Two 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.

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.

Motivation most certainly plays a huge role in the workplace, therefore, it is imperative to understand fully the basic theories and methods, and of course how to apply these theories and methods to everyday workplace scenarios. These motivational skills and techniques will definitely play a key role for leaders and or managers, knowing how to motivate people in today’s workforce will provide job growth.

Motivation is the process of operating organizational conditions which will impel employees of any emotion or desire operation one’s will and prompting or driving at it to action.

Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g., food, water, shelter) or an object, goal, state of being, or ideal that is desirable, which may or may not be viewed as "positive," such as seeking a state of being in which pain is absent. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality.

For this assignment, I am going to describe and discuss several motivation theories. Then I will compare and contrast different aspects of the theories to each other and discuss how the different theories relate to my workplace.

Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g., food, water, shelter) or an object, goal, state of being, or ideal that is desirable, which may or may not be viewed as "positive," such as seeking a state of being in which pain is absent. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality.

In order for leaders to inspire job satisfaction, employee commitment and timely output, motivation must be at the forefront of the organization’s agenda. Motivation is a force that initiates, direct, and sustain individual or group behavior in order to satisfy a need or attain a goal (ERIC, 2016).

Over the years, motivation has been defined by many people, in many different ways. Hence, what is motivation? According to McShane & Glinow, motivation is defined as “the forces within a person that effect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior” (McShane & Glinow, 2011). The author’s further explained, “motivated employees will exert a certain level of effort (intensity), for a certain amount of time (persistence), to obtain a particular goal (direction)” or in other words, employees are essentially “goal-directed” (McShane & Glinow, 2011). Although goals play an important part of employee motivation in the workplace it doesn’t necessarily mean that their only goals are professional in nature. Employees can also be motivated to achieve personal goals within themselves, which could include receiving an educational degree or obtaining additional knowledge, skills and abilities for self-improvement.

What is Motivation? –A state of mind, desire, energy or interest that translates into action“ A strong behavioral component –It leads to action –Managers can influence motivation – It is a key to performance Importance of Motivation Motivation impacts PERFORMANCE Performance = Ability x Motivation x Opportunity –Ability – what a person can do: a competence & skill –Motivation – interest in doing something include Internal motivation; External motivation –Opportunity – the set-up, tools, etc.

What is motivation? Motivation is defined as “an individual’s willingness to respond to the organization’s requirements in short run.” (P.71 Dixon, 1998) For the purposes of this research paper, I find the most fitting definition of motivation is to define it as “the force that Energizes, Directs, and Sustains behavior.” (uri.com, 2014) Motivation is imperative to productivity. A highly motivated staff often leads to high productivity from the workforce.

‘Motivation’ is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’ that means ‘to move’. Thus, motivation is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive (Luthans). Broadly speaking, motivation is willingness to exert high levels of efforts towards organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts’ ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins). Need means some internal state that make certain outcomes appear attractive. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual. These drives generate a search behaviour to find particular goals, that if attained,

According to Pritchard and Ashwood (2008: 6), motivation is the process used to allocate energy to maximize the satisfaction of needs. It requires that one have a reason to do something. Well-know researchers in this area Ryan and Deci (2010) believe that a person, who feels no drive or inspiration to act, can therefore be characterized as unmotivated, while someone who is energized toward a goal can be defined as motivated. People may also experience differing levels and types of motivation based on their individual backgrounds, which means that they vary not only in their amount of motivation, but also in the trend of that motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Different things motivate people who come from different social, cultural, economic and/or financial backgrounds, or who have received different education. An employee’s motives, socio-economic background and value system will have an effect on how they work, as well as influence the outcome of their performance (Wyk and Erasmus, 2003: 315).

Motivation is an important factor which can increase the efficiency in an organization. People need to be motivated in order to use organizational resources effectively. The ability of the manager to motivate his/her workers affects their performance (productivity). Motivation is an effective tool in the hands of management in stimulating the labor force. Motivation increases the eagerness of the employees to work, thus increasing productivity and value of the organization.

Motivation has two meaning: expanding effort toward the accomplishment of an organizational goal, and the managerial process of getting workers to accomplice organizational goal. Motivation is one of the important contributor two performance and productivity.