chap 6 pt 1 Content Theories of Motivation – Lecture Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the lecture on content theories of motivation, including Maslow, ERG, and Herz

Motivation

The conscious or unconscious reasons that drive a person to act, creating desire or willingness to pursue goals and satisfy needs.

Content Theories of Motivation

Approaches that explain which specific internal needs (e.g., hunger, safety, achievement) energize and direct people’s behavior.

Process Theories of Motivation

Approaches that focus on the cognitive processes that energize, direct, sustain, or stop behavior (how motivation works).

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Five-level model (physiological, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization) proposing people satisfy lower needs before higher ones.

Physiological Needs

Basic survival requirements such as food, water, air, rest, and adequate working conditions/pay.

Safety & Security Needs

Desire for physical safety, job security, stable benefits, and predictable environment.

Love / Belonging Needs

Need for social connection, acceptance, community, and positive workplace relationships.

Self-Esteem Needs

Need for respect, recognition, autonomy, confidence, and a sense of accomplishment.

Self-Actualization

The drive to realize one’s full potential and become everything one is capable of becoming (a ‘being need’).

Deficiency Needs (D-Needs)

Maslow’s first four levels; if unmet, they create internal tension that motivates behavior until satisfied.

Being Need (B-Need)

Maslow’s term for self-actualization, pursued for growth rather than to remove a deficiency.

Alderfer’s ERG Theory

Three-level needs model—Existence, Relatedness, Growth—that allows pursuit of higher needs without fully satisfying lower ones.

Existence Needs

Material and physiological desires such as pay, benefits, and safe working conditions (ERG).

Relatedness Needs

Desire for meaningful interpersonal relationships with family, coworkers, supervisors, etc. (ERG).

Growth Needs

Intrinsic need for personal development, creativity, and making productive contributions (ERG).

Frustration-Regression Principle

ERG idea that if a higher-level need is blocked, a person may regress to lower-level needs for satisfaction.

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory

Model distinguishing Motivators (job content factors that create satisfaction) from Hygiene factors (job context factors that prevent dissatisfaction).

Motivators (Satisfiers)

Intrinsic job-content factors—achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement—that increase job satisfaction and motivation.

Hygiene Factors (Dissatisfiers)

Extrinsic job-context factors—company policies, supervision, salary, working conditions—that, if inadequate, cause dissatisfaction but do not motivate when adequate.

Job Content vs. Job Context

Content refers to the work itself (motivators); Context refers to the environment in which work is performed (hygiene factors).

Baseline Reward (Pink)

Adequate salary or pay level that must be met before higher-order motivators can operate effectively.

Hackman & Oldham Job Characteristics Model

Framework linking five core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) to critical psychological states and motivation.

Shoves and Tugs (Murphy)

Practical concept: ‘Shoves’ are demotivators pushing employees away; ‘Tugs’ are motivators pulling them to stay and perform.

Intrinsic Motivation

Drive arising from within the individual (e.g., achievement, personal growth) rather than external rewards.

Extrinsic Motivation

Drive generated by external factors such as pay, benefits, or praise from others.