How Motivation Is Defined As The Drive Within A Person

Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency'. (Maslow, 1943, p. 375)

The hierarchy of needs was first introduced by Abraham Maslow and he believed that all humans have needs and that we all strive to fulfil these needs. Maslow organised these needs and labelled them deficiency needs and growth needs, in order to move onto the next set of needs he believed that they must be at the very least partially achieved. The first set of needs are the basic set of needs to stay alive for example food, water and security and then safety and security for example stability and not fearing for your life, and then love and belonging which allows us to build relationships and giving or receiving acceptance and love. The next set of needs is Esteem, this relates to respect and independence, these needs are deficit needs. The needs which need to be met after these needs are growth needs, these consist of cognitive and aesthetic needs, self-actualisation and transcendence which is all about realising your full potential and to experience meaning and beauty. (Miller and Gibb,

According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs was introduced in the mid-1940’s by Abraham Maslow; it is one of the most popular theories of work motivation to this day. the theory was originally used specifically in a psychological setting, but was made more popular by Douglas McGregor in the late 1960’s and began to be used by not only psychologists but managers as well (Steers & Porter, 1983). The hierarchy is based on the fact that human beings have needs, Maslow took these needs and separated them into five categories: physiological needs, safety, belongingness or social needs,

A motivated employee works hard and effectively because of the satisfactory feeling of fulfillment. In business management, motivation is an important research field. Over the years, there have been many motivation theories developed. One of the most famous theories is on the basis of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow (1954) argued that individuals have a hierarchy of needs, and true motivation is achieved by fulfilling higher level of needs. Emphasized by various motivation theories, income (money) has been an essential factor which can affect motivation. Someone who has low income jobs tends to have low motivation. Consequently, low motivation will result in low effectiveness

The theory expresses what drives humans to motivation. It explains why people are motivated and why they have been driven to

Although Maslow and McGregor are thinking alike, as I mentioned earlier, The Human Side of Enterprise makes no concrete references to Maslow’s theories. He doesn’t seem to recognise the condition of lower level needs to be met for people to aspire to those of higher level. McGregor simply separates workers into different groups

According to the ERG theory "existence needs are the desire for physiological and material well-being, relatedness needs are the desire for satisfying interpersonal relationships and growth needs are the desire for continued personal growth and development"(Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn 2005, p.5 chpt.6). For the same reason's that Maslow's theory would not be a good choice for this organization to use to motivate their sales staff; the ERG theory is also not suited for this type of employee group.

Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.

Abraham Maslow’s theory about motivation suggested that motivation is about to meet human needs. (Pichère P, et al., 2015) In today’s society, motivation is usually defined as the desire of achieving a goal, leading to goal-directed behavior. So why is motivation so important at work? This is because actual productivity of an organization is thought to be dependent on the level of motivation of employees. In another word, people who are motivated will try harder to accomplish the given task, which will increase the productivity and make it more efficient to achieve the organizational goals.

In the motivating of employees, there are certainly many theories, definitions, and ideas. Motivation is a continuous battle in the work place, and close attention must be paid to it in order to ensure productivity and performance. It is hard to look at one of these theories and say that one is the most accurate or represents the landscape the best, but I will apply my own ideas and experiences to the topic to better understand how motivation works from my perspective. In the second part of the paper, I will look at my own experience as an employee at Google and at an insurance company, to help understand the various theories in practice. I suffered from lack of motivation as an employee in my first two jobs for two different reasons that can be explored in further depth based on the readings.

Motivation can be defined as psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behaviour in an organization, a person’s level of effort and persistence in the face of obstacles (Jones & George, 2016). It is also the work a manager performs to induce subordinates to act in the desired manner by satisfying their needs and desires. It is concerned with how behaviour gets started, is energized, sustained and directed towards attaining a goal. It is characterized by being personal and internally felt, complex as it differs between individuals, system oriented, positive or negative based on the implications and instruments used (Gupta, 2017).

Motivation is one of the most discussed topics in the present era’s organisations, especially since renowned psychologists like Maslow and Herzberg are dedicating their efforts to understanding it. Companies are investing a significant amount of resources in improving productivity in order to maximise profits. One of these important resources is of human nature. In order to get the very best out of employees, some motivational approaches need to be used. But what is motivation and how do I successfully motivate? I will try to relate one of my personal experiences with a friend to some of the most influential motivational theories. After introducing my story and making a definition of motivation I will address the ideas of Taylor,

Employee motivation is one of the major issues faced by every organization. It is the task of the manager to motivate his subordinates and also to create the “will to work” amongst his subordinates. In fact, a worker might be highly capable of doing work; nothing can be done if he is not willing to work. The manager has to make appropriate use of motivation to generate the interest amongst the employees.