Motivation

Anyway guys, did you know what is the Foundation Concepts of Motivation?

Motivation is the process by which behaviour is mobilized and sustained in the interest of achieving organizational goals. Through motivation, people are willing to expend effort toward achieving a goal because it satisfies one of their important needs. This principle is referred to as “What’s in it for me?” or WIIFM.

Motivation has three classic need theories. First is the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham M. Maslow. It arranges human needs into a pyramid-shaped model. The human needs are physiological, safety, social and love, esteem, and self-actualization. The second theory is the Two-Factor Theory of Work Motivation by Frederick Herzberg. It divides job factors into motivators or satisfiers versus hygiene factors or dissatisfiers. Motivational factors are the intrinsic or job content factors such as recognition and advancement. While hygiene factors are extrinsic aspects of the job such as working conditions and benefits. The third theory is the Achievement-Power-Affiliation Triad by David C. McClelland. It explains that certain needs people strive to satisfy are acquired or learned from the culture such influences from family, peer groups and websites. This theory centers on three acquired needs which are achievement, power, and affiliation.

More theories of motivation are the goal theory, reinforcement theory, and expectancy theory. According to goal theory; specific goals lead to higher performance than do generalized goals, direct proportion to goal difficulty increases performance, the workers must accept goals to improve performance, goals are more effective when they are used to evaluate performance, goals should be linked to feedback and rewards, deadlines improve the effectiveness of goals, learning goal orientation improves performance, and group goal setting is as important as individual goal setting. While according to reinforcement theory, behaviour is determined by its consequences, rewards and punishments for behaving in particular way. In expectancy theory, motivation results from deliberate choices to engage in activities in order to achieve worthwhile outcomes. Its key components are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.

For equity theory and social comparison, employee satisfaction and motivation depend on how fairly the employees believe they are treated in comparison to peers. When employees believe that they are receiving equitable outputs in relation to their inputs, they are satisfied and motivated. Otherwise, dissatisfaction ensues.

According to social learning theory, individual behaviour is influenced by a combination of a person’s cognitions and social environment. People learn by imitating a model and becoming motivated to repeat the behaviour.

Motivating people through interesting work is based on the principle of intrinsic motivation, which refers to a person’s beliefs about the extent to which an activity can satisfy his or her needs for competence and self-determinant. Extrinsic rewards can sometimes lower a person’s job performance and be demotivating. Its appeal can cause people to focus narrowly on task, rush through a job to get a reward, etc.

Personality and culture can both influence a person’s level of drive and the rewards he or she thinks are relevant which are related to job performance.