Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 9

Management - Essay Example Economic rewards were known as primary and sole motivators for employees and hence improving worker efficiency. Traditional approach assumes that people are rational and would work harder for higher pay.1 However, this is not a true case for most employees. Contemporary theories2 explain higher needs of employees that are met by different incentives. This is problem should be recognized because ignoring other factors that influence motivation can cause an organization’s productivity to fall or remain stagnant/indifferent to incentives.3 Motivation is defined as the arousal, persistence and direction of behavior.4 The factors that may lead to motivation are subjective. These are relative to values and priorities of the employee who is working towards attaining a goal. When these priorities/needs are met, this develops motivation for an employee for work. In the study of Management, Human Relations approach recognized that there are needs greater than money, from the experiment known as Hawthorne Studies. Hawthorne Studies were a series of experiments to check changes in worker productivity and brought an unexpected outcome. The experiment involved tests that changed environment factors and also a group of people were assigned to check other possible reasons for change in worker behavior. The change did indeed improve worker productivity, but due to unexpected factors. Human relations were the strongest factor that was influencing an increase in worker productivity, because the attitude of supervisors had improved.5 This test, although no longer part of contemporary theories, it proved that people have greater needs than money, and also at one point monetary compensation becomes ineffective for improving labor productivity. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory is one of the contemporary approaches to understanding motivation that introduces a host of new factors that influence motivation. Abraham Maslow detected that all