4 Major Employee Motivation Theories that You Should Know

Employee motivation is a crucial topic in management studies. If you are assigned to do an employee motivation assignment, and you don't have much knowledge of the subject area, you can start by exploring the major theories regarding employee motivation. This blog explores 4 such motivation theories that still play a significant role in employee management in an organization.

1. Herzberg’s Motivation Theory:

The hygiene factors vs motivators workplace motivation theory by Herzberg is one of the most empirical and compelling theories about employee motivation. It isolates demotivating factors from true motivators. Also, it introduces the concept of movement vs motivation. If you are looking for employee motivation assignment help, consider studying this theory.

2. John Stacey Adam’s Equity Theory:

The equity theory by John Stacey Adam helps describe why pay and conditions alone cannot determine motivation. It also explores why giving a person a promotion or salary increment can have a demotivating impact on the other employees in the organization. In simpler words, when employees feel fairly or advantageously treated, they are more likely to be motivated while the ones who feel unfairly treated and more likely to feel demotivated.

3. Expectancy Theory of Motivation:

This theory focuses on the mental processes regarding choice. It studies the self-interest in the lines of rewards with people’s wants and the connections among expected behaviors, rewards, and organizational goals. It helps the organizations to relate the rewards directly to performance and allow them to ensure that the rewards that are provided are deserved and wanted by the recipients.

4. Job Characteristics Model:

Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model is based on the concept that the task itself is the key to employee motivation assignment. Job rotation and job enrichment are two major ways of adding variety and challenge to a job and initiate workplace motivation. According to the theory – there are five core job characteristics, such as task identity, skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, which can e combined to form a motivating potential score (MPS) for a job.

It is advised to learn about these theories in detail to have a better grip over the topic of employee motivation. If you don’t focus on learning these theories, you are most likely to struggle when you go to the practical field as a professional.