IB Business Management SLTopic 2 — Motivation & DemotivationPaper 1 & 2Core idea~13 min read
The Motivation Theories You Need
Three theories, three very different views of what makes someone try at work. Taylor says pay them per unit. Maslow says meet their needs in order. Herzberg says money only stops people being angry. You need all three, and you need to know which one to reach for.
📚 What you need to know
Motivation is the inner push that makes someone act. Intrinsic comes from inside (pride, interest); extrinsic comes from outside (pay, praise, punishment).
Motivated staff mean higher productivity, better quality, fewer sick days and lower labour turnover.
Taylor: find the one best way, train people to do it, pay by results. Money is the motivator.
Maslow: five levels of need. You only chase the next level once the one below is met.
Herzberg: hygiene factors stop people being unhappy; motivators are what actually push people to try.
The theories disagree about money, and that disagreement is the best evaluation point you have.
No theory works everywhere. The right one depends on the job, the pay level and the workers.
Why a business cares
Motivation is not a nice extra. It shows up in the numbers.
Productivity. A motivated worker gets more done per hour, so unit costs fall and profit rises.
Quality. People who care check their own work, so there is less waste and fewer complaints.
Reliability. They turn up, hit deadlines and take fewer sick days.
Turnover. They stay. Every leaver costs recruitment, training and lost output while the new person learns.
The chain to remember: motivation → productivity and quality up, absence and turnover down → costs down → profit up. Write that chain and you have turned a description into analysis.
Taylor: pay them for what they produce
Frederick Taylor watched factory workers in the early 1900s and decided most of them were working inefficiently because nobody had ever studied the job properly. His answer was scientific management: measure everything, find the single best method, train people to use it, and pay them per unit produced.
Piece rates still run garment factories and warehouse picking today, which is why Taylor is not just history.
What it gives a business
Output per worker rises, so unit costs fall
Standard methods mean fewer mistakes and consistent quality
Specialisation makes people fast at their one task
Training is quick and cheap because the job is simple
What it costs a business
Repeating one task all day is boring, so people switch off
No use at all where the job needs creativity or judgement
Quality can drop as workers rush to make more units
It can slide into exploitation if the rate per unit is low
Maslow: needs come in order
Maslow said human needs stack up in five levels. You are only pushed by the next level up once the level below is comfortably met. Someone worried about paying rent is not chasing self-fulfilment this week.
The pyramid is not decoration. In an exam, use it to say which level the staff in the case are stuck on, then fix that one.
The strongest Maslow answers do not list all five levels. They say: “the workers are on short contracts and worried about hours, so they are stuck at the safety level — team-building days will not help until contracts are secure.”
Why managers like it
It is simple and it matches what people actually feel
It tells you where to spend next instead of guessing
Meeting needs raises satisfaction, so turnover falls
Where it falls down
People are not identical — one size does not fit all
Some people chase esteem while still short of money
Meeting higher needs is expensive and takes management time
It is hard to know when a level is actually “met”
Herzberg: two separate lists
Herzberg’s finding is the one students most often get wrong, so read this slowly. He said the things that make people unhappy at work are not the opposite of the things that make people motivated. They are two different lists.
Hygiene factors — pay, working conditions, company rules, supervision, job security, relationships. Get them wrong and staff are miserable. Get them right and staff are simply not miserable. That is all.
Motivators — achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, personal growth. These are the only things that make someone want to do more.
Herzberg’s point in one line: money buys attendance, not effort. Use this whenever a case study answers every problem with a bonus.
The line examiners love
Fix hygiene first, or motivators will not be heard — but hygiene alone leaves you with staff who turn up and do the minimum.
Putting the three side by side
The theories agree that motivation matters and disagree about money. Show that you know where they clash and you are into the top bands.
Theory
What motivates people
What a business should do
Where it struggles
Taylor
Money, paid per unit produced
Standardise the job, train, use piece rates
Boring work; useless for creative or caring jobs
Maslow
The next unmet need in the stack
Find the lowest gap and fill it
Everyone is different; levels are hard to measure
Herzberg
The job itself: achievement and responsibility
Fix pay and conditions, then enrich the job
Costly to redesign jobs; not every job can be enriched
Worked examples
WORKED EXAMPLE 1
Applying a theory to a real problem [6 marks]
A call centre pays 15% above the local average, yet 4 in 10 staff leave within a year. Staff say the work is repetitive and every call is scripted and timed. Using one motivation theory, explain the turnover.
Step 1: pick the theory that fits the clue
The clue is “good pay, still leaving”. That is Herzberg.
Step 2: sort the facts into his two lists
Pay 15% above average = a hygiene factor, and it is already met.
Scripted, timed, repetitive = no achievement, no responsibility, no growth = motivators missing.
Step 3: join it up
Hygiene has moved staff from unhappy to just about tolerable, but nothing pushes them to stay.
Pay was never the problem, so more pay is not the answerfix: give agents authority to settle small complaints without a supervisor — that adds responsibility, a motivator, at almost no cost
WORKED EXAMPLE 2
Choosing between theories [10 marks]
A clothing factory pays a piece rate of $0.40 per shirt. Output is high but 1 in 12 shirts is now rejected by quality control, and three workers left last month. The owner asks whether to raise the piece rate. Evaluate.
Step 1: name the system in use
Piece rate is pure Taylor: pay follows output.
Step 2: show the side effect
Pay rewards speed only, so workers rush. 1 in 12 rejected is roughly 8% of output wasted.Step 3: test the owner’s idea
A higher rate rewards speed even harder, so rejects would probably rise, not fall.
Step 4: bring in a second theory
Maslow: three leavers suggest the safety and social levels are shaky, not the physical one. More money does not touch those.
Better: pay per shirt that passes inspectionthen add rest breaks and team targets so quality and staying are both rewarded — one small design change beats a bigger cheque
