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Alderfer’s or ERG Motivational Theory.
Alderfer’s or ERG Motivational Theory
The ERG Categories The ERG theory was derived from and influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Clayton Alderfer theorized ERG which stands for Existence, Relatedness and Growth. He divided the hierarchy of needs further into the three categories. - Existence category – Physiological and safety and security needs
- Relatedness category – Love and belongingness and self-esteem needs
- Growth category – Self-esteem and self-actualization needs
Similarly, the Existence category refers to the basic human needs of food, shelter, sex, etc. The Relatedness category refers to social involvement, relationships and communication. The Growth category refers to personal achievements and feelings of worth. The three categories are also arranged in hierarchal order. What Alderfer Says About Motivation - The satisfaction of needs in the lower categories is important to fully achieve higher needs. However, a person may try to satisfy needs belonging to different categories simultaneously.
- A satisfied need in any category can still continue to recur and dominate.
The ERG theory states that every human being might consider a category more important than the other. This means that there is a hierarchal arrangement but people still have a subjective view and experience of what they consider more meaningful or vital to them at the moment. It is possible that a person has needs in two or three categories at one time, which is why these needs have to be attended to in order to successfully motivate the individual. For example, a hungry person just lost his wife. He may try to attend to both physiological needs and the need for love and belongingness. The drawback is, if he tries to overcome his grief over the death and does not satisfy his hunger first, satisfaction of the higher need will be more difficult. The ERG theory allows simultaneous satisfaction of needs from different categories but Alderfer states that it will be much easier to satisfy higher needs if the lower needs are met first. Frustration-Regression Principle The Frustration-Regression Principle is highly related to the ERG theory in the case of unsatisfied needs. If a person fails to satisfy the needs in a higher category, he may regress by satisfying the needs in a lower category with more effort. Of course, the lower-category needs are much easier to satisfy so the person tends to excel in this area more to compensate. The Alderfer-Maslow Differences - Alderfer says that people can satisfy their needs simultaneously while Maslow says it should only be done in the proper order.
- Alderfer says people have different needs on different occasions while Maslow says people’s needs follow a single similar pattern.
- Alderfer says that people can regress if higher needs are unsatisfied while Maslow says that once the needs of one level are satisfied people can only move forward.
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