Needs Theories Overview
David McClelland, born May 20, 1917, earned his doctorate at Yale University in 1941. He became a major contributor to the study of human personality and motivation in both education and industry. McClelland contributed to education through his instruction at Wesleyan University, Harvard, and Boston University. He contributed to industry through McBer, the consulting agency which he started in 1963 and which helps managers to assess and train employees. McClelland is best known for his work on achievement motivation models and their practical applications, namely the Thematic Apperception Test and Need Theory. (Chapman, 2009)
McClelland's Need Theory
In his 1961 book, The Achieving Society, David McClelland identified three types of motivational needs, on which he based a model to describe one’s style with regard to being motivated and motivating others, depending on the different level of needs within the individual. There are a few distinct characteristics possessed by individuals with each need.
Achievement Motivation (nACH) - Those with a high need for achievement are attracted to situations offering personal accountability; set challenging, yet attainable, goals for themselves; and desire performance feedback. (Stuart-Kotze, 2009)
Authority/Power Motivation (nPOW) - Individuals with a need for authority and power desire to influence others, but do not demonstrate a need to simply have control. These individuals possess motivation and the need to increase personal status and prestige.
Affiliation Motivation (nAFF) - Finally, those with a need for affiliation value building strong relationships, admire belonging to groups or organizations, and are sensitive to the needs of others. (Stuart-Kotze, 2009) This type of person is a team player and wants to be respected and liked.
According to McClelland, most people possess and portray a mixture of these characteristics. Some people display a strong bias toward a particular motivational need which, in return, influences their behavior and influences their working/management style. McClelland believed that those who resembled the "affiliation motivation model" had diminished objectivity as a manager. He attributed this weakness to their need to be accepted and liked, which can impair decision making. A person who fits the "authority motivation model" is more devoted to an organization, and also possesses a better work ethic. Those who seek power within a leadership role may not even know how to get along with others and how to compromise. Lastly, individuals who fit the "achievement model" are more likely to be overachieving and overbearing (Accel-team.com, 2010). These types of people prefer tasks that are challenging and also prefer to work alone. McClelland also believed that an individual's need grouping changes as they grow, and those who do not naturally possess specific needs can acquire them through training and experience (Mendenhall, Punnett & Ricks, 1995).
Figure: Distribution of Need Behaviors, Typical behaviors associated with motivational type. (Adapted from Swenson, 2000)
Research on Need Theories
Research on McClelland's Need Theory
McClelland used the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to measure motivation under the impression that motivation was a more efficient predictor of achievement than intelligence. In the TAT, subjects are shown pictures of ambiguous scenes and asked to create a story based on the pictures. The theory on the TAT is that the content of the subject's story will reveal the individual’s needs, attitudes, and behavioral patterns. The TAT was developed during the 1930s by American psychologists Henry Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard while exploring the underlying force of personality. Such forces included internal conflicts, dominant drives, interests, and motives. McClelland and his associate created a scoring system to measure an individual’s score for each motivational model. The score assigned can infer the types of jobs the person is best suited for. The validity of TAT is suspect, however, as questions have been brought forth regarding test scoring as well as TAT's true ability to discern needs (PSU World Campus, Psych484, Lesson 2, 2012).
When studied by other researchers, Mclelland’s theory has found support, with an emphasis on the need for achievement. For example, a meta-analysis performed by Stewart and Roth (2007) found that entrepreneurs typically had higher needs for achievement than did managers. The autonomy and challenging demands of entrepreneurship are conducive to satisfaction of this need. In addition, Park, Lee, and Kabst (2008) demonstrate that achievement, affiliation, and power needs are important predictors in organizational commitment (OC) and job involvement (JI). Those with strong achievement needs demonstrate higher levels of performance and are more goal-oriented. While both average and above average employees exhibit similar needs profiles, the need for achievement is higher for those with higher OC and JI. Value can be found in Mclelland’s theory but determining the levels of individual needs and subsequently matching those needs to a job situation presents a challenge for practitioners.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Need Theories
McClelland's Need Theory
David McClelland’s theory is regarded as more useful than those of Maslow and Alderfer (McClelland, 1965). This is because there is much more empirical evidence to support McClelland's Needs Theory than Maslow's or Alderfer's. Unlike the previous theories, McClelland believed that needs were not innate but learned at a young age and could also be developed in individuals. McClelland developed training programs for managers to increase their need for achievement. This need correlates well with positive organizational behaviors and performance. While other needs theories are more descriptive, McClelland offers a better mix of description and prescription enabling organizations to proactively encourage beneficial corporate behavior through both training programs and matching motivational needs with job situations. However, critics of McClelland's theory state that there are issues with the validity concerning the TAT projection used to determine the level of individual needs (Redmond, 2009).
McClelland’s theory is criticized for its lack of predictive power as it relates to entrepreneurship. The decision to own or manage a business is not directly correlated with the need for achievement as there are many factors that drive people to become entrepreneurs (Kapp, Smith-Hunter, & Yonkers, 2003). Also, differences in cultures play a significant role in how achievement is viewed. Some cultures view failure as a learning experience that allows the opportunity to grow and become stronger in areas that caused the setback, while other cultures focus on the regressive side of failing to achieve.
Application of Need Theories in the Workplace
McClelland's Need Theory
By understanding and being able to effectively measure need for affiliation (nAff), need for power (nPow), and need for achievement (nAch) characteristics in employees, employers have the opportunity to make better decisions of which type of employees to put in various positions. For instance, since people with a high need for achievement have a high need for personal improvement and success, an employee with a high nAch may not be best suited for a receptionist position without any opportunity for advancement or growth. Conversely, someone with a high nAff might be the perfect person for a receptionist position. McClelland’s Need Theory suggests that understanding these needs and accurately placing the right people in the right positions should yield greater levels of motivation which, in turn, should increase productivity and reduce turnover.
When it comes to management, McClelland's theory can prove to be very beneficial. It is important to realize that people are motivated differently. Some individuals have a high need for achievement and should be given difficult and challenging projects. Employees with a need for high achievement should be given frequent feedback. Individuals with a high need for affiliation need to work in a cooperative environment. They enjoy working in groups or teams and will be very productive in those circumstances. Those who have a need for power should be given the opportunity to manage others. In group projects the management should deem them the leader of the group, especially with those who have a need for affiliation. This presents a great situation that allows for two types of people to be motivated and to work together while each accomplishing their goals and fulfilling individual needs (NetMBA.com, 2007).
McClelland has a high interest in those with the nACH. He finds that people with this high need for achievement fascinating. McClelland had experimented with people to see who belonged to which group and to what degree they may possess more than one. The experiment involved throwing little rings and trying to wrap the little ring around a peg. These games are typically seen in festivals or carnivals. He noticed that those that had the nACH were very much different from the others. McClelland says that those with the nACH were less worried about making it easy like the others. They didn't try to find the easiest way by standing closer or leaning foward as far as they could just so there was an advantage. He explanes that the nACH would try to make the game even more challenging by standing further away or coming at it at more difficult angles. McClelland believes there is something else going on other than just setting goals and completing them. Some high nACH individuals need to apply more challenge to their lives and every time a challenge is met successfully they need a stronger more challenging task. He calls this the "balanced challenge" and it is use to keep the person in good shape mentally. (Chapman, 2009) This shows why it is a good idea to know what needs a person has to properly motivate them in the right manner and to expect that not all employees are motivated by challenge.
Successful entrepreneurs often rate high in nAch. Some companies have been able to successfully grow the nAch within their workforce. General Electric (GE) is an example of such a company. GE managers are rewarded with praise and financial incentives for fact-based bottom-line numbers. They are grilled on weekly and monthly results. Routinely the bottom ten percent of managers is removed to make room for more people who strive to achieve better performance results. (Hill & McShane, 2008, p. 322)
McClelland suggest that the best managers have a high nPOW. McClelland says, a good manager is one who, among other things, helps subordinates feel strong and responsible, rewards them properly for good performance, and sees that things are organized so that subordinates feel that they know what they should be doing. Above all, managers should foster a strong sense of team spirit among subordinates, of pride in working as part of a team. If a manager creates and encourages this spirit, his or her subordinates certainly should perform better. People with high nACH typically do not find the same type of success in management. McClelland says, "There is no reason on theoretical grounds why a person who has a strong need to be more efficient should make a good manager. While it sounds as if everyone ought to have the need to achieve, in fact, as psychologists define and measure achievement motivation, the need to achieve leads people to behave in ways that do not necessarily engender good management. For one thing, because they focus on personal improvement, achievement-motivated people want to do things themselves. For another, they want concrete short-term feedback on their performance so that they can tell how well they are doing. Yet managers, particularly in large, complex organizations, cannot perform by themselves all the tasks necessary for success. They must manage others to perform for the organization. And they must be willing to do without immediate and personal feedback since tasks are spread among many people."