Motivation

Motivation may be defined as psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behavior in an organization. Motivation is central to management because it explains why people behave the way they do. A persons’ behavior tells how motivated they are to do their job at a higher performance level. There is intrinsically and extrinsic sources for motivation (Gareth, 2009) There are also two motivational theories which explains how an employee can be motivated. Intrinsic behavior is when you enjoy doing your job, and make the best of it. If an employee knows they are good at sorting mail, then they have the skills to do the job, and it is enjoyable to them. When we talk about extrinsic, people who find their jobs to be boring are not as motivated as the ones who have interesting jobs. Extrinsic people would be someone who knows that they have to be motivated to make the necessary quota, but not necessarily going beyond, like a car salesman (Gareth, 2009). The typical needs of an employee may be outcome, which is a feeling of accomplishment, responsibility, and enjoying their work. Inputs are contributions to a job, which consist of time, effort, education, experience, skills, and knowledge. Managers motivate employees to add valuable input to the company, giving employees an outcome they can live with (Gareth, 2009). Expectancy theory can help a manager motivate their employees to succeed. People might start a job, and think they can’t go any further up the ladder because they lack the skills needed. It is a manager’s job to motivate by giving the proper training to an employee so they too can make it to the top. Need theories was developed by a psychologist, Abraham Maslow, who suggest that people need five basic needs, psychological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization needs (Gareth, 2009).Maslow created a chart of needs which identifies a person’s motivational behavior and what the highest to lowest level of needs

References: George, J., Jones, G (2009) Essentials of Contemporary Management, 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw Hill