancy-value theory, what motivates behavior is a function of the expectancies one has and the value of the goal toward which one is working. Aim, Focus, and Structure This article aims to capture the current zeitgeist of research on culture and motivation, embedded in its his-torical development. Key motivational constructs have been selected and reviewed to illustrate the diversity and richness of culture-based theorizing as well as the range of empirical studies that have examined motivation from a cultural perspective. The article also highlights the salient research trends that have emerged in the last decade and the significant contribution that culture has made to motivation research. As a background to understanding the development of recent research on culture and motivation, the first sec-tion provides a brief overview of critical milestones in the development of culture research in the broader field of psychology. The following section examines five key motivational constructs that have attracted a significant amount of research from a cultural perspective. The choice of constructs and the grouping of studies are, to a large extent, arbitrary, the aim being to illustrate a range of unique theoretical and empirical contributions that a culture-based perspective has made to motivation research. Two examples of cultural psychology research have been added to show that emic research from non-Western settings can make a unique contribution by unveiling new dimensions of learning and motivation. The article concludes with a brief discussion on the short-comings of research and future directions. Background and Historical Development of Culture-Based Research The modern epoch of cross-cultural psychology with a coherent research agenda began only in the mid-to late 1960s.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Naming the Mind

  How Psychology Found Its Language

  • Kurt Danziger(Author)
  • 1997(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Psychological Review, begins as follows:

  A rather insistent demand for an adequate psychology of motivation has always been made by those who are interested in the control of human nature. It has come from economists, sociologists, educators, advertisers, scout masters, and investigators of crime; more recently it has been voiced by certain psychologists, particularly those interested in personality and character, and in the various applied phases of the science. (Perrin, 1923)

  Early textbooks of motivation continued to show awareness of these roots in introducing their topic. Troland (1928: 1) begins his pioneering treatise by referring to the businessman who ‘wishes to know how to play on the motives of other men so that they will purchase his goods and services’. Young (1936: 2) says disarmingly: ‘We all desire to influence and control human behavior – our own and that of others’, and follows this with a tale about a student who applied ‘scientific motivational principles’ to his work as a salesman ‘and before the semester was over had won a national prize in salesmanship’. (Surely the author of this text on motivation also deserved such a prize.)

  The way in which the new concept of motivation is contextualized by its psychologist advocates signals a profound change in the understanding of human subjectivity. There had always been words referring to different facets of human intentionality, wish, desire, want, will, motive, and so on. These were usually invoked when it was a matter of accounting for one’s own, or others’, deviation from the automatic, habitual patterns of action that characterize everyday life. ‘Motivation’, however, departs from this usage in setting up an abstract category that groups all the older referents together, implying that they all have something important in common. All

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book