Approaches to Work Motivation

Understanding motivation and performance begins with understanding that the workers are not necessarily to be blamed if their performance or motivation is not what the supervisor envisions. Instead of assuming that the workers in question are lazy or unskilled or unwilling to perform the task at hand, the wise manager seeks to understand why the workers are not performing to his expectations. While it may be that the workers do not possess the requisite skills (which can be remedied through training), there may be other factors involved which are more complicated and which reach to the heart of effective management. Assuming that the workers are being willfully disobedient or unproductive is to put responsibility where it does not belong (McGregor, 1985, p. 10).

There are a number of different approaches to work motivation, most of which can be broken down into either content theories or process theories. Content theories focus on what motivates people to perform, and are concerned with identifying the different rewards that people seek in their work. Process theories focus on how rewards control behavior. These theories are concerned with the dynamics, or process aspects, of work motivation (Gordon & DiTomaso, 1992, p. 783).

One of the first attempts at developing a motivational theory focused on the pr

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rom the factors which contribute to job dissatisfaction. Factors that led to satisfaction were termed motivator factors, while factors that contributed to dissatisfaction were deemed hygiene factors. Herzberg held that the absence of motivator factors would not make employees unhappy, but would leave them feeling neutral about their jobs. Similarly, addressing hygiene factors would result in little more than neutral feelings from employees, while failing to meet hygiene factors would result in strong dissatisfaction. This approach is significant in that it suggests that the issues that lead to satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not the same (Moats Kennedy, 1998, p. 51). Expectancy theories attempt to explain worker motivation in terms of anticipated rewards. These theoretical models assume that individuals make rational decisions based on economic realities. These theories have gained much attention because they stem from the idea that personal and situational influences are important in employee motivation. One of the most widely cited versions of expectancy theory is the Vroom model, which holds that the psychological force on an employee to exert effort is a function of his expectancies of the future, and the attracti
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