Three Theories Of Motivation

Motivation is having a reason or reasons to act/behave in a particular way. It creates “drive” in people whether it is in pursuit of a goal, or the need to complete an activity. It produces enthusiasm and a willingness to achieve in both a work environment and in your personal life. Motivation can be increased and decreased in line with the incentives on offer.

They explained that: “Changes in incentives influence human behavior in predictable ways”. The main point of this concept is that the more attractive an option is the more likely an individual to choose it. Another point that they also focused on was the fact that if a particular product more costly, the more unappealing it will become to the consumer. They used examples such as employees will worker harder if they feel that they will be greatly rewarded or a student will study material that they feel will be on an

* Incentives-a promise of a reward in the future, as a result of particular behaviour or achievement-the element of ‘if…then’.

6Incentive- which is split up into the monetary and non-monetary motivation mentioned in Appendix 1. The knowledge of getting a reward is the only reason to do something.

What is motivation? As manager’s, motivation is one of the most vital and crucial assets to possess in managing a business. This drive is a critical tool to use in the work place and determine the success or failure of an organization. Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior. In other words, motivation is an internal energy that drives an individual to do something in order to achieve a certain goal. Therefore, creating a motivating environment in the workplace will lead to happy employees. Creating a work environment like this, managers can expect low staff turnovers, improved productivity, happy customers, and better financial performance. Therefore, the input of motivation use towards employees determines the output efficiency of the company. However, everyone involved in an organization is motivated differently. Everybody has their own individual needs in regards to motivation. Depending on how motivated a person is, determines the effort that individual puts into the work and therefore, how productive they are.

The reason is that the reward is not the main thing that is backing up the action; but something else that could be self-develop, peace, etc. An example is a boy does his homework just because he was told by his parents to do his homework. Based on that the boy believes that his parents know what is best for him to do.

The fourth and final principle talks about incentives, how people respond to incentives in decision making. When deciding what an individual wants or what goals to set for him or her, oftentimes having certain incentives will highly influence the decision-making process. When there is a valued opportunity or reward for achieving such a goal, an individual will look at that incentive and decide to what methods he or she will use to reach the ultimate goal.

According to the expectancy theory of motivation, in the workplace an employee’s willingness to work is dependent upon the end result of working and how important the end result is to the employee. An employee will be more compelled to put forth more effort if it is believed that the consequence of doing so will be a positive performance evaluation. The employee must believe that by achieving a positive performance evaluation, an incentive will be achieved. The incentive, whether it is monetary or advancement, must benefit the employee (Robbins, 2012).

Throughout the book, the author’s major theme is that we, as a society, use reward almost like “bribes”. For example, we say “If you do this, then you can have this”. The author sees this as problematic for a number of reasons. For one, it is bad motivation for students They are doing what they’re told solely because they hope to get what they are promised in return. In all actuality, they should be doing what they are told simply because it is the right thing to do. Also, it is a bribe. The only reason teachers are giving students these things in return is because they hope it will convince the

This source cites may studies stating the monetary incentive have a negative impact on the stated goal. Kohn states that the best that can be expected is a temporary compliance to the desired outcome. Once the incentives were taken away the behavior returned to normal.

From a very young age, many Americans learned the concept that one will receive a reward, or a punishment based on how well the task is performed. For example, if a child does well on a homework assignment, they may receive a reward from their teacher by placing a smiley face sticker on their assignment. Similarly, many Americans believe that if they are determined to have a task completed in time and tried their very best, they will be rewarded with either a pay raise or a bonus. According to the United States Department of Labor, the merit pay system is defined as “a raise in pay based on a set of criteria set by the employer. This usually involves the employer conducting a review meeting with the employee to discuss the employee's work

that “zeal” would still be rewarded and lack of enthusiasm in some way would go “punished”. (29)

money’ and ‘one action gives rise to another’. That means if people are rewarded they will be motivated

That is, if a higher-order need is frustrated, an individual then seeks to increase the satisfaction of a lower-order need. Content Theories of Motivation

• But Valencia or the value people to different rewards varies. For example, an employee prefers salary to benefits, while another person prefers just the opposite. The Valencia of the same reward varies from one situation to another.