Motivation Theory

Although the term theory is used in motivation theory, no single recognized theory of motivation exists. Rather, motivation is used as an umbrella term for a number of theories that describe factors, traits, or situations that result in people moving beyond awareness and attitudes into behaviors.

One of the earliest 20th-century psychologists to focus on motivation was Kurt Lewin, noted for his three decades of work at Stanford University, the University of Iowa, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lewin established the Research Center for Group Dynamics and thought of motives as goaldirected forces. This was new thinking amid the psychological theories that behavior was due to blind impulses within individuals. His resulting field theory stated that actions were influenced by environmental factors as well as psychological traits.

Abraham Maslow's 1954 Hierarchy of Needs further refined this idea of internal and external influences by identifying five sequential categories of needs that must be met for individuals to feel fulfilled. First, physiological needs such as hunger and thirst must be satisfied; second, individuals must feel safe; third, people must feel like they belong to some social group; fourth, individuals must experience some type of self-esteem; and fifth, only then can individuals work toward reaching their own potential, what Maslow called self-actualization.

Lewin and Maslow's work established the two basic domains of motivation: internal and external. Researchers in the next two decades attempted to identify variables and factors that fit into these two perspectives in a variety of different environmental settings from the workplace to advertising.

A number of workplace theories cite motivation as a key element in employee workplace behavior. Frederick Herzberg's 1959 hygiene theory contends that the external job environment, consisting of hygiene factors such as company policies, supervisor behavior, and salary, must be satisfactory before individuals will be motivated to pursue higher-order, internal motivators such as achievement, recognition, and job advancement.

Perhaps the most famous workplace motivation scenario is the serendipitous finding known as the Hawthorne effect. Researcher George Mayo, conducting human relations research at General Electric's Hawthorne Works, found that individuals' group motivation and resulting productivity increased or decreased according to factory light levels. He concluded that the levels of attention being paid to them directly affected individuals' motivation—in fact, that security, belonging, and recognition were stronger factors than physical comfort.

Douglas McGregor's 1957 X and Y theories also contributed to the motivational theory umbrella. Often used in management situations, theory X states that individuals have an inherent aversion to work and therefore must be externally motivated to do it. Theory Y provides the opposite view, that individuals naturally have a need to work and external forces have only to encourage and provide opportunities for this need to be satisfied. This suggests that understanding individuals' internal motivations is necessary to know what external motivators would be most effective in creating or reinforcing desired behaviors.

The media environment with its rich variety of technologies has its own set of motivational studies, most based on trying to identify the effects media have on human behavior. The 1930s Payne Fund Studies, a 13-study, three-year effort directed by the Motion Picture Research Council, studied the influence of movies on children. The resulting 10 volumes, with their findings on topics from sleep disturbances being linked to scary movies to the influence on moral standards of on-screen actors, were not conclusive in proving effects, but were revolutionary in even attempting to tackle such a complex subject.

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