A S L 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 43: Nature Air, Theory X And Theory Y, Food Security
Summary chapter 9 motivation and communications
p. 296-316
definition of motivation: motivation refers to the influential impulses which encourage a
person to sustain a commitment to a particular course of action. The impulses may
emanate from within the person or be the result of external influential factors.
Motivation can be viewed as an incentive to act in a particular manner. Communication
is the transference of knowledge or information from sender to receiver.
Theoretical perspectives of motivation
The instrumental approach
Early management: employee’s motivation is purely economic. Piece-rates: system
whereby the employee is paid for each unit of production at a fixed rate. As economic
incentives are under the control of the organisation, the worker is merely a passive
agent who can be motivated, manipulated, and controlled by the provision or with-
drawl of economic reward. Inefficiency, in terms of a worker’s inability to meet targets
and production quotas, could be met with dismissal. Thus managers traditionally ‘
‘motivated’ their workforce by a combination of fear and reward.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow postulated that human beings possessed five categories of needs, arranged in a
specific hierarchical order, so that, once one need had been satisfied it no longer acts as
a motivator, and a higher level need emerges which requires satisfaction. The higher-
level needs would not manifest themselves until the lover-level needs had first been
satisfied.
- physiological : basic survival needs of a physical nature – air, water, food
- security: a feeling of well-being and safety
- belongingness: an emotional need to feel wanted and part of a society
- esteem: feelings of self-worth and value
- self-actualisation: fulfilment of ambition and desired life goals
p.300 figure 9.1
Maslow’s concepts are not without problems: 1. No evidence to suggest that a hierarchy
of needs actually exists. 2. The ideas that a rank order exists and that pre-potency is a
necessary condition are valid only in a very limited and simple sense.
McGregor: Theory X/Theory Y
Theory X assumptions:
1. the average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he
can
2. humans have a characteristic dislike of work meaning that most people must be
coerced, controlled, directed and threatened with punishment to get them to put
forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organisational objectives.
3. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility,
has relatively little ambition, wants security above all.
Theory Y assumptions:
1. the expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest
2. external control and the threat of punishment are not the only means of bringing
about efforts towards organisational objectives –man will exercise self-direction
and self-control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.
3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their
achievement- the most significant of such rewards, e.g. the satisfaction of ego and
self-actualisation, can be direct products of effort directed towards
organisational objectives.
Document Summary
Summary chapter 9 motivation and communications: 296-316 definition of motivation: motivation refers to the influential impulses which encourage a person to sustain a commitment to a particular course of action. The impulses may emanate from within the person or be the result of external influential factors. Motivation can be viewed as an incentive to act in a particular manner. Communication is the transference of knowledge or information from sender to receiver. The instrumental approach whereby the employee is paid for each unit of production at a fixed rate. As economic incentives are under the control of the organisation, the worker is merely a passive agent who can be motivated, manipulated, and controlled by the provision or with- The higher- level needs would not manifest themselves until the lover-level needs had first been satisfied. Inefficiency, in terms of a worker"s inability to meet targets and production quotas, could be met with dismissal.
