Maslow’s Theory of Motivation

Explain two motivational theories of Human Resource Management.

In this section, two motivational theories of human resource management have been analyzed in detail manners. Motivational theories try to evolve the process of motivating the employees of a business organization. Therefore, employees are the most important stakeholders of an organization (Ali, 2012). Employees are the most valuable asset of an organization in order to achieve the goal as well as objective of the organization. In this section, Maslow theory of motivation and McGregor theory of motivation has been discussed in detail manner.

Figure 1: Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

(Source: Altarawmneh and Al-Kilani, 2010, pp-48)

As stated by, Andersen and Minbaeva (2013), this theory depends on the hierarchy of needs. This theory discuses the basic needs and demands of the people those are based upon hierarchy. Psychological needs of the people have been discussed in this Maslow model.  Abraham Maslow has invented this theory in the year of 1950s. Five stages of needs have been discussed in this model of Abraham Maslow.

Physiological needs: According to the model of Abraham Maslow, first stage is involved in the Physiological needs of the employees. Employees of the organization first looks for the cleanliness as well as air, light of the organization. Employees also have the need of accurate salary for sustaining in the particular organization where he/she works. These needs are the basic needs for the employees that have to be secured by the employer organization (Anyadike, 2013).

Safety needs: This step describes the safety of life and the place where a person works. Safety needs refer to the job security as well as health insurance those can boost the morale and motivation of the employees. Financial and health security of the employees in the workplace should be considered by the employer organization in order to retain the employees (Bakker et al. 2011).

Social needs: Human beings are the social animal. For this reason, various types of social needs are very important for motivating the employees of an organization. Friendly instead of professional atmosphere among the organization is needed in order to motivate the employees of the organization. Social needs can help in order to build a strong relationship among the employees and the particular organization as well as authority of the organization (BAL et al. 2013).  

Esteem needs: This need can be referred as the needs for rank as well as designation and the up gradation of the recent post of the employee. This need has been linked with the designation, self respect, responsibilities and higher status (Bibi et al. 2012).  

McGregor’s Theory of Motivation

Self actualization: Innovative work and creativity among the work environment can be included in this need.

According to Bledow et al. (2011), Maslow theory has the advantage of describing the needs of human psychology at every aspect of working life. The organization can understand several phases of the psychology of the employees. The level of importance of those needs can be understood by the employer in order to know the basic demands of the employees.

On the other hand, Chiaburu and Diaz (2011) stated that, this theory has based upon the narrow segment. This theory has failed to deliver the individual needs of every employee as the needs vary from human to human.

Douglas McGregor has developed a theory of motivation. X and Y theory has been developed by Douglas McGregor. This theory is based upon the contemporary understanding about the psychological perspective of employees of different organization.

Figure 2: Theory of X and Y

(Source: Christian et al. 2011, pp- 91)

Employees follow the leaders of the particular organization. Managers have controlled over the employees and their works. Managers do not take any decisions for the sake of the employees of the organization.

Y Theory (Participatory leadership):

This theory states that the workers participate in every aspects of the organization. Friendly atmosphere is there in order to help the workers for self motivating the urge of working. Every employee is strongly motivated in this situation.

As stated by Chen (2010), this theory tends to be very easy to understand for the employees. Therefore, this theory has been failed in the process of motivating employees of the organization.

Theory of motivation has to be implemented with the Tesco Plc which is a major British based multinational retail company.

Job design: In order to design job for the employees Tesco should be careful about the basic needs and demands of the employees of the organization. Tesco has designed the job in accordance with the qualifications as well as ability of the employees of the organization. However, acquiring the Maslow’s model of motivation job will be designed by evaluating the various types of needs of the employees, like social, physiological needs etc.

Interpersonal skills: Tesco Plc should be aware about the fact that, communication and interaction among the employees should be increased. Employees from different culture and language should be incorporated in this work. In order to increase the interaction as well as communication among the employees the authority should arrange some interactive session with employees and managerial level workers.

Application of Theories

Reward and system of recognition: Reward is very important factor for motivating the employees of the organization. Rewards and recognition can be categorized by the financial as well as non financial element. These elements help to increase the trust of the employees about the organization and the members of the authorities (Andersen and Minbaeva, 2013).

Feed forward system within the organization will give the McDonalds to overcome with transactional form of leadership into participative form of leadership. By the help of feed forward techniques every decision made by the management will confirm from the employees in order to understand their problems, issues and their query about the helps to create the loyalty towards the organizations.

This system within the organization can bring confidence among the employees and they can feel their presence within the company. The feed forward system implementations will creates tow communication within the McDonalds the chances of conflicts arising will be less that will help to creates positive environment for working for the employees.

According to the theory y of McGregor is for participative leadership for working environment of the worker for friendly and delegation of work at an open system environment. There are management should be able to take decision for their employees. And in this kind of organisation the working condition of the employees are strong & motivated. And with the free participation of employees in proper training for decision making allows the employees to encourage positive way of working and increase the company profit by 21% every year.

The Tesco Plc has amplified the efficiency of the workers by almost 23 %. Initially the efficiency of workers in Tesco Plc was 11.09 %. This amplification of efficiency occurred in the Tesco Plc by practicing the model of implementation and motivation. On the other hand, this model of implementation and motivation can boost and motivate the workers of the Tesco Plc to work smoothly which can give a high production level in Tesco Plc. This will also help the Tesco Plc Company to achieve the objectives of the company and can earn more profit from the market. This will help the company to increase the profit margin of the company.

The method of job enrichment and job rotation can give a high responsibility and high accountability between the workers of McDonalds. This method will take more time for the McDonalds firm to take important decisions for the company which can force the company to face difficult position in the competitive market. Apart from this, the authority of delegation can increase the error percentage in the firm. This method will force the company to spend more money which will deduce the profit margin of the company (Tesco plc, 2015).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementations

Companies mainly set some goals for their organization and always performance hard to achieve that setting goals during a given span of time. Goal strategy actually affects the performance to enhance the motivation of the employee to achieve the goal within given period of time. All the goal achieving strategy mainly affects the employee’s behavior in the organization with all individuals and group of people (Sevincer, A., Kluge, L. and Oettingen, G, 2013).

This theory is set to focus on the goal as well as on those people who all are working to achieve this goal. If behavior of the employee is not up to mark for achieving the goal, then the target will be not going to fulfilled in the given period of time. Goals those have targets to achieve that within given period of time and employees are aware of their mission also highly motivated for that purpose (Schunk, D., Meece, J. and Pintrich, P, 2014).

Management in an organization will give direct attention to their employee’s behaviors towards achieving the particular goal and as well as inspire their employees with achievement awards to motivate him. To calculate the time spends by an individual to achieve their targets. Like if any one studies hard for the exam for longer hour so definitely target will be attend within or before time.

There are many theories which improved the business performance of an organization Maslow theory of needs, the job of the employees is design according to their needs and capacity of workers within organization (O’Driscoll, C. 2012). Some core features should be kept in mind by the Human resource manager of the company. Feed towards system within the organization can bring confidence among their subordinate overcome with transactional form of leadership into participative leadership.

The theory has increase its market shares as because initially company was at the 3rd place in UK retail sector with 29% of market shares but current it lies above the competitors by using the Maslow theory of motivations (Miller, W. 2012).

UK retail	2014 Market Shares %
Tesco	29%
Asda	17.1%
Sainsbury	16.5%
Morrison’s	10.09%
Waitrose	7.2%

 After implementation of the Maslow theory within the organizations, Tesco has been able increase its market shares in 3^rd position in 2014.  Employees are very much satisfied with way things are going for great achievement. Every need is being fulfilled by the organizations Tesco develops new learning portal , 2010).

 Sometimes organization use 360 degree appraisal systems to motivational theories are working to enhance the productivity of the employee. This theory helps the company to assess the actual position of the company and employees productivity. There is a new program available the organization for help the company to improve their strong relationship with their supervisor and employees (Mcreynolds, J. 2012).

According to McGregor theory of feed forward system within organization will give a company to overcome with transactional form of leadership activity. This system implementations will creates communication within the organization and that will help to creates positive environment for working in the company Bentham, S. and Hutchins, 2012.

Delegation of authority will build the decision making process for the team. It can be achieved by the organization for their enrichment process and their responsibility to encourage the workers to work in the efficient manners to accomplish their task. The delegation of authority will be going to help to motivate the employees by delegating the authority to lower base of the hierarchy within the organizations.

The delegation of authority will bring positive environment with organizations. This will encourage the creativity and sense of responsibility among the employees to complete their duty. Apart from the decision making attitude will also be incorporate with the employees via delegation of responsibilities. With the free participation and proper training for decision making allows the employees to encourage positive way of working and increase the company productivity.

According to x theory of McGregor motivation theory comprises of two approaches the employees are very much followed the leaders without asking single questions. The management takes decision for their employees and feedback. Workers and employees dislike their works, their works. Mainly tries to neglect their roles and responsibilities and being forced to work and no delegation of authority is being passed (Hanifi, N., Parvizy, S. and Joolaee, S 2013).

The theory of X and Y are very much commonly present in the current business world. McGregor theory is very much based on the modern understanding of the employee’s psychology. The theory explains the two major fundamental methods about the employees who are working with the organization (i) theory of X which suggest that employees are generally giving the poor and worse results (ii) theory Y shows the better results and performance which help   the company to achieve their goals. These are based on the leadership style chosen by the organizations or the management authority of the company Chung, K. (2014).

The reward re recognition is based on the employee’s performance at each level of their works. The rewards can base on the monetary and non monetary benefits of company which can fulfill the esteem benefits. The esteems will be fulfilled by the providing the designations that will be help employees to boost their trust rewards from the company. 

Whenever in the organization the communication within employees will be connected through good team work and also people take a step ahead to help others in decision making to make each other’s work interesting. Every manager has to motivate their employees to get their work done within the allotted time and achieve their goal.

Peer to peer review system- This system of appraisal helps to determine a more concrete appraisal for the employees. The peer to peer system increases the efficiency of the employees. This is because in this system, an employee’s performance is judged from various perspectives. It includes feedback from the colleagues, subordinates and supervisors. It includes evolution of one’s own performances also. It may also include feedback from several external factors to an organization like the stakeholders, customers or suppliers. This helps the employee to get a more dependable feedback from the various sources. This method should be followed by the company.

 Feed forward review system- This type of feedback system involves direct feedback flow in between the manager and the subordinate.  The manager gives his reasons for selecting a particular course of action. If he decides to recruit the employee, he explains why he is recruited. If he does not recruit him, then also he explains the reasons for such decision. Here, the strengths and weaknesses are discussed in detail. This method should be followed.

Employee involvement review system- This system makes all the employees participate in some program, where they can mix with each other and know themselves better. This creates a strong bonding in between the supervisors and the subordinates. The company should adopt this approach in order to increase employee efficiency.

Reference lists

Books

Chung, K. (2014). Motivational theories and practices. Columbus, Ohio: Grid.

Mcreynolds, J. (2012). Motivational theories & psychology. Delhi: English Press.

Miller, W. (2012). Equipoise and Equanimity in Motivational Interviewing. MITRIP, 1(1).

Journals

Ali, A. (2012) “The Role of Leadership in Human Resource Management – Proposing Conceptual Framework of Advanced Leadership Model”, Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(6), 979-989

Altarawmneh, I., and Al-Kilani, M. H. (2010) “Human Resource Management and Turnover Intentions in the Jordanian Hotel Sector”, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 18(1), 46-59

Andersen, T. J. and Minbaeva, D. (2013) “The Role of Human Resource Management in Strategy Making”, Human Resource Management, 52(5), 809-827

Anyadike, N. O. (2013) “Human resource planning and employee productivity in Nigeria public organization”, Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 1(4), pp.56-68,

Bakker, A.B., Albrecht, S.L., and Leiter, M.P. (2011), ‘Key Questions Regarding Work Engagement,’ European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 20, 4 – 28.

Bal, P.M., de Cooman, R., and Mol, S.T. (2013), ‘Dynamics of Psychological Contracts With Work Engagement and Turnover Intention: The Influence of Organizational Tenure,’ European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 22, 107– 122.

Bibi, B., Lanrong, Y., Haseeb, M. and Ahmad, I. (2102) “The Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in the Universities of Pakistan” Business Management Dynamics, 1(12), pp.01-14

Bledow, R., Schmitt, A., Frese, M., and Kuhnel, J. (2011), “The Affective Shift Model of Work Engagement,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 1246– 1257

Chen, H. and Hung, S. (2010). “Systematic linking of organizational strategy, HR strategy and training strategy across OLC”, International Journal of Business Strategy, 10(1), 104-115

Chiaburu, D.S., and Diaz, I. (2011), “Does Psychological Contract Breach Decrease Proactive Behaviors? The Moderating Effect of Emotion Regulation,” Group & Organization Management, 36, 722– 758

Christian, M.S., Garza, A.S., and Slaughter, J.E. (2011), “Work Engagement: A Quantitative Review and Test of Its Relations With Task and Contextual Performance,” Personnel Psychology, 64, 89 – 136

Websites

Tesco plc, (2015). Tesco plc. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com [Accessed 27 Mar. 2015].