- The act or process of motivating.
- The state of being motivated.
- Something that motivates; an inducement or incentive.
motivationally mo'ti·va'tion·al·ly adv.
Dictionary:
mo·ti·va·tion (mō'tə-vā'shən) ![]() |
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| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Motivation |
The intentions, desires, goals, and needs that determine human and animal behavior. An inquiry is made into a person's motives in order to explain that person's actions.
Different roles have been assigned to motivational factors in the causation of behavior. Some have defined motivation as a nonspecific energizing of all behavior. Others define it as recruiting and directing behavior, selecting which of many possible actions the organism will perform. The likely answer is that both aspects exist. More specific determinants of action may be superimposed on a dimension of activation or arousal that affects a variety of actions nonselectively. The situation determines what the animal does; arousal level affects the vigor, promptness, or persistence with which the animal does it.
Early drive theorists saw motivated behavior as adjunct to physiological mechanisms of homeostasis, that is, the mechanisms by which the body regulates internal variables such as temperature, blood sugar level, and the volume and concentration of body fluids. Thus, motivated behavior forms part of a negative-feedback loop, an arrangement characteristic of regulatory systems.
However, the homeostatic model faces difficulties. First, not all “basic biological drives” work this way. Second, motivated behavior can be influenced by external as well as internal factors. Since these external influences are not coupled with the animal's internal state, they can lead to behavior that does not promote homeostasis and may even threaten it. To add to the complexity, internal and external factors are not independent and additive; rather they interact with each other. In such cases, internal influences affect behavior by setting the animal's responsiveness to certain external signals. The interaction occurs in the opposite direction as well: external signals can affect internal state. Third, especially in humans, vigorous and persistent goal-directed behavior can occur in the absence of any physiological need. See also Homeostasis.
Even relatively simple motives can be influenced by much more than the existing internal and external situation. They respond to potential or expected factors, as registered by cognitive apparatus. Even relatively simple motives such as hunger and thirst are responsive to cognitive factors.
To a hungry rat, food becomes a goal. The rat will make various responses, including arbitrary learned ones or operants, that lead to contact with food. A rat can be trained to do whatever else is necessary (within its capabilities) to attain its goal. It is this flexibility of goal-directed behavior that justifies the concept of motivation. If an animal will do whatever is necessary to obtain food, it must want food. Internal factors then may act by setting the goal status of environmental commodities: the effect of hunger is to make food a goal.
There is a question as to how behavior can be guided by a state or event (goal attainment) that does not yet exist. Modern approaches to this question lean heavily on cognitive concepts. Mammals, birds, and even some insects can represent to themselves a nonexistent state of affairs. They can represent what a goal object is (search images): a chimpanzee may show behavioral signs of surprise if a different food is substituted for the usual one. They can represent where it is (cognitive maps): a digger wasp remembers the location of its nest relative to arbitrary landmarks, and will fly to the wrong place if the landmarks are moved.
If this idea is generalized, motivated behavior can be thought of as guided by a feedback control system with a set point. A set point establishes a goal state which the control system seeks to bring about. Behavior is controlled, not by present external or internal stimuli alone, but by a comparison between the existing state of affairs and a desired state of affairs, that is, the set point or goal, registered or specified within the brain. The animal then acts to reduce the difference between the existing and the desired state of affairs.
This way of looking at motivation helps bridge the gap between simple motives in animals and complex ones in humans. If to be motivated is to do whatever is necessary to bring about an imagined state of affairs, then human motives can literally be as complex, and be projected as far into the future, as human imaginations permit. See also Cognition.
Another approach to motivation comes from ethology, which has formed links with cognitive psychology. The broken-wing display of the piping plover provides an example. If a predator approaches a nest with eggs, the parent bird may behave as if injured (hence easy prey) and thus lead the intruder away from the nest. This action pattern is characteristic of the species and unlearned in its gross topography; yet the bird monitors the intruder's behavior and modulates the display accordingly. It may approach more closely and intensify the display if the intruder is not at first diverted from its path. Thus a species-typical action pattern can be used in ways suggestive of purpose and goal direction: the bird modifies it as necessary to promote the goal of diverting the intruder. See also Ethology.
Motivation and emotion are closely related. Indeed, it has been argued that emotions are the true motivators and that other factors internal, situational, and cognitive take hold of behavior by way of the emotions they evoke. In the simplest case, pleasure and displeasure have been recognized for centuries as having motivational force. In more complex cases, the role of cognitive operations, such as how an individual feels about an event, as well as what is done about it, can depend heavily on how an individual thinks about it.
The culture in which an individual is raised has a powerful effect on how the individual behaves. It has been argued that culture teaches its members what to believe are the consequences of a specific action (cognitive), and how the individuals should feel about those consequences or about the actions themselves (emotional/motivational).
| Business Dictionary: Motivation |
Inner strivings of individuals that direct behavior. Unsatisfied desires create the motivation to act with purposeful behavior to achieve gratification.
| Business Encyclopedia: Motivation |
A simple definition of motivation is the ability to change behavior. It is a drive that compels one to act because human behavior is directed toward some goal. Motivation is intrinsic (internal); it comes from within based on personal interests, desires, and need for fulfillment. However, extrinsic (external) factors such as rewards, praise, and promotions also influence motivation. As defined by Daft (1997), motivation refers to "the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action" (p. 526).
People who are committed to achieving organizational objectives generally outperform those who are not committed. Those who are intrinsically rewarded by accomplishments in the workplace are satisfied with their jobs and are individuals with high self-esteem. Therefore, an important part of management is to help make work more satisfying and rewarding for employees and to keep employee motivation consistent with organizational objectives. With the diversity of contemporary workplaces, this is a complex task. Many factors, including the influences of different cultures, affect what people value and what is rewarding to them.
From a manager's perspective, it is important to understand what prompts people, what influences them, and why they persist in particular actions. Quick (1985) presented these four underlying principles that are important to understanding motivation:
When management was first studied in a scientific way at the turn of the twentieth century, Frederick Winslow Taylor worked to improve productivity in labor situations so important in those days of the developing Industrial Revolution. Taylor developed efficiency measures and incentive systems. When workers were paid more for meeting a standard higher than their normal production, productivity increased dramatically. Therefore, workers seemed to be economically motivated. At this time in history, social issues involved in human behavior were not yet considered. Amore humanistic approach soon developed that has been influencing management ever since.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Elton Mayo and other researchers from Harvard University conducted studies at a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois, to measure productivity. They studied the effects of fatigue, layout, heating, and lighting on productivity. As might be expected when studying lighting, employee productivity levels increased as the illumination level was increased; however, the same effect was noted when the illumination level was decreased. The researchers concluded that the attention paid to the employees was more of a contributing factor to their productivity level than the environmental conditions. The fact that paying attention to workers could improve their behavior was called the Hawthorne effect. As a result of this research, it was evident that employees should be treated in a humane way. These findings started the human relations movement—a change in management thinking and practice that viewed increased worker productivity as grounded in satisfaction of employees' basic needs. [Many years later, it was discovered that the workers in the Hawthorne experimental group had received an increase in income; therefore, money was probably a motivating factor, although it was not recognized as such at the time. (Daft, 1997)].
Motivation theories have continued to evolve and have their roots in behavioral psychology. They provide a way to examine and understand human behavior in a variety of situations. A simple model of motivation is shown in Figure 1.
Ongoing changes in the workplace require that managers give continuous attention to those factors that influence worker behavior and align them with organizational goals. No one theory is appropriate for all people and for all situations. Each individual has his or her own values and differing abilities. In business settings, managers apply motivation theories to influence employees, improve morale, and implement incentive and compensation plans.
The following discussion of motivation theories is grouped according to need, process, and reinforcement theories.
Need Theories
Need theories are based on some of the earliest research in the field of human relations. The premise behind need theories is that if managers can understand the needs that motivate people, then reward systems can be implemented that fulfill those needs and reinforce the appropriate behavior.
Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow, a professor at Brandeis University and a practicing psychologist, developed the hierarchy of needs theory. He identified a set of needs that he prioritized into a hierarchy based on two conclusions (Daft, 1997; McCoy, 1992; Quick, 1985):
The five levels of needs are the following (see Table 1):
Focusing on the needs of retraining for growth and challenge as well as rewards and recognition is important to the quality of work life. Managers can affect the physical, social, and psychological environment in the workplace, and they have a responsibility to help employees fulfill their needs.
ERG Theory In his work, Clayton Alderfer expanded on Maslow's hierarchical theory. He proposed three need categories and suggested that movement between the need levels is not necessarily straightforward. Failure to meet a higher-order need could cause an individual to regress to a lower-order need. These ERG theory categories are:
Motivation-Hygiene Theory Frederick Herzberg, a professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University, studied the attitudes of workers toward their jobs. Herzberg proposed that an individual will be moved to action based on the desire to avoid deprivation. However, this motivation does not provide positive satisfaction because it does not provide a sense of growth. Herzberg's research found that positive job attitudes were associated with a feeling of psychological growth. He thought that people work for two reasons: for financial reasons to avoid physical deprivation, and for achievement because of the happiness and meaning it provides. Herzberg also identified the concept of job enrichment, whereby the responsibilities of a job are changed to provide greater growth and challenge (McCoy, 1992; Quick, 1985 p. 10-12)] 1985. His motivation-hygiene theory includes two types of factors:
Although salary is considered a hygiene factor, it plays an indirect part in motivation as a measure of growth and advancement or as a symbol of recognition of achievement.
Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a social psychologist, was greatly influenced by the work of Maslow. McGregor recognized that people have needs and that those needs are satisfied at work. He described two sets of assumptions about people that he labeled Theory X and Theory Y (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999; Quick, 1985):
These assumptions were, at one time, applied to management styles, with autocratic managers labeled as adhering to Theory X and democratic managers to Theory Y. Unfortunately, this fostered a tendency to see people as members of a group rather than as individuals. The important contribution of McGregor's theory was to recognize these two perspectives and to recognize that people can achieve personal objectives through helping organizations achieve their objectives. Their work can be a motivator.
Acquired Needs Theory David McClelland developed the acquired needs theory because he felt that different needs are acquired throughout an individual's lifetime. He proposed three needs:
McClelland found through his research that early life experiences determine whether people acquire these needs. The need to achieve as an adult is influenced by the reinforcement of be havior received as a child when a child is encour aged to do things independently. If a child is reinforced for warm, human relationships, then the need for affiliation as an adult develops. If a child gains satisfaction from controlling others, then the need for power will be evident as an adult (Daft, 1997).
Process Theories
Process theories help to explain how individuals select particular behaviors and how individuals determine if these behaviors meet their needs. Because these theories involve rational selection, concepts of cognition are employed. Cognition, according to Petri (1996), "is generally used to describe those intellectual or perceptual processes occurring within us when we analyze and interpret both the world around us and our own thoughts and actions (p. 236).
Expectancy Theory Victor Vroom developed the expectancy theory, which suggests that individuals' expectations about their ability to accomplish something will affect their success in accomplishing it. Therefore, this theory is based on cognition—on thought processes that individuals use.
The expectancy theory is based on an individual's effort and performance, as well as the desirability of outcomes associated with high performance. The value of or preference for a particular outcome is called valence. To determine valence, people will ask themselves whether or not they can accomplish a goal, how important is the goal to them (in the immediate as well as the long term), and what course of action will provide the greatest reward. An individual's expectation of actually achieving the outcome is crucial to success, and many factors influence this (Daft, 1997; Quick, 1985).
The expectancy theory can be applied through incentive systems that identify desired outcomes and give all workers the same opportunities to achieve rewards, such as stock ownership or other recognition for achievement.
Equity Theory The equity theory focuses on individuals' perceptions of how fairly they are treated in comparison to others. It was developed by J. Stacy Adams, who found that equity exists when people consider their compensation equal to the compensation of others who perform similar work. People judge equity by comparing inputs (such as education, experience, effort, and ability) to outputs (such as pay, recognition, benefits, and promotion).
When the ratio is out of balance, inequity occurs. And inequitable pay can create an impossible situation when implementing salary and incentive systems. According to Daft (1997), Individuals will work to reduce perceived inequity by doing the following:
When administering compensation and incentive programs, managers must be careful to assure that the rewards are equitable; if programs are not perceived as equitable, then they will not contribute to employee motivation.
Reinforcement Theories
Theories of reinforcement are based not on need but on the relationship between behavior and its consequences. In the workplace, these theories can be applied to change or modify on-the-job behavior through rewards and punishments.
B. F. Skinner, a professor at Harvard, was a highly controversial behavioral psychologist known for his work in operant conditioning and behavior modification. His reinforcement theories take into consideration both motivation and the environment, focusing on stimulus and response relationships. Through his research, Skinner noted that a stimulus will initiate behavior; thus, the stimulus is an antecedent to behavior. The behavior will generate a result; therefore, results are consequences of behavior.
According to McCoy (1992), "The quality of the results will be directly related to the quality and timeliness of the antecedent. The more specific the antecedent is and the closer in time it is to the behavior, the greater will be its effect on the behavior.…The consequences provide feedback to the individual" (p. 34).
If the results are considered positive, then the behavior is positively reinforced. When the behavior is positively reinforced, the individual is more likely to repeat the behavior. People tend to have an intrinsic (internal) need for positive reinforcement. And when a behavior is ignored, the behavior tends to go away or become extinct. The four types of reinforcement are the following (Daft, 1997):
Continuous reinforcement can be effective in the early stages of behavior modification, but partial reinforcement is more commonly used. Reinforcement is most powerful when it is administered immediately.
The appropriateness of a reward depends on the situation. But for managers to apply rewards appropriate for work performance, it is necessary to understand what constitutes a reward. And no single reward will be perceived as positive by all employees. Rewards, however, are important in behavior-based incentive plans because they reward employee behavior that is desirable for the company. According to McCoy (1992), both incentives and recognition provide a reward; however, incentives drive performance while recognition is an after-the-fact display of appreciation for a contribution.
Financial rewards are certainly important in compensation programs. Social recognition provides employees with a sense of self-worth by acknowledging the contributions they have made. This recognition could be given in the form of a ceremony that helps to validate and is an important compensation—and one that probably costs a company very little in relationship to the benefit to employees (McCoy, 1992).
Summary
The application of motivation theories can help managers to create work situations and employee recognition systems that help workers fulfill their needs. As Maslow wrote, "man has a higher nature…and…this higher nature includes the needs for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well" (pp. 244-245).
Some aspects of all jobs may be routine or mundane, but other aspects can be developed to promote job satisfaction and increased productivity. The sharing of responsibility can provide opportunities for growth, renewal, and achievement. This empowerment of workers can heighten employee motivation and improve morale. Both long-term and short-term incentive programs are needed for the employee commitment and effectiveness necessary to achieve organizational objectives. And in all instances, workers must be treated fairly and equitably.
Bibliography
Bruce, Anne, and Pepitone, James S. (1999) Motivating Employees. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Daft, Richard L. (1997). Management, 4th ed. Orlando, Fl.: Harcourt Brace.
Maslow, Abraham H. (1998). Toward a Psychology of Being, 3d ed. New York: Wiley.
McCoy, Thomas J. (1992). Compensation and Motivation: Maximizing Employee Performance with Behavior-Based Incentive Plans. New York: AMACOM, a division of American Management Association.
Petri, Herbert L. (1996). Motivation: Theory, Research, and Applications, 4th ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Quick, Thomas L. (1985). The Manager's Motivation Desk Book. New York: Wiley.
[Article by: PAT R. GRAVES]
| Food and Fitness: motivation |
High motivation is the key to success in any endeavour. It may come from within a person (intrinsic motivation) or from external influences (extrinsic motivation). For example, intrinsic motivation is derived from engaging in exercise for its own sake, for the satisfaction and the sheer enjoyment it brings, and for no external reason. Those who are intrinsically motivated give up less easily and generally achieve higher levels of fitness than those who are solely motivated by external rewards such as praise, money, and trophies.
The motivation to lose weight may also have intrinsic and extrinsic components: the dieter may get a great sense of well being from eating healthily (intrinsic motivation), or may be dieting mainly to acquire a body shape that gains praise and acceptability (extrinsic motivation).
Coaches and trainers recognize the importance of motivation and often adopt special strategies to improve or maintain it. Motivational strategies include providing competition; giving pep talks, praise and constructive criticism; and setting appropriate short-term goals (see goal). In order to train successfully, exercisers must have sufficient motivation to expend time and energy on their training and be able to endure a certain amount of fatigue, boredom, and discomfort. Many coaches adopt the attitude encapsulated in the phrase ‘No pain, no gain!’, but this should not be taken as an exhortation to overtrain and become injured or ill.
| Thesaurus: motivation |
noun
| Antonyms: motivation |
Definition: ambition, inspiration
Antonyms: depression, discouragement
| Dental Dictionary: motivation |
The stimulus, incentive, or inducement to act or react in a certain way. Purposeful human behavior is motivated behavior, which means that either physiologic or social stimuli activate or motivate a person to do something.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: motivation |
For more information on motivation, visit Britannica.com.
| Philosophy Dictionary: motivation |
Philosophically, the perennially fascinating problem is what people ‘really’ want. When people say what they want, or describe the purposes, intentions, emotions or goals they have, are we to believe them? And what are the empirical tests? Radical strategies of interpretation such as psychoanalysis or psychological egoism suppose that we are systematically deceived about our own motivations. But does it make sense to suppose that our own self-interpretations are so generally fallible, or do we have some kind of authority in saying how we are motivated? See also moral motivation.
| Sports Science and Medicine: motivation |
1. The internal state that tends to direct a person's behaviour towards a goal. The person may or may not be conscious of the motivation. It can occur independently of any external stimulus and is not due to fatigue, learning, or maturation. Many psychologists consider that motivation has two dimensions: intensity and direction. Intensity is concerned with the amount of activation and arousal the person has, that is, how much effort is being given to reach a certain goal. Direction is concerned with movement towards a particular goal: psychologists talk about people approaching or avoiding a task and understanding why they do so. In sport, coaches are frequently interested in knowing why a talented youngster will not play a particular sport, or why someone quits a team. Others want to know why some players are so doggedly persistent in playing a sport when they apparently would be better off doing something else. The study of motivation covers these issues.
2. The willingness to persevere with a long and arduous training programme, a desire to excel in competition, and persistence in the face of discomfort and discouragement. See also extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, negative motivation, positive motivation, primary motivation, secondary motivation.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: motivation |
| Education Encyclopedia: Motivation |
This entry consists of the following articles:
Jennifer Henderlong
SELF-REGULATED LEARNING
Paul R. Pintrich
| Quotes About: Motivation |
Quotes:
"Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else; and primarily, morality consists in the motives, that is in the affections."
- Archibald Alexander
"God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"You cannot raise a man up by calling him down."
- William Boetcker
"There are two levers for moving men -- interest and fear."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."
- Harriet Braiker
"Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner."
- Les Brown
See more famous quotes about Motivation
| Wikipedia: Motivation |
| Look up motivation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation may be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, morality, or avoiding mortality.
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Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself - the enjoyment of a puzzle or the love of playing.[1] This form of motivation has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students. Intrinsic motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy [2], and Ryan and Deci's cognitive evaluation theory. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the performer. Money is the most obvious example, but coercion and threat of punishment are also common extrinsic motivations.
In sports, the crowd may cheer on the performer, which may motivate him or her to do well. Trophies are also extrinsic incentives. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity.
Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic incentives sometimes can weaken the motivation as well. In one classic study done by Green & Lepper, children who were lavishly rewarded for drawing with felt-tip pens later showed little interest in playing with the pens again.
The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset of emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according to a more conservative definition (as measured by many intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to certain tasks. Yale School of Management professor Victor Vroom's "expectancy theory" provides an account of when people will decide whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.
Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that activates behaviour that is aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are thought to originate within the individual and may not require external stimuli to encourage the behaviour. Basic drives could be sparked by deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to seek food; whereas more subtle drives might be the desire for praise and approval, which motivates a person to behave in a manner pleasing to others.
By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in the example of training animals by giving them treats when they perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform the trick consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the process.
A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of an action (i.e. behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to occur again. This is done by associating positive meaning to the behavior. Studies show that if the person receives the reward immediately, the effect would be greater, and decreases as duration lengthens. Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action to become habit. Motivation comes from two sources: oneself, and other people. These two sources are called intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, respectively.
Applying proper motivational techniques can be much harder than it seems. Steven Kerr notes that when creating a reward system, it can be easy to reward A, while hoping for B, and in the process, reap harmful effects that can jeopardize your goals.[3]
A reinforcer is different from reward, in that reinforcement is intended to create a measured increase in the rate of a desirable behavior following the addition of something to the environment.
There are a number of drive theories. The Drive Reduction Theory grows out of the concept that we have certain biological drives, such as hunger. As time passes the strength of the drive increases if it is not satisfied (in this case by eating). Upon satisfying a drive the drive's strength is reduced. The theory is based on diverse ideas from the theories of Freud to the ideas of feedback control systems, such as a thermostat.
Drive theory has some intuitive or folk validity. For instance when preparing food, the drive model appears to be compatible with sensations of rising hunger as the food is prepared, and, after the food has been consumed, a decrease in subjective hunger. There are several problems, however, that leave the validity of drive reduction open for debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how secondary reinforcers reduce drive. For example, money satisfies no biological or psychological needs, but a pay check appears to reduce drive through second-order conditioning. Secondly, a drive, such as hunger, is viewed as having a "desire" to eat, making the drive a homuncular being - a feature criticized as simply moving the fundamental problem behind this "small man" and his desires.
In addition, it is clear that drive reduction theory cannot be a complete theory of behavior, or a hungry human could not prepare a meal without eating the food before they finished cooking it. The ability of drive theory to cope with all kinds of behavior, from not satisfying a drive (by adding on other traits such as restraint), or adding additional drives for "tasty" food, which combine with drives for "food" in order to explain cooking render it hard to test.
Suggested by Leon Festinger, this occurs when an individual experiences some degree of discomfort resulting from an incompatibility between two cognitions. For example, a consumer may seek to reassure himself regarding a purchase, feeling, in retrospect, that another decision may have been preferable.
Another example of cognitive dissonance is when a belief and a behavior are in conflict. A person may wish to be healthy, believes smoking is bad for one's health, and yet continues to smoke.
Abraham Maslow's theory is one of the most widely discussed theories of motivation.
The theory can be summarized as follows:
The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex (highest-latest) are as follows:
Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, aka intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, but if absent, lead to dissatisfaction.
The factors that motivate people can change over their lifetime, but "respect for me as a person" is one of the top motivating factors at any stage of life.
He distinguished between:
The name Hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence will not make you healthier, but absence can cause health deterioration.
The theory is sometimes called the "Motivator-Hygiene Theory."
Herzberg's theory has found application in such occupational fields as information systems and in studies of user satisfaction (see Computer user satisfaction).
Clayton Alderfer, expanding on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, created the ERG theory (existence, relatedness and growth). Physiological and safety, the lower order needs, are placed in the existence category, while love and self esteem needs are placed in the relatedness category. The growth category contains our self-actualization and self-esteem needs.
Self-determination theory, developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, focuses on the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving human behavior. Like Maslow's hierarchical theory and others that built on it, SDT posits a natural tendency toward growth and development. Unlike these other theories, however, SDT does not include any sort of "autopilot" for achievement, but instead requires active encouragement from the environment. The primary factors that encourage motivation and development are autonomy, competence feedback, and relatedness.[4]
The latest approach in Achievement Motivation is an integrative perspective as lined out in the "Onion-Ring-Model of Achievement Motivation" by Heinz Schuler, George C. Thornton III, Andreas Frintrup and Rose Mueller-Hanson. It is based on the premise that performance motivation results from way broad components of personality are directed towards performance. As a result, it includes a range of dimensions that are relevant to success at work but which are not conventionally regarded as being part of performance motivation. Especially it integrates formerly separated approaches as Need for Achievement with e.g. social motives like Dominance. The Achievement Motivation Inventory AMI (Schuler, Thornton, Frintrup & Mueller-Hanson, 2003) is based on this theory and assesses three factors (17 separated scales) relevant to vocational and professional success.
Goal theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes have a drive to reach a clearly defined end state. Often, this end state is a reward in itself. A goal's efficiency is affected by three features: proximity, difficulty and specificity. An ideal goal should present a situation where the time between the initiation of behavior and the end state is close. This explains why some children are more motivated to learn how to ride a bike than mastering algebra. A goal should be moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most people are not optimally motivated, as many want a challenge (which assumes some kind of insecurity of success). At the same time people want to feel that there is a substantial probability that they will succeed. Specificity concerns the description of the goal in their class. The goal should be objectively defined and intelligible for the individual. A classic example of a poorly specified goal is to get the highest possible grade. Most children have no idea how much effort they need to reach that goal. [5]
Douglas Vermeeren, has done extensive research into why many people fail to get to their goals. The failure is directly attributed to motivating factors. Vermeeren states that unless an individual can clearly identify their motivating factor or their significant and meaningful reasons why they wish to attain the goal, they will never have the power to attain it.
Social-cognitive models of behavior change include the constructs of motivation and volition. Motivation is seen as a process that leads to the forming of behavioral intentions. Volition is seen as a process that leads from intention to actual behavior. In other words, motivation and volition refer to goal setting and goal pursuit, respectively. Both processes require self-regulatory efforts. Several self-regulatory constructs are needed to operate in orchestration to attain goals. An example of such a motivational and volitional construct is perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is supposed to facilitate the forming of behavioral intentions, the development of action plans, and the initiation of action. It can support the translation of intentions into action.
Some psychologists believe that a significant portion of human behavior is energized and directed by unconscious motives. According to Maslow, "Psychoanalysis has often demonstrated that the relationship between a conscious desire and the ultimate unconscious aim that underlies it need not be at all direct [6]." In other words, stated motives do not always match those inferred by skilled observers. For example, it is possible that a person can be accident-prone because he has an unconscious desire to hurt himself and not because he is careless or ignorant of the safety rules. Similarly, some overweight people are not hungry at all for food but for fighting and kissing. Eating is merely a defensive reaction to lack of attention. Some workers damage more equipment than others do because they harbor unconscious feelings of aggression toward authority figures.
Psychotherapists point out that some behavior is so automatic that the reasons for it are not available in the individual's conscious mind. Compulsive cigarette smoking is an example. Sometimes maintaining self-esteem is so important and the motive for an activity is so threatening that it is simply not recognized and, in fact, may be disguised or repressed. Rationalization, or "explaining away", is one such disguise, or defense mechanism, as it is called. Another is projecting or attributing one's own faults to others. "I feel I am to blame", becomes "It is her fault; she is selfish". Repression of powerful but socially unacceptable motives may result in outward behavior that is the opposite of the repressed tendencies. An example of this would be the employee who hates his boss but overworks himself on the job to show that he holds him in high regard.
Unconscious motives add to the hazards of interpreting human behavior and, to the extent that they are present, complicate the life of the administrator. On the other hand, knowledge that unconscious motives exist can lead to a more careful assessment of behavioral problems. Although few contemporary psychologists deny the existence of unconscious factors, many do believe that these are activated only in times of anxiety and stress, and that in the ordinary course of events, human behavior — from the subject's point of view — is rationally purposeful.
Starting from studies involving more than 6,000 people, Professor Steven Reiss has proposed a theory that find 16 basic desires that guide nearly all human behavior. [7] [8]
The desires are:
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In this model, people differ in these basic desires. These basic desires represent intrinsic desires that directly motivate a person's behavior, and not aimed at indirectly satisfying other desires. People may also be motivated by non-basic desires, but in this case this does not relate to deep motivation, or only as a means to achieve other basic desires.
The control of motivation is only understood to a limited extent. There are many different approaches of motivation training, but many of these are considered pseudoscientific by critics. To understand how to control motivation it is first necessary to understand why many people lack motivation.
Modern imaging has provided solid empirical support for the psychological theory that emotional programming is largely defined in childhood. Harold Chugani, Medical Director of the PET Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Michigan and professor of pediatrics, neurology and radiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, has found that children's brains are much more capable of consuming new information (linked to emotions) than those of adults. Brain activity in cortical regions is about twice as high in children as in adults from the third to the ninth year of life. After that period, it declines constantly to the low levels of adulthood. Brain volume, on the other hand, is already at about 95% of adult levels in the ninth year of life.
Besides the very direct approaches to motivation, beginning in early life, there are solutions which are more abstract but perhaps nevertheless more practical for self-motivation. Virtually every motivation guidebook includes at least one chapter about the proper organization of one's tasks and goals. It is usually suggested that it is critical to maintain a list of tasks, with a distinction between those which are completed and those which are not, thereby moving some of the required motivation for their completion from the tasks themselves into a "meta-task", namely the processing of the tasks in the task list, which can become a routine. The viewing of the list of completed tasks may also be considered motivating, as it can create a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
Most electronic to-do lists have this basic functionality, although the distinction between completed and non-completed tasks is not always clear (completed tasks are sometimes simply deleted, instead of kept in a separate list).
Other forms of information organization may also be motivational, such as the use of mind maps to organize one's ideas, and thereby "train" the neural network that is the human brain to focus on the given task. Simpler forms of idea notation such as simple bullet-point style lists may also be sufficient, or even more useful to less visually oriented persons.
Workers in any organization need something to keep them working. Most times the salary of the employee is enough to keep him or her working for an organization. However, sometimes just working for salary is not enough for employees to stay at an organization. An employee must be motivated to work for a company or organization. If no motivation is present in an employee, then that employee’s quality of work or all work in general will deteriorate.
Keeping an employee working at full potential is the ultimate goal of employee motivation. There are many methods to help keep employees motivated. Some traditional ways or motivating workers are placing them in competition with each other. Friendly competition is a great way to generate motivation [1] among employees. This gives a chance for employees to flex their working skills in a competition against their peers. This not only will motivate employees with a result of greater production. But the competition with recorded results will give the employer and idea of who is being most productive.
Some authors, especially in the transhumanist movement, have suggested the use of "smart drugs", also known as nootropics, as "motivation-enhancers". The effects of many of these drugs on the brain are emphatically not well understood, and their legal status often makes open experimentation difficult.[citation needed]
Motivation is of particular interest to Educational psychologists because of the crucial role it plays in student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the specialized setting of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of motivation studied by psychologists in other fields.
Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and how they behave towards subject matter[9]. It can:
Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates.
There are two kinds of motivation:
Note also that there is already questioning and expansion about this dichotomy on motivation, e.g., Self-Determination Theory.
Motivation has been found to be a pivotal area in treating Autism Spectrum Disorders, as in Pivotal Response Therapy.
Motivation is also an important element in the concept of Andragogy (what motivates the adult learner).
Sudbury Model schools adduce that the cure to the problem of procrastination, of learning in general, and particularly of scientific illiteracy is to remove once and for all what they call the underlying disease: compulsion in schools. They contend that human nature in a free society recoils from every attempt to force it into a mold; that the more requirements we pile onto children at school, the surer we are to drive them away from the material we are trying to force down their throats; that after all the drive and motivation of infants to master the world around them is legendary. They assert that schools must keep that drive alive by doing what some of them do: nurturing it on the freedom it needs to thrive.[10]
Sudbury Model schools do not perform and do not offer evaluations, assessments, transcripts, or recommendations, asserting that they do not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long learning and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st Century, they adduce.[11] According to Sudbury Model schools, this policy does not cause harm to their students as they move on to life outside the school. However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but that such hardship is part of the students learning to make their own way, set their own standards and meet their own goals. The no-grading and no-rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition among students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a positive co-operative environment amongst the student body.[12]
At lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, such as Physiological needs, money is a motivator, however it tends to have a motivating effect on staff that lasts only for a short period (in accordance with Herzberg's two-factor model of motivation). At higher levels of the hierarchy, praise, respect, recognition, empowerment and a sense of belonging are far more powerful motivators than money, as both Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation and Douglas McGregor's Theory X and theory Y (pertaining to the theory of leadership) demonstrate.
Maslow has money at the lowest level of the hierarchy and shows other needs are better motivators to staff. McGregor places money in his Theory X category and feels it is a poor motivator. Praise and recognition are placed in the Theory Y category and are considered stronger motivators than money.
The average workplace is about midway between the extremes of high threat and high opportunity. Motivation by threat is a dead-end strategy, and naturally staff are more attracted to the opportunity side of the motivation curve than the threat side. Motivation is a powerful tool in the work environment that can lead to employees working at their most efficient levels of production. [13]
Nonetheless, Steinmertz also discusses three common character types of subordinates: ascendant, indifferent, and ambivalent whom all react and interact uniquely, and must be treated, managed, and motivated accordingly. An effective leader must understand how to manage all characters, and more importantly the manager must utilize avenues that allow room for employees to work, grow, and find answers independently.[14]
The assumptions of Maslow and Herzberg were challenged by a classic study[15] at Vauxhall Motors' UK manufacturing plant. This introduced the concept of orientation to work and distinguished three main orientations: instrumental (where work is a means to an end), bureaucratic (where work is a source of status, security and immediate reward) and solidaristic (which prioritises group loyalty).
Other theories which expanded and extended those of Maslow and Herzberg included Kurt Lewin's Force Field Theory, Edwin Locke's Goal Theory and Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory. These tend to stress cultural differences and the fact that individuals tend to be motivated by different factors at different times.[16]
According to the system of scientific management developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, a worker's motivation is solely determined by pay, and therefore management need not consider psychological or social aspects of work. In essence, scientific management bases human motivation wholly on extrinsic rewards and discards the idea of intrinsic rewards.
In contrast, David McClelland believed that workers could not be motivated by the mere need for money — in fact, extrinsic motivation (e.g., money) could extinguish intrinsic motivation such as achievement motivation, though money could be used as an indicator of success for various motives, e.g., keeping score. In keeping with this view, his consulting firm, McBer & Company, had as its first motto "To make everyone productive, happy, and free." For McClelland, satisfaction lay in aligning a person's life with their fundamental motivations.
Elton Mayo found out that the social contacts a worker has at the workplace are very important and that boredom and repetitiveness of tasks lead to reduced motivation. Mayo believed that workers could be motivated by acknowledging their social needs and making them feel important. As a result, employees were given freedom to make decisions on the job and greater attention was paid to informal work groups. Mayo named the model the Hawthorne effect. His model has been judged as placing undue reliance on social contacts at work situations for motivating employees.[17]
In Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Robbins and Judge examine recognition programs as motivators, and identify five principles that contribute to the success of an employee incentive program:[18]
Motivation to participate and contribute represents one of the most important element in the success of online communities (and virtual communities).
See more at: Online participation
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| Translations: Motivation |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - motivation
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
motivatie, motivering
Français (French)
n. - motivation, motif
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Motivation, Motivierung
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κίνητρο, ελατήριο, παρακίνηση
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
motivazione
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - motivação (f)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
побуждение, мотивировка
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - motivación, motivo
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - motivering
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
动机, 推动, 刺激
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 動機, 推動, 刺激
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 刺激, 誘導, 動機づけ
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) دافع, حافز
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - דחף, מניע, הנעה, אתנע, מוטיבציה
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