Motivation

Background

Leader-member relationships can achieve motivational goals through mutual understanding. This understanding is important to building a cohesive unit that not only understands each other, but that has found a way to manage the tough times. The management framework provided in this chapter allows leaders the flexibility of having a wide range of resources in terms of management approaches that can be used to motivate workers whether they are onsite or remote. Motivation and leadership development should be team activities that, done well, create great relationships.

A focus on relationships is important in this context because it would be wrong to analyze performance and leader resistance without also taking an in-depth look at employee motivation. This chapter will trace the development of workplace motivation theories by providing history and background in the field. We will trace the development and then offer a comprehensive framework that ties together some important theories of work motivation. This should be helpful to leaders if they understand that many motivation theorists argue that current theories of work motivation focus on different aspects of the motivation process. This work will show they are in fact complementary in many ways. The analysis can be effective for leader and team development.

The framework for this analysis is taken from Gary P. Latham’s Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice (2012). The framework also includes the works of Conor Vibert, Theories of Macro Organizational Behavior (2004), and John Miner, Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership (2005), for background, information, and reflection. While these works are important, this chapter’s emphasis is based on Latham’s work. The reason for the dependence on Latham is the power of his assertions on the past, the present, and the future and how they help today’s leader.

Latham’s organization fit well with the framework developed herein. It allows the acceptance of the best available leadership and management theory that can be used by leaders, members, and organizations, separately or together, to foster communication and effective use of all the theoretical tools available in this and in the referenced works.

The motivation process is situational, and the task seems always to come down to whose interests have the most weight, and who has the telling “voice” in the decision-making effort (Roberts & O'Reilly III, 1973). Voice is that part of the deliberations that carries the most weight in when the final decisions are made. The theoretical framework herein can help in that effort.

This analysis makes several assumptions. The first assumption is that the work does not omit a theorist whose work is critical to the current effort. The second assumption is that the review is thorough enough to do justice to the theoretical comparisons and linkages in the way they are presented. The next assumption is that others will see the value of Latham’s approach with the same enthusiasm and support given in this work. The final assumption is that this work takes for granted that there will be challenges, disagreements, and varying viewpoints that support or criticize the assumptions made here. Despite the assumptions, the ability to debate the pros and cons is important to any learning endeavor.

Also, despite the assumptions, my point of view is clear: I see this effort from where I sit. I have held numerous leader and member positions, and the framework I have created would have served me well at any of the critical learning and growing times in my life and career. There are certainly other points of view to consider, and you should explore alternative methods and viewpoints on the matter extensively, even beyond those presented here. The potential academic and real-world exchange is an exciting proposition.