How successful are motivation theories in practice ?

In this study, 503 South African companies are used to ascertain the utilization of various important theories of motivation. Furthermore, utilizing the questionnaire method, the perceived success of the various theories and practices with the main South African population groups was assessed. The findings are of great importance: motivation theories are not applied extensively; but perhaps of greater importance is the finding that companies report less than 50% success rate in the application of these theories.


Introduction
During the last four to five decades the motivation of employees has received much attention in many countries all over the world.Various practitioners and researchers have come forward with several theories and ideas on the subject of employee motivation.In South Africa also employers have been inundated with lectures, seminars, short courses, publications and the like on personnel motivation in order to improve employee morale and worker performance.Indeed, quite a few of the world's leading motivation theorists and practitioners have visited the country personally to participate in such courses and seminars and have made themselves available for in-company teaching and training courses.
In order to ascertain to what extent South African companies are using the motivation theories and ideas of internationally reputed persons and what measure of success is attained in using these theories/ideas, a comprehensive survey was carried out during 1980 and 1981.

Particulars of the survey
A questionnaire was sent to a total number o"f 503 South African companies, mainly those listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.These companies were selected firstly on account of the fact that they were regarded as large enough to have personnel departments which could take the initiative in using motivation theories and be able to incur the additional costs involved in the application of motivation theories.Secondly, since one would expect them to be interested in applying all available methods to improve company performance because of the rating of their shares on the Stock Exchange.The questionnaire, inter alia, asked for information on the following aspects:  that the questionnaires were completed by responsible and senior staff members and that the information supplied can be regarded as correct and reliable.
Details concerning the participating companies in regard to their location, the nature of their activities, the number of employees and the race group which constitutes the largest component of the work force, are given in Table 1.
Table 1 reveals that the participating companies are geographically well spread, that they represent a variety of activities in various sectors of the economy, that the majority (S6,2 per cent) have more than 1 000 employees each, and that together they employ almost half a million persons of all race groups, i.e. approximately six per cent of the estimated total work force of the private sector at the time the survey was carried out.

The results of the survey
The most important findings of the survey are as follows:

Extent of use of motivation theories/ideas
The extent to which the various motivation theories were used in respect of the 11 personnel groups is shown in Table 2.
It is clear that the various motivation theories/ideas have not been used very extensively by the participating companies.The highest percentage application of any theory in respect of any personnel group was 44,50/o only, namely Maslow's theory in the case of middle management.In only two other cases the application rate reached 400/o, namely the theory of Herzberg in respect of top and middle management.In quite a number of instances the application rate of the most popular theories never reached 300/o and in a few instances it was below 200/o.
It is also clear that, in general, the motivation theories/ ideas were used more often in respect of management personnd and White white collar workers.than in respect of the 01her groups.In the case of the former the application percentages of the three most popular theories varied between 30,5'1o and 44,50/1.In the case of the latter the application percentages varied between 18'11 and 33,69/e.

The most popular motivation theories
Table 2 also shows that in respect of all personnel groups the theories of Maslow.Herzberg and McGregor were used most frequently, with the theory of Blake and Mouton being quite popular in the case of top and middle management.
In the case of top management Herzberg's theory had the highest application rate, in the case of lower manage-ment the theories of Herzberg and Maslow were used most often, but in the case of all the other groups, Maslow's theory was used most frequently.

Success attained using motivation theories/ideas
Details of the successfulness of the various motivation theories/ideas in respect of the various personnel groups are given in Tables 3, 4 and 5.In most cases the percentage of users experiencing no success at all is below 100/o, but in a few cases it varied ~ tween 100/o and 22,30/o.In one instance no less than 50'11 of the users achieved no success (McClelland's theory in respect of Black blue collar workers) and in one case lOO'lt of the users obtained no success at all, namely Scbem•s theory in the case of Asian white collar workers.On average the theory of Schein showed the highest percentage of no success, namely 9, I 0/o, followed by Blake and Mouton (7,80/1), Likert (6,40/o), Vroom (5,8CV.)and McClelland (5,20/o).In total an average of 2,9'1o of the users had no success at all, the lowest being I, I 'It in respect of lower management and the highest 9,00/o in the case of Black blue collar workers.Table 4 gives details regarding the percentage of users experiencing a success rate of l 0/o to 490/o.It is clear that a success rate of 111/o to 490/o, which must be regarded as very disappointing, was reached in respect of all personnel groups by a large percentage of users.In the case of Roethlisberger, for example, this rate was attained by lOOOJo of the users in respect of no less than 6 of the 11 personnel groups.In quite a number of cases 700Jo and more of the users experienced such a low success rate.In total a success rate of 0/o to 490/o was experienced by more than 500Jo of the users in respect of all personnel groups -the lowest being 54,90/o in the case of top management, the highest 71, 10/o in respect of Coloured blue collar workers and the average 62,00/o.On average the theory of Roethlisberger showed such a low success rate in no less than 84, 70Jo of the users, followed by Vroom (77,20Jo),Likert (76,50/o)

The most successful motivation theories/ideas
Table 6 gives information on the three most successful motivation theories/ideas in respect of each of the eleven personnel groups, taking a success rate of 500Jo and more as criterion, disregarding the number of cases in which each person's theory/ideas were used and excluding those theories mentioned under 'others'.From this information it is clear that there is no correlation between the popularity of a motivation theory and its successful application.It has been shown previously that the most popular theories were those of Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor and to a lesser extent that of Blake and Mouton.However, none of these obtained a position of best performer in respect of any of the 11 personnel groups.
McGregor's theory came second in the case of top management and third in the case of White blue collar workers.Maslow' s theory obtained second place in the case of middle and lower management and third place in the case of top management and Black white collar workers.Herzberg's theory obtained its best performance in the case of White white collar workers where it reached a third place.The theory of Blake and Mouton never reached the three best performers.

Conclusion
In so far as this survey can be regarded as fairly representative of the South African scene, the following conclusion can be drawn (a) The survey has revealed that South African companies are not using motivation theories/ideas very extensively S. Afr.J. Bus.Mgmt. 1983, 14(2) _ the highest application rate of any theory being 44,50Jo only.

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motivation theories/ideas is concerned, the results of the survey are also disappointing.It shows that almost all the theories have been used without success in respect of one or more personnel groups.It also reveals that most of the companies using them have experienced a success rate of less than 500Jo.Only in a few cases a success rate of 7511fo and more has been obtained.(e) The most successful motivation theories/ideas in respect of each personnel group has been determined, but it is clear that there is very little correlation if any, between the popularity of a motivation theory and the success attained by using it.
(a) Whether any of the motivation theories or ideas of 13 persons mentioned in the questionnaire or of any other persons are being or have been used in the company in respect of the following 11 categories of employees: (i) Top management.(ii) Middle management.(iii) Lower management.(iv) White white collar workers.(v) White blue collar workers.(vi) Coloured white collar workers.(vii) Coloured blue collar workers.(viii) Asian white collar workers.
(b) Motivation theories/ideas are used more often in respect of management personnel and White white collar workers than in the case of the other worker groups _ the highest application rate being 33,6% only in respect of the latter.{c) The most popular motivation theories/ideas are those of Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor, whilst the theories of Roethlisberger, Schein, Vroom and Lawler are used least.{d) As far as the successf ulnes!> of the various persons'

Table 1
Details of the participating companies 'These figures are not 100 per cent correct since a few participants did not provide full details.(ix)Asian blue collar workers.(x)Black white collar workers.(xi)Black blue collar workers.•(b)The success obtained in the application of the various persons' theories or ideas, rated according to a given scale, for each of the said 11 categories of employees."ltdwasconsidered essential to distinguish between the various groups in orertoasct• h ideas er am w ether the success of a particular person's theory or could be correlated with a particular managment level and/or cultural group.

Table 5
Comparison between the successfulness of the various motivation theories in respect of various groups of employees (Percentage of users experiencing a success rate of 50 per cent to 100 per cent) ~ personnel groups.The exceptions were the theories/ideas 0 Roethlisberger and Lawler.Two theories namely those of Sch • • ' em and Skmner were used with no success in respect of one personnel group only.The theories of Mayo and McClelland were both used without success in respect of two ~rsonnel groups.All the others were used with no suc- :5s m the case of four or more personnel groups.The eory of McGregor, although being the third most popular one was used • h • f ' wit out success m respect of no less than 8 o the 11 personnel groups.

Table 6
The most successful motivation theories for the various groups of personnel (excluding those mentioned under 'Others') and no less than six others with such a rate in more than (,()OJo of the users_Table5provides information on the percentage of users experiencing a success rate of 50% and more.This table reveals that except in the case of the theories Herzberg and McGregor) obtained such success in less than 500/o of the users in respect of all personnel groups, except the theory of McGregor in the case of top management(52,40/o ).In total a success rate of 500/o and more was experienced by less than 500/o of the users in respect of all personnel groups -the lowest being 27, 711/o in the case of Coloured blue collar workers, the highest 43,211/o in respect of top