If the above 2 questions were put forward to twenty different managers, the result would be twenty different opinions on a motivated group and a satisfied group of employees. Every manager develops their own approach to motivating their subordinates. They may choose to adopt one of the theories suggested by management theorists such as Frederick Herzberg, David McClelland or Abraham Maslow. Nevertheless, there are no definitive rules to describe a motivated group of employees.
Job Characteristics and Motivation One of the more widely known attempts to link job characteristics with human motivation, satisfaction and performance is Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Frederick Herzberg, an industrial psychologist, studied the causes of employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction. He considered satisfaction to be his motivating factors and termed dissatisfaction as hygiene factors.
Herzberg originated the motivator-hygiene theory after he interviewed 203 accountants and engineers who were asked to describe specific occasions when they felt exceptionally good or exceptionally bad about their job. 1The most obvious benefit of a job is that it provides income for the jobholder. Although the importance of this benefit should not be understated, it is clear from the percentage of people who would continue to work if they did not need the money that there is more to work than financial gain.
The activity provided by the job gives people an opportunity to use their skills and knowledge. A job provides variety by taking people out of their domestic environment and for most people a job also influences the way their time is structured and used. The social aspects of work include an opportunity and an environment in which to interact with others and the provision of status and identity within society. In our society for example the question ‘What do you do? Has only one meaning, ‘What work do you do?. Motivation is in relation to the strength and direction of human behaviour.
1 For example, problems such as why two people with the same ability produce different levels of performance or why someone works hard at one task but not at the other, may be explained in terms of motivation. As I have stated earlier, every manager has their own theory of a motivated group and a satisfied group of employees; therefore, I have arrived at a theory that I acknowledge: Thus, the 69% of men and the 65% of women in the sample of workers Warr selected from the British workforce are motivated workers.
A group that is prepared to work when there is no need must acquire activity. Motivation is a Latin term which means move, therefore, to be motivated it requires activity. People will not carry out a job without some reward just because they have no financial need. Therefore, I have concluded that motivated individuals prefer activity and reward (money) in their work. Satisfied individuals, on the other hand, have no interest in the activity that their job provides, hence, they are only attracted to the outcome: Money only.
