The problem with worker motivation has existed since the relationship of workers & owners first developed and these problems are likely to exist in the future as well. This has been a common subject for research by many theorist such as: Fredrick Taylor, Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor, Frederick Hertzberg, Karl Marx and Harry Braverman. I will discuss the critical and mainstream theories around the topic of worker motivation and then give examples to link them to current times, this will then lead to a conclusion supported by facts and theories.
The main stream theorist I would like to draw upon first is Fredrick Taylor and his theory of scientific management. He linked productivity with economic reward and put forward the concept that worker are motivated primarily through pay or ''economic reward''. This concept of Fredrick has been accepted by management all over the world and still holds true for many business where productivity is linked to sales and then to economic rewards. [ (Locke, 1982, pp. 14-24) ]. Mayo conducted experiments between 1927 and 1937, that later came to be known as hawthorn experiments and came to the conclusion that physical, economic and social environment can effect workers productivity. These experiments were criticized by a number of theorist including Alex Cary, in the ''American sociological review (1976)'', and as such I won't be using them extensively for this essay. Abraham Maslow on the other hand came up with a more general approach to motivation, his theory came to be known as the 'hierarchy of needs', which stated that as one tier of need is fulfilled another tier of needs will emerge and thus motivate the workers to achieve them.
The second set of theories are called critical theories and the most important theorist in this category is Karl Marx. One of the key assumptions that Marx made was that under capitalism,