What is Motivation?

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Recommended: Core concepts of motivation

Motivation is defined as the factors that lead to the desire of employees to perform to their fullest of abilities in order to meet the goals set the by the organization as a whole, and also to meet personal aims set by the employees themselves. Motivation requires commitment and effort which can consequently lead to a significant increase in productivity and efficiency. An essential feature of motivation is that it’s an intangible concept, it is invisible and internal (Pinder, 1998). Managers constantly seek new methods to stimulate their employees into putting more effort into their jobs. Although containing contradictory ideologies, different motivation models, such as Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory (Herzberg, 1959) and Taylor’s Scientific Management or Taylorism(Taylor, 1911), have served as a basis to managers on how to increase motivation or keep it at a constant high level throughout. Both these models contradict in the sense that Taylor suggests money is the sole factor that leads to motivation whereas Herzberg concludes that there are other factors that lead to positive stimulation.
Herzberg’s theory includes motivators and hygiene factors (Herzberg, 1959). In basic theory, motivators are factors which lead to an employee’s desire to work harder in order to meet pre-set goals. These include: achievement, recognition for achievement, advancement, responsibility and job challenge. Hygiene factors are those which do not motivate, but in their absence there would be a notable demotivation amongst employees, which include: working conditions, company policy and administration, supervision, salary, job security and relationship with others. On the other hand, Taylor’s scientific management theory (Taylor, 1911) was based upon th...

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...nce improvement: research and recommendations, Contemporary Management Research, Vol. 4, No, 1, pp 43-56, March 2008
• Rowley (1996) Motivation and academic staff in higher education. MCB University Press 4(3):11-6.
• Sinclair, R.R., Tucker, J.S., Cullen, J.S., Wright, C. (2005). Performance differences among four organizational commitment profiles. J. Applied Psychology 90(6):1280-7.
• Taylor, F.W. (1911), The principles of scientific management. Harper & Brothers, New York & London
• Vroom, V. H. (1964) Work and motivation. Wiley, New York
• Wiley, C. (1997). What motivates employees according to over 40 years of motivation surveys, International journal of manpower, 18(3), p263-280 quoted from Ghazanfar, F., Chuanmin, S., Khan, M. M. & Bashir, M.(2011). A study of relationship between satisfaction with compensation and work motivation, Vol. 2, No. 1; January 2001

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