Theories of Motivation: Journey from Maslow to Mcgregor

When the earth will become heaven

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Gautam Buddha: The icon of self actualization; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

 Self actualization is the level that almost every human being dreams to achieve, consciously or unconsciously, irrespective of educational level, irrespective of professional level, irrespective of nationality, caste, religion. But hardly few of us can achieve this level. What is the reason behind this? The reason may be because of rational and materialistic behavior of human being. In the process of attaining various materialistic needs human being hardly get time and scope to achieve the level of self actualization. At every level of life, human being faces different materialistic situations. Every situation lasts for some definite time span and when the problem get solved then he enters into the next age level and that particular age level or time again sets new materialistic target for him. So again he has to work towards attaining the next material objective. Thus while solving the real life facts, human being can go up to certain level of mental orientation, but can never achieve the level of self actualization. In most of the cases, in a total life span human being can optimally achieve the lower level of esteems. In some cases, a certain population can maximum achieves the level of higher esteem. But only few can go up to the level of self actualization. Also, in a highly conflicting societal environment, where a majority of global population fights for food and safety, then how we can expect mass-orientation above physiological and safety needs?

Food: The most basic need for all living creature, even for insects; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

Dr. Abraham Maslow had analyzed human behavior and motivations in his famous article, “A Theory of Human Motivation” (1943 AD). Dr. Maslow had explained that motivation is based on human needs. As per Dr, Maslow, these needs are respectively physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualization. The physiological needs form the most part of the human behavior. Being a living creature, food is the basic requirement for any human being. A hungry person can never thinks beyond food. Once physiological needs, like food, house, sex, money, etc are satisfied then human steps forward to the next level of need, that is safety and security needs. Once food is achieved, then it is required to secure the assurance for food. When a certain life style is achieved then it is required to assure the life style in sustainable and incremental way. Better living, better food throughout the life span need to be assured. So human being constantly acts towards security and safety of life, family and food. Dr. Maslow had described these two needs as basic motivational factor. But many sociologists, like Mr. Fredrick Herzberg, believe that these two needs are not at all motivational factor, rather these are the basic factors without which human being can not sustain. Mr. Herzberg had described these basic factors as hygene factor. They believe that, once these basic needs are satisfied then human being can move forward. Next levels of needs are actual motivational factor for human being. Next level needs refer to social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs.

Hierarchy; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

Being a social species, every human being needs social attachment. An individual can not live alone. If a good friendly societal environment is provided to a person, then he becomes happy, and this happiness provides better motivation. If the association around him is not friendly then an individual becomes unhappy and this unhappiness reflects in his performance and day to day activities. A smile from a friend or a cup of tea with a friend makes a man relax and tension free. A suggestion from a friend in the time of tension grows a feeling of social security in the mind of an individual. In a work place, good warm atmosphere and sober behavior from seniors and colleagues are essential for better performance. Social environment acts as a major source of motivation for human being. When human being starts earning and when his food and safety become assured, then he searches for better friendly atmosphere, where he can interact with equivalent or better persons with proper respect in reciprocating manner.



Dynamism; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

But needs are dynamic. Security for food or friendly environment is not going to provide motivation for life time. Once food security, better earning or warm environment become common and sustainable, then human being starts performing better, and gradually his thirst for more challenging work or better responsibility become predominant. So this is the time, when esteem starts playing as a source of motivation. In a work place, it is essential to give more responsibility to individual when his other needs become saturated. It is the point when human being starts feeling his superiority. It is the point when human being wants to participate in decision making activities. It is the time, when human being wants importance from environment.

But I think esteem is the zone where most people end their life. Because esteem have many stages, and human being starts rotating around different dimensions of esteems. But elevation from esteem to self actualization becomes tough. Because a self actualized person never needs external sources of motivation. A self actualized person is self motivated. But in most of the cases human being get motivation from external sources. Food, money, security, love, respect, power, praise, etc act as catalyst for work. All these catalysts are external sources of motivation. But a self actualized person loves to do his work without any external power. Lack of any external motivational power never makes him unhappy to perform. His motto of life is to perform for the cause. His aim in life is to decide responsibility by using rational thinking and to perform the decided responsibility at any cost.

May be, for this reason Dr. Maslow had considered self actualization as the last motivational level. But is it really last level in the need hierarchy? Is it required to climb all other level of needs before achieving self actualization? Or rather self actualization is a different category of motivational power? It is quiet possible that, a person without achieving other level of needs can achieve the level of self actualization. It is equally true that after achieving all other motivational level, most of the persons fail to achieve the level of self actualization. Self actualization is not a need, rather it is the power. A self actualized person can perform from any level and any background. A poet having comparatively poor economic condition can write best of his poetry. A painter can create best of his canvas when he faces tension in family life. A scientist constantly does experiment even when he faces social restrictions. A self actualized engineer tries to solve an adverse situation when all his superiors lost faith in him. A self actualized doctor performs his duty honestly when he is assaulted by media for wrong allegations. This is power of self actualization. It can never be formulated in certain matrix.

Many a time I have thought that while glorifying self actualization, am I trying to explain it under the cover of instinct? May be it is partially true. Self actualization is a state, which in some cases comes as instinct, as an unconscious behavior of human being. But of course, at the same time it is true that self actualization can boosted by stimulating certain parameters. That is why self actualization comes under the context of modern social science.

As per Dr. Maslow, all the needs form a pyramid like hierarchy structure, where physiological needs comes at the bottom and most of the motivational part can be boosted by satisfying basic physical needs. Gradually needs goes up towards self actualization, via safety, social and esteem needs. Also, Dr, Maslow had described that motivational factors comes one by one as per need hierarchy.

But all the time, motivation may not come stagewise, as explained by Dr. Maslow. Some modern sociologists, like Clayton Alerter had proposed that human being can be motivated by more than one factor at a time. This concept is popularly known as ERG theory. As per Dr. Maslow once a human being reaches a certain level, then he tries to achieve next level until his satisfaction to reach the next level get fulfilled. But ERG theory explains that, if a person is staying at certain level, then he tries to achieve the next level. But in this process if his ambition get frustrated then again he moves back toward previous level and try to get happiness by satisfying previous needs. It is the basic difference between Dr. Maslow’s theory and ERG theory. ERG stands for existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. In general existence needs are equivalent to Dr. Maslow’s physiological and safety needs, relatedness needs are close to Dr. Maslow’s social needs and lower level of esteem needs, and growth needs are more or less equal to Dr. Maslow’s upper esteem needs and self actualization needs.



End less journey; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

In general all these theories of motivation try to search the content components of motivation. The pattern of human behavior and their motivational factors play an important role in work environment. With my experience I have found that, most of the people wake up in the morning with a desire to perform positively. In this regard I always support sociologist Douglas Mcgregor’s Y Theory, which assumes that work is natural to a person. Only some external catalysts can stimulate this natural instinct to perform more efficiently. But at the same time I also believe that to-do or not-to-do attitude has some innate characteristics. So while dealing an individual, you must judge the quantity of innate character of that individual and effect of stimulation on that particular individual at that particular time. Of course, it is a subjective judgment. In modern days lots of formulas are evolving regarding the motivational factor; but at the end of the day it is human mind which constantly change its own formula depending upon situation and experience of each micro second. Mind of each individual is like a heaven, only you need a ladder to reach there. When that ladder will be invented, then the earth will become a heaven.



Food is the basic need; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti



Way to heaven; Photograph by Nirjhar Chakravorti

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Self actualization

The best motivation comes from within. Today’s civilization is the result of tireless internal motivation of human being. There are numerous motivational theories, but all come into conclusion that higher level people are always driven by self motivation. Dr. Abraham Maslow has described that as self actualization need. In the year 1943, in his famous article, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Dr. Maslow had analyzed the critical human behavior, and came into conclusion that, human being is driven by five levels of needs. If these needs are gradually satisfies from bottom to top, then human being become motivated. These needs are respectively physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. According to Maslow these needs form a pyramid, where physiological needs are at bottom level and self actualization needs are at the top.

The people with self actualization needs are always self driven. Self actualized persons do not need external sources of motivation. As per Maslow, self actualized needs comes when all other level of needs are satisfied. But also, this is not absolute. Sometimes, there are hierarchical alterations too, depending on circumstances. But Maslow had expressed his theory on a general platform, so it gives a generic insight of human behavior.
But if we look into the human civilization, we can find many extra ordinary persons, for whom self actualization is one of the most important factors. They act as a mutation power for human civilization. Mutation is actually a parallel theory of Darwin’s evolution theory. Darwin’s evolution theory stressed on continuous improvement of life, whereas mutation theory believe that, life’s evolution is not continuous, rather it is continual. There are some sudden jumps of species, after some continuous shifts. This jump breaks the continuity of life process, but it helps in sudden improvement of evolution. Similarly, self actualized persons have always helped in the sudden jump for human civilization. The activities of self actualized persons have pushed the human civilization suddenly, time to time. They are the exceptions of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory. But Dr. Maslow had also acknowledged that, only a few percent of people in the world can reach the level of self actualization.
Life of self actualized persons is just like a river, which flows continuously, and finds it path to reach the destination even if restriction comes in its way. The self actualized persons are like a dawn lit mountain which stands high and enlighten despite of all conditions. The inner soul of self actualized persons is as deep as an ocean. The beauty of self actualization is like the water fall which scatter its beautiful mist all around when its fall from high altitude. The aesthetic of self actualization is like rare orchid which makes everybody happy with its glittering colour.

According to Eric Maisel:
Self-actualization is a lovely word that stands for our desire to make the most of our talents. Instead of using only a small portion of your total being, just enough to get by, you make the conscious decision to employ your full intelligence, your emotional capital, and your best personality qualities in the service of growth and good works.
We know that we’d love to make use of our potential and make ourselves proud. Self-actualization is the way you become your real self and your best self. You will do yourself a great service if you treat self-actualization as one of your most important meaning opportunities.

Photographs: Nirjhar Chakravorti

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