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5 Motivational Theories Project Manager Must

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Motivation is a psychological feature that makes a living being strive towards achieving a goal, and controls its behavior in this respect.

Motivating self and team is a primary need of a project manager to successfully manage the project.

Even best of the team members need constant motivation to work towards achieving project objectives.

There are 5 motivational theories applicable in general to all, and in specific to project management. Getting a good understanding of these give useful insights to you as a project manager to manage the team better.

1- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow proposed a psychological theory in 1943, which he subsequently extended to apply to human developmental psychology, and published in his book in 1954. It came to be known as "Maslow's hierarchy of needs".

Maslow's theory is represented as a pyramid with layers of needs - basic needs at the bottom, and the subsequent layers above representing 'evolved' needs that motivate an individual. Bottom four levels of the pyramid are termed as 'deficiency needs' - which means that their absence will make an individual tense and stressed. The top layer goes beyond the needs of these four layers, and is driven by the constant need to become a better individual.

Tesy: Wi

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Maslow’s Layer 1: Psychological

Needs such as food, water and sleep form core and basic needs of human beings. Only after these needs are fulfilled do man's actions get motivated by higher needs.

Maslow’s Layer 2: Safety

These are security of body, employment, health and family - which are a level higher than man's psychological needs.

Maslow’s Layer 3: Love and belonging

This represents interpersonal needs of a man - love and belongingness with fellow human beings. Friendship, family, intimacy maintain man's emotional stability.

Maslow’s Layer 4: Esteem

Humans have the innate need to feel respected, valued and wanted. The activities a man gets involved with (such as a profession, hobbies) give him a sense of contribution. Maslow identified 'lower' and 'higher' needs - lower needs are expectation of respect from others, and higher needs include respect for self. People with imbalance in these needs suffer from inferiority complex.

Maslow’s Layer 5: Self-actualization

This need stems from the adage "what a man can be, he must be". This refers to the realization of one's potential. This is a perceived need, in the sense that man needs to strive to achieve whatever he considers to be the ideal state of being. And this ideal state may differ between individuals. For one this may be becoming a selfless altruist, and for someone else this could be being a top notch athlete.

2: McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor developed this theory in the 1960s. He was a management professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Theory X and Theory Y refers to the perception manager has of his employees.

Theory X

Theory X states that a manager sees his employees as fundamentally lazy, and that they always are on the lookout to escape work. This belief makes managers to micromanage their employees, and results in mistrust and restrictive supervision. Theory X manager tends to blame others for everything.

Theory Y

Theory Y type of manager believes that every employee is self-motivated and can be trusted. And that they can think for themselves, accept responsibility, and, given right environment they can perform well. This type of thinking builds positive work environment. There will be open communication, lesser hierarchy and collaborative decision making in such an environment.

3: Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory

Frederick Herzberg proposed Motivation-Hygiene theory in 1968, which states that content of a person's job is the primary source of motivation. This opposes the popular belief that money alone is the primary motivation for people to work.

Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory

'hygiene factors' such as pay, job security, working conditions, fringe benefits, job-policies will only reduce dissatisfaction, and by themselves do not motivate people. Other factors such as levels of challenge, work, recognition, advancement, autonomy and opportunity for creativity are termed as 'motivational factors' that make people want to work.

4: McClelland's Need Theory

David McClelland was American psychological theorist, proposed that people are motivated by achievements, affiliation and power.

• People who are motivated by achievements prefer to master a job or situation, prefer to work on task that are moderately difficult, and prefer work where success is based on effort (and not factor of luck), and that they would like to get feedback on their work.

McClelland's Need Theory

• People who are motivated by affiliation prefer to work with people in power and love to establish relationship with them, be part of such elite group where their work is accepted and respected.

• People who are motivated by power prefer to work in positions of power (military, police and heads of departments) and they intrinsically want to influence, teach and encourage people. They place high value on discipline. They have zero-sum goals where for one to win, someone else has to lose.

5: Expectancy Theory

This was proposed by Victor Vroom of Yale School of Management in 1964. This is based on the assumption that people choose a specific behavior based on their expectation of the intended result. He introduced three variables -• Expectancy (E) : Expectation leads to desired

Performance• Instrumentality (I) : Performance leads to favorable

Outcome (rewards such as promotion, salary increase)• Valence (V) : This is the importance one places on

rewards, based on their needs, goals and sources of motivation

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