Content Theory That You Picked And A Process Theory

Content and Process Theory
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The desire or drive to continue or start doing things is commonly referred to as motivation. Motivation can be instilled to people, and sometimes it comes just from within. To make people motivated, factors such as financial rewards can be used, but at times the individual themselves may motivate themselves. Various factors drive individuals such include the need for money, passion of what one is doing or recognition (Ford, MacCallum, & Tait, 1986). This source of motivation does vary between different individuals as the same factor can motivate not everyone. Research shows a relationship between behavior and motivation. In organizations, motivation is relevant as high motivation is linked to higher performance and managers need to take a keen interest in the motivation topic for higher performance (George, Jones, & Sharbrough, 2005). For several decades now, managers have focused on aspects that motivate workers and improve performance. There are various theorists who have come up with theories, which address the motivation phenomena. Divided into two these theories fall under content and process theory where content deals with factors that do motivate people while process theories deal with how individuals are motivated. This paper will observe at least one example of each category that is Maslow's needs hierarchy in content theory and Vroom's expectancy theory in process theory. This easiness also intends to show how the above theories relate to motivation in an organization.
Content theories observe the factors that are inside the individual, which causes them to stop or sustain behavior. This category focuses on the various needs that motivate behavior. As these theories imply that individuals will always be unique and hence their source of motivation will be unique managers need to understand the basis of every individual. One of the main theories in this category is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This popular theory on motivation was observed by Abraham Maslow in1943, theory observes five needs that obtain a hierarchical order in their satisfaction. When the lowest need is unsatisfied, this need becomes powerful and has to be satisfied first (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008). It observes that the satisfied need is not a motivating factor. The higher needs are pursued after the lower needs have been satisfied. Often depicted in a pyramid shape showing the basic needs at the bottom and the complex ones at the top Maslow give a description of the needs level. This theory is based on the fact that if there is an absence of the motivating factors then there will be tension which in turn causes negative or low performance. That is if individuals do not get what they need they will go out their way to satisfy this need.
Process theories are known to observe how motivational factors sustain, stops and cause behavior (Bolino, Kacmar, Turnley & Gilstrap, 2008). There are four process theories; expectancy, goal settings, equity, and reinforcement. These theories observe that choices by individuals are linked to a sense of accomplishment, reward factors, and preferences. In this perspective, managers need to understand the process of motivation. Vroom's expectancy ...