APPLYING MOTIVATION THEORIES TO A FICTITIOUS ORGANIZATION
This paper applies five theories of motivation to a fictitious organization. The fictitious organization is assumed to be an automobile dealership that sells both new and used cars. The five theories of motivation applied are as follows:
Maslow's (1954) Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Aldefer's ERG (Existence-Relatedness-Growth Theory (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2002)
Vroom's (Vroom & Yetton, 1973) Expectancy Theory
The Theories and Their Application to a Fictitious Automobile Dealership Organization
Maslow (1954) dealt with motivation through the theory of the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy divides human needs into higher and lower orders. The lower order needs are primary, such as food, shelter, sex, and physical security, while the higher order needs involve affiliation, love for others, and self actualization. When the lower order needs are absent in the life of an individual, the satisfaction of those needs become the center of the individual's life. In most modern societies, however, the primary needs are satisfied. Thus, real motivation · especially within organizational structures · results from individual desires to satisfy their higher order needs (Maslow, 1966).
Thus, it was Maslow's (1954) contention that other means had to be employed to motivate individual within organizational structures. Specifically, factors had to be introduced that would enhance an individual's opportunity to attain self actualization. In the fictitious automobile dealership the opportunity for self-actualization is provided through a system that allows members of the sales staff to develop solutions to the automotive transportation needs and wants of customers, as opposed to simply making hard sell pitches to earn commissions. This system includes above average salaries, together with bonuses based on both customer evaluations and management evaluations of pe...