Critical Review Essay; , “What Should We Do about Motivation Theory? Six Recommendations for the Twenty-First Century”

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The article titled, “What Should We Do about Motivation Theory? Six Recommendations for the Twenty-First Century” was written and published by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham in 2004. The authors provide a clear and compelling central argument on the six recommendations that can be used to enhance work motivation. At least until the 1930s, psychologists had shown growing interests in work motivation by focusing on the effects of working conditions, incentives, and supervision (Locke & Latham, 2004, pp.388). Various theories were created so that to explain issues involving works motivation; however, they had limitations as none of them was above criticism. The authors have no intentions of offering another theory but focus on the process that can be used in establishing more practical and valid work motivation theories.

The article focuses on the acknowledgment that the previous theories on work motivation had different limitations (Locke & Latham, 2004, pp.389). This situation highlights that the knowledge on employee motivation is not complete. For that reason, the authors work on identifying six recommendations that can be used to change the course of research on work motivation.  The identification of a meta-theory will aid in the identification of categories that will enhance the knowledge of employee motivation. This article assumes the structure of a nut-graph as the authors begin with providing a hook that attracts the attention of the readers. As a result, in the body paragraphs, the authors explore the idea of changing the direction of work motivation research by examining these ideas in detail.

Due to the failures and invalidity of the earlier theories, the authors focus on coming up with a new direction for future research on motivation. The method of study in this research involved going through the previously existing work motivation theories as a way of identifying specific concepts and approaches. According to Latham and Heslin (2003, pp. 221), it is evident that an analysis of these theories points out the real flaws and limitations in different aspects. Therefore, the authors felt there was an urgent need to bring together the existing theories and processes into a single model.  This situation would present a more effective mode of research that can be used to determine new motivation theories that would adequately address the limitations of the previous theories.

The main argument of this article highlights the failures of the previous theories on work motivation that include Vroom’s theory, organizational behavior, goal-setting theory, and so on. Judge et al. (2001, pp.377) assert that the majority of the theories on employee motivation have been criticized for failing to adequately address the issues that focus on the insight into aspects of work motivation. The increased scrutiny on these theories has led to some of them being dropped over the years; this is despite providing relevant information regarding the issues of work motivation. It is apparent that the area of employee motivation has made significant steps by progressing in different directions. However, various areas of employee motivation remain unexploited, and for that reason the available knowledge on the field of motivation is incomplete.

To further discuss the main arguments of this article the authors introduce a new concept in the study of work motivation by arguing that the field has to be studied and analyzed in new perspectives (Locke & Latham, 2004, pp.399). Majority of the topics that provide significant information...