The Role Of Meaningful Work On Work Motivation Theories

Motivation theory links to other theories such as behaviourism, cognitive and social-cognitive theory to name a couple. Cognitive theory, which is a psychological learning theory, attempts to explain the mental process that a person goes through to understand and develop their knowledge. Purists of cognitive development often scorn behaviourism as it dismisses the complexity of human behaviour. Behaviourism

20 A definition of work motivation......................................................................... 21 Motivation in the organisational context ............................................................ 21 A historical overview of motivational theories .................................................. 22

Extrinsic motivation e.g. Money is the critical incentive to motivation in today's work environment However , motivation differs from individual to individual and with their respective beliefs and values, circumstances and culture. It is important for mangers to identify which motivation factor works with which employee and apply it respectively In any environment, both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations are needed for work satisfaction and work performance

theories have been developed by psychologists, they are all used to explain what gives human motivation or the drive to behave a certain way.

The theory is also used in communication discourse as a theory of understanding. The theory aims to explain the relationship between attitudes and behaviors within human action. Theory Reasoned Action is used to predict how individuals will behave based on their pre-existing attitudes and behavioral intentions. An individual's decision to engage in a behavior is based on the outcomes the individual expects will come because of performing the behavior.

The Behavioural approach (also called the learning theory) focuses on the belief that our environment, e.g. people, experiences and learning, influences the development and behaviour of an individual whilst thinking the internal functions, such as thoughts and cognition, are impossible to observe, so they are not apart of the scientific approach to psychology. This theory is also based on the concept of ‘explaining behaviour through observation. Behaviourists assume individuals are born as a blank state (tabula rasa), meaning they do not think biology and cognitive functions influence our behaviour, only our environment does. A large idea that the theory hold is that behaviour can be broken down into stimulus-response units. Stimuli are anything environmental that triggers an individuals’ senses, for example, a student being asked to complete an assignment (stimulus) would respond by completing the assignment. Stimulus-response theories form the basis of classical or operant conditioning, which suggests animals and humans can learn through the relation of a response to any certain stimuli.

There are very many factors that motivate employees to do outstanding work in their jobs. Though most of them are non-monetary factors like participative decision making, work teams, challenging jobs, goals in life or in the company, power and other factors. Most of the employees that emerge in their workplace, either in a small cubicle or a mega office have got some drive that enable them to perform in their work, but the key question is, is money is the key motivation in their workplace? In this essay both sides will be argued in order to find the answer to this (Robbins, Odendaal & Roodt, 2003).

This is a current and topical issue as motivation matters a great deal; Forsyth (2000 p. 2) states that motivation “increases efficiency, effectiveness and productivity” and allows organisations to meet their aims and objectives. Hageman (1992) suggests that motivation is the internal incentive that which brings out pleasure from work; happiness and efficiency are closely connected. This then makes employees desire to do what is required of them.

Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following

There are several reasons why a person goes to work. These reasons can be better explained as "work motivation". Work motivation can be defined as the inner forces that make us work and want to work harder to achieve personal or organizational goals (George & Jones, 2005). There are two different types of motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic.

There are many theories of motivation that can be combined then the capacity of each theory will predict the reality of people 's behaviour in work environment.

Job satisfaction is what people feel when they are valued in an organization. When a company rewards their employees, show interest in their work, and have an appreciation for what an employee does, this give an employee a sense of wanting to contribute more to an organization (Allen, 1993). Motivations for employees that many leaders strive to achieve is giving an employee meaningful work, recognition for the job they do, opportunities to grow, learn, and advance in the organization, and increase an employee’s responsibilities. A leader must observe the

Reinforcement theory is similar to expectancy theory. It refers those contingent pay forces individuals to increase the level of their performance (Skepm-Arlt & Toupence, 2007).

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.

One of the first authors that dealt with the sources of motivation was Frederick Taylor who focussed on the overall productivity of an organisation. He linked this productivity to the effort an employee puts into their work which in turn is dependent on monetary rewards (Taylor, 1911). This theory was established in the context of the industrial age and thus is outdated for today’s analysis but it still provides a basic assumption which is often referred to by other authors. The total neglecting of a worker’s intrinsic motivators is a starting point for discussion for authors that conducted research in that area after Taylor.