Alderfer’s ERG Theory Of Motivation in Education Management

Alderfer’s ERG Theory Of Motivation in Education Management

The ERG theory is an extension of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Alderfer identified three categories of needs. Alderfer suggested that needs could be classified into three categories, rather than five. These three types of needs are existence, relatedness, and growth.

 ERG standfor three levels of needs:

E:- Existence: needs are the desires for material and physical well being. These needs are satisfied with food, water, air, shelter, working conditions, pay, and fringe benefits.

R:- Relatedness: needs are the desires to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships. These needs are satisfied with relationships with family, friends, supervisors, subordinates, and co-workers.

G:- Growth: needs are the desires to be creative, to make useful and productive contributions, and to have opportunities for personal development.

Similarities to Maslow's Hierarchy:

 Studies had shown that the middle levels of Maslow's hierarchy have some overlap; Alderfer addressed this issue by reducing the number of levels to three. The ERG needs can be mapped to those of Maslow's theory as follows:

a.      Existence : (Physiological and safety needs )-refers to our concern with basic material motivators for existence.

b.      Relatedness: (Social and external esteem needs)-refers to the motivation for maintaining interpersonal & relationships.

c.       Growth: (Self-actualization and internal esteem needs)-refers to an intrinsic desire for personal development.

Differences from Maslow's Hierarchy:

In addition to the reduction in the number of levels, the ERG theory differs from Maslow's in the following three ways:

v  Demonstrates that more than one need may motivate at the same time.

v  Allows the order of the needs be different for different people.

v  Acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the person may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy. This is known as the frustration-regression principle.

Frustration-Regression Process:

These who are unable to satisfy a higher level need become frustrated & regress to the next lower need level.E.g. if existence & relatedness have been satisfied,but growth need fulfillment has been blocked ,the individual will become frustrated & relatedness needs will again emerge as the dominant source of motivation.

In brief:

v  While the ERG theory presents a model of progressive needs, the hierarchical aspect is not rigid.

v  This flexibility allows the ERG theory to account for a wider range of observed behaviors.

v  E.g. it can explain the "starving artist" who may place growth needs above existence ones.

v  The combined process of Satisfaction-Progression & Frustration-Regression also provide a more accurate explanation   

IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

Managers of Educational organisation  must recognize that

v  An employee has multiple needs to satisfy simultaneously.

v  If growth opportunities are not provided to employees, they may regress to relatedness needs.

v   If the manager is able to recognize this situation, then steps can be taken to concentrate on relatedness needs until the subordinate is able to pursue growth again.