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The Four Drive Theory or the Lawrence and Nohria theory was established in 2001, by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria from the Harvard business school.
The four basic motivational needs to drive people are:
The drive to acquire
The drive to bond
The drive to comprehend
The drive to defend
•These drives are built around our understanding of human psychology
•Drives act independently of each other unlike Maslow’s theory where you must satisfy one theory to move up the hierarchy
•Although, cannot substitute one drive for another
•In satisfying the four drives, the manager needs to find out the needs profile of their subordinates and develop and implement business-wide policies.
Relates to both basic and complex needs
Basic needs relates to necessities for survival such as:
•Clothes •House •Money
•Food •Water
Complex relates to achievements such as:
•Status •Power •Promotion
•Designed to distinguish good and poor performers.
•If it becomes too strong, then it can lead to over-competitiveness and have a negative impact on the work team
•Manager rewards an employee with praise, recognition, promotions etc. for his/her hard work
A drive to bond is the urge employees to find, connect, seek others and to engage them.
To drive bond between the people/management within the business
Need to develop/maintain a positive (corporate) culture within the business-This is can be achieved through mission, vision and values statements, implementing policies, choice of management styles,
Important to Seek/connect with others – Families, peer groups, the community,
This leads to improved friendships, openness, closeness, bonding, relationships, engagements and encourages teamwork (Form positive trusting social relationships)
Furthermore it motivates the employees as they feel they belong with the business
If this basic motivational need is not met, it will lead to individualism
The drive to learn in a business and be motivated to grow as a person.
•Employees will be motivated if their job is challenging and encourages them to grow, learn and explore.
•This results in lower staff turnover and higher job satisfaction.
•Managers should ensure that the jobs being provided are meaningful, challenging and offer a potential for growth.
•However, jobs on the other end of the scale, that are monotonous, demoralise employees and lead to higher staff turnover.
Links to fear and resistance to change such as:
•grievance resolution
•decision-making
•Performance management
•Work-life balance
•Staff welfare
The drive to defend centres around our instincts
to not only defend ourselves but:
•Our family and friends
•Property
•Accomplishments
•Beliefs
•Ideas against external threats.
As a manager, the responsibilities in implementing the drive to defend are:
•To assist subordinates to overcome fear or resistance to change
•To apply the participative management style which involves open communication, delegation and decentralised decision making
There are certain ways each of these motivational drives can be established in a business from coporate culture to rewards.
Drive to Acquire:
•The business should provide rewards to the employees so that they have something to drive towards acquiring.
Drive to Bond:
•Develop a corporate culture that engenders a strong sense of working as a team and emphasises on team spirit.
Drive to Comprehend:
•Having a job design which is intriguing and encourages employees to learn and to grow is the key. A job that stimulates one’s curiosity is more likely to have a higher performance level by the employee.
Drive to Defend:
•The way for this to be implemented is by having a workplace which is fair to all employees and encourages a good balance between work and life.
Increase/Encourages team work performance
Increased employee motivation, morale, confidence-Feel they belong with the business
Build long term relationships
•If one drive dominates, personal and business outcomes become unbalanced
•Each drive cannot be substituted for one another.
•If one of the drives isn’t followed, then it can have a negative impact on the
business
•They all have to followed by an equal amount
•Using the method for every employee to satisfy each drive won’t work as the theory is based on the management’s understanding on human psychology
CAMBRIDGE VCE BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 3&4