McCLELLAND’S THEORY OF NEEDS

McClelland’s theory of needs was developed by David McClelland and his associates to help explain motivation.The theory focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and affiliation. They are defined as follows:

• Need for achievement. The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed.

• Need for power. The need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise.

• Need for affiliation. The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.

Some people have a compelling drive to succeed. They are striving for personal achievement rather than the rewards of success per se. They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive is the achievement need (nAch). From research into the achievement need, McClelland found that high achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desire to do things better.

The need for power (nPow) is the desire to have impact, to be influential, and to control others. Individuals high in nPow enjoy being “in charge,” strive for influence over others, prefer to be placed in competitive and status-oriented situations, and tend to be more concerned with prestige and gaining influence over others than with effective performance.

The third need isolated by McClelland is affiliation (nAff). This need has received the least attention from researchers. Individuals with a high affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships that involve a high degree of mutual understanding.