File1 ANALYTICAL ARGUMENT Paragraph A Understanding the motivation of employees may be more difficult than supposed.

Classic motivation theory proposes that people respond to a sense of personal satisfaction and achievement. Originally theorised in 1943 by Maslow (1987) as self-esteem and self-actualisation, these experiences have been interpreted as something that managers can use to motivate employees (McGregor,1960). However, more recent criticism (Gawel, 1997; Kelly, 2004) suggests that there is a fundamental

contradiction in management attempting to motivate employees with these concepts because the attempt is based on telling employees what they want, rather than really listening to what employees say they want (Kelly, 2004, p. 221). Despite Herzbergs (1968) notion that people value achievement, responsibility and recognition, the reality seems to be that individuals have difficulty in consistently articulating what they want from a job (Gawel, 1997).

Paragraph B Maslows (1943) theory suggests that individuals seek outcomes to satisfy needs in an ascending hierarchy. His ideas are important because they opened up the motivation debate to include more than one goal, and to identify self-esteem and self-actualisation as potentially important goals. McGregor (1960) was also important for his idea that, regardless of the actual motivation profile of workers, their managers assumptions about their motivation had a profound effect on the behaviour of both managers and workers. He suggested two polar types of managerial thought: Theory X managers, who believe workers lack ambition and need to be controlled, and Theory Y managers, who see that employees

can be motivated to achieve goals of self-esteem and self-actualisation. Herzberg (1966) stated that people will be motivated by things they value, which are likely to be achievement, responsibility and recognition; in other words, self-actualisation.

Paragraph C The most influential motivation theories have proposed that employees are motivated by achievement at a personal level. Self-esteem and selfactualisation were identified as potentially important goals by Maslow (1943) in his Hierarchy of Needs theory, which laid the foundations for the work of McGregor (1960) and Herzberg (1966). Both confirmed the importance of self-esteem and self-actualisation, which could be utilised by Theory Y managers (McGregor, 1960) to motivate employees. McGregor argued that managers positive (and negative) assumptions about employees motivation had a profound effect on the behaviour of both managers and workers. Similarly, Herzberg (1966) argued that

people will be motivated by things they value, which are likely to be achievement, responsibility and recognition; actualisation. in other words, self-

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