Motivation [week 2]

The motivation theory that is most relevent to me
Motivation is when you have the drive or determination to achieve your goal. It is a big factor in everyday life for me because I need to be motivated in order to get where I want to be. The theory that I can relate to most is Abraham Maslow's, who studied both behavioral and psychoanalytic psychology. ''He rejected the idea that human behavior is controlled only by internal or only by external forces. Maslow developed a theory he called 'humanistic psychology,' based on his belief that human behavior is controlled by a combination of internal and external factors''. [wikipedia]
Maslow's theory sugessts that people have certain physiological and psychological needs that don't change, identical in all cultures and genetic in origin. He described these needs as being hierarchical in nature and classified them as either "basic" needs, which are low on the hierarchy, or "growth" needs, which are high on the hierarchy. According to Maslow, an individual must satisfy lower-level basic needs before attempting to meet higher-level growth needs.

The basic needs are for food, shelter and safety. Once these necessities have been satisfied, higher needs such as understanding, aesthetics and spirituality become important, as shown in the diagram. Maslow called the highest-level need "self-actualization" and said that it could not be attained unless all the needs below it on the hierarchy had been met.

I can relate to maslows theory, for example before I can work or study I need sleep, rest, food, drink, shelter, feel Safe and Secure, have financial resources. I will need all the basic needs in order for me to be able to move up the hierachy toward self-actualization and if the lower needs are not met, the process of meeting the hierachy needs would be disrupted. I will not be able to work or study if I am hungry and tired, also I will not want to work/ study in a place where I do not feel safe and secure.

When all my basic needs are met I can then move on to having relationships, belong to a group, have recognition, friends, be appreciated, have self esteem and Respect, confidence, desire to grow, reputation, appreciation, status and therefore I will be Self-fulfilled. I don't feel I have yet reached the top of the hierarchy career of education wise becuse there is still alot I want to achieve, however I have reached the top in other aspects of my life. For example I play netball in the league as part of a team When I started I didnt know any of the other team members and played the position of a goal keeper however I worked my way up and now play a centre position, I am now friends with all other team members and toghter we have moved up the league table three times so therefore I am self fulfilled and right at the top of maslows hierachy.

My motivation to studying this degree:
There is more than one reason I am motived to study Human Resourse Management. Firstly the main reason why I want to study this is because I want to have a sucessful career in Human resources. My degree will be a good starting point to show I have interest in this department, which results to a better chance of achieving a good job in the future. As an individual I have always set my personal standards of achievement high so it is not very hard for me to be motivated because I always have in mind my end goal and strive to achieve what I want. There is also a stability factor because I want to be able to stand on my own two feet and get all the necessary thing in life that I want to have eg house, car, holidays etc. I understand that in order to do this I will firstly need to study hard and them work even harder. My parents play a big part in motivating me becuse they have certain expectations that they have and therefore I remember this if I am de-motivated as I want to make them proud of my achievements. My teachers also help motivate me becuse they take their time and effort to help get my work done at a good standard as well as answer any queries I have, which will help me on a daily basis for the next 3 years to complete my degree with a good result at the end. I always look to the future and I also want to be able to set a good example like my parents did for me.

My motivation to study can be related to maslow's hierachy becuse I started right at the bottom when I first joined the university. I would say that I have met basic physiological needs because I feel safe in the environment of the university. I have a shelter and feel secure.I have friends in my lectures and lecturers for support. I have met the basic needs but have not yet reached the top of maslow's hierachy , however I have the oppertunity to work my way up to self affiliation. When I get good results for assignments I will achieve and gain respect, when I graduate and get a good job I will be self affiliated.

A time when I was de-motivated at work:
I worked at a post-office and have felt de-motivated at work many times. One of the reasons why I was de-motivated was because there was no way to contiue learng and improving. Everyting there was to learn I knew and there was no oppertunity of promotion. This lead me to re-think my career path, however when I did this I realised that with the recession it was not the best time to look for a job. Therefore I decided it was a good idea to study to improve my chances of finding a better job in the future. This relates to maslows theory as I had the basic needs, I had friends at work and felt secure there but I wanted to move onto the higher needs but couldn't, therefore lost my motivation to continue working there. In a way this motivated me to achieve what I really want in the future becuse now that is what I am working towards. If I was not de-motivated I may have just continued to work there and realise later on in life that I am not following the career path I want to.

This situation also related to Hertzbergs motivation and hygiene theory because I was motivated as I had a relationship with the manager, good workin conditions, a salary and friendship with collegues which met all the satisfiers in Hertzbergs theory. However there where also dis-satisfiers from his theory that de-motivated me because I felt like I wasn't achieving anything, wasn't given enough responsibility and therfore couldn't grow or become advanced.

I can also relate this to David Mcclelland's theory who describes three types of motivational needs. Someone who is motivated by achievement seeks realistic but challenging goals and needs a sense of accomplishment.  Someone who is motivated by authority wants to make an impact and have a need to increase personal status. Someone who is motivated by affiliation has a need for friendship and interation with other people therefore are team players. To start with I was motivated and was given authority by being promoted to a supervisor however it stoped there as I was not given any further authority or power so never felt affiliation. I met the first motivational need and achieved the first step by getting a promotion but because this did not extend from there I became de-motivated. This was because I wanted more authority in order to increase my personal status, I also wanted to get a higher job role in order to feel like I made more improvement achieved and accomplished even further.

I had to make a choice and move on as there was no more oppertunity there for me and I wanted to grow further. Therefore I wouldn't change the decision I made to study instead as it was the right choice, however had I realised this before I wouldn't have left it so long to begin my degree.

Conclusion:
To conclude my finding I think all the theory's are important as I can relate my situations at work, home and university to them. I don't entirely fit just one theory there are factors of all theory's that I can relate to or will in the future. I also found that you don't necesserily meet all the factors in a theory with any one situation you can experience some and not others. for example in many situations I have experienced the lower levels of maslow's theory and not reached the higher order needs. However I think I will reach the top when I graduate, I will feel affiliated.

Refrences:

Drillings, M. O’Neil, H. (1994). Motivation Theory and Research. New Jersey: Lawrence Eribaum Associates.
Bank, J. Kakabadse, A. Vinnicombe, S. (2004) Working in Organisations. 2nd ed. England; Gower Publishing Limited.
Mullin, L. (2007). Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8th ed. Essex; Pearson Education Limited.
Miner, J. (1993). Role Motivation Theories. London: Mackays of Chatham.
Bernard, W. [1995] Theory’s of achievement and motivation. Available from http://psycnet.apa.org [Accessed 27th October 2009].
Chapmen, A. [1997] motivational theories. Available from: http://www.businessballs.com [Accessed 06th October 2009]

(Anon.), (n.d), (s.l), (s.n) Publication Hub (online). Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki.motivation [Accessed 01st October 2009]

(Anon.), (n.d), (s.l), (s.n) Publication Hub (online). Available from: http://www.laynetworks.com/Theories-of-Motivation.html [Accessed 03rd October 2009]