Motiation Is Influenced by influenced of Individual, Cultural, Ethnic, and Historical Factors

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Motivation is a complex phenomenon which is influenced of individual, cultural, ethnic and historical factors. According to De Cenzo et al., (1996), people who are motivated use a greater effort to perform a job than those who are not motivated. Motivation can be defined as “a series of energizing forces that originate both with and beyond an individual’s self”. These forces determine the person’s behavior and therefore, influence his/her productivity (Jackson, 2005). In other words this means that all thinkable factors of physical or psychological aspects that we interact with, leads to a reaction within our self or of the entire organization.
Another definition for Motivation is “the willingness to do something, conditioned by the action’s ability to satisfy some need”. Although in a basic sense this definition iscorrect, it needs to be modified for organizational reasons, that is, the effort that employees make can be misguided. Therefore, it must be focused toward some organizational goals and at the same time must satisfy both organizational and individual needs (De Cenzo et al., 1996).
In order to be motivated, a person needs to have certain basic needs fulfilled. If these needs are lacking, a self steam of persons and self actualizationcan not develop. This could result in lack of interest to progress and develop, both professionally and personally. There are several theories of human needs which are the foundation of motivation (Latham and Ernst et al., 2008).
A survey result conducted by Kovach in 1946 indicates ten motivational factors that employees were asked to rank in term of personal preference.
The following resulted showed as follow:
1) Full appreciation of work done;
2) Feeling of being in on things;
3) Sympathet...

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...sregard of the old system, a suggestion scheme rewarding individuals for improvement ideas, which had been in place for many years in the company. The implication of having both reward systems in use was, among others, that employees withheld ideas when working in the team and instead provided their ideas through the suggestion scheme. In summary, the two systems used in the case company contradicted each other (Kerrin and Oliver, 2002). Thus, it becomes important to understand the whole organizational context when designing and implementing reward systems. Yang (2008) has investigated the individual performance and results of his study showed that we cannot verify individual performance. Even so, he also claimed that if employees’ performance is observable than organizations can use direct bonuses or relational contracts to motivate them based on their performance.

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