The Goal-setting theory of motivation was introduced by Locke in the 1960’s. the premise of this theory is that goal setting is crucial for task performance and the motivation to achieve these goals. This is common in organisational behaviour as a way to motivate employees to reach certain levels of performance. These goals indicate and give …
Douglas McGregor (1960) formulated Theory X and Theory Y that suggests there are two different perspectives on motivation at work for employees, these two aspects are: These are 2 ways that managers can see their employees and consider the underlying motivation of employees. This is an old theory and has been developed in other theories since …
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943) is a psychological theory that explains how humans strive to meet their basic needs in order to achieve self-actualization. The theory is one of the most well-known and amongst the first theories to be create a overarching theory of what leads people to be motivate …
Geert Hofstede’s is a cultural theorist who created a six dimensional model of culture that influence how an individual behaves. He started his work in the research department of IBM Europe where he used surveys to capture the wide ranging values of employees of the employees in the company as IBM had offices around the globe …
Organisational culture has many theoretical conceptualisations, different theorists and academics have thought about this idea in different ways. Edgar Schein’s theory of organisational culture is a prominent theory in management studies, he argues that organisational culture develops overtime as the organisation changes and adapts to external and internal pressures. His conceptualisation is vey holistic with …
Transformational leadership was popularised by Bass and Avelino in their book “Transformational Leadership“. Bass’s research on this leadership theory goes back to the early 1980’s and has grown substantially since then, especially with the adoption of business coaching and other new leadership methodologies intended on improving performance at work. Bass and Avelino distinguish between transactional …
The Theory of Normative Conduct has generally focused in the public sphere looking at pro-environmental behaviours in social contexts and attributes the behaviours of individuals to the perceived social norms in that context (Cialdini et al., 1990). It is understood “that an individual will determine appropriate behaviour for themselves in a situation [by examining] the …
Social exchange theory is one of the most well-known theories in understanding behaviour of individuals in the workplace due to its foundations of exchange among parties involved. It has roots in anthropology, social psychology, and sociology. The core of this theory understands that relationships form when there are ‘rules of exchange’, many rules have been …
Self-determination theory is a motivational theory that assume that three main innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are the components that motivate individuals to act. Social contexts and individual differences that prevent these three needs are associated with poor motivation, performance and well-being. This theory goes into many aspects of human life and …