Best Answer
One of the struggles facing anyone in a management situation is figuring out how to keep the workforce motivated. In fact, working on developing management techniques requires concentrating on how to motivate people, whether it is directly focused on techniques that can increase motivation or simply focused on changing worker’s perceptions of leadership, which can either be motivating or demotivating, depending on the perception. There are various different theories of motivation that are often used to describe what motivates workers, how to increase motivation, and how to avoid things that decrease employee motivation.
Your analysis needs to start with a thorough understanding of the contemporary theories on motivation. The top theories that we hear discussed are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, McGregor’s X and Y Theories, McClelland’s Need Achievement Theory, the Equity Theory, the Value-Percept Theory, Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, and the Porter-Lawler Model. While there is certainly overlap in these theories, they do emphasize different behaviors and suggest that certain motivators would be more effective. If you are trying to analyze workplace management from the perspective of one or more of those theories (or, perhaps, other theories discussed in your classroom environment), then you want to know what theories you are using beforehand, because they may help you define the metrics you want to use to measure workplace motivation.
Oftentimes, when looking at something like motivation, which is not objectively measurable, you have to choose between measuring employee self-reports of motivation levels and objective measures of things that might serve as proxies for motivation, such as performance or output. When writing your analytical essay, you may be tempted only to review literature looking at one of those metrics, however including an analysis of results measuring both types of metrics will help flesh out your analysis.
