The managing director of an IT solutions company has come to you for advice about one of her teams. The team successfully delivered a very important project with tight deadlines three months ago. The team is very skilled, but she has noticed that their productivity has declined over the last quarter. She wants to know how she can motivate her team to sustain the high level of productivity she knows they are capable of. Ensure you reference two different theories of motivation in your answer and how they could specifically be applied in this context.

Theories of motivation

The purpose of writing this essay is to highlight the theories of motivation in order to answer that suggest the managing director implement the same. The chosen theories that will be discussed in the essay are Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Motivator - Hygiene theory for answering the potential requirement of the managing department and evaluating the theories. Maslow's theory of motivation can be defined and divided into five categories that dictate the behavior of an individual of human needs (Hopper,2020). Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene theory states that two factors are responsible for job satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Yeboah & Abdulai, 2016).

This essay will provide an answer in recommending and suggesting the potential motivational theory with the help of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene theory. At the end of this essay, a conclusion paragraph will be given.

Theory Explanation

Maslow's Theory of Motivation

Maslow's theory of motivation is given by Abraham Maslow in the year 1943 and the theory is published in the paper which is titled "A Theory of Human Motivation". As this theory gives the idea that humans are born with needs that should be completed by them in growing and also proposed the five Hierarchies of Needs of human psychology and these are distributed in five levels through which normal people have to climb upward.

1. Self-fulfilment needs to mean self-actualization this suggests that there is everyone who has some desires which should be achieved by everyone these desires help in achieving the full potential that is done in creative ways and by doing creative activities.

2. Psychological Needs These needs are further divided into two levels which must Esteem needs and this esteem is the feeling and prestige of the accomplishment of the work at the workplace. And another level is belongingness and love need which means the needs of the friends and the relationship with the family members (McCleskey & Ruddell 2020).

3.  Basic needs are the needs of humans that are necessary for them. And these needs have 2 levels of safety needs which includes the security and safety of individuals. Another level is physiological needs that include food, water, rest etc. these must be needed by human beings.

Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation

Herzberg's two-factor of motivation was first given by Herzberg in 1966 in this theory he separates the two mutually exclusive factors of the workplace and these factors cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. These two factors are

1. Hygiene Factor which means the status of the job, security of the job, a salary which was provided at the workplace, and other benefits found in the workplace and also the condition of the workplace and these all things give positive satisfaction if they are according to the employees and if they are not according to the employees they cause dissatisfaction. These are the factors that include the policies and practices of the organisation (Alshmemri, et al.,2017)

2.  Motivation factors these are the factors which depend on the organisation and give the positive behaviour in motivation and also satisfaction which are the job responsibility and the recognition of the individual and his responsibility make the individual more motivated and this is inner motivation comes when his work was praised by the leader. The achievement of any job role helps in motivation that results in the more specific about his responsibility.

Theory Application

Theory one - Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs elaborates the motivation in different states in different categories that are human needs that dictate human behavior. The needs consist of physiological needs, love, and beginnings, safety needs, and self-esteem as needs self-actualization process. As per the theory of needs, it shows that a person works according to the needs they desire and they get motivated as their needs get fulfilled and are capable of working with the help of their productivity in their work and projects they are assigned with managing director must fulfill their needs of the theory that shows If their basic needs are fulfilled then the leader and the manager must fulfill the desires of the individual team members as they can work with their full productivity and operations. The team is very efficient so there is no need for training and it is needed to know what are their needs and motivation. They are getting their salaries and their basic needs are satisfied and at this stage they must desire any type of reward and recognition of the individuals. For example, an employee gets a good salary, has a romantic partner and is happy, but he desires up-gradation ion in his job role so promotion is required for increasing the efficiency and productivity in the operations.

Theory two - Herzberg's Motivator - Hygiene theory

This theory explains that every individual is different and everyone has their deserves operations by which they can get motivated. The satisfaction of the desires helps in pursuing that every individual must be understood differently, The team leader must talk to eve\eryonid induvial and identify that what is desired by which individual and every individual needs must be taken into consideration as per the particular and specific desires. Hygiene issues of workplace mainly supervision and salary, decrease in the dissatisfaction  of the employees in terms of the working environment and must be accepted that everyone's definition of achievement and commitment is different and if focused individually, the workers tend to be more committed, creative and productive in terms of the operations of the workplace. Every employee is different, some desire for salary and some for recognition. So everything must be taken into consideration and must work accordingly. For example one person wants higher salary and one wants promotion, so they are different perspectives.

Critical evaluation

Theory 1-Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

This theory does not consider the scientific approach and it is a very simplified theory that lacks empirical support for the need's rank ordering.  This theory bounds people culturally and the test of this theory cannot be tested empirically. There is no way to measure which level derives the maximum satisfaction or even derives satisfaction or not. There is no proper method to decide the level of satisfaction as per hierarchy.

Theory 2-Herzberg's Motivator - Hygiene theory

This theory does not reflect conclusive data and behaviours. There is no guarantee that satisfied employees will lead to increased productivity in the organization. This theory focuses on two factors that overlook various variables according to the situation which is quite confusing. The reliability of this theory is uncertain. There is no comprehensive measure is being used.

Conclusion

At the end of this essay, it can be concluded that the potential theories selected by analysing the situation would be Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene theory. By understanding the theories and their application along with their critical evaluation, the first motivational recommendation theory would be Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene theory.

Recommendation

The first recommendation would be Herzberg's Motivator - Hygiene theory as the satisfied employee will give work with their full potential and would aid in increasing the overall productivity of the organization.

Although, job satisfaction is one of the major factors of increased productivity but not the only factor. Multiple factors need to be taken into consideration.