David Mcclelland's Theory Of Employee Motivation

Motivation is the force within a person that affect the direction, intensity and persistence of voluntary behavior. We would look at the different methods and theory that mangers used motivate employees. Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment and creativity that a firm’s workers bring to their jobs. There are many core theories for employee motivations these include: Maslow’s needs hierarchy, McClelland’s learned needs theory and four drive theory, ERG theory and the equity theory. However, there are also popular rational decision model of employee motivation which include expectancy theory. There are also other factors and methods are used to motivate employees these factors and method would later be discussed.

Maslow’s Hierarchy

These three needs are: Need for achievement(NACH) – a need in which people want to accomplish reasonably challenging goals and desire unambiguous feedback and recognition for their success, people (Mueller & Dweck, 1998). who has a strong need for achievement will wan to accomplish challenging goals through their own effort. They prefer working alone instead of working in a team. Individuals with high NACA desire feedback and recognition for their success money is a weak motivator in contracts employees with low NACH perform better when money is used as an incentive. Secondly Need for Affiliation (NAFF)- a need in which people seek approval from others, conform to their wishes and expectations and avoid conflict and confrontation, people whit a strong NAFF will try to portrait a favorable image of themselves. They tend to support each other and smooth out workplace conflict. Employees with high NAFF work well in coordinating roles and in sales positions where main task is cultivating long term relations and they are less effective at allocating scare resources and making other decisions that potentially generate conflict. Lastly the 3rd need: Need for power- a need in which people want to control their environment, including people and material resources to benefit themselves or

Drive to acquire – this drive seeks to take control and retain objects and personal experiences, it includes enhancing one’s self concept through relative status and recognition in society. Secondly drive to bond- this is the drive to form social relationship and develop mutual caring commitments with others. Thirdly drive to learn this includes satisfying our curiosity, to know and understand ourselves and the environment around us. Lastly the drive to defend – this is the drive to protect ourselves physically and