Four-drive theory (Nohria et al. 2008)

2.4.1 Overview

Scholars Nohria, Groysberg and Lee (2008) explore motivation through the four-drive model of employee motivation, which is based on the previous work by Lawrence and Nohria (2002).

“Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices”, a book by Lawrence and Nohria introduces four drivers to human motivation; the drives to acquire, to bond, to learn and to defend. The scholars argue that these four drives are central to the nature of all humans, and that the drives play a vital role in all human choices. What started the theory was questioning what essentially drives people as human beings? It was felt by the scholars, that the age-old question has even

greater significance today, as the world is continuously moving from an old industrial economy to a new information centered economy, which has transformed practically everything. The change towards an information-centered economy started the dismantling of old hierarchical forms of work organizations, transforming them into more long-term employment relationships and flexible organization forms that favor networking. Lawrence and Nohria believe that in order seize the opportunities of the changing society; a concrete understanding of human nature must be established. In terms of any organization or business, this means that the management must find out what motivates their employees in order to transform their policies accordingly.

In 1987, Rousseau stated that the only way for organizations and institutions to flourish, is if they are founded on a “social contract” which allows people to pursue their individual and collective interest to the fullest degree possible. This view aligns with Lawrence and Nohria, as they believe that these social contracts are a vital building block of any social institution, starting from the family, to the business organization, all the way to state.

Whereas Adam Smith (1759) viewed human beings as selfish, whose only goal is to maximize their own self-interest, Lawrence and Nohria’s (2002) four-drive model argues that fulfilling the drive to acquire is not enough for humans to be satisfied and motivated. In context of a workplace, this means that an employee would not be satisfied nor well motivated after acquiring a promotion if for example the social aspects of the job would not be met. In an organization, the four-drive theory suggests that each and every person, from the very top of the organization such as the CEO, to the most junior employee, will bring a predictable set of mental equipment to work each and every day, and that their primary goal is to fulfill all the four drives. Lawrence and Nohria claim that all of the four drives are universal as well as innate, and they are present in some physical form in the brains of all human beings. The four drives are independent, in the sense that the goals, which the drives seek, are not interchangeable with one another, but they do interact with one another. In the most perfect setting and scenario in an organization would be that every single job role would provide the employees the opportunity to fulfill these drives to reasonable degree.

2.4.2 The drive to acquire

The drive to acquire might be seen as the simplest one of the drives to understand as well as to fulfill, but the drive is about not only satisfying the physical needs such as money, food and clothing, but also allowing an individual to enjoy experiences like travel and entertainment. In an organizational context, fulfilling the drive would include improving social status such as

being promoted or getting new benefits. The drive to acquire most often relative, as people have the habit of concretely comparing what they have with what others possess, and limitless since humans have the tendency of always wanting more. This is why employees are very often also curious about their colleague’s compensation and other benefits, not just their own (Nohria et al.2008).

2.4.3 The drive to bond

The drive to bond is an intrinsic drive, which presents itself within humans in their desire to form social relationships and develop mutual commitments with other humans. The only way that the drive can actually be fulfilled, is if the attachment between two or more individuals is mutual. Experiencing strong negative emotions is common, when social bonds are broken, especially in situations when it has been unexpected. For example, employees have reported experiencing deeps sense betrayal, shock and even anger when being laid off from IMB, which was once very well known for its loyalty towards its employees. Studies have shown, that when these bonds are broken, it has an effect on all parties involved. Studies of companies, which have downsized found that the “survivors” of employee reduction often suffer from severe feelings of quilt and have a lot of sympathy of those who were laid off (Lawrence and Nohria 2002). Simon (1991) suggested that the only reasonable way to explain why employees exert any more than the minimum effort to their work which can be enforced and monitored, is that humans are either fundamentally obedient in nature or they drive value from sociability and being a member of an organization. The claims by Simon support the views of Lawrence and Nohria regarding the drive to bond, as drive to bond is an crucial addition to the more self-interested drive to acquire.

2.4.4 The drive to learn

In addition to the drives to acquire and to bond, humans have an innate drive, which seeks to satisfy their endless curiosity to know, to comprehend, to appreciate, to believe, to develop understanding or representations of their environment and of themselves through a reflective process (Lawrence and Nohria 2002) and this all manifests itself in the drive to learn. The drive to learn can quite clearly be seen as the basis of intrinsic rewards, such as studied by Herzberg.

For a long time, the importance of satisfying the drive to learn has been recognized in attempt to developing the right job designs (Lawrence and Nohria 2002). When the drive to learn is not satisfied, workers feel frustration, where are jobs which provide the opportunity to fulfill the drive to learn are more satisfying. The drive is all about full-filling the individuals need for

learning and challenging oneself, which displays in various ways. In an organization, it is also greatly linked with feeling valued, appreciated and needed, as well as being able to express oneself.

2.4.5 The drive to bond

The fourth and the last drive is the drive to defend, which manifests itself in humans as their desire to defend themselves as well as their valued accomplishments whenever they feel them to be threatened (Lawrence and Nohria 2002). The emotions provoked from the drive as experienced is variety of ways such as fear escalading to terror, anxiety turned into panic, loneliness turned to depression or loss followed by despair. The drive also demonstrates itself in an organizational context as a construct to create institutions, which promote justice, that have clear goals, ideologies and intentions, and which allow their members to express and voice their ideas and opinions (Nohria et al. 2008). In the case that threats are experienced over long periods at a workplace, individuals may slip into a chronic defensive mode, which is expressed, by passive behavior, helplessness and ever-severe health and performance consequences (Lawrence and Nohria 2002).