Critical Review of Conventional Theories of Motivation; Towards Growth Theory

The categorizing, critique and analysis of different theories in a field is the beginning of the introduction of new theories. In the present study, which is based on the concept of motivation in management, while introducing the two main categories of motivation theories, namely the subjective and objective categories, an attempt was made to find the most important roots of the theory in each category. Subjective theories are radically divided into four categories: emotion-oriented, cognitive-oriented, need-oriented, and personality-oriented. Then, using the critical analytical method, the literature was reviewed and after analyzing the roots of each of the theories, the criticisms were organized into four main categories, which include "ontology", "anthropology", "Epistemology and methodology" and "the dominant issue and their general interpretation of the organization". In order to fully achieve the goal of the research and achieve a comprehensive critical review in the field of motivation that has both negative and positive dimensions, in addition to criticizing the theories, the “tendency-oriented” theory and its differences with the aforementioned theories was discussed.