As a manager motivating employees can be a very difficult task. Motivation refers to the processes that account for an individual’s willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs. (Robbins & Coulter 2005, p 392) i. There are many motivational theorists but the focus will be on two early theorists Abraham Maslow with his Hierarchy of Needs and Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory and one contemporary theorist David McClelland with his Three-Need Theory. Also a comparison and contrast will be drawn between any two.
One of the earliest theorists of motivation is a gentleman by the name of Abraham Maslow. Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all. Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs. This Hierarchy of Needs theory is based on five levels which are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self- actualization needs. (Chapman, n.d.)ii
The physiological needs which start at the bottom of the hierarchy triangle deals with the need for food, drink, shelter, sexual satisfaction, air, water, and sleep because those are the basic things that we cannot live without. Going up the triangle we get the second level being the safety needs of feeling secure and protected from physical and emotional harm as well as ensuring that physical needs will be continually...