Organizational scientists have studied this topic for many years and developed several theoretical approaches to explain motivation. Prior to the 1940s there were three main theories (Staw 1991). The first is instinct theory. Scholars in this field included Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and William McDougall. Basically instinct theorists believed that much of animal and human behavior could be determined by instincts. It was thought that behavior could be explained in terms of instincts. It said that heredity determined which goals or outcomes an organism would seek and that people's goals consisted of the objects they sought (Staw 1991). Therefore this theory did not actually predict what outcomes a person might seek but rather it examined why they had sought certain goals. It added nothing to understanding why the behavior had taken place.

The second main theory was hedonism. Hedonism's main assumption is that humans will direct their behavior towards outcomes that they find pleasurable and away from those that cause them pain (Staw 1991). People will direct their behavior to achieve goals or outcomes that give them the most pleasure. It again, like instinct theory, makes no attempt to explain why certain activities will give pleasure and some pain. Neither does it attempt to classify which outcomes give pleasure and which give pain or how they can be determined in advance for an individual. Despite its flaws most modern theories discussed later are based on hedonists theory. That is people will pursue outcomes that are pleasurable and avoid those that are painful.

The final historical theory is the drive theory. It is in the tradition of Hedonism but it replaces the concept of instinct with the concept of drive. Drive theorist C.L. Hull defined drives as primary and secondary (Staw 1991). Primary drives were biologically based that is needs such as hunger, thirst and pain. Secondary drives are things such as money and social approval and they are learned drives. In this theory outcomes become rewards and the strength of drives are reduced as needs become satisfied or can be increased through deprivation. Hulls theory was an advance in the field of motivation because unlike the previous two it identifies what outcomes are desirable to individuals, it classifies these outcomes and it theorizes what factors influence these outcomes. While later studies have supported his view that deprivation will strengthen drives and satisfaction will weaken them the theory is inadequate. There is no evidence to prove Hull's assertion that secondary drives are learned.

Contemporary theories of motivation can also be divided into three areas (Wiley 1997). They are personality-based views, cognitive choice/decision approaches and goal setting perspectives. All these contemporary theories are based on three assumptions (Wiley 1997). The first is that motivation is inferred from an analysis of how personal, environmental and task characteristics influence an individual behavior. The second assumption is that motivation is not static. It can change with changes in personal or social factors. The third assumption is motivation affects behavior rather than performance.

Personality based views of motivation refer to such works as Maslow, Aldefer, McClelland and Herzberg. They are theories that emphasis the importance of personal characteristics as they affect goal choice and effort. With in this group they can again be classified. There are researchers who have focused on establishing one or two motives, such as McClelland and White and then those that have developed a need classification system (Staw 1991).

In the first group McClelland has focused on the need for achievement (McClelland 1987). McClelland defines the need for achievement as a desire to perform in terms of excellence or a desire to be successful in competitive situations. Everyone posses the trait of achievement motivation but the amount people have depends on other factors such as childhood experience. Children from families that expected independence and high performance from a young age tend to be high need achievement people. This infers that need achievement is a partially learned drive. He also acknowledges that it is not found consistently in different cultures because child-rearing practices differ between cultures. In organizational situations McClelland's research has shown that when achievement motivation is working people are motivated to perform well at their jobs. However when it is a routine or boring task achievement motivation does not operate. Such motivation is also likely to be present in competitive situations, in situations where performance depends on some important or valued skill and where performance feedback is given (McClelland).

In the same group of researches is White. He argues the existence of the competence motive (Straw 1991). By competence White means the ability to interact effectively with an environment. It partly an innate characteristic but a learned one. That is learning is needed to gain competence. White argues that competence motivation is activated when people are faced with a new situation. When it is a situation that has already been mastered there is no competence motivation. Therefore
White's theory suggests extrinsic rewards are not necessary for workers to be motivated. They will be motivated by tasks but once they have mastered the situation their motivation will disappear.

The second group of researches under personality based views are those that developed a need classification system. The first in this group and the most famous is Maslow. Maslow has identified a hierarchy of needs (Maslow 1954, 1987). The need hierarchy identified by Maslow is
1 Self-actualization needs
2 Self-esteem needs
3 Social needs
4 Security needs
5 Physiological needs
Malsow's hierarchy of needs is founded on the following assumptions (Herbig & Genestre 1997). Human beings are demanding creatures and their behavior will be determined by unsatisfied needs. Once a need is satisfied it will no longer motivate. The five human needs of self-actualization, self-esteem, social needs, security needs and physiological needs exist in a hierarchy. These needs are divided into two groups. The three lower level needs are deficiency needs and the two upper level needs are growth needs.

The lowest level on the hierarchy and the first of the deficiency needs is physiological needs. These are the needs that must be satisfied to sustain life. They included food, shelter, oxygen, water, sex, and rest.

When these physiological needs are meet the next level of deficiency need in the hierarchy is activated. Security needs refers to an environment in which there are no threats to the individual.
Once both physiological and safety needs are meet the next level is social needs. Social needs refer to the need to be loved, to have friends to feel accepted or that you belong. Without love and friendship life becomes meaningless.

After the satisfaction of these three lower level needs has been achieved self-esteem needs come into operation. This need refers to a persons need to develop self respect and gain approval from others.

When all these needs have been meet then self-actualization can occur. Self-actualization is the need for fulfillment or the desire to become everything that one can be. Individuals that have self-actualized are working at their peak and are an extremely valuable asset to an organization.

Research on Maslow's theory has shown that in reality most employees do satisfy their growth needs (Baron & Greenburg 1990). Also there is debate about the number and order of the needs. Can they be activated in any order?

Similar to Maslow's theory is Alderfer's existence relatedness growth theory (ERG) (Wiley 1997). Although Alderfer needs correspond to Malsow's hierarchy ERG theory only proposes three needs and specifies that each need may be activated in any order. Existence needs correspond to Maslow's physiological and safety needs. Relatedness needs correspond to Maslow's social needs and growth needs correspond with Maslow's esteem and self-actualization needs.

The work of Herzberg also comes under the area personality based views. Herzberg argued that employees motivation involves two factors ( Snavely 1997). The first are hygiene factors and refer to the environment. The environment includes such things as status, pay and security, working conditions, and co-worker relationships( Snavely 1997). The second sets of factors are called motivators and they refer to recognition, advancement, achievement, the job itself and meaningful work( Snavely 1997). Herzberg claims that people can not be motivated unless there is an improvement in both sets of factors ( Herbig & Genestre1997).

The next area of motivation research is cognitive choice/decision approaches. This area of research is known also as expectancy theory. Expectancy theory is based on four assumptions (Staw 1991).
1 Both individual and environmental forces determine behavior.
2 People make decisions about their own behavior in organization.
3 Different people have different needs, desires and goals.
4 People make decisions among alternative behaviors based on their expectancy that it will lead to the desired outcome.
Based on these assumptions expectancy theory claims motivation is the result of three beliefs people have ( Baron & Greenberg 1990). The first belief is performance-outcome expectancy. This is the belief that ones effort will result in certain outcomes. The second is valence. Each outcome has a valence to a certain individual, that is the perceived value of the rewards. The third belief is effort-performance expectancy. This is the belief each individual has that each behavior has a certain probability of success. According to this theory individuals are motivated when they believe their behavior will lead to outcomes, that these outcomes have a positive valence and the individual believes that they are able to perform at the desired level (Staw 1991).

The final area of contemporary motivation theory is the goal setting concept. This is the view that setting performance goals can enhance motivation and performance (Wiley 1997). Research on goal setting has found that people will perform at higher levels when asked to meet a performance goal (Baron & Greenberg 1990). They find them challenging and are therefore motivated to achieve them. It is important however to set attainable goals. Although people will work hard to attain difficult goals if the goals set are to difficult they may suffer rejection and as a result performance will suffer. For goal attainment to motivate there must also be feedback (Baker & Buckley 1996). Feedback has a directional function. It tells the employee what the expected behaviors are provides them with information on how closely their behavior is bringing them to their goals.

Having discussed what behavioral scientists believe motivates employees, is it acceptable to believe employees are motivated by the same things all over the world? The authors of these motivation theories are also products of their culture and as a result their theories may reflect the cultural environment from which they come. Maslow's motivation theory is from America and concludes that worker motivation is based on self-interested need satisfaction. It is a theory from a strongly individualistic and capitalist society. Thus the hypothesis proposed in this paper is to test if Maslow's hierarchy of needs has a different order in Singapore society.

Research Method
A list of five factors each representing one of the five needs in Maslow's hierarchy was used to construct a survey. The survey was administered to ten people at random at Raffles MRT station. Professions varied from retailing to sales to engineering.

The respondents were asked to rank the five needs according to which needs they felt were satisfied first by their jobs. The most important need was to be given a ranking of 1 and the least important a ranking of 5. All items were ranked and rankings were not used more than once. Also asked were gender, age and field of employment. Below is a copy of the survey used.

Motivation Survey
Instructions
1 Rank the needs you consider your job satisfied first. One being the highest ranking.
2 Rank all factors
3 Do not use the same ranking twice
Needs Ranking
Feeling of satisfaction or self-fulfillment ________
Feeling of belonging ________
Job security ________ Good wages to pay for basic needs ________
Need for personal feelings of achievement or self-esteem ________
Gender M / F
Age
Occupation

Results
After the data was collected each factor was given a ranking. The factor with the highest mean was given a ranking of 1 and that with the lowest mean a ranking of 5. The factors ranked at
1 good wages to pay for basic needs
2 feeling of belonging
3 job security
4 feeling of satisfaction or self-fulfillment
5 need for personal feelings of achievement or self-esteem
All respondents ranked good wages to pay for basic needs as the most important need. This corresponds with Maslow's first basic need on the hierarchy. After that the order changes. Social needs are considered the next most important to satisfy. This difference could be explained by the idea of different cultural dimensions in both societies. American culture on Hofstede's cultural map is considered to be individualistic (Morden 1995). In comparison Singapore is classed as collectivist culture. Next is safety needs and then growth needs. While growth needs are considered the last to be satisfied, as in Malsow's theory, the order of the two is reversed. From the test sample it can be concluded that the needs Malsow specifies in hierarchy may not be activated in that order in a different culture that has different values.

Modifications
Modifications that could be made are the addition of questions to examine if there are more than these basic categories of needs. Also needs may need to be defined more specifically on the survey. The means for self-actualization and esteem needs were very close. Some respondents while filling in the survey asked if they were asking the same question. The result of the need descriptions being very similar may have made it hard for respondents to distinguish between them. Also before being administered to a larger sample the additional sub group of race should be added. Singapore is a multi-racial society and different sub groups may rank differently the needs on the survey.
Conclusion
Maslow's hierarchy of needs may not be activated in the specific order he theorized. Different political, historical, and religious traditions of various nations may change the way different groups needs are met and this has important implications for motivation. Managers have to be able to identify employee need requirement in order to formulate a method to motivate them. If they are starting with the wrong assumption of their needs its makes the task of motivation increasingly difficult.

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