Week 2 of the big bad blog!

This weeks lecture has been about motivation.
Motivation theories are split up into to main headings; content and process.

The content side of the Motivation theories says that people have specific needs which they need to persue.
Included in this is the;
Maslow's hierachy of needs,
Aldefer's ERG theory,
Herzberg's two-factor theory
and McClelland's achievement motivation theory.

Personally I identify closest with Aldefer's ERG theory. It sorts the employee's needs into three different levels of needs.
The E stands for existance. These are the neccessaties that you require to survive, i.e. money for food and drink and safety during the job.
The R stands for relatedness needs. These are social needs occuring during working hours, i.e. social interaction with collegues, the work force needs to work together.
The G stands for growth. This is the basic need to want to achieve. After a certain time people want to attain greater responsibility and have a higher status, title and pay.

Aldefer states that employees will have these needs in that order. Existance. Relatedness. Growth.

I initially was motivated to do this course because I was told that this subject suited me. I looked it up and saw it was well paid and safe in terms of physiological safety (E). This was the initial motivator. After that I read more into the subject and started to like what it was about and what kind of people participated in it (R). After that I started to look at the potential job prospects and how quickly I could advance (G).
Aldefer's ERG theory displays my motivation for this course.

I am here because I didn't work hard enough to get into a different university and therefor came here through clearance.

My motivation for the next 2-3 years is the fact that if I start something I have a need to finish it. I will work to finish the 3 years with a pass, maybe high, maybe low but I will not fail.

I haven't really been demotivated during work (just lazy at times unfortunatly) but I have been in sport.
Three years ago my school team played a rugby match against Bishops. I was demotivated becasue I had a shoulder and a foot injury but wanted to karry on, but I wasn't motivated to give 100%. As a consequence we lost 50-0 in the first 10 minutes of the second half and the game had to be stopped.
According to Aldefer's ERG theory the safety aspect in Existance that may have demotivated me.
The year after we were annihilated we were told that we had three more training sessions untill the rematch. All of us were riling with excitement and we trained untill pucked, fainted or just couldn't stand anymore. We used the remaining training session as a recovery to be on top form for the match.
We felt safe together as a unit (E).
We were a team and had been through alot together (R).
We wanted to beat then because they humiliated us (G).
We won 50-0 after 37 minutes.
Any time I'm hurting in training or in a match I visualise that feeling, that moment when we were on top of the world with that win that we had worked so hard for.

I have found that Aldefer's ERG theory is the motivational theory that suits me the most. Also I think that due to its simplicity it can be applied to many situations and different types of people.
It is an allround sound theory.