Motivational Drives

People tend to develop certain motivational drives as a product of the cultural environment in which they live, and these drives determine the way people view their jobs and approach their lives. Much of the interest in these patterns of motivation was generated by the research of David C. McClelland of Harvard University. He developed a classification scheme highlighting three of the more dominant drives and pointed out their significance to motivation. His studies revealed that people’s motivational patterns tend to be strong among the workers because they have grown up with similar backgrounds. McClelland’s research focused on the drives for achievement, affiliation and power. An addition to these is the competence drive, which is important factor in current attempts to achieve high-quality products and services.

Achievement Motivation

It is a drive some people have to pursue and accomplish goals. An individual with this drive desires to accomplish objectives and move up the ladder of success. Accomplishment is seen as significant primarily for its own sake, not just for the rewards that accompany it. A number of characteristics define achievement- oriented employees. They work harder when they anticipate that they will receive personal recognition for their efforts, when there is only moderate risk of failure and when they receive specific feedback about their past performance. As managers, they tend to expect that, their employees will also be inclined towards achievement. These high expectations sometimes make it problematic for achievement-oriented managers to delegate efficiently and for regular employees to satisfy their manager’s demands.

Affiliation Motivation

It is a drive to relate to people on a social basis. Comparisons of achievement-motivated employees with affiliation-motivation employees highlight how the two patterns impact Behavior.

Power Motivation

It is a capability that one man has to influence the Behavior of the other that means the other man acts in tune with the first man’s wishes. This implies a scope that need not to be actualized to be effective and a dependency relationship. Power may exist but may not be used and that is why we call it as capacity or potential. Power is also said to be a function of dependency, for example: The greater the other man’s dependence on the first, greater is the first man’s power in the relationship. A person can have a power on other if he controls something, which the other one desires. Leaders achieve goals through the means of power that makes it possible to achieve goals. Power comes from two sources namely, formal and personal.

Formal power is on the basis of the position of the individual in an organization. This can come from formal authority or from control of information. This is then categorized down to different formal powers like coercive power based on fear, reward power based on ability to distribute rewards that are valuable to others, legitimate power that is achieved as a result of one’s position in the organizational hierarchy and information power that comes from access to and control over information.

Personal power doesn’t depend upon formal position in an organization. This is vested with the effective and productive managers having no power. The power comes from the individual’s distinct characteristics such as his expertise, skills, respect and admiration, charisma and knowledge. In other words, if you want to get things done in a group or in an organization, it helps to have power with you. If you maximize your power you do, it increases the reliance of all others on you. Increasing the power is relative in nature and the means differ depending upon the relative power base.