Need-Based Theories of Motivation

Revision as of 16:52, 28 February 2018

Abstract

Project teams are comprised of team members with diverse backgrounds, expectations and individual objectives. The overall success of a project depends on the project team's commitment, which is directly related to their level of motivation.^[1] These are able to affect all aspects of the result that will be achieved by a project, including a direct impact to the constraints of scope, time and cost.

Motivation encompasses the psychological forces^[2] within a person that determine:

• The direction of a person's behaviour in an organisation, which refers to the many possible behaviours a person could engage in.
• A person's level of effort, which refers to how hard people work.
• A person's level of persistence in the face of obstacles, which refers to whether people keep trying or give up.

Motivating in a project environment involves creating an environment to meet project objectives while providing maximum satisfaction related to what people value most.^[1] This may include:

• Pay
• Job security
• Autonomy
• Responsibility
• The pleasure of doing interesting work
• A feeling of accomplishment
• Recognition

Knowing this, it is in the project manager's best interest to understand the demotivation cause in order to drive toward project success though the creation and maintenance of a motivating environment for all members of the team.^[3]

This article focuses on need-based theories of motivation which form the basis of in which way project managers help people to satisfy their needs at work. It exemplifies the application of these theories and mentions the limitations.

Need Theories

A need is a requirement or necessity for survival and well-being. The basic premise of need theories is that people are motivated to obtain outcomes at work that satisfy their needs. Need theories suggest that to motivate a person to contribute valuable inputs to a job and perform at a high level, a project manager must determine what needs the person is trying to satisfy at work and ensure that he or she receives outcomes that help to satisfy those needs in return for performing at a high level and helping the organisation achieve its goals.^[2]

There are several need theories, of which Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer's ERG Theory and McClelland's Need Theory is described briefly below. These theories may be hard to use directly, but give the project manager an understanding of how he or she has to take action in order to create a motivating environment which fulfil people's needs.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

In 1943 Abraham Maslow stated in the article "A Theory of Human Motivation" that all people seek to satisfy five stages of human needs, which are:

• Physiological needs
• Safety needs
• Belongingness needs
• Esteem needs
• Self-actualisation needs

These needs are set up in a particular order, better known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is illustrated in the figure^[4] below where the stages are described in more details.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow argued that the lowest-level needs must be met before at person will strive to satisfy needs higher up in the hierarchy. Once a need is satisfied, it ceases to operate a source of motivation.^[2]

Although this theory identifies needs, which are likely to be important sources of motivation for many people, it has been under criticism. The problem is that more than one stage may be motivational at one time.

Alderfer's ERG Theory

Clayton Alderfer observed that importance of the needs varies for each person as circumstances change. Some people might attach more importance to relationships than growth at certain stages of their lives.

For that reason, he presented his ERG Theory in 1969 in the article "An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Need", which is about three stages of needs:

• Existence needs
• Relatedness needs
• Growth needs

These needs are substituted for the needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The existence needs relate to the physiological and safety needs, the relatedness needs relate to the belongingness needs, while the growth needs relate to the esteem and self-actualisation needs.

McClelland's Need Theory

In 1961 David McClelland propounded his theory in the book "The Achieving Society", which is about:

• Need for achievement
• Need for affiliation
• Need for power

The need for achievement is the extent to which an individual has a strong desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet personal standards for excellence. Individuals with a high need for achievement are attracted to situations offering personal accountability and like to receive performance feedback. The need for affiliation is the extent to which an individual is concerned about establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relations, being liked and having the people around him or her get along with each other. The need for power is the extent to which an individual desires to control or influence others.^[2]

Application

It is the project managers' job to identify what people need in order to create a motivating environment where everyone is doing fine. To do so, the project manager must get to know the team members and impress them deeply. This requires that the project manager gets an overview of every member in the project team.

An idea could be to create a sort of scoreboard where every member is rated (ex. in the interval 1-5) within the different needs. In this way, it is more manageable to work out where to make the effort in order to achieve a better result. How to help the single member on the basis of the need theories is described in the tables^[2] below.

A way to measure the difference in motivation and how this affect the result can be done with KPIs, for example:

• Is the mood at work improved?
• Are there fewer sick days?
• Are there fewer mistakes at work?
• Are the deadlines easier met?

Limitations

It may be hard to identify which needs a person strives to satisfy, because there are a lot of variables which are into play. Examples are:

• Gender
• Age
• Stage of life
• Impact of family commitments
• Outside-interests

No one is identical. What is deficient for one is not necessarily a deficiency for another. People's perception of what is important at work varies. With time the project manager must continually adapt to people's changing needs, if he or she want to keep their workforce motivated.

In Denmark, which is a wealthy country with high standards of living, needs related to physiology and safety are given, which means that people are focused on personal growth and accomplishment. As opposed to this, people in less-developed countries are likely to be motivated by getting food on the table and a roof over their heads.

At last, is it really necessary to motivate the team members? Most people enter a new organisation and a job with enthusiasm, eager to work, to contribute, to feel proud of their work and their organisations.^[5]

Annotated bibliography

Essentials of Contemporary Management

Motivation: How to increase project team performance

Motivation in project management: The project manager's perspective.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (5th ed.).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Jonas, G. R. and George, J. M. (2015). Essentials of Contemporary Management (6th ed.).
3. ↑ Peterson, T. M. (2007). Motivation: How to increase project team performance. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2007. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/motivation-increase-project-team-performance-7234 [28.02.18]
4. ↑ van de Vall, Tim. (2013). Available at: https://www.timvandevall.com/printable-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-chart/ [28.02.18]
5. ↑ Schmid, B and Adams, J. (2008). Motivation in project management: The project manager's perspective. Project Management Journal, 39(2), 60–71. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20042