McClelland's theory of motivation

 

McClelland's theory of motivation breaks out what and how needs are in order to understand this process. In the 1950s, American psychologist David McClelland proposed the Achievement, Power, and Affiliation theories of motivation, which are now known as the Needs and Achievement Theories of Motivation as per Anjum et al., (2021). McClelland points out that regardless of the age, sex, colour, or culture, we all have one of these wants and are motivated by it. This idea was created in the 1960s. The Acquired Requirements hypothesis is also known as McClelland's theory, which states that an individual's unique needs are acquired and formed through time by the experiences he has had as per  Hendijani & Steel, (2020).

McClelland's Need theory, which is often referred to as "three needs theory," is widely accepted in psychology circles. According to this view of motivation, a person's conduct is greatly influenced by their desires for success, power, and belonging, all of which may be helpful in the workplace.

 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs may be seen as an extension of this notion. For McClelland, the three categories of motivating demands are universal regardless of demographics, culture or income. These sorts of motivation are based on real-world experiences and the beliefs of their ethos (Hendijani et al., 2016).

1.     Need for achievement

The desire to succeed in the endeavors is known as the "need for success." To be a lawyer, he/she must win cases and get recognition; to be a painter, he/she must create a well-known work of art. A person's desire to accomplish a goal motivates him or her to put in the effort necessary to achieve it (Hill, 1982).   Those with high aspirational aspirations reject low-reward, low-risk endeavours in favour of more challenging, but perhaps more lucrative ones (Ryu et al., 2020). When there is no real challenge and the person understands that the achievement is not genuine, they avoid low-risk situations. Due to their belief that success is more a matter of chance than hard work, they shun high-risk circumstances. Having more successes motivates them to execute at a greater level, leading to better results according to Vicente-Ramos et al., (2020).

 

 

 

2.     The demand for power

When someone has a need for power, he or she wants to exert influence on another person so that he or she may meet his or her own needs or desires. These individuals are motivated by a desire to improve their own self-worth and reputation, and they prioritize the acceptance and implementation of their own ideas and viewpoints above those of others (Hill, 1982).  Leadership jobs would be best suited to these individuals. Personal or institutional power motivator groupings are what they fall under. Personal power motivators want to exert control over others, but institutional power motivators want to guide and organize a group toward a common goal or goal-setting objective (Lehner et al., 2020).

3.     Need for affiliation

It is the desire of a person to form interpersonal and social ties with others or a certain group of individuals. It is their need to be liked by others that drives them to work in groups and form long-lasting friendships. They prefer to work with people rather than compete with them, and they avoid high-risk and unclear circumstances. People who are driven by a need for social connection seek to be a member of a collective (Black & Allen, 2018). They like spending time with friends and family and have a strong need to be accepted and appreciated. Because they are afraid of being rejected, these people tend to adhere to the essentials and follow the rules. People in this group prefer to stick to the standards of the workplace culture out of fear of being rejected if they try anything new as concluded by Borodin et al., (2021)

The theory of McClelland may be used to manage corporate teams by identifying and classifying each member of the team according to the three requirements that McClelland identifies (Jha, 2010).  Managing the team's expectations and keeping things moving smoothly might be made easier if you are aware of the members' individual characteristics.

Identifying which of the three needs motivates each member of the team. This may be aided by qualities of character and prior behavior (Otten, 2002). This member of the team is most likely motivated by a desire for personal power. If you have a team member who is skilled at handling disagreements but uneasy when others talk about taking on high-risk, high-reward assignments, you may want to consider him or her for this role (Jha, 2010). This team member's motivations are most likely influenced by their sense of community.

References

 

Anjum, N., Islam, Md. A., Choudhury, M. I., & Saha, J. (2021). Do Intrinsic Rewards Matter on Motivation? SEISENSE Journal of Management, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.33215/sjom.v4i1.534

Black, S., & Allen, J. D. (2018). Part 7: Rewards, Motivation, and Performance. Reference Librarian, 59(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2018.1499164

Borodin, A., Mityushina, I., Streltsova, E., Kulikov, A., Yakovenko, I., & Namitulina, A. (2021). Mathematical modeling for financial analysis of an enterprise: Motivating of not open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7010079

Hill, A., 1982. If Maslow Taught Writing14°) A Way to Look at Motivation in the Composition Classroom. Berkeley: University of California.

Hendijani, R., Bischak, D. P., Arvai, J., & Dugar, S. (2016). Intrinsic motivation, external reward, and their effect on overall motivation and performance. Human Performance, 29(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2016.1157595

Hendijani, R., & Steel, P. (2020). Motivational congruence effect: How reward salience and choice influence motivation and performance. Cogent Business and Management, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.1791444

Jha, S., 2010. Need for Growth, Achievement, Power and Affiliation: Determinants of Psychological Empowerment. Global Business Review, 11(3), pp. 379-393.

Lehner, M., Mont, O., Mariani, G., & Mundaca, L. (2020). Circular economy in home textiles: Motivations of IKEA consumers in Sweden. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125030

Otten, E. H., 2002. Developing Character Through Literature. Bloomington: The Family Learning Association.

Ryu, S., Park, J., Kim, K., & Kim, Y. G. (2020). Reward versus Altruistic Motivations in Reward-Based Crowdfunding. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2020.1715531

Vicente-Ramos, W. E., Silva, B. G., Merino, S. T. N., Lazo, S. M. P., & Álvarez, C. R. M. (2020). Academic motivations of pregrade students in the choice of international business career. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v9n2p85