DANIEL ROMERO Pernia (*)
Motivation is a crucial concept in the study of organizations. His relationship with individual performance, satisfaction and organizational productivity has become an essential topic of Organizational Behavior. However, both the definition and explanation of the phenomenon have a wide spectrum of possibilities.
Motivation is a highly complex phenomenon. Is not easy to define. Any definition adopted would be somewhat arbitrary. For purposes of this introduction writing, consider the motivation as a process which begins, is sustained and directs behavior incentives to achieve a satisfying an important need at this time for the individual.
If it is difficult to define, more difficult is the attempt to explain it. Several theories compete to explain the phenomenon of motivation at work. Some could be complementary, others are clearly irreconcilable. Some reasons relate to a particular group of variables, sometimes with different variables. Some enjoy the support of the practical evidence, others have not run with the same fate. Some were born of theoretical speculation, others are daughters of praxis.
What we present below is a crushing summary of the main theories on motivation. The intention is to show the variety and richness of different approaches. They are merely a guide, a simple appetizer that stimulates a deeper search.
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS (Abraham Maslow)
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a first attempt to classify human motivations and understand their impact on behavior. The human needs, according to this theory, can be grouped into five categories: physiological needs (designed to ensure the existence of the individual and the species: hungry thirst, sleep, sex ...), security needs (protection from threats or risks, real or imagined), affiliation or social needs (belonging to groups in which the person can give and receive affection), or psychological needs ego (own estimate and others) and self-actualization needs (development of the personality). Such needs are hierarchically organized in a "pyramid" with the physiological basis of self-realization and the vertex. The individual tends to satisfy them in ascending order, so that organize their behavior around satisfying lower order needs that are unmet (Needs met, in other words, do not drive). When the needs that are motivating a moment begin to be met on a regular basis, the individual begins to be driven by the needs of the next order. In the workplace the different types of needs are met with varied and specific incentives. For example, physiological needs are satisfied with incentives such as wages and economic benefits, the security can be satisfied with job security or protection against occupational diseases and accidents; social needs harmonious interpersonal relationships in your work group, the psychological with awards and promotions for example, those of self with the assignment of challenging work, adapted to the expectations and capabilities of the worker.
XY THEORY AND THEORY (DOUGLAS McGREGOR)
McGregor approaches aim to account for the assumptions that underlie the actions of managers, and the consequences of those actions on its employees. Every manager has a set of assumptions about man and his relationship with the work, which are located on a continuum whose ends are known as Theory X and Theory Y. The first of these sets of assumptions contain a traditionalist and pessimistic vision of man and his relationship with work. Is the Theory X whereby workers are lazy by nature, working mainly for money, no ambition, do not identify with the organization, are resistant to change and lack of skills in complex work. In contrast to this, there is another set of assumptions more optimistic and humanist content. Theory Y is, that workers can enjoy their work as much as play or rest, looking for work in higher-order bonuses are ambitious and willing to assume new responsibilities, identify with the organization, are susceptible change and usually have more skills than shown in the daily work. However, every manager directs its management actions under the assumptions that support to be true. A manager who is identified with the tenets of the Theory X is likely to develop an autocratic leadership, closely monitor workers, seek to influence their behavior through rewards and punishments, will indicate in detail what to do and concentrate on their own hands the decision-making. A manager and guided by the theory, tend to develop a style of democratic or participatory leadership, give room for self-direction and self-control will provide opportunities for individuals to develop their potential, and provide autonomy workers to make decisions about their work. In short, every manager will develop a leadership style that is consistent with the assumptions you have about the man and his relationship with work. Most importantly, however, is the realization of self-fulfilling prophecy: the workers will react in a way that ratified the initial assumptions. In short, the manager assumes that employees have certain characteristics, directed in accordance with these assumptions and workers will behave as if these assumptions were true.
THEORY OF MOTIVATION-HEALTH (Frederick Herzberg)
Theory of Motivation-Hygiene also known as Theory of the two factors or Bifactorial Theory states that the factors causing dissatisfaction among workers are totally different nature of the factors leading to satisfaction. The theory is that man has a dual system of needs: the need to avoid pain or unpleasant situations and the need to grow emotionally and intellectually. To be qualitatively different, each type of need in the world of work require different incentives. So we can speak of two types of factors involved in motivation at work. Hygienic and preventive factors (salary, environmental conditions, monitoring mechanisms, relationships interpersonal and organizational management), avoid dissatisfaction but do not produce motivation satisfaction. Motivational factors (recognition, sense of accomplishment, autonomy or responsibility, advancement possibilities and work itself) do produce satisfaction, provided that the hygiene factors are functioning acceptably. Thus, if they are not working properly any of the factors, the individual will be totally dissatisfied. If only work hygiene factors, the worker will not be dissatisfied, but not be motivated (kind of point of indifference). If motivational factors operate, but not the hygienic, the worker is dissatisfied (they blocked the effects of motivational factors). There will only be motivated when both kinds of factors are working properly. THEORY
ERC (Clayton Alderfer)
ERC theory expounded by Alderfer, believes that human beings have three basic types of needs: existence needs (E), which require the provision of material conditions for the survival of individuals and species (covering the physiological and safety needs of Maslow's pyramid); needs ratio (R), to maintain satisfactory interactions with others feel part of a group and giving and receiving affection (corresponding to social needs and the esteem of Maslow's psychological needs) and growth needs (C), inner desire for personal development and have high self-concept same (equivalent psychological needs and self esteem in the scheme maslowniano). Alderfer suggests that these needs are sorted from the most concrete (Existence, which is basically satisfied with material incentives) to least specific (Growth, whose source of satisfaction is absolutely intrinsic). Although there is no rigid hierarchy as established Maslow, the energy that fuels the behavior the individual tends to move, according to Alderfer, from the more specific needs to the less specific (E-> R -> C), giving the phenomenon of projection satisfaction (it fills a need and moves to a less specific). However, Alderfer included in their model the possibility of the phenomenon of frustration-regression, which occurs when they are blocked less satisfying a specific need (in relation, for example) and the individual returns with more emphasis on the gratification of more individual needs (of existence, for instance). Two other events round out the basic principles of the ERC theory. When an individual is frustrated the satisfaction of their needs for existence (most precise), is engaged more actively with the satisfaction of other needs in that category. Finally, when an individual meets a growing need, he directs his conduct to the satisfaction of other needs of that nature.
THEORY OF HIGH NEEDS (David McClelland)
is also known as Theory of the three needs. He argues that once the individual has failed to meet their basic needs or primary (equivalent to the physiological and safety needs in Maslow's hierarchy), the conduct of the individual happens to be dominated by three types needs: the need for affiliation (NAF), which involve the desire to maintain friendly and close interpersonal relationships, needs for achievement (nlog), including the drive to excel, to achieve goals, overcome obstacles and succeed, and needs power (nPod), which implies a desire to influence people and situations to make certain things happen that otherwise would not occur. The three motivations or needs operate simultaneously, but at some point one of them dominates the others and the individual's behavior is organized in the pursuit of meeting that need. The orientation towards some of these motivations is learned through contact with socializing agents such as family, school, media and other organizations. McClelland stated that the exceptional filmmakers (persons of extraordinary performance) differ from the good producers (individuals with a satisfactory performance only), because they have a high achievement motivation (rather than the level of knowledge. The achievement-motivated workers seeking jobs where the goals are of moderate risk, which they have responsibility for results and where they can get feedback on their performance. McClelland stated that there is a verifiable historical relationship between the number of people motivated by achievement and degree of development of nations. Finally, if a high achievement motivation is needed for exceptional performers for the exercise of management is needed motivation for power, because the manager's role is not to directly execute the tasks, but lead others to perform services and achieve certain objectives.
Expectancy Theory (V. VROOM, E. DECI, L. PORTER)
Expectations Theory aware of the factors that affect motivation, on the one hand, and variables with motivation affect the performance expected of workers. The performance expected of a worker is the product of the combination three variables: motivation, training and role perception. The motivation, in turn, depends on the value of the reward (Valencia) and the likelihood of obtaining it if you make the right effort. This probability can be decomposed into two: the probability that the effort to drive the outcome (expectancy) and the probability of having obtained the result reaches the reward (instrumentality). Thus, the motivation is the amount of effort that the individual is willing to do to achieve their organizational goals. The motivation will depend on how much value the individual granted the reward (ie, the ability of the incentive to meet their dominant) and subjective probability (expectancy x instrumentality) that he perceives that it can effectively reach this reward if you manage organizational goals. High motivation is not enough to expect a good performance (ie, a satisfactory achievement of organizational goals). Two additional factors come into play. One of them is training, (ie, ability to perform effectively in their current position). The other is the perception of the role (that is, the degree of correspondence between what the individual thinks he should do and what your supervisor, who is the performance measure, expected of him). So that a high reward value and a high probability that can be perceived obtain results in highly motivated worker, who combined with good training and a sound knowledge of their role, will yield a high expected performance. A low value of any of these variables produces a significant decrease in expected performance.
Equity Theory (J. Stacey Adams)
Equity Theory tries to explain the effect it has on the motivation that individuals make comparison between his situation (in terms of the contributions made and benefits receiver) and other individuals or groups that are taken as references. Within an organization, each individual brings certain contributions (A) in their work (Knowledge, expertise, time, effort, dedication, enthusiasm ...) and receives a set of results (R) (wages, other economic benefits, prestige, esteem, affection ...). Individuals tend to compare their results and their own contributions to the results and contributions of others or reference groups. If Rp and Ap call the results and contributions of their own and Rpr and April to the results of the reference input, you can make the following comparisons: If (Rp / Ap) = (Rpr / Apr) no sense of fairness, since the relationship between the results and their own contributions is equal to the ratio enter the reference results and contributions. In such a situation the individual is motivated to conduct high performance. If (Rp / Ap) < (Rpr/Apr) hay sensación de inequidad pues se siente sub-retribuido. En tal caso, el individuo ve disminuida su motivación y desarrolla conductas compensatorias (por lo general disminuyendo sus aportes o incrementando sus resultados por cualquier vía). Por último, si (Rp/Ap) > (Rpr / Apr) the individual can develop a sense of guilt and also assumes behavior to restore equity (generally, increasing their contributions or reducing their results). In addition to altering the input and / or the results themselves, people can develop other behaviors to restore fairness: they can change the input of reference, modify the results of reference, change the reference or change the situation. According to Equity Theory, the individual can make comparisons to a reference within the same organization (internal one) and another person from another organization (other external) with his own experience in other posts in the same organization (internal self), or the experience of the person in another organization (outside of its own).
THEORY OF COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT (E. Deci, R. RYAN. R. THE CHARM)
The Theory of Cognitive Assessment seeks to determine the influence of rewards on intrinsic motivation. Basically states that when a person performs an activity driven by intrinsic motivation and get some reward (extrinsic motivation) this causes a decrease in initial intrinsic motivation. The most common explanation of the phenomenon indicates that by adding external compensation (rewards), the individual begins to perceive that their behavior is controlled from outside by others (the giving of the reward). This negatively affects their self-determination and intrinsic motivation suffers. We have found, however, that not all rewards have the same effect on intrinsic motivation. Tangible rewards (money or other material reward, for example) decrease intrinsic motivation, while the intangible rewards (praise, verbigracia) is not affected. On the other hand, the expected rewards (announced in advance) decrease intrinsic motivation, while unexpected rewards not affected. Thus, a tangible reward and expected strongly affects intrinsic motivation. Intangible and unexpected reward would not affect her. So that the relationship between external rewards and intrinsic motivation is not as linear as initially believed. Another pair of factors provides a clearer picture of this relationship, Every reward has two effects: a controlling effect of the behavior (shapes behavior in the direction desired by the grantor of the reward, thus affecting the determination of the individual) and an effect information on their competence (the person communicates to your skill level to perform the task.) If a reward has a little effect controller (promoting self-determination) makes the increase intrinsic motivation. This does not occur if the reward is high controlling effect (denies self-determination). On the other hand, if the information makes the individual is perceived as very competent, intrinsic motivation is encouraged. The opposite occurs if the information emphasizes the failures and conveys an idea of \u200b\u200blow competition.
of instituting THEORY OF TARGETS (EDWIN LOCKE)
The goal setting theory emphasizes the role of specific goals motivating the behavior of the individual. A goal is anything that an individual strives to achieve. In other conditions equal (ability, task knowledge, attractive rewards, availability of resources), a worker with clear goals will perform better than one that has not or whose goals are vague. For targets can act as an incentive for motivation must have some degree of difficulty (goals too low or too much difficulty did not operate as motivators) should be specific (note clearly and precisely what you want to achieve). Specific goals and desires to reach difficult to arouse (intensity of motivation), guide behavior in a certain sense (direction) and stimulating the persistence over time, until it achieves the goal. In addition, there must be feedback, ie, the individual must be able to learn about their progress on their way to the goal. But not enough specific and challenging goals, and the possibility of feedback. The influence of these goals on performance is moderated by other factors: the commitment to the goal (degree of acceptance, either because the individual participated in setting or because the person who assigned it is perceived as credible and trustworthy), the efficiency personal (ie, the perception of the individual over his own ability to achieve the target), the type of tasks (group goals generate less enthusiasm for the results not only depend on the individual but the actions of others that he does not control) and the national culture (the kind of values \u200b\u200band motivations encouraged by the culture of society.)
FLOW THEORY (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
flow theory is an attempt to explain what happens when the realization of an individual activity results in a sensation so pleasurable that the person made, even has a high degree of difficulty, for the sheer pleasure of it. This state of full concentration and pleasurable is called the flow and when people experience is deeply absorbed in what they are doing, attention is exclusive to the task and your consciousness merges with their actions. The attention is so concentrated that the person loses track of time and space. The experience of flow is entirely intrinsic motivation, and occurs regardless of the target (this can be achieved, but not because the intention of the actor is his achievement.) The individual only focuses on what it does for the pleasure you get with such implementation. The experience of flow requires the existence of a task that has a good dose of challenge, claiming the implementation of the skills and abilities of the individual. The experience of flow, therefore, is more intense when the challenge is greater and the skills necessary to address are higher. The relationship between challenge and competence of the individual task, and produce the experience of flow (when there are high-level skills for highly challenging tasks), may produce other results when challenges and skills do not match. Thus, a low competition (low ability) compared to moderately challenging tasks raises concerns. Low competition with very challenging tasks provokes anxiety. A high competition with barely challenging task because boredom. And finally, down slightly competition with challenging tasks leads to apathy.
THEORY OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION (KENNETH THOMAS)
Theory Intrinsic motivation stems from the fact that today's organizations are not looking for "submission" of the worker, but their commitment and initiative. Therefore there are enough external rewards with previously "bought" this submission. The new style of work is that workers want more than money and self-interest at work, that workers seek intrinsic rewards to the mere execution of work, that these internal rewards are high emotional and "do to do "makes people feel good. These circumstances make the workers look at their work achievement a valuable purpose, which claims to achieve self-direction. This self-direction requires more initiative and commitment, which depends on satisfying deeper than those offered by external rewards. Self-direction, therefore, offers the possibility that the employee receives four intrinsic rewards, autonomy (freedom to choose the tasks that lead to the goal and to choose how these tasks will be performed), competition (perception that have the ability and skill necessary to perform the task), sense or meaning (belief that the work leading to a goal or purpose which is highly valued by the individual) and progress (Opportunity to learn about the progress of work towards achieving the purpose). The combination of these four elements cause a state of intrinsic motivation (derived from the actual performance of the task) which in turn generates a high performance (achievement of organizational goals) and a high satisfaction (achievement of personal goals)
ESSENTIAL READING :
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Kast, F. & Rosenzweig, J. (1996), Managing in organizations (Focus Systems and Contingency) (4 th ed.). Mexico: Editorial Trillas
McGregor, D. (2001). The human factor in the company, Collection Business Management. Caracas: Ediciones Deusto
Reeve, J. (2002). Motivation and Emotion (3 rd ed.) Mexico, DF: McGraw-Hill
Robins, S. (2004), Organizational Behavior (10 th ed.). Mexico: Pearson Education.
Thomas, K. (2001), Motivation and fullness 8 hours per day, Mexico, DF: Editorial Grijalbo
Vroom, V. and Deci, E (ed.) (1999), Motivation and senior management, Editorial Trillas, Mexico, DF: Editorial Trillas
