Welcome to the Momentum Business Coaching Newsletter for
May 2007

Understanding Basic Human Behaviors at Work:
What Drives You?

Harvard's Elton Mayo did one of the earliest studies of human behaviour at work at AT&T's Western Electric Hawthorne Plant from 1927. The principle findings are still relevant today: when workers have an opportunity to contribute their thinking and learning to workplace issues, their job performance improves.

The initial study set out to discover how lighting affects performance and fatigue. The findings revealed that it is not so much physical conditions that matter. People are motivated to perform well when someone takes an interest in what they are doing. Because they were encouraged to interact socially and to contribute ideas, their social needs had a powerful impact on their performance at work.

Subsequent research in the seventy years that have passed since the Hawthorne studies reveals the same thing: in order to tap into the potential of human capital, executives and leaders must pay attention to their employees, on a level that respects their basic human nature and individual differences.

Yet a growing number of executives are realizing what research by the Gallup Organisation reveals: most organisations are running at about one third of their human potential.

Companies on the path of extreme competition must be able to provide more than price advantage. They must tap into employee motivation. When they do, they unleash tremendous energy and potential.

What many organisations don't see is that employee performance and the subsequent impact on customer engagement revolve around intrinsic motivation. This motivation defines specific talents and the emotional mechanisms everyone brings to work. How can leaders improve their understanding of their employees' strengths and motivating drives?

What are the basics of human motivation?

Several theories of human nature provide perspectives for understanding basic human drives. A review of these will remind leaders of how important it is to understand how employees behave at work and how they are motivated.

Jung, Personality Types and the MBTI

Carl Jung said that people either derive energy from relating to others or from internal thoughts. They also tend to gather information in different ways, either by focusing on data, or by intuitively seeing the big picture. They express themselves in different ways, with a focus either on rational thinking, or on feelings and values. And they have tendencies to make decisions with planning and organization, or to be more spontaneous.

Using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and other assessments, these dichotomies can be measured to indicate type preferences:

1. Extraverted or Introverted
2. Sensing or Intuitive
3. Thinking or Feeling
4. Judging or Perceiving.

The Big Five Personality Traits

A trait is a stable, cross-situational individual difference. The most frequently used tool among psychologists for measuring personality traits is the five-factor model or "Big Five" dimensions of personality.

1. Emotional stability (Neuroticism): The degree to which an individual is calm, self confident, versus insecure, anxious, depressed and emotional

2. Extraversion: The extent to which an individual is out going, assertive with others, instead of reserved and quiet

3. Openness (Culture): Defines individuals who are creative, curious and cultured, versus practical with narrow interests

4. Agreeableness: Concerns the degree to which individuals are cooperative, warm, and agreeable versus argumentative, cold, and antagonistic

5. Conscientiousness: The extent to which individuals are hard working, organized, dependable, and persevering versus lazy, disorganized and unreliable

Behaviors Styles and the DISC

The DISC is a popular assessment tool in organizations to measure behavior style preferences formulated by psychologist William Moulton Marsten in the 1930s. The letters "DISC" stand for four basic behaviour preferences:

1. Dominance: Response to problems and challenges
2. Influencing: Ability to influence others to personal point of view
3. Steadiness: Response to the pace of the environment
4. Compliance: Response to rules and procedures set by others

The general meaning is that people will demonstrate by their behaviors a natural tendency to be high or low on each of the four dimensions. A person high on the D factor is usually task oriented, competitive and a risk taker. A high I rating indicates a "people-person," who enjoys interacting and developing relationships. A high S means a person is reliable, organised and conscientious, albeit non-demonstrative. A high C refers to a person who is compliant and who is concerned with rules and paper work. The implications for job placement are obvious.

Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values

The PIAV is an assessment frequently used in conjunction with the DISC to define personal interests, attitudes and values. Based on work in the 1930s of psychologist Eduard Spranger, it rates a person's degree of interest in six domains:

1. Utilitarian: Usefulness and efficiency of activities, including economy of time and resources
2. Aesthetic: Beauty and harmony in the environment
3. Theoretical: Learning, with a high regard for knowledge and research
4. Individualistic: Influencing others, and having power
5. Social: The good of mankind, justice and fairness for all
6. Traditional: A social system, which could be religious, political or philosophical

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow believed that satisfying physiological and safety needs alone is not enough to motivate a person. Once these needs have been met, there are others waiting to take their place. In Maslow's Hierarchy, a person progressively seeks to satisfy more sophisticated needs:

Herzberg and Employee Motivation

In 1968, Frederick Herzberg wrote a classic article in Harvard Business Review on how to motivate employees. He explains that money doesn't really motivate people, but if inadequate, will cause dissatisfaction. People are motivated by interesting work, an opportunity to contribute and be heard, and appropriate recognition. Job enrichment is created by giving employees responsibility and participation in decision-making, reinforcing the research results of the Hawthorne Studies.

McClelland's Three Drive Theory

David McClelland described three basic motivators in managers in an important article in the Harvard Business Review (1976). His original work on motivation defined three social motives in humans (1949):

1. The drive to achieve
2. The drive for power
3. The drive to affiliate with others.

The key issue here is the way a manager defines success, i.e. what motivates the manager. Some equate success with personal achievement ("personal power manager"); others see it as being liked by others ("the affiliative manager"). While both have merit, in order to succeed in a complex organisation, a manager needs to have a power motivation that is not a dictatorial impulse but a desire to have a strong impact and to be influential. Furthermore, that desire for power must be organized around the benefit of the organization ("the institutional manager"), rather than for personal achievement.

During the Enlightenment (1762), Rousseau observed that institutions could only flourish if they are founded on a social contract that enables human beings to pursue their individual and collective interests to the fullest extent possible. This French philosopher knew then what we emphasise in successful organisations today: The modern enterprise flourishes when there is attention to and respect for the human beings who contribute their work efforts.

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Resources for Understanding Basic Human Behaviors at Work

Coffman, Curt & Gonzalez-Molina, Gabriela (2002), Follow This Path: How the World's Greatest Organizations Drive Growth by Unleashing Human Potential, Warner Books.

Fitzgerald, Catherine, & Kirby, Linda K. (1997), Developing Leaders, Davies- Black Publishing.

Fordham, Freida (1966), An Introduction to Jung's Psychology, Penguin Books.

Herzberg, Frederick (1968, 1976), "One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?" Harvard Business Review.

Lawrence, Paul R., & Nohria, Nitin (2002), Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, Jossey-Bass.

McClelland, D. C. (1984), Motives, Personality and Society, New York: Praeger.

McClelland, D. C., and Burnham, D. (Jan/Feb 1995), "Power is the Great Motivator," Harvard Business Review, 73, No. 1: 126-139.

Web site resources: A partial list of search results

DISC & PIAV: Target Training International, www.ttidisc.com.
Also, search for William Moulton Marsten and Eduard Spranger.

Myers Briggs Type Inventory: www.cpp-db.com

Big Five Personality Factors: www.personalityresearch.org/bigfive.html

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm

The Hawthorne Studies:
www.accel-team.com/motivation/hawthorne_02.html