Comparison of Maslows and Herzbergs Theories

Comparison of Maslows and Herzbergs TheoriesIn the modern era, it is essential to have a successful trading that is able to compete with other companies, not only in all its departments but also all employees should perform good co-ordination in order to procure the companys goals and create international competitiveness. Therefore, how to motivate employees should be a real concern to the leader/manager. What is motivation?Krech, Crutchfied and Ballachey states that Motivation is concerned with why people choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue a chosen course of action, often over a long period, and in the face of difficulties and problems. In other words, motivation at pee has been playing an essential role in a company in terms of onerous to encourage people to work more productively and in effect and in a dependable, loyal manner (Bunchanan and Huczynski. 1985). In organizational behaviour, there are devil main motivational theor ies, content theories and process theories. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two content theories Maslows pecking order of need and Herzbergs two-factor theories. I have chosen these theories because they are well-respected and both Maslow and Herzberg are viewed as forerunners in motivational theories I am going to compare and contrast these theories and then analyse how managers could apply these theories effectively in the modern study.Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) is viewed as the father of human psychology by creating his first hierarchy of needs in 1943. He believed that people have ball club innate needs or motives in their lives at all times which are 1. Biological requirements e.g. the basic need for survival such as sunlight, food, air, water, sleep, intimate expressions 2. Safety the need for security, protection, comfort, shelter, freedom from the fear and threat from the environment 3. Affiliation, the need for love and relationships 4. Esteem, the need for recognition, attention, strength and self-esteem 5. Knowing and understanding, the need for curiosity and exploring 6. Aesthetics, needs for order and beauty 7. Transcendence 8. Freedom of enquiry and expression 9. Self-actualization, needs for the development of our full potential.( A.Huczynski and A.bunchanan. 2007). Maslows model of motivation is depicted as a five-step hierarchy of human needs in the form of a triangle as we can see in the graph below. The lower-order needs or wish needs in other word are belongingness, safety and physiological needs. The higher-order needs are esteem needs and self-actualisation. If the lower-order needs are not satisfied, we cannot tend on to any of the higher aims (Robin Fincham and Peter Rhodes).While Maslow is known as father of human psychology, Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) is known as the Father of Job Enrichment with his well-known work, the two-factor speculation which was written in 1943. Herzbergs conjecture is called the two-factor supposition because the system is two sets of incidents one is about achievement, promotion, recognition, autonomy, personal growth and responsibility which Herzberg named motivators. The other set involved salary, business organisation security, working condition, company policy and interpersonal relations with supervisors and peers called hygiene factors (Robin Fincham and Peter Rhodes).There are several similarities between Maslow and Herzbergs theories. It is noticeable that Herzberg wrote his two-factor theory about twenty-three years after Maslows hierarchy of needs. This is proof that Herzbergs theory was written almost based on Maslows theory. We can see that motivator factors and hygiene factors in Herzbergs theory are a collection of higher and lower order needs respectively in Maslows theory. Lower order needs such as needs for friendship, work security, water, food, etc. could be seen as hygiene factors. Similarly, needs for recognition, promotion, re sponsibility, etc. could be seen as motivators of Herzbergs two-factor theory (Fincham and Rhodes. 2005). From this evidence, we can infer that both Maslow and Herzberg had the same channelize of view about which factors were important and needed for people to be incite in work as well as all other aspects of normal life. Due to this we can say that Herzberg used Maslows theory as the basis for his Two Factor Theory and merely changed Maslows hierarchy to suit his own beliefs and achieve the theory more applicable to a work environment.DIFFERENCESAlthough Maslow and Herzbergs theories are both content theories and very similar, there are some differences. One is the fact that Maslows theory applies to life in general whereas Herzberg geared his specifically towards the work environment and how to motivate employees rather than people in general (Montana and Charnov, 2008). Further evidence is that Herzberg wrote his theory based on interviews with 200 employees while Maslows hie rarchy was written with 3,000 unemployed people involved e.g. college students (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005). For the reason that Herzbergs theory is merely focused and relevant to the workplace therefore the theory is more suitable and recommended for managers to use to motivate their employees. However, this theory has now become slightly in go down the reason is people can be satisfied and motivate by all the aspects of life not only at work.As mentioned at the beginning, Herzbergs theory states that motivation is divided into two dimensional (e.g. Motivators and hygiene) each dimensional is consisted of different factors (Thompson, 1996). While, Maslow separated motivation into five different levels of needs. This can be understood that Maslow took into account Herzbergs hygiene factors and other factors not associated with work such as food, shelter and social needs.MANAGERSAs mentioned early, there are five distinct levels of need on Maslows hierarchy of need and each level must be satisfied in order before moving on to higher levers. Thus, how might managers apply this theory in the workplace? Firstly, the lowest order- Physiological needs of Maslows hierarchy have to be satisfied (e.g. needs for foods, shelter, etc.) by paying employees decent salary. After the first order has been satisfied, employees are motivated to work toward to the next level e.g. Safety or security needs. To be able to fulfil this level, employees should be given health insurance or guaranteed with their job for instant, contract. Managers could create a good relationship between them and their staffs or between each staff, team and group for examples, managers might have one-to-one talk with their staffs if necessary, correct them if there is any problems or praise them in person when they have done well this might make the staffs feel valued and are motivated to work harder and productively. However, not every people in the same levels are motivated in the same way.Reference Lis tmotivation is concerned Krech, D., Crutchfield, R. S. and Ballachey, E.L (1962). Cited in Mullins, L., 1993, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 3rd edition Pitman Publishing, 443.motivation is an organisational context is a social process (Bunchana, D. And Huczynski, A., 1985 Organizational Behaviour, Prentice- Hall international p.62)what needs people sample to satisfy and the needs which motivate ( propel others, David P. Thompson, p.9)argues that we have nine innate needs (Organizational Behaviour, 6th Edition, Andrzej A. Huczynski and Davia A. Bunchana, 2007, pg 242)If the lower- orders needs (Robin Fincham. Peter Rhodes, pg 195)Herzberg took a somewhat different cuddle ( Management- Patrick J.Montana and Bruce H.Charnov, Fourth Edition, pg 239)Further evidence is that Herzberg wrote his theory based on interviews with 200 employees while Maslows hierarchy was written with 3,000 unemployed people involved e.g. college students (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005)two-dimensional David Thompson, 1996, pg 13. Motivating Others.