Introduction and Application of McClelland’s Need Theory
Introduction and Application of McClelland’s Need Theory
McClelland’s theory of needs is one such theory that explains this process of motivation by breaking down what and how needs are and how they have to be approached. David McClelland was an American Psychologist who developed his theory of needs or Achievement Theory of Motivation which revolves around three important aspects, namely, Achievement, Power, And Affiliation (Manolopoulos, 2008).
This theory was developed in the 1960s and McClelland points out that regardless of our age, sex, race, or culture, all of us possess one of these needs and are driven by it. This theory is also known as the Acquired Needs as McClelland put forth that the specific needs of an individual are acquired and shaped over time through the experiences he has had in life (Wan F., Tan S. and Mohammad T. 2013)
Psychologist David McClelland advocated the Need theory, also popular as Three Needs Theory. This motivational theory states that the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation significantly influence the behavior of an individual, which is useful to understand from a managerial context (Arsmtrong,2006)
This theory can be considered an extension of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Per McClelland, every individual has these three types of motivational needs irrespective of their demography, culture, or wealth. These motivation types are driven by real-life experiences and the views of their ethos (Dobre,2013).
1. Need For Achievement
The need for achievement as the name itself suggests is the urge to achieve something in what you do. If you are a lawyer it is the need to win cases and be recognized, if you are a painter it is the need to paint a famous painting. It is the need that drives a person to work and even struggle for the objective that he wants to achieve. People who possess high achievement needs are people who always work to excel by particularly avoiding low reward low-risk situations and difficult to achieve high-risk situations Saraswathi (2011)
2. Need For Power
The need for power is the desire within a person to hold control and authority over another person and influence and change their decision in accordance with his own needs or desires. The need to enhance their self-esteem and reputation drives these people and they desire their views and ideas to be accepted and implemented over the views and ideas over others. These people are strong leaders and can be best suited to leading positions. They either belong to Personal or Institutional power motivator groups. If they are a personal power motivator they would have the need to control others and an institutional power motivator seeks to lead and coordinate a team towards an end. (Yousef, 2000).
3. Need For Affiliation
The need for affiliation is the urge of a person to have interpersonal and social relationships with others or a particular set of people. They seek to work in groups by creating friendly and lasting relationships and have the urge to be liked by others. They tend to like collaborating with others to competing with them and usually avoids high-risk situations and uncertainty. The individuals motivated by the need for affiliation prefer being part of a group. They like spending their time socializing and maintaining relationships and possess a strong desire to be loved and accepted. These individuals stick to basics and play by the books without feeling a need to change things, primarily due to a fear of being rejected.People in this group tend to adhere to the norms of the culture in that workplace and typically do not change the norms of the workplace for fear of rejection. Collaboration is the way to work for the competition remains secondary. They are not risk seekers and are more cautious in their approach. These individuals work effectively in roles based on social interactions, for instance, client service and other customer interaction positions loyd (2005)
Figure 0.1
Application of McClelland in my workplace.
The acquired-needs theory doesn’t claim that people can be neatly categorized into one of three types. Rather, it asserts that all people are motivated by all of these needs in varying degrees and proportions. An individual’s balance of these needs forms a kind of profile that can be useful in creating a tailored motivational paradigm for her. It is important to note that needs do not necessarily correlate with competencies; it is possible for an employee to be strongly affiliation-motivated, for example, but still be successful in a situation in which her affiliation needs are not met (Burduș and Popa, 2013).
McClelland proposes that those in top management positions generally have a high need for power and a low need for affiliation. He also believes that although individuals with a need for achievement can make good managers, they are not generally suited to being in top management positions (Bell & Blanchflower, 2011).
References
Amabile T. M (2001). Motivational Synergy: Toward a New Conceptualizations of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in the Workplace. Human Resource Management Review. Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 185-201
Anderson, H., Singale, M. & Svana, V. 2001. Psychology in the work context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Baridam, M. D. (2002) Management and organization Theory, Sherbrooke Associates, PH
Bogaert, Anthony F (2006). "Toward a conceptual understanding of asexuality". Review of General Psychology. 10 (3): 241–250.
Barbuto, J. E., & Wheeler, D. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. Group & Organization Management
Bugenahgen, M. J. (2006). Antecedents of transactional, transformational, and servant leadership: A constructive-development theory approach. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska.
Cianci, R.; Gambrel, P. A. (2003). "Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Does it apply in a collectivist culture". Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. 8 (2), 143–161.
Daft, R. L. (2003). Management (6th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western. 345 – 360.
Fowler, S. (2014) Why Motivating People Doesn't Work…And What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging; BerrettKoehler Publishers.
Hennessey, B. A. and Amabile, T. M. (2005). Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior, 1-1.
Jaja, S. A. (2003) Praxis of Work Behavior,Pinnacle publishers, Lagos
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge, (4 th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2007). Leadership: Theory application, skill development (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
Marshall, D. M. (2001). Thinking outside the box: Using popular culture to stimulate a critical thinking process. Unpublished master of education thesis. University of Alaska, Anchorage.
Osterloh, M. & Frey, B. (2007), "Dose pay for performance really motivate employees?" in Business performance measurement: theory and practice, ed. A.D. Neely, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 433-449
Robbins, P. S (2009) Organizational Behavior, Dorling Kindersly (India) Pvt. Ltd
Ricky W. Griffin and Gregory Moorhead (2012). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. 10th Ed. South Western Cengage Learning.
Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well. American psychologist, 55(1), 68-79
Sansone, C. and Harackiewicz, J. M. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance. San Diego: Academic Press
Hi Purnima, Agreed. The biggest challenge for any company is to constantly motivate its employees so that employees work hard, which will help the company achieve its objectives. However, as per Osemeke (2017), significant disadvantages of McClelland’s theory of needs is that this theory focuses on needs for achievement, power, and affiliation but ignore basic needs like food, shelter and safety, which is primary needs and needs to be satisfied first before thinking about satisfying other needs.
ReplyDeletehi purnima, agree with you, ading to your points, theory of McClelland theoretical claims need motivation for employees when their need for power, affiliation, and achievement is activated.it is important to differentiate "needs" from "wants", where needs are universal regardless of geography or culture but wants can be different due to many given variables(Michalos, 2017).
ReplyDeleteWell explained Purnima. McClelland proposes that those in top management positions should have a high need for power and a low need for affiliation (Hennessey et al., 2005). McClelland also believes that although workers with a need for achievement can make good managers, they are not best suited to being in director positions of the organization. McClelland's theory is very suitable for current organization structures in the sense that it fits into any organization and it also considers the situational factors (Ricky and Gregory, 2012). Hence many studies recommend that organizations should endeavour to adopt McClellend's theory in motivating today's workforce (Ryan and Deci, 2000).
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Purnima. McClelland's theory is heavily influenced by other core theories of motivation. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's views on high-achievers and low-achievers can both be discovered in McClelland's achievement model (Pardee, 1990).
ReplyDeleteHello there, Purnima. I agree with the above statement. In his 1961 book "The Achieving Society," David McClelland expanded on this subject. We all have three motivators, he believes: a desire for accomplishment, association, and power. Depending on how motivated they are, people will exhibit various qualities. These motivators, according to McClelland, may be learnt, which is why this theory is also known as the Learned Needs Theory.
ReplyDeleteHi Purnima, well written article and adding to that McClelland (1985) in general, theoretical claims need motivation for employees when their need for power, affiliation, and achievement is activated.
ReplyDeleteHi Purnima, interesting take. However, I would say that the "ERG theory" proposed by Alderfer (1972) offers a more holistic view of human needs. It focuses existence needs (basic survival requirements), relatedness needs (social acceptance, influence) and growth needs (pursuing opportunities that allow people to fully realize their potential).
ReplyDeleteHi Purnima, Agreed & I would like to add Herzberg's two-factor theory as well where, Distinguishes between factors preventing dissatisfaction and affecting motivation: the hygiene and the motivation factors, hygiene factors are needed to ensure an employee is not dissatisfied, motivation factors are needed to motivate one to higher performance (Kakkos and Trivellas, 2011).
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Purnima , I prefer to add Self determination theory here which is formulated by Deci and Ryan(2000)this theory states that individuals are motivated by the need to achieve three fundamental goals: striving for competence, autonomy and relatedness.
ReplyDelete