Compare and Contrast Essay: Maslow & Mcgregor's Theories of Motivation

Compare and Contrast Essay: Maslow and McGregor's theories of motivation

In any company, the employees highly impact the success of the business. In order to maximize their work, motivation is crucial. It can lead to higher efficiency, better quality of work, and low rates of labour turnover. There are many ways to motivate workers, and many theories have been presented regarding it. The most popular theories of motivation are Herzberg's theory, Fayol's theory, Taylor's theory, Mayo's theory, Maslow's theory and McGregor's theory. These theories all have significant contributions to help motivate the workforce. However, this essay will focus on two theories, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y and how they differ and connect to each other.

In general, there are very little similarities between Maslow's theory and McGregor's theory. However in detail, it becomes clear that these two theories rely mostly on the same aspects of motivation. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs , as Mcleod (2007) stated, consists of five stages:

"1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.

3. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, affection and love, - from work group, family, friends, romantic relationships.

4. Esteem needs - achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences."

Maslow believed that people are motivated to fulfill certain needs and when one need is achieved, the person will seek to fulfill the next need, and so on (2007). McGregor's theory on the other hand is based on two types of workers, Theory X workers and Theory Y workers. McGregor published a book called 'The Human Side of Enterprise' in 1960, and it examined...