Douglas McGregor spent the end of the 1950’s and the early 1960’s working on his motivation theory. Curiously titled Theory X Theory Y, his theory outlines two opposing views on human behavior in the workplace. Each of the viewpoints addresses a different way of meeting each individual’s motivational needs. McGregor believed that a manager’s assumptions…
The Three Needs Theory, also known as need theory, is the best-known theory of David McClelland, a Harvard professor who spent thirty years conducting research on motivation. He sought to understand human nature and develop tools to measure how people make choices. McClelland’s Theory of Three Needs outlines the three desires that an individual could…
Businesses and organizations have long sought for answers on how to boost employee production, and therefore, profits. Fortunately, many researchers have extensively studied human motivation to try and understand what drives humans to work. Herzberg’s two-factor theory outlines that humans are motivated by two things: motivators and hygiene factors (see Figure 1). These two factors…
