American David Clarence McClelland
(1917-98) achieved his doctorate in psychology at Yale in 1941 and became professor
at Wesleyan University. He then taught and lectured, including a spell at
Harvard from 1956, where with colleagues for twenty years he studied
particularly motivation and the achievement need. He began his McBer
consultancy in 1963, helping industry assess and train staff, and later taught
at Boston University, from 1987 until his death. McClelland is chiefly known
for his work on achievement motivation, but his research interests extended to
personality and consciousness. David McClelland pioneered workplace
motivational thinking, developing achievement-based motivational theory and
models, and promoted improvements in employee assessment methods, advocating
competency-based assessments and tests, arguing them to be better than
traditional IQ and personality-based tests. His ideas have since been widely
adopted in many organisations, and relate closely to the theory of Frederick
Herzberg.
David
McClelland is most noted for describing three types of motivational need, which
he identified in his 1961 book, The Achieving Society:
- Achievement
motivation (n-ach)
- Authority/power
motivation (n-pow)
- Affiliation
motivation (n-affil)
v
McClelland needs-based motivational model
These needs are found to varying degrees
in all workers and managers, and this mix of motivational needs characterises a
person's or manager's style and behaviour, both in terms of being motivated,
and in the management and motivation others.
1. Need for achievement
(n-ach)
The n-ach person is 'achievement
motivated' and therefore seeks achievement, attainment of realistic but
challenging goals, and advancement in the job. There is a strong need for
feedback as to achievement and progress, and a need for a sense of
accomplishment.
2. Need for authority and
power (n-pow)
The n-pow person is 'authority motivated'.
This driver produces a need to be influential, effective and to make an impact.
There is a strong need to lead and for their ideas to prevail. There is also
motivation and need towards increasing personal status and prestige.
3. Nneed for affiliation
(n-affil)
The n-affil person is 'affiliation
motivated', and has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards
interaction with other people. The affiliation driver produces motivation and
need to be liked and held in popular regard. These people are team players.
McClelland
suggested other characteristics and attitudes of achievement-motivated people:
- Achievement is more important
than material or financial reward.
- Achieving the aim or task gives
greater personal satisfaction than receiving praise or recognition.
- Financial reward is regarded as
a measurement of success, not an end in itself.
- Security is not prime
motivator, nor is status.
- Feedback is essential, because it
enables measurement of success, not for reasons of praise or recognition
(the implication here is that feedback must be reliable, quantifiable and
factual).
- Achievement-motivated people
constantly seek improvements and ways of doing things better.
- Achievement-motivated people will logically favour jobs and responsibilities that naturally satisfy their needs, ie offer flexibility and opportunity to set and achieve goals, eg., sales and business management, and entrepreneurial roles.
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