Before starting how motivation took attention in the field of management, we need to understand the core idea of the businesses. There are several questions we may want to ask: Why do we need businesses, and what are the ultimate goals of businesses in the society? No matter what businesses do, their reason for existence is to make profits. Although recent arguments focus on value creation, maximizing shareholder value is why businesses exist.

In the history, it is believed that there is only one best method and way to do a tasks. It is also believed that financial rewards are the only method to increase the productivity of workers.

“Management is a science. There is one best way and one best person to do the task. I love efficiency and I love to study people at work.”
Frederick Taylor
at the Chevrolet Plant in Flint, Michigan
Every 80 seconds a body shell is completed in the Slovakia
“We cannot make individuals stupid; we make them dissatisfied, psychoneurotic, or restless. It is urgently necessary that industry should give as much attention to human as it has to material inquiry.”
Elton Mayo
Elton Mayo & Hawthorne Studies:

Essentially designed as some series of time – motion studies, Western Electric company’s (currently AT&T) Hawthorne Works plant has been investigated to find the best physical and environmental condition to increase the productivity of the plant. Elton Mayo and his colleagues from Harvard Business School conducted several experiments to reach the best possible condition that increases the effectiveness and the productivity of each worker so that the overall productivity could be increased. In these studies, the following conditions have been altered to catch the best possible outcome:

  • The Duration and frequency of rest periods
  • Total Hours of during a regular workday
  • Employee Compensation
  • Temperature Settings
  • Illumination Settings

Some of the expected outcomes were to have increased worker productivity, when the duration of breaks would be prolonged, or the illumination is enhanced. However, in the end, what Mayo and colleagues witnessed was that all changes in those physical and environmental conditions led increased worker productivity. Soon they figured out that the reason of increased productivity was not due to the changes of settings, but it was a positive response to the attention given by the researchers. As humans,we,value social linkages, therefore the established social linkages produce positive responses in return. (See Ariely’s presentation). By getting close attention during the observations, the workers feel that they were special. One of the reasons, why Hawthorne studies took so huge attention was that this was the first time that increased productivity cannot be explained by physical and financial factors. Rather the focused moved to the human relations aspect in the organizations.

How it is possible to establish social linkages and how to damage them are the questions of the domain of motivation. To read more about the Mayo’s article, click here.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Types of Needs

Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (also known as D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences.

Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (also known asbeing needs or B-needs). Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.


Motivation is something you should possess.. But if you are not motivated, the fault may not be yours.!

Ask questions!



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Further Readings on Motivation in the Workplace:
  • Locke, E.A. (1968).  Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives.  Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 3, 157-189.
  • Bloom. M. (1999). The performance effects of pay dispersion on individuals and organizations. Academy of Management Review, 42, 25-50.