1. Introduction
In the new scenarios, through which we are passing, three aspects that stand out for their importance can be identified: Globalization, the permanent change of context and the valuation of knowledge, the latter considered as the third of the three waves that Alvin Toffler He mentions in his book "The Third Wave", being in my opinion the element that can differentiate from one company to another.
The obvious difference between the Taylorian model and the present one is given by the conception of a man as another "replaceable" gear of the production machinery, as opposed to a conception of "indispensable" to achieve the success of an organization. The loss of capital or equipment has as possible ways of solution the coverage of an insurance premium or the obtaining of a loan, but for the flight of human resources these solution ways are not possible to adopt. It takes years to recruit, train and develop the necessary personnel for the formation of competitive work groups, which is why organizations have begun to consider human resources as their most important capital and the correct administration of them as one of their tasks. more decisive.
However, the administration of this resource is not a very simple task. Each person is a phenomenon subject to the influence of many variables and among them the differences in terms of skills and behavior patterns are very diverse.
If organizations are made up of people, their study constitutes the basic element to study organizations, and particularly Human Resources Administration.
On many occasions, the mistake is made of considering that the structure of the organization together with the bureaucratic rules are the indispensable elements to limit the options of its members and the activities in which they engage. However, in most cases, people's behavior escapes these pre-established structural parameters.
People must be given reasons and incentives to influence their behavior. People have the freedom to choose when to have a cooperative or resistant attitude towards authority. They also decide their share of commitment to the objectives of the organization and because people cannot be controlled in the same way as tools, management management must be concerned with ensuring the contribution of the individual efforts of its members and a way to achieve this is by emphasizing motivation.
2. Motivation and behavior
In order to predict the behavior of people, administrators must know what are the motives and needs that make people produce a certain action at a certain time.
The behavior is generally motivated by the fact of reaching a certain goal or objective. The impulses that give rise to an action can come from both the conscious and the subconscious of the person, when they come from the conscious it is more possible that it can be subjected to examination and evaluation, however the behavior of a person is largely governed by impulses from of the unconscious. Sigmund Freud draws an analogy between the motivation of people and the structure of an iceberg, where most of the motivation appears below the surface, where it is not always evident.
The motive acts by provoking an activity and indicating the direction of the behavior, however each person has several competing motives for their conduct or behavior. It is impossible to consider the possibility that a person has as many behaviors as needs. Only that reason or need with force majeure at a given moment is the one that leads to the activity.
There are two factors that act as a determinant of the strength of a motive, they are: Expectation and accessibility.
- The expectation: It is the probability that an individual perceives to be able to satisfy a need according to their experience. Accessibility: Reflects the limitations that a person can find in the environment to be able to satisfy a need.
From what has been mentioned so far, it follows that one of the basic responsibilities of administrators is to provide the necessary motivation to their collaborators, since this is one of the factors that limit the achievement of organizational objectives and because it constitutes the essential element for the generation of an organizational climate, facilitating interpersonal relationships, communication, trust and team spirit.
3. Concept of motivation and motivational cycle
Motivation
It is the process that prompts a person to act in a certain way or, at least, creates a propensity for a specific behavior. This impulse to act can come from the environment (external stimulus) or it can be generated by the internal mental processes of the individual. In this last aspect, motivation is associated with the individual's cognition system. Cognition is what people know about themselves and the environment that surrounds them, the cognitive system of each person involves their personal values, which are influenced by their physical and social environment, by their physiological structure, by their needs and experiences.
Motivational cycle
The starting point of the motivational cycle is given by the emergence of a need. This need breaks the state of balance in which a person finds himself, producing a state of tension that leads the individual to develop a behavior capable of unloading tension and freeing him from discomfort and imbalance. If the behavior was effective, the need will be satisfied, returning to its previous state of balance.
On certain occasions the need is not satisfied and may cause frustration or compensation (Transfer to another objective or goal)
4. Theories about motivation
Motivation has been in recent decades an object of study that has given rise to numerous theories, of which the most important have given rise to countless investigations. We can classify these theories as follows:
- Content theories: Groups those theories that consider everything that can motivate people. Process theories: It groups together those theories that consider the way (process) in which the person becomes motivated.
Content theories
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Herzberg's bifactorial theory. Alderfer's theory of existence, relationship and progress. McClelland's three-needs theory.
Process theories
- Vroom's expectation theory Adams's theory of equity Skinner's theory of behavior modification
5. Content theories
5.1. Theory of Human Needs - Abraham Maslow
According to this theory, the inner spring of a person is made up of a series of needs in hierarchical order, ranging from the most material to the most spiritual. Five levels are identified within this hierarchy:
- Physiological: They have to do with the minimum subsistence conditions of man: Food, housing, clothing, etc. Security: It is related to the tendency to conservation in the face of dangerous situations. Preservation of your property, your job, etc. Social: Man by nature has the need to relate, to group informally, in family, with friends or formally in organizations. Estimates: At this point in the pyramid the individual needs something more than being a member of a group, it is necessary to receive recognition from others in terms of respect, status, prestige, power, etc. Self realisation: It consists of developing the potential of each one to the maximum, it is a permanent self-improvement sensation. They are an example of her autonomy, independence, self-control.
Characteristics of the operation of Maslow's theory:
- Only unmet needs influence people's behavior, that satisfied need does not generate any behavior Physiological needs are born with man, the rest of the needs arise over time As the person manages to control their needs basic needs gradually appear higher order. Not all individuals feel needs for self-realization because this is an individual conquest. The higher needs do not arise as the lower ones are being satisfied. They may be concomitant, but the basic ones will prevail over the higher ones. Basic needs require a relatively short motivational cycle for their satisfaction as opposed to higher needs that require a longer cycle.
Observations to Maslow's theory:
- According to other approaches, the theory does not recognize that people are different and that what may be a need for one may not be for another. For some critics the author does not recognize that people can vary the order of the hierarchy. For others, the This model is not practical from the management point of view because it describes how people work, but it does not consider the most appropriate way to provide incentives from the organization.
Like any theory, Maslow's has its followers and critics, but it is unquestionable that his model answers the question of how human beings function and are motivated, that is, because they strive and work.
5.2. Herzberg bifactorial theory
While Maslow supports his theory of motivation in the diverse human needs (approach oriented towards the interior of the person), Herzberg bases his theory on the external environment and the work of the individual (approach oriented towards the outside).
The bifactorial theory was supported by the studies that Frederick Herzberg together with his research group developed in companies in Pittsburgh, United States. The research consisted of a questionnaire in which engineers and accountants were asked about the factors that produced satisfaction and dissatisfaction in their work. From this investigation, two types of factors were separated, which are shown in the following graph.
- Hygienic factors: In the graph they are compared with the minimum water level necessary to be able to keep the boat afloat. The presence of these factors allows the person not to feel dissatisfied in their work but it does not imply that they generated the necessary motivation to achieve the objectives. Examples of these factors are: working conditions, supervision received, salary, etc. Motivational factors: Depending on the graph, it is represented as the energy that gives the necessary impulse to lead people to deposit their forces in the organization in order to achieve results. Examples: The degree of responsibility, recognition, the possibility of progress, etc.
In summary, the two-factor theory states that:
- Job satisfaction is a function of the content or challenging and stimulating activities of the job: These are called motivating factors. Job dissatisfaction depends on the environment, supervision, colleagues, and the general context of the job: These These are the so-called hygienic factors.
In the life of the organization, the lack of coverage of hygienic factors will cause dissatisfaction among its members, preventing them from remaining in a state of motivation due to their concern to satisfy needs of this type. Once hygiene needs are minimally satisfied, this will prevent members of the organization from suffering from a state of dissatisfaction, but it will not be enough to provoke a motivating attitude.
From my time as a student of the Public Accountant career and the way of acting on the motivation of the two factors of this theory, the following example of the Chair of Administration I dictated by Cr. Raúl Ortiz of UNS remained in my mind: "The Social Work or medical-assistance coverage that is granted to an employee does not motivate, but its removal demotivates".
With respect to this theory, a semantic confusion usually occurs, since many people consider that the opposite of satisfaction is dissatisfaction and vice versa. However, the opposite of satisfaction is absence of satisfaction and in the same way, the opposite of dissatisfaction is absence of dissatisfaction.
In order to achieve job satisfaction, the author of this theory proposes the enrichment of tasks (job enrichment), which consists of turning them into a challenge through the increase of responsibility and objectives.
5.3. Alderfer's Theory of Existence, Relationship and Progress
Clayton Adelfer, carried out a revision of Maslow's theory of needs, which would become his ERG theory existence, relationship and growth (growth, in English). The review carried out by the author resulted in the grouping of human needs in the three mentioned categories.
- Existence: Groups the most basic needs considered by Maslow as physiological and safety. Relationship: These needs require, for their satisfaction, interaction with other people, understanding social needs and the external component of the esteem classification made by Maslow. Growth: Represented by the desire for internal growth of people. They include the internal component of the esteem classification and that of self-realization.
ERG theory does not only represent a different way of grouping the needs considered by Maslow, since it differs from the latter's theory in the following aspects:
ERG Theory does not consider a rigid structure of needs, where a correlative order must be followed for their satisfaction.
In contrast to Maslow, who considers that people remain at a certain level of needs until they are satisfied, this theory considers that if the individual fails to satisfy a higher-order need, a lower-order need appears (frustration-regression)
Several needs can operate at the same time.
Variables such as family history and cultural environment can alter the order of needs. An example of this situation is cultures like the Japanese that put social needs before physiological ones.
5.4. McClelland's Three Needs Theory.
In order to understand motivation, this author classified the needs into three categories:
- Need for achievement: The urge to excel, to strive for success. This classification groups together those people who put success itself before awards in their actions, seek situations in which they can assume responsibilities and dislike the achievement of merits by chance. Need for power: Need for others to carry out a behavior that without their indication they would not have observed. The people who own it enjoy the endowment of "boss", try to influence others and are more concerned with achieving influence than with their own performance. Affiliation need: Desire to establish interpersonal relationships. Those who possess it prefer cooperative situations to those of competition, the former standing out for a high degree of collaboration.
6. Process theories
6.1. Vroom Expectations Model
Victor Vroom's motivational model has been the object of study and improvement over time by other authors such as Porter and Lawler III. The author of this theory explains that motivation is the result of multiplying three factors:
- Valencia: It shows the level of desire of a person to achieve a certain goal or objective. This level of desire varies from person to person and in each one of them can vary over time, being conditioned by the experience of each individual. The range of values that valence can admit in this mathematical equation is between –1 and 1. When a person does not want to reach a certain result (eg being fired from her job) the value adopted is –1, when the result: It is represented by the conviction that the person has that the effort put into their work will produce the desired effect. Its value varies between 0 and 1 since the expectation is the probability of occurrence of the desired result. Expectations depend largely on the perception that the person has of himself, if the person considers that he has the necessary capacity to achieve the objective, he will assign a high expectation to it, otherwise he will assign a low expectation. Instrumentality: This is represented by the judgment made by the person that once the work is done, the organization values it and receives its reward. The instrumentality value will be between 0 and
Model operation
The model does not act as a function of unmet needs or the application of rewards and punishments, but rather considers people as thinking beings whose perceptions and estimates of probability of occurrence significantly influence their behavior.
As the model is the mathematical expression of the result of multiplying the values assigned to valence, expectation and instrumentality, it is considered that a simple incentive is more motivating than a complex one, since the uncertainty that the latter may cause does not allow the person relate the effort to be made with the probability of reaching the objective.
This model is closely related to that of behavior modification, because managers can use the information obtained about the valences assigned to rewards by employees, in order to act a posteriori on their behaviors.
6.2. Stacy Adams Equity Model
The models exposed so far analyze man in isolation, as if he were not part of an organization, no matter how small, and as if this in turn was not part of a context with which man relates. The model that is explained below corrects the indicated omission, demonstrating the effect it produces on motivation, for and against, the ability of people to make comparisons with the internal and external environment that surrounds them.
Stacy Adams believes that in addition to being interested in obtaining rewards for their performance, employees also want them to be equitable, which makes motivation more complex. In other words, there is a tendency to compare contributions (effort) and results (rewards), but also to make comparisons with other people, whether in the organization or not.
If the value of the contribution / results relationship that the person perceives is equal to that of other people, he will consider that the situation is fair and there will be no tension.
If the comparison shows that the employee considers himself excessively rewarded, he will try to compensate for this excess with behavior such as working harder, influencing his colleagues and dependents in the same way, etc.
Those employees who develop feelings of inequality will find themselves in a situation of tension that they will try to eliminate or reduce in many different ways. Eg Reduction of effort, request for a higher payment, absenteeism, tardiness, theft, etc.
The ability of managers and administrators to handle these situations depends on the ability to analyze for each employee their sensitivity to equity. In other words, there are employees who may be more "sensitive" and others more "benevolent." Identifying the employees that fall into each category would help managers identify who might experience inequality in a given situation and how it might affect their behaviors.
6.3. BF Skinner's theory of behavior modification
BF Skinner says that we are all products of the stimuli we receive from the outside world. If the environment is sufficiently specified, the actions of individuals can be accurately predicted. The statement contained in the preceding paragraph is difficult to apply in its entirety because the environment cannot be specified so completely as to be able to predict behaviors. Despite the criticism made of her work, the concept of "positive reinforcement" stands out.
Positive reinforcement consists of rewards for a job well done, producing changes in behavior, generally in the desired direction. It not only shapes behavior, it also teaches.
Negative reinforcement is constituted by threats of sanctions, which generally produce a change in behavior but in an unpredictable and undesirable way. The punishment produced as a result of misconduct does not imply the suppression of doing wrong things, nor does it ensure that the person is willing to behave in a given way, at most he can learn to avoid punishment. The author of this theory proposes as an example the case of a person who is punished for not treating the client well. Punishment alone does not teach the person how to serve a customer, but it is likely that they will learn to avoid contact with customers (runaway behavior).
Experts on the subject consider that managers and administrators know very little about positive reinforcement and that it could be used to interest people in activities. Other authors consider that the best factor to achieve high performance is intrinsic motivation, which would be opposed to the theory of reinforcement. An intermediate position considers that both positions complement each other.
There is also what is called the practice of non-reinforcement, which is a way of conditioning the behavior of a worker. If an employee is constantly complaining about their work and is ignored or rewarded, it is very likely that the employee will eventually stop complaining.
7. Conclusion
As mentioned in the introduction, the individuals that make up companies are the main source of competitive advantages, giving distinctive features to organizations.
Motivation plays a fundamental role in the current situation in which we live, which is marked by communications and information "overdoses". Suffice it to cite as an example the comparison between two mega-companies like General Motors and Microsoft. While General Motors has traditional assets of US $ 40,000 million, Microsoft has very few assets other than its headquarters building, but its market price is US $ 70,000 million (As of publication date). The key point is that in companies like the latter, individuals make the difference.
Motivation is one of the means through which an organization can ensure the permanence of its employees. To demonstrate its importance, just imagine what would happen if Microsoft's top 50 programmers left their jobs. The immediate consequence would be the precipitous fall of its actions.
The study of human behavior turns out to be a very arduous field of study for those of us who come from the accounting sciences and ignore much of its psychological foundations, but from the experience and knowledge acquired so far, it could draw an analogy between motivation (extrinsic) and the fuel. Motivation would serve as fuel that would allow man to drive in his actions. If the fuel is of adequate quality it will possibly allow us to reach the objective, but if its quality is low at some point we can stay on foot.
Motivation at work has been present in history through techniques and means used with varying degrees of success, which have ranged from brutality to persuasion.
Although there is no magic formula to conquer the will of people and starting from the base of recognizing the differences between individuals, this does not mean that some predictions can not be made about the reasons that predominate in the employees. The previous development of the some of the motivation theories existing to date aims to provide a series of sensors that allow us to identify and measure the level of motivation in order to identify the need to provide what Skinner defines as reinforcements.
Traditionally, supervisors consider incentives aimed at satisfying physiological and safety reasons to be the most important for their dependents. Since supervisors conjecture that workers have these motives, they act as if they were, that is, they act based on perceptions and not on reality. A good manager cannot be based on assumptions, he must know his people well.
Many managers have not taken into account that what people want in their jobs has evolved over time. The satisfaction of basic needs has been the result of raising our standard of living, the trade union movement, job security, etc. In European countries such as Japan, basic needs are considered satisfied, emphasizing higher needs when motivating.
From my point of view, I consider that the fact of thinking about motivating based on the fact that basic needs are satisfied is applicable to a small group of people in our country. The conditions like this are given due to an excess supply of employment that reflects the two million unemployed, translating this situation into an almost general culture of not retaining those who are dissatisfied with their work since there are hundreds of people with the intention of covering that Market Stall. Situations such as the months of maternity leave are seen as a loss for the employer, when in countries like Sweden the legislation grants a one-year term not only for the mother, but also for the father, considering this act as fundamental for raising children. a son.This and many other examples mark the opposite path that we travel here and today, where in many cases you must choose between working or remembering the name of your children. For the above reasons, I consider that only a change in economic conditions is not enough since the most important thing is a change in culture, which is much more difficult to achieve.
8. Bibliography
- Idalberto Chiavenato: Human Resources Management (Chapter II) Kenneth Blanchard - Paul Hersey: Management and human behavior (Chapter II and III) Stephen Robbins: Organizational Behavior (Chapter V) Keith Davis - John Newstrom: Human behavior at work (Chapter VI) Santiago Lazzatti: Managment. Functions, styles and development (Chapter III) Gary Kreps: Communication in organizations (Chapter VIII) Waterman and Peters: In search of excellence (Chapter III) McGraw Hill Course of Management (Chapter VII) Frederick Herzberg: Business Administration Magazine: "Once again, how do you motivate your staff? Management and management magazine: Article" How not to demotivate and motivate "Gestión Magazine Volume 3, Number 2, Mar-Apr 1998: Article" Intellectual capital "Gestión Magazine Volume 4, Number 2, Mar-Apr 1999:Article "Danger: Toxic Company" Management Magazine Volume 1, Number 1, Jan-Feb 1996: Article "Keys to motivate the employee"
James D. Thompson, Organizational Dynamics: Sociological Foundation of Administrative Theory.
Fremont Kast - James Rosenzweig, Organization and Managment: A System Approach.
David Krench - Richard Crutchfield - Egerton Ballachey, Indvidual in Society
Maslow, Abraham, Motivation and Personality.
Abraham K. Korman, Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Clayton Adelfer, An Empirical a New Theory of Human Needs.
M. Haire, E. Ghiselliand and L. Porter. Cultural Patterns in the role of Managment.
David MacClelland, The Achieving Society.
Victor Vroom, Work and Motivation
Porter - Lawler III, Managerial Attitudes and Perfomance
Stacy Adams, Inequity in Social Exchanges
BF Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity.
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