Motivation and Motivational Theories

• People work for any number of reasons
• Most people work because they want to earn money and survive while others work voluntarily
• Others work because they find meaning and fulfillment in their jobs
• Motivation is the reason why people come to work, do what they do and behave the way they behave
• It is also the desire or willingness of employees to work and accomplish the tasks/jobs set before them
• It is the force that drives people to work better
• Because of this managers have to find out what motivates workers and use this information to encourage workers to work more effectively and efficiently
• Motivating workers results in higher productivity (increased output/per worker) and ultimately higher profits and enables the organisation to achieve its goals/objectives

Motivational Theories

• Motivational theories are attempts by expects to try and explain the behaviour of employees in the workplace, their goals/objectives and desires
• These theories can be used to determine what drives employees and
• Thus enable managers to motivate workers based on these understandings
• Managers are constantly looking for ways to motivate  workers
• Motivational theories give them insight into workers and a way to try and motivate them
• At Ordinary Level we will study the following theories:
• F W Taylor’s Theory of Scientific Management
• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• McGregor’s Theory of X and Y
• F Herzberg’s Two Factor theory
• You need to know that these are not the only theories out there
• but at Ordinary Level these are more than adequate
• You will do well to confine yourself to these theories as very little is to be gained by straying from this list to study other theories

To access more topics go to the O Level Business Notes page.