06. McClelland's Needs Theory

McClelland cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) describes, three central motivational paradigms: achievement, affiliation and power.

McClelland cited in Abbah, M.T., (2014) suggested that need strength is reinforced through childhood learning, parental style, and social norms.

This Need Theory is a motivational model that attempts to explain how the needs for achievement, power (authority), and affiliation affect people's actions in a management context (Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017).

McClelland hypothesized that people are motivated by three needs—for power, for affiliation, and for achievement (Weinbach cited in Fisher, E.A., 2009).

Fisher, E.A., (2009) Defines that Workers are influenced by all three of these needs, but are usually strongly motivated by one of the three types. Effective managers need to be aware of which type of need most strongly motivates their individual workers (Lewis et al.  and Weinbach cited in Fisher, E.A., 2009).

Sinha cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) posit that McClelland's need theory is closely associated with learning theory, because McClelland believed that needs are learned or acquired by the kinds of events people experience in their environment and culture.

(Source: McClelland & Burnham, 2008)

Need for power:

According to Abbah, M.T., (2014) people with high need for power want to exercise control over others and are concerned about maintaining their leadership positions.

According to Sinha cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017), the need for power is concerned with making an impact on others, the desire to influence others, the urge to change people, and the desire to make a difference in life.

Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) discovered that people who have a high need for power are characterized by:

1.       Desire to influence and direct somebody else.

2.       Desire to exercise control over others.

3.       Concern for maintaining leaders-follower relations.

Need for Achievement:

Ramlall, S., (2004) defined the need for achievement as the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed.

McClelland cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) found that people with a high need for achievement perform better than those with a moderate or low need for achievement, and noted regional, national differences in achievement motivation.

McClelland cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) identified six characteristics of high need achievers to:

1.     Have a strong desire to assume personal responsibilities for performing a task of finding a solution to a problem.

2.     Set moderate difficult goals and take calculated risks

3.     Have a strong desire for performance feedback

4.     Have need for achievement for attaining personal accomplishment

5.     Look for challenging tasks

6.     Individuals who are not buck-passers.

Need for Affiliation:

According to Abbah, M.T., (2014) need for affiliation refers to a desire to seek approval from others, conform to their wishes and expectations, and avoid conflict and confrontation. People with a strong need for affiliation try to project a favorable image of them and tend to actively support others and try to smooth out workplace conflicts.

Sinha cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017) posits that the people with high need for affiliation have the following characteristics:

1.     They have a strong desire for acceptance and approval from others.

2.     They tend to conform to the wishes of those people whose friendship and companionship they value.

3.     They value the feeling of others.

“I work for a leading organization in the airlines industry in middle east, In consideration of McClelland's needs theory, its supporting me to achieve my career path. I am team leader of the employees who are hired by the airline on contract basis. I have exercised these three needs of theory on them. For example, I completed a task with this team which was tremendously tough because we need to audit the ticket of two years within one month, using this three needs of McClelland theory it was achieved and finally I realized that need for affiliation is higher in myself.

REFERENCES:

1.    Abbah, M.T., 2014. Employee motivation: The key to effective organizational management in Nigeria. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(4), pp.1-8.

2.    Fisher, E.A., 2009. Motivation and leadership in social work management: A review of theories and related studies. Administration in social work, 33(4), pp.347-367.

3.    Lewis, J. A., Lewis, M. D., Packard, T., & Souflee, F. (2001). Management of human
service programs (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole

4.    McClelland, D. C. (1988). Human Motivation. Cambridge University Press.

5.    McClelland, D. (1961). The Achieving Society. Princeton NJ, Van Nostrand

6.    McClelland, D.C. and Burnham, D.H., 2008. Power is the great motivator. Harvard Business Review Press.

7.    Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., 2017. Critical review and comparism between Maslow, Herzberg and McClelland’s theory of needs. Funai journal of accounting, business and finance, 1(1), pp.161-173.

8.    Ramlall, S., 2004. A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. Journal of American academy of business, 5(1/2), pp.52-63.

9.    Sinha, D. K, (2015) McClelland's Need for Achievement Theory. Retrieved on September 15 , 2017 from: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/entrepreneurship/motivation-
entrepreneurship/mcclellands-need-for-achievement-theory/40683/

10.  Weinbach, R. W. (1998). The social worker as manager: A practical guide to success.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.