Motivational Theories: Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

Motivational Theories

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” This is a quote from Raymond Chandler. This is a very powerful quote because people practice this everyday and if they think about this quote they can understand their motivation. In chapter six of Human Relations the book talked about many theories of motivation but, the two that I chose to talk about are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and McGregor’s theory.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is known as the theory of human motivation developed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. According to Maslow there is a hierarchy of five needs such as self-actualization needs, esteem needs, social needs, safety needs, and physiological

Douglas McGregor’s theory suggested two approaches to managing people such as theory X managers and theory Y managers. Theory X managers have four fundamental management beliefs with the first being the average person dislikes work and will avoid it. The second fundamental management belief is most people need to be threatened to achieve goals at work because they have no work ambition. This can include threatening employees with their job just so they can get the work done efficiently. The third belief is employees need to be supervised at every step or someone constantly watching over their shoulder. The fourth and final belief the book mentioned is most of the workers will avoid responsibility they don’t want to have the responsibility to complete big tasks. Theory Y managers have different beliefs with the first one being opposite of theory X with workers want to make an effort at work and want to be there. The second belief is that people will apply self control and self direction in pursuit of company objectives. Next people are committed to objectives and expect to receive awards. The fourth belief for theory Y is the exact opposite of theory X which is people accept and welcome responsibility. The last belief the book mentioned for theory Y was most workers will use their imagination to solve company problems. According to

The order Maslow listed the needs was physiological needs being first, safety needs being second, social needs being third, esteem needs being fourth, and then at the top of the pyramid being fifth was self-actualization needs. I definitely agree with physiological needs on the bottom of the pyramid because we all need food, water, air, and some shelter to live. In my opinion I did not dislike anything about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because Maslow only talks about those five needs and I agree with how he listed them. In McGregor’s X and Y theory I agree with theory Y over theory X because in theory Y people are actually motivated to be at work and to get tasks accomplished. I don’t like in theory X people don’t try to move up in the work place and don’t even want to be at work. To me it sounds like theory X people are lazy and are only there to get a paycheck, not to make the business they work for more successful. There are many motivational theories and I would suggest employers and employees should practice