Organizational Behavior - Communication and Motivation

I Introduction

Organizational behavior is defined as a social science discipline just like cultural anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology. It uses the scientific method to establish the truth as well as to validate the different theories. It is also considered as a discipline that is related to other social sciences that has its origins historically has had its intellectual home in the business school and a new discipline that is related to other social sciences that has its origins during the mid of twentieth century (Miner, 2002, p. 3).

The main focus of the discipline is the world of organization with the connection or relation to the behavior and nature of the different people that are involved in an organization and the behavior and nature of the organization towards their environment (Miner, 2002, p. 3).

This study will focus on the two objectives of the organizational behavior which are the communication and innovation. It will also focus on its connection to the main or core concept of the article Unlock Discretionary Effort. It will give emphasis on the application or connection of the two said objectives in the real world

II Literature Review

Communication and motivation plays an important role in managing the human resource of any company or organization. Motivation and communication can be considered as inseparable in any human resource management activities or organizational behavior techniques. The said two elements go hand and hand in pursuing the employees and bringing out the best of their human resources.

Communication and motivation are two vital elements for an effective organizational behavior and occur both in the formal and informal level of any organization (Freeman, 1999, p. 280).

A. Motivation

Motivation is considered as one of the most complex issues in organizational behavior. It is the process that helps to arouse as well as sustain the goal-directed behavior. It comes from the Latin word movere meaning to move (Quick, 2006, p. 150). Intentions, desires, needs as well as aspiration are the diverse terms that can be used to elucidate the things that energize and pushes the worker’s behavior that can affect the organizational behavior as a whole. It can be physiological necessities or whims (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 64).

There have been many theories that explain the different factors that affect human motivation in order to accomplish different works or tasks. The main concept here is that different people have their different reason for constantly changing their intentions, desires, needs as well as aspiration. The said constant change of the motivation drivers is a great challenge for the manager or the bosses of any organization or company to create a framework that will help them to understand their subordinates’ motives, how to used these motives for the improvement of the company as well as how it evolve overtime (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 64). There are three well known theories that focuses on the different driver of motivation that affects the overall organization behavior, the: Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory and the McClelland’s learned needs theory (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 89)

1. Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy Theory

Among all the motivation theory, the most significant and most popular theory is the Maslow’s needs-hierarchy theory. Abraham Maslow together with his needs-hierarchy theory, changes the belief about the economic theories of worker motivation during the 1940s (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 64).

The theory of Maslow was based on a number of assumptions. The first assumption was the 5 divisions or classifications of the human wants and needs: the basic physiological needs; the safety needs; the belonging/affiliation needs; the esteem needs; and the self-actualization needs (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 64). Figure 1 show the five categories of human wants and needs.

Figure 1 The Maslow’s Needs-Hierarchy Theory

Physiological Needs

Safety Needs

Affiliation Needs

Esteem Needs

Self

Actualization

Adapted from (Stroh & Northcraft, 2002, p. 65)

2. Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Herzberg’s two factor was one of the first and most influential motivation theory during the mid-twentieth century. The theory focuses on the different factors that cause the workers or employee’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work. The theory believes that the main explanations for the satisfaction of the workers are those factors that are intrinsic to the work itself such as different opportunities for achievement. On the other hand, those extrinsic factors such as company policies are the one that can cause dissatisfaction of the workers. The main idea of the theory is that there are two classifications of factors that might affect the motivation of the worker which are the: motivator factors that serves as determinants of satisfaction; and the hygiene factors that pushes the other way around (Anderson & Ones, 2001, p. 92).

3. McClelland’s Need Theory

McClelland’s need theory focuses on the personality and learned needs of the employees. The said