McClelland’s Three Needs Theory

David McClelland explored his three needs theory human motivation in his book ‘The achieving society’ (1961) which built on the earlier work of Maslow. He explained that human needs for Achievement, Power and Affiliation influence the behaviour and motivation of an individual, with one need often being the main motivational driver, but individuals can have high requirements in each of these needs.
• Achievement is recognition of an activity, with the motivational gain often being based on the workers ‘journey’ taken to satisfy the achievement. More challenging targets, especially where an individual wishes to provide excellent results, will typically provide a higher level of success and arguably a more prolonged motivational drive from it. This motivational need is strong in those who seek individual achievements in contrast to collaborative teamwork. Setting challenging, but SMART, targets by managers can help a worker satisfy this need.
• Power is the element of control exerted over others and their own work outcomes. Power is often expressed as the desire to influence others and to be seen as the ‘go to’ person for advice and guidance, helping others to make effective decisions. Power is typically desired by leaders, embracing challenges and competition, in wanting to achieve success. Power might be achieved by managing in different ways: from laissez-faire, to democratic to autocratic. Developing workers to achieve this need can often be achieved by providing them with additional responsibilities and being accountable for specific processes or projects.
• Affiliation is the need to belong and build relationships. Individuals will vary in the extent of socialization they require to maintain motivation but will typically like working in conjunction with others to achieve desired outcomes. Having a good work culture which encourages constructive feedback, teamwork, collaboration on work projects, along with supportive and trustworthy colleagues who value an individual's inputs will go a long way to satisfying this need of affiliation.