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What keeps staff interested?
Photograph: CIMA
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Objectives:
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To understand the basic theories behind human motivation theory
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To understand that human motivation theory is complex and has no certain
answers
Ask yourself why you work hard in some classes and not in
others? Do all your friends work hard when they are in paid employment? Is
money important for motivating workers?
Since the beginning of the 20th century, mass production and
world wars have led armies and businesses to research the best ways of
motivating workers and soldiers. The following is a summary of the most popular
theories:
1.Scientific Management Theory or the Taylor School
of Management. This broadly stated that workers could be motivated to
meet business goals if they were offered financial incentives. Taylor's style
of management was implemented in Ford car factories and in many other
factories. Later it was criticised for encouraging workers to "leave their
brains at the factory gate". Taylor expected workers to follow instructions
without question. By the 1970s and 1980s this became a serious liability as
Japanese competitors were able to produce higher standards of quality by
empowering their workers.
2. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs consists of five
levels of needs which are, in ascending order:
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physiological needs ie the need for food, air and sleep
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safety needs ie the need for shelter and protection from danger
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social needs ie the need for love, belonging and affection
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esteem needs: self esteem and respect/recognition from others
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self actualisation needs ie the need to achieve self fulfilment or to reach
one's potential
The first three needs were seen as lower order needs.
Maslow believed that workers could only move to higher order needs (the last
two) if they had already met their lower order needs. Subsequent studies have
found that humans are more complex than that. For example, imagine a street
sleeper who has a regular spot to beg and is well known to local businesses and
workers. People like to stop and chat to him while waiting for buses. How would
he fit into Maslow's hierarchy?
Maslow saw these needs being met by a person's whole life
not just by their working life. Later writers have found it useful to relate
Maslow's hierarchy to just a person's working life.
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