DQ week five Two
DQ week five Two
Introduction
Motivational theories have a major impact on the cultural view of the people in any organization. People tend to reason depending on their cultural background hence; the theories of motivation are understood differently by people of different cultures. For instance, the incentive theory and the drive theory affect cultural behaviour of people in various ways.
According to the theory, people are motivated to do things that they feel are unmet needs. This theory can be influenced by culture in two ways. People have different cultural backgrounds. In an organizational setting, there could be someone whose cultural belief is that every task must be completed. The person will be presumed to be highly motivated yet it is a cultural influence. Similarly, someone may opt not to perform a task because in his culture it is a taboo. Such a person will be said to lack motivation yet it is a cultural influence.
Incentive theory
The incentive theory interacts with culture to give various views on motivation. The theory involves getting external rewards. In some cultures, people value different kinds of rewards. For instance, someone may resent money because they associate it with evil. An organization will have to find other incentives to motivate such an employee. The belief of the people influences whatever they feel is an incentive. The organization management has to understand the cultural background of its work force in order to ensure that the right incentives are used to motivate them.
Conclusion
Therefore, culture affects motivation theories in how the people interpret things. The drive theory relies can be affected positively when the employee’s culture supports the activity in question. If the activity is a taboo in the person’s culture, the person will not be motivated to work. The incentive provided must be one that the person’s culture supports; failure to which the incentive theory will not apply.
References
Beck, R. C. (2004). Motivation: theories and principles. New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Herzberg, F. (1993). The Motivation to Work. New York: Transaction Publishers.
Latham, G. P. (2007). Work motivation: History, theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Pinder, C. C. (1998). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
