A Model Of Managerial Motivation

how to do it!

How can the manager of an organizational department, division, component, unit, etc., motivate subordinates to achieve the common purposes of need satisfaction and goal attainment?

This problem may appear to be either pedestrian or overly abstract, but a solution does not always encompass classical behavioral science theories and programmed interventions. Also, how does the organizational leader create and utilize a sophisticated motivational system capable of channeling the stratified and varied drives of subordinates into team efforts yielding an effective team resultant and not individual, isolated victories?

While motivation is a critical determinant of behavior, it is often believed to be a panacea. Motiva-

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tion is a most complex process since subordinates expect it and managers find the behavioral science theories to be enigmatic. In essence; individuals have basic and secondary needs which must be satisfied. We have a network of complex needs beginning with innate needs such as hunger, thirst, sex and curiosity; acquired needs which are dependent upon experience such as the coffee break in industrial organizations which is actually a real need; and, finally, social needs ·focusing upon belongingness to a group.

A Model oj Managerial· Motivation. has been developed for the purpose of conceptualizing this enigmatic phenomenon. The least significant approach is "Motivation By Theory." Another method, considered to be somewhat more

Steven H. Appelbaum

successful, but by no means growth oriented is "Motivation By Fear." "Motivation By Development" is the third motivational method employed by managers. The process of goal setting is quite rational and deserves the fourth most effective approach, "Motivation By Objectives." Next, in the hierarchial model of managerial motivation is "Motivation By Intrinsic Need Satisfaction" which is concerned with individual development and most successful. The broadest and most pervasive method is "Motivation By Management" which is the essence of the model and blueprint of how to motivate the human resources of an organization.

Motivation By Theory Abraham Maslow hypothesized

Training and Development Journal, March 1975

MODEL OF MANAGERIAL MOTIVATIION

MOTIVATION BY MANAGEMENT

MOTIVATION BY INTRlt~SIC NEED SATISFACTION

MOTIVATION BY OBJECTIVES

MOTIVATION BY THEORY

that needs are ordered from low to high and as each need level is satisfied, the needs at the next level begin to determine the individual's behavior. When each level is satisfied and fulfilled, the individual then is motivated to achieve the next level of needs since an unfulfilled need is a motivator. The sequence of needs is as follows:

1. Physiological needs: hunger, thirst, sex, shelter

2. Safety needs: health, security

3. Belonging and love needs: identification, affection, affiliation 4. Ego needs: esteem, success, prestige, self-respect

5. Self-Actualization needs: selffulfillment, personal growth

We quote Maslow repeatedly without really knowing whether or not his hierarchy has organizational applicability since managers adopt models without testing their validity or reliability. While most progressive managers review the psychological and management literature proposed by Likert, Argyris, McGregor, Myers, Herzberg and their major contributions to managerial motivation, the most significant prerequisite of the manager's job is to actually know how to motivate!

Organizations can only achieve their goals of perpetuation by revitalizing their human resources. While McGregor's Theory Y appears to be more rational than his Theory X philosophy, Argyris' proposal that organizations are incompatible with the mental health of employees and Herzberg's satisfiers of achievement, recognition and the work itself as motivators to make a job challenging are guides to motivation theory, a real pragmatic-action based model for managers is needed. Theory must now be transformed into a pracuical, pragmatic, workable blueprint for immediate implementation. In. essence, theory is only as valuable as its contribution to viable situations in need of direction.

Motiviltion By Fear

We know that individual motivational patterns are altered as environmental conditions and personal experiences change and as the individual becomes more sophisticated. When the new employee becomes part of the organization, he or she is surrounded by positive and negative factors which will influence

behavior. Managers must be able to use varied organizational channels positively and not rely on punitive systems and: fear as deterrents.

Fear is a motivator since it connotes reprimand, discharge or even worse, ostracism. The innovative manager uses fear only as an irresponsible extreme exercise. It appears to be uncertain as to how far a manager can exploit his or her subordinates via fear threats to induce favorable results. Organizations suffer from the byproducts of fear and the uncertainty it brings.

If fear and uncertainty do not develop motivated employees and effective organizations, is the reverse, an emphasis on security, an efficient method? The problem is how to take high security and make it a reward and motivational goal! Security systems are developed in organizations via group membership when employees seek to attain protection. But, with proper organization and leadership, productivity increases as well, which is a prime objective of an employing firm.

An employee's security is affected by the manner in which his or her organization balances corporate risk with individual contribution. Security is often used as the motivator Ireward for this achievement. While productivity, higher income and greater security are obvious tools used by managers in motivating subordinates, they fall short in visualizing the totality of complex motivations which drive employees to greater performance. The emphasis placed upon security connotes Ieadership by criticism rather than by praise.

Motivation By D~velopment

The key objective of the manager is to enhance motivation in the employee and not highlight and quantify inadequacies. Managers must be cognizant of the fact that subordinates want praise in order to succeed because of personal ef-

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forts. If they fail, the manager must now enhance their self-respect. Managers must motivate individuals as they are and not try to recreate them in a different image.

Many managers dispute and even reject some ideas about motivating employees because they contradict personal experience, while others have tried to implement techniques of behavioral scientists in a mechanical, "cookbook" style without adapting them personally to their own unique situations. Other managers do not feel a commitment to human resource management should necessitate a greater change in their new roles and relationships than in those of their employees.

Managerial motivation does not necessarily mean doing things to

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or for subordinates. The manager must redirect and channel the drives of employees toward a synthesis of individual and organizational satisfactions. Managers, in order to strike the proper motivational climate, must accept the concept of individual differences since people are not Pavlovian dogs, to be stimulated in the quest of controlled results.

It appears that the most effective and rational motivator is the job itself. A person must know his or her job contributes to organizational success and fulfills personal aspirations, as well. Managers must also be willing to restructure closed organizational systems and prehistoric attitudinal values to allow employees to grow and achieve. Imposing and forcing motivational gimmicks upon individuals deters growth and achievement since both partieslose as a result of coercive manipulation.

In order for employees to grow, motivation must assume experimental forms. Managers must test varied techniques to ascertain those considered effective from inefficient ones, The manager must also support an open climate and a feedback system in which he or she encourages subordinates to motivate him or her, since to actually motivate is to develop subordinates and people through the vehicle of influence. This is what managerial motivation is about.

Motivation by Objectives

Managers fail and illuminate human resource malfunctions due to their inability to cope and live with change. Indi;'iduals, in addition to need satisfaction must develop and follow their own blueprints or goals and when these goals are obsoured or destroyed, motivation is destroyed as well. This problem is evident in organizations when lip service is given to an unrealistic need to motivate employees. The traditional pattern for applying theories and techniques of motivation is to evaluate the individual

and list his or her drives, needs, aspirations and desires. This analysis does not consider the most significant event which is the goal itself as a motivational influence.

One misconception perceived by managers suggests that it is not important to define goals for subordinates but to prescribe a required action. When managers stereotype individuals rather than support individual differences and individual identification with organizational goals, the resultant is action-oriented employees who are not intrinsically motivated but are stereotyped and perceived as instruments or tools on an assembly line.

In a similar vein, paternalistic leaders perceive subordinates as children who are dependent, motivated by basic needs only, and not capable of actualizing potentialities. This was one of Chris Argyris' organizational inequities. Research findings presented by Likert, Maslow, Herzberg and McClelland reveal a relationship existing between. motivation and goal development. Some of the data suggest:

1. Motivation begins with goal setting.

2. Motivation is possessed by individuals who seek to achieve future goals.

3. Motivation is learned and goal-directed. When action is substituted for goals, motivation declines.

4. Motivation changes as goals are achieved and evolves throughout the life of an individual.

5. Motivation improves if the goal setting event is declared significant via organization objectives and individual need fulfillment. Both must be congruent and energized.

However, management must be willing to remove all obstacles to goal achievement in order to ensure a healthy and open motivational climate. Supportive leadership occurs when these obstacles

Training and Development Journal, March 1975

which appear to be deterrents to subordinates are removed. This act is one of commitment by management for individual goal achievement. The supportive leadership model actually permits and encourages positive motivation to surface within the organization since all of the highest echelons of managerial motivation require objectives to whi.ch the individual employee can openly commit him or herself and for which he or she experiences intrinsic-personal responsibility. Unless these criteria are endorsed and practiced by management, motivation is not possible unless punitive and coercive techniques are negatively employed.

Motivation By Intrinsic Need Satisfaction

The final proposal for managers endorsing commitment to satisfying the needs of workers while achieving organizational objectives focuses upon intrinsic systems of motivation. There have been archaic assumptions about the nature of individuals and work that are seldom put to scrutiny since they appear to be self-evident. Maslow, Argyris, McGregor and Herzberg developed the philosophy intended to reverse the historic attitudinal trend. Their success is still open for discussion since worker psychology changes constantly under the constraints of technology, politics, environment, etc., but mnagement has not been over-sensitized to perceive and recognize these changes. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that obsolete "old wives'tales,' or revolutionary laboratory discoveries of how people should be managed and motivated continue to be implemented with apprehension.

Organizations develop motivational systems based upon external rewards that subordinates receive in exchange for work performed which include security, sala.ry, compensation and prestige. However, it is those internal rewards

that an individual experiences during work that enhances motivation. These rewards include perfection of skills, discovering new data or techniques, solving problems and achieving high quantity and quality. Internal rewards have not been actually envisioned as rewards but have been perceived as job requirements imposed upon the employee which do not yield satisfaction.

The concept that work should be intrinsically satisfying and not a negativistic experience is a recent method of managerial philosophizing. In actual. practice, it is external rewards which attract candidates to organizations and it is a deficiency of these rewards which causes his defection to another organization, employing intrinsic motivational symbols as an attraetor, The behavioral scientists reject this premise totally, but empirical research has yielded nebulous conclusions. But, a deficiency of internal rewards will not motivate an employee to quit an employer; it will also not motivate him or her to exceed production requirements and standards. The balance of externalinternal rewards is the organizational problem affecting motivational systems.

As an example, corporations employing high security and low challenge eliminate creative, innovative candidates, while attracting maintenance motivated types. But corporations attracting low security and high challenge types cannot control turnover. To solve. this problem and maintain an effective motivational mix suggests corporations provide employees with as much security as needed and as much challenge as they feel they want.

M'otivation By Management

Motivation is not the simplistic resultant of actions that a manager does to other subordinates since to be motivated is to guide an individual's drives toward specific

goals and to have the individual commit him or herself to achievin.g these goals. To motivate employees, the manager must redesign a great number of stimuli or signals these individuals receive from the internal and external environment so that the world begins to look different to them. Valid motivational changes only happen when the employee learns that his or her environment has changed or that his or her previous conceptions of it were inaccurate. This process of motivation is affected by the slow process of emotional growth and development and it is only an incidental event when a manager directly affects changes in subordinates.

An accurate conceptualization of the role of the manager begins with an understanding that his or her influence is quite indirect. M:anagers can only influence subordinate behavior if their leadership style is consistent with what the employee already believes about managerial behavior and its effect upon him or her. Effective managers are catalysts, not drill sergeants; they coach and not command, and finally motivate their employees by reality-centered management and an open climate which makes work an intrinsically rewarding experience for employees.

Steven H. Appelbaum is assistant professor of management at Pace University, New York City. He is also an organizational development consultant for Amchem Products, Inc., Ambler, Pa. He received the Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa, Canada. He has published articles in several publications, including Personnel Journal and The Personnel Administrator.

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