Question

Case Study 5–5 All in a Day’s Work

Sarah Goodman, senior manager of network development for Holy Managed Care Company, looked over her calendar for the day and sighed deeply. It seemed as if there would be no time at all to work on the project she’d been putting off for most of the week. Circumstances seemed to be such that she simply didn’t have any control over her own time anymore.

Well, first things first, she determined. At 9:00 she was due at a meeting of senior managers who were involved in trying to devise a strategy for counteracting a threatened unionization drive by the company’s nonexempt employees. As Sarah thought about the people working for her, she began to wonder exactly what they wanted. They had a pleasant working space, good benefits package, and secure employment. She heard the laughter and chatter drifting into her office as people came into work and thought what a pleasant and congenial group they were. What more could they want?

Then at 10:30 there was another meeting. This one could be very exciting! In six months Sarah’s office was scheduled to be moved to a new industrial park on the west side of town. The plans she’d seen so far had all kinds of great perks for employees: on-site day-care center, fitness center, ample parking, great facilities for training. The company was certainly spending a lot of money on this new site. Sarah certainly hoped it would help increase productivity; it certainly would make the employees happier
and make recruitment easier.

She’d have to hurry to her lunch meeting with the adviser for the MHA program at Saint Thomas University. Sarah had decided as a part of her New Year’s resolution that she was finally going to begin her graduate degree. She felt she was simply stagnating in her job and, after looking around at positions in her company that looked interesting, she realized she needed a graduate degree if she were going to progress. The only problem was that she wasn’t sure how enthusiastic Richard, her husband, would be about the whole idea. And her mother certainly wouldn’t be happy! The hints about grandchildren had become an outright discussion over the holidays.

Discuss the various motivation theories reflected in this case study.

These include:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Alderfer's ERG Theory

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

Hackman and Oldham's Job Design Theory

McClelland's Three-Needs Theory

Answer 1

Motivation refers to a psychological processes that stimulate excitement & persistence of voluntary actions aimed at some goal. Motivation can be highly individualized, managers use a wide range of techniques to keep their employees motivated and happy.

Needs are psychological or physiological insufficiencies that provoke some type of behavioral response. The needs of a person has can range from weak to strong & can vary based on environmental factors, time and place Needs theories attempt to identify internal factors that motivate an individual's behavior & are based on the premise that people are motivated by unfulfilled needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory : He suggested that motivation is the result of a person's attempt at fulfilling five basic needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization.& these needs can create internal pressure that influences a person's behavior

1) PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS : For human surival a person requires air, food, water, shelter, clothing and sleep. Therefore. physiological needs of employees can be fulfilled by providing comfortable working conditions, reasonable work hours & necessary breaks to use the bathroom & meals.

2) SAFETY NEEDS :  Personal security, financial security, good health & protection from accidents, harm and their adverse affects are the safety needs required by employees. all included in safety needs. As a manager providing safe working conditions, secure compensation (salary) & job security, which is very important factor in the bad economy.

3) SOCIAL NEEDS : This need refers to sense of belonging & acceptance, As a manager it becomes the responsibility to note the social needs of the employees, ie to encourage co-operative team working conditions in the organistation & promoting a good work-life balance.

4) ESTEEM NEEDS : This need refers to the need for self-esteem & respect, with self-respect more important than gaining respect & admiration from others.Esteem needs can be fulfilled to employees by offering praise & recognition when the employee does well, and offering promotions & additional responsibility to reflect your belief that they are a valued employee.  

5) SELF ACTUALIZATION NEEDS : person's need to reach his or her full potential. The need to become what one is capable of . you might have the need to hold an executive-level position within your organization.as this need is individualized, as a manager, you can account for this need by providing challenging work, inviting employees to participate in decision-making and giving them flexibility and autonomy in their jobs. Maslow believed that these needs exist in a hierarchical order. This progression principle suggests that lower-level needs must be met before higher-level needs.

ALDERFER's ERG THEORY :. Alderfer further developed Maslow's hierarchy of needs by categorizing the hierarchy into his ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness and Growth). The existence group is concerned with providing the basic material existence requirements of humans.

This theory is concerned to relatedness – the desire people have for maintaining important interpersonal relationships. These social &status desires require interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and they align with Maslow's social need and the external component of Maslow's esteem classification. Alderfer isolates growth needs: an intrinsic desire for personal development. These include the intrinsic component from Maslow's esteem category and the characteristics included under self-actualization. Alderfer categorized the lower order needs (Physiological and Safety) into the Existence category. The Growth category contained the self-actualization &self-esteem needs. Alderfer also proposed a regression theory to go along with the ERG theory. He said that when needs in a higher category are not met then individuals redouble the efforts invested in a lower category need.

HERZBERG'S TWO FACTOR THEORY :The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and dual-factor theory) states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction.

According to Herzberg, individuals are not content with the satisfaction of lower-order needs at work; for example, individuals look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement,recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself.

Herzberg added a new dimension to this theory by proposing a two-factor model of motivation, based on the notion that the presence of one set of job characteristics / incentives leads to worker satisfaction at work, while the other separate set of job characteristics leads to dissatisfaction at work. This theory suggests that to improve job attitudes & productivity, administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics & not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in dissatisfaction.

HACKMAN & OLDHAM'S job Design Theory :is based on the idea that the task itself is key to employee motivation. a boring and monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well, whereas a challenging job enhances motivation. Variety, autonomy & decision authority are three ways of adding challenge to a job. Job enrichment and job rotation are the two ways of adding variety and challenge. theory proposes that high motivation is related to experiencing three psychological states while working: 1) Meaning fulness of work, In this is branched with various points to refer :a) skill variety b) task identity c) task significance 2) Responsibility : opportinuty is provided to accept the responsibility & freedom to work according to the actions

3) knowledge out comes :This is important for two reasons. Firstly to provide the person knowledge on how successful their work has been, which in turn enables them to learn from mistakes. The second is to connect them emotionally to the customer of their outputs, thus giving further purpose to the work& one should have the extreme knowledge of his job work.

Mcclelland's three need theory :states that every person has one of three main driving motivators: the needs for achievement, affiliation, or power. These motivators are not inherent; we develop them through our culture and life experiences.

identifying people's motivating drivers. This help to give praise and feedback effectively, assign them suitable tasks, & keep them motivated.

The basic needs that human beings have, in order of their importance: physiological needs, safety needs, and the needs for belonging, self-esteem and "self-actualization".