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The Importance Of Motivation On The Work Environment

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In every work environment, there are employees who work harder than other employees. Their work ethic can be motivated by different factors. Motivation can be defined as “the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways” (Ebert & Griffin, 2015, p. 256). Over many years, many studies have been conducted and theories have been created to explain an individual’s motivation. The four theories we will discuss in this paper are: The hierarchy of human needs model, the two-factor theory, the expectancy theory, and the equity theory models. These theories also apply to an individual’s personal life, but this paper will concentrate on how each model affects the work environment. It is important that managers understand these theories so they may identify how to motivate each employee into being a more productive and motivated worker.

Hierarchy of Human Needs Model
The hierarchy of human needs model was created by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow believed there were 5 types of satisfiers and they ranked in order of importance. As a person reached satisfied in one level, it would cease to be a motivator and they would move to the next level. The levels of importance were: 1) physiological needs, 2) security needs, 3) social needs, 4) esteem needs, 5) self-actualization needs.
To walk through the model as it applies to the work environment, we will take an employee, Joe as an example. Joe takes a position with the company because it meets his salary
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