In the last two decades, motivation becoming increasingly important in the workplace. Motivation was defined as the ‘psychological forces’ that determine the level of a person’s effort and persistence and the direction of a person’s behavious in an organization (Meyer et al., 2007: 425). As the base of organization, employee is regard as the most essential aspect in order to manage successfully and motivation is considered as the center of management because it explains why workers do in this way (Meyer et al., 2007:425). Moreover, it is concluded by French et al. (2008:156) that the motivation of employee is one of the keys to effective management to reach the objective of the organization. Therefore, this essay will analyze the application of both content and process motivation theories. To be more specific, Maslow’s theory will be explored in Hart Worldwide, followed by Herzberg’s Two-factor theory in Kwik-fit financial service and Vroom’s Expectancy theory in Nike.

One of the most widely used theories about needs is by psychologist Abraham Maslow, who assumes that human needs are appeared continuously in a higher level. (Rollinson, 2008:202). Therefore, he arranged the needs in a hierarchy, which is portrayed as a pyramid of five different kinds of needs: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Meyer et al., 2007:430). Moreover, he assumed that some needs are considered more basic than other needs, such as food and water (French et al., 2008:160). Consequently, the bottom levels comprise Physiological and safety needs, while social, esteem and self-actualization needs at the top (Luthans, 2005: 87). As a result, in order to have a motivated workforce, managers must satisfy the needs which employees expect, and then receive an effective organization (Buelens et al., 2011, cited in Antony et al., 2010:293).