Theories of motivation and motivators in various cultures

Motivation is another very important aspect that is crucial for both employees and customers in international business. Motivating an employee to work more efficiently or motivating a customer to buy a product due to cultural diversity is quite difficult. There are motivation theories that are applied in both human resources management as well as in sales and marketing (Acquah et al. 2021). One of the most widely used theories is Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs (Exhibit 10.3). This American behavioral scientist developed the theory of motivation, which is based on the satisfaction of people’s needs (Maslow, 1970). Maslow segmented people’s needs into five categories and depicted them in a pyramid from bottom to top as follows: physiological needs, needs for safety, need for belonging to society, esteem and recognition needs and self-actualization needs. These five groups of needs can motivate both employees to work or customers to buy a product (Alderfer, 1969).
Physiological needs include the needs for water, food, shelter and other aspects of survival. Safety needs are associated with physical personal safety and security, resource reserves, income security, order and structure in life and professional activities. The needs for belonging in society are associated with a person’s desire to be part of a community, to belong to a social group, and ultimately to have friends. Need for self-esteem and recognition needs are associated with the need to be appreciated and satisfaction in achievement. Self-actualization needs are associated with the need to know better and recognize oneself and the environment, the need for beauty and aesthetics, the need to create and as well as spiritual needs.

Ex. 10‑3Maslow’s pyramid of needs

Keywords: needs, belonging, recognition, safety

According to Maslow’s theory, these five groups of needs are ranked in order of priority, and it is considered that the highest priority is given to the needs at the bottom of the pyramid and only after the needs below are satisfied, the priority is given to the ones above. When directing motivation to the satisfaction of these needs, according to Maslow’s theory, one first assesses which needs and to what extent a person is satisfied and then applies them to the needs that are not yet satisfied. According to Maslow’s theory, motivating a person to apply to the satisfaction of the need above the pyramid until the need below is not satisfied may be pointless, because it will not be a motivator for the person. Paraphrasing, it can be stated that until a person’s physiological needs are met, a person does not have enough food or drinking water, it will be pointless to be motivated by addressing the needs of security or belonging to society. If a person does not feel safe, it will not be effective to motivate by addressing the needs of social belonging or recognition. Until a person feels safe, the needs of belonging to society, it will not make sense to motivate by addressing the satisfaction of the needs for self-esteem and self-actualization.
These principles of the hierarchy of needs acquire even greater meaning as it is related not only for a person, but about the entire cultural cluster, about the export market, about the country in which it is intended to invest and where to recruit and hire employees. Each person, even in the same country or city, can have very different needs and be on different levels of Maslow’s pyramid. In international business, tiers can be assigned to individual markets, countries, cities. For example, in a rich Western European country, where the average salary reaches several thousand euros per month, and most of the society has satisfied physiological and safety needs, employers use various measures to attract employees, which satisfy the needs of belonging to society, recognition and realization. Employees are motivated by organization celebrations, joint events, career and recognition evaluations and awards. Meanwhile, in a poor country in South America, Africa or Asia, where most of the society is not fully satisfied with physiological and safety needs, a strong motivator to work can be just the fact that there is a job offered and a stable salary, even if it is ten or a hundred times lower than in Western Europe. Using these principles, managers of international companies intensively moved production to countries where it is cheaper and easier to motivate people to work. In the 21st century, there are more public debates among politicians, journalists and influencers about the exploitation of people, international companies are under pressure from governments and consumers to abandon or at least avoid the exploitation of child labor and apply the principles of fair remuneration, but anyway, it is precisely cheap labor that led to the acquisition of a competitive advantage and growth in the market for many international companies. So, depending on which rung on the ladder of need satisfaction, one person may be more motivated to work for 30 US dollars a month than another for 3,000 US dollars a month. Of course, other factors are also important, such as the standard of living in a country or the ratio of labor demand and supply, as well as the level of qualifications, skills and education required for different jobs. For example, the motivator of the need for a sense of safety is the fear of losing one’s job. If the unemployment rate in the country is high, then the feeling of fear of losing the job will be a strong motivator for the employee. If there is a shortage of employees in the country, then this motivator will not work, because a person who has lost his job will easily find a job in another organization. Satisfying physiological needs is also applied in advertising. Often in the restaurant industry, advertising portrays a hungry person or a thirsty person, while food or beverage vendors suggest that it is their hamburger or bottle of soft drink that will satisfy their physiological needs. Such advertising is also applied in very rich countries, where satisfying physiological needs is not really a challenge. However, for example, selling and advertising luxury goods in a poor country would be a wrong decision, unless applied to a very narrow segment of rich people.
People buy luxury cars costing several hundred thousand dollars or watches costing tens and tens of thousands of dollars as a sign of social status, thus satisfying their needs for self-esteem, recognition and self-actualization. However, it is not equally acceptable to show off one’s wealth and luxury in different cultural clusters. For example, in the Scandinavian cultural cluster it can be considered an expression of poor etiquette, and in the South American cultural cluster or Asia, it is an important attribute showing the hierarchical position of one person in society in relation to other persons. Especially Maslow’s hierarchy of needs works and is applied in those cultural clusters where society is organized according to hierarchical principles. In advertising and sales, focusing on the need of recognition is more effective in countries with greater individualism. In countries that have a high standard of living and are dominated by the highest needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, there is a strong focus on the preservation of the planet, animal rights, and reduction of climate change. The Scandinavian cultural cluster is an excellent example of how many initiatives of this type associated with sustainability and social justice originate and spread in the world specifically from Sweden, Denmark or Finland. For a local poor, uneducated logger working for a multinational organization in the Amazonian palm forests, satisfying his physiological needs is important enough that he agrees to do this work, which fundamentally contradicts the values of sustainability that come from the Scandinavian cultural cluster. Paradoxically, in the G7 countries – USA, Canada, Japan, UK, France, Germany and Italy are located majority of headquarters of the largest international corporations. These countries are very active in promoting sustainability and corporate social responsibility, but in fact the manufacturing has been moved from these countries to so called third countries where activities contrary to the principles of sustainability are carried out. However, the needs of consumer societies in North America and the countries of the European Union are focused on the highest needs of Maslow’s pyramid, especially the young generation that has grown up with social networks and smartphones. People there are influenced by mass media which is strongly supported by left wing liberal ideology. Responding to these needs, international companies often deliver a message in their marketing communications that their products are made from recycled materials, that their products do not contain plastic that pollutes the oceans, that their clothes are made without the use of children and cheap labor, and that their food products are made with the preservation of animal welfare and rights. Such phenomenon to cover real damage to environment has been entitled as “green brainwash” by climate activists and some international journalists.
Maslow’s theory of needs is one of most important and widely applied theories of motivation. Closest to Maslow is Clayton Alderfer’s ERG theory – according to which factors are condensed into three groups – existential, relational and growth. Existential factors largely coincide with Maslow’s physiological and security needs, relationships coincide with belonging to society and partially with recognition needs, and growth with recognition and partially with self-realization needs. More broadly, rewards and punishments, Vroom’s expectations, McClelland’s three-factor theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, McGregor’s X and Y theories are used to motivate a buyer or employee (Pardee, 1990). Each of these theories or their elements function differently in different cultural clusters (Osemeke & Adegboyega, 2017).
The theory of “Reward and Punishment”, also known as the “Carrot and Stick” theory, is probably the oldest and has been applied since ancient times. The theory defines the influence of reward and punishment on human motivation. Reward acts as a positive motivator along with punishment if the person does not behave as expected. In employment relations, positive motivators can be bonuses to the salary, public praise, providing company car, the opportunity to buy organization’s shares, and negative motivators can be dismissal, reduction of salary or bonus, public condemnation, demotion. This theory is also used in sales, when a price discount is offered if to buy the product earlier, and if to buy it later, a buyer is threatened that the goods may accrue in out of stock, or they will become more expensive. Each person is different, so positive and negative motivators work differently. In cultural clusters where societies are more hierarchical, power distance is high, and relationships are more collectivistic, the motivator of punishment works and is applied more. And for example, in the Nordic cultural cluster, punishments and negative motivators are avoided in work relationships.
Expectancy theory, proposed by Vicor Vroom in 1964 states that people often create a vision for the future and believe that it will come true. According to this theory, people are motivated by things that reinforce this belief (Vroom, 1964). According to this theory, the employee’s motivation works that in the future, if he works well, he will be able to move up the career ladder. Various loyalty programs are based on this theory, such as accumulating flight points for each flight in aviation industry, promising that after accumulating a certain number of points, the customer will receive a gift or a free flight. The theory of expectations works much more successfully and is applicable in those cultural clusters whose time dimension is focused on the future, where people tend to control the surrounding environment and are mastery oriented. Meanwhile, in cultural clusters where the time dimension is focused on the present or the past and on harmony with the surrounding environment, expectations of the future will be less motivating. In countries where there is a reliance on fate, strong religious traditions, the motivation may be much greater from immediate rewards than from the expectation of future benefits or rewards. In Vroom’s theory, expectancy factors are understood as the belief that increased effort will increase performance. This is influenced by things like having resources such as raw materials or time, having skills, having support for instance a help from a manager or correct job instruction. In this theory, it is believed and trusted that the effort is directly proportional to the expected result, and the whole system is transparent enough to be clearly observed (Vroom, 2005).
The theory of motivation proposed by David McClelland in 1965 states that people are motivated by three motivators – achievement, affiliation and power. For example, people tend to be motivated by an achievement motivator, tend to achieve a set goal and solve problems (McClelland & Johnson, 1984). Reward for the result is the most appropriate form in this case. Thus, the remuneration system in labor relations can be based on very large bonuses for the result and a relatively small reward for the time worked. However, this motivator works much better in individualistic cultures, especially in Anglo, Germanic and Nordic cultural clusters, and works less in collectivist cultures, such as in Latin European, Latin American, and Asian cultural clusters. The affiliation or belonging motivator works more in reverse – more in collectivist cultures and less in individualistic ones. The sense of power as a motivator is important in those cultural clusters that value the display of power strongly in the high-power distance dimension, as well as in the masculine and mastery oriented cultural dimension.
Frederic Herzberg proposed a two-factor theory of employee motivation in 1959. Herzberg distinguished between true motivators and so-called hygiene factors. Hygiene factors named aspects such as salary, organization integrity, offering health and social insurance programs, employee relations, job security. Herzberg attributed recognition, giving responsibility, meaning of work, opportunities for growth and career, and self-realization to the real motivators. In the case of international business, this theory faces challenges, as what is considered just as a hygiene factor in one country may act as a strong motivator in another. Even the hygiene factors in them and their levels can vary greatly between cultural clusters and cultural dimensions. Thus, a multinational organization cannot apply the same factors to its units in different countries. For example, in cultural clusters that are based on strict and clear rules, a strict concept of time, safety requirements and instructions will be considered a obvious factor of hygiene, but this will not be the case in cultures that value uncertainty and harmony.
Douglas McGregor proposed Theory of X and Y in the 1960s which is based on a dual approach to management.

Ex. 10‑4Effective motivators in different cultural dimensions

Keywords: Gregor, McLeland, Alderfer, culture dimensions

Theory X reflects an authoritarian management style; theory Y reflects more of a participative inclusive management style. Authoritarian managers follow a preconceived notion, all people, in this case subordinates, naturally do not like work, have little internal motivation to work, avoid responsibility, therefore, all activities of employees must be strictly specified, enforced and controlled. This approach involves the manager’s involvement in micromanagement, i.e. involvement in many processes performed by subordinates. Theory Y reflects the belief that people naturally want to work, can work without supervision, take pride in their work, see work as a challenge and want to achieve more, can direct their own efforts and take responsibility for their work and do it themselves effectively.

Managers who adhere to the Y approach use a decentralized, participative management style, where the manager is more of a friend, an equal member of the team, an advisor, but not a directive and supervisor. These differences between theories X and Y play out very well across different cultural clusters. Hierarchical societies with high power distance tend to adopt the X approach. In the cultural clusters of Asia, Latin America and Latin Europe, organization managers often take rather strict control, formulating precise tasks, and demand accountability, responsibility and respect for the manager from the subordinate.

For example, in Japanese culture it is even customary to appoint a person to the highest position who has passed all the career steps in the same organization and is knows well all production processes. This is because it is considered that the manager must be able to check the work of the subordinate even at the micro-process level.

Another aspect is related to trust. In the organizations of Asian nations, it is typical to appoint relatives and family members to management positions in an organization or a network of organizations. Loyalty and trust are considered very important criteria when appointing an employee, especially to a managerial position. It can be said that this is the best illustration of Theory Y according to McGregor. Theory X manifests itself more in Anglo, Germanic, and especially Nordic cultural clusters where societies are egalitarian i.e., non-hierarchical, people feel more equal, so there is significantly more prior trust and less control in micro-processes in work relationships.

In summary, all the motivation theories described above can be linked to cultural clusters by emphasizing the level of occurrence of theory factors in each cluster, and theories can also be linked to cultural dimensions by emphasizing the level of theory occurrence in each dimension (Exhibit 10-4).