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View Book Information: Management and Motivation Too many of the great writers on management are known only through what others have said about them. This collection of articles and abstracts shows what they actually said. We make no apologies for reviewing a book first published in 1970. Edited by Victor H Vroom and Edward L Deci, this a marvellous book and one that has justifiably been in print for over 30 years. It contains 26 extracts from the writings of great management thinkers - their original words. Much of this is unobtainable with any ease anywhere else and this book surely must be on your bookshelf as a result. It also contains summaries by Vroom and Deci which set the writings in context and explain their development.
The book starts with the formal writing of Herbert A Simon:
"We find then that those participants in organisations who are called its employees are offered a variety of material and non-material incentives, generally not related to the attainment of the organisation, in return for their willingness to accept organisational decisions as a basis for their behaviour during the time of their employment."
It continues with Maslow writing in 1943 at the start of the development of hierarchy of needs in which he refers to the need following physiological and safety needs as a need for love' - whereas today we use the weaker words 'social need' or 'need for affiliation'. Maslow is followed by Nancy Morse and Robert Weiss with one of the very few quantitative studies of motivation and work. They conclude:
"... for most men working does not simply function as a means or earning a livelihood. Even if there were no economic necessity for them to work, most men would work. It is through this producing role that most men tie into society and, for this reason and others, most men find the producing role important for maintaining their sense of well-being."
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