Motivation

What is Motivation?

Motivation is defined as the feeling based on which a person acts or behaves regarding a
particular task or activity. Motivation is a human psychology factor which drives or pushes a
person to behave in a particular way. When the motivation is positive, a person is happy,
energetic, enthusiastic & self-driven and when it is negative motivation, person is demoralized,
sad, lethargic & pessimistic.

Importance of Motivation

 It is an important psychological factor for any individual as it defines the work, ambition
and drive of that person to do any work.
 A person with high levels of motivation is motivated to do good quality work, help
others, spread their energy and focus on achieving goals. On the contrary, a person with
low levels of motivation, demotivates others, works shabbily and creates a negative
atmosphere.
 It is an important human factor in an individual’s personal as well as professional life.
 Positive motivation for people is required in every field like business, sports, politics,
entrepreneurship etc.
 It is the desire of an individual to work towards a motive, which is a certain task.
 In business, good motivation helps employees learn important managerial skills like
leadership, team management, time management, decision making, communication etc.

Types of Motivation

It is driven by several factors which influences the behavior and attitude of an individual. Based
on the different factors and the kind of impact it has on a person, there are different types of
motivation. The different types of motivation in people are:

1. Intrinsic: This type comes from within a person to do a task or achieve a particular goal.
It is a feeling of being self-driven and achieving objectives for oneself. Intrinsic
motivation is driven by motives like social acceptance, eating food, desires to achieve
goals, biological needs etc.
2. Extrinsic: This type drives an individual due to external forces or parameters. Some other
person or organization motivates the individual to work hard to achieve certain goals or
tasks. Extrinsic motivation is driven by motives like financial bonus, rewards,
appreciation, promotion, punishment, demotion etc.
3. Positive: This type drives an individual by offering positive accolades and rewards for
performing a task. In this type of motivation, the individual is rewarded by monetary
benefits, promotions etc which drives an individual to work hard.
 4. Negative: is where fear and threat are used as a parameter to get the work done. In this
type of motivation, individuals are threatened with things like demotion, reducing
benefits, withdrawing merits etc. For every individual, all the types are interlinked based
on which he or she takes an action. The resultant behavior of any person is basis the
motivation types he or she has been influenced by.

Factors influencing motivation

Keeping employees motivated is the biggest challenge for companies for ensuring that they give
a high productive output at work and help in achieving company goals. A positive motivation
amongst employees helps drive the business positively & enhances creativity. On the other hand,
a demotivated employee will not contribute efficiently and slowdown progress at workplace. The
key elements & top factors which influence employees in business or people in general are as
follows:
1. Salary: Monetary compensation & benefits like gross salary, perks, performance bonuses
etc are the biggest motivation factors. The better the salary and monetary benefits, the
higher is the motivation level & passion of a person towards a job.
2. Recognition: Rewards, recognition, accolades etc are important for ensuring high
enthusiasm levels for an employee. If the hard work of an individual is appreciated, it
keeps them motivated to perform better.
3. Work Ethics: Ethical working environment, honesty etc are important factors for any
individual. Good work ethics in a company helps keep employees motivated at work
place.
4. Transparency with Leadership: The leadership in an organization helps in employee
motivation if there are transparent discussion and flatter hierarchies. The senior
management has to ensure that all subordinates are happy, focused & motivated.
5. Culture at Work: A good, vibrant, positive culture at workplace is always an important
factor. People from different backgrounds, religions, countries etc working together helps
create a social bond at workplace.
6. Learning and Development: Another factor influencing is the training and development
opportunities that a person gets. L&D helps individuals develop more skills and have
better opportunities in their professional career.
7. Work Life Balance: Having a good quality of work life (QWL) helps in the motivation of
people. A good work life balance ensures that a person can give quality time to both
office work as well as family.
8. Career Growth Opportunities: Career development opportunities have a positive
influence on the motivation of any person. If a person knows their future & career path is
secure, they tend to work with more passion.
9. Health Benefits: Health benefits, insurance & other incentives act as a source of
motivation for people. If the medical bills, hospitalization charges etc are taken care of by
the company, it helps build a strong trust.
10. Communication: A positive & transparent communication between managers and
subordinates gives a sense of belonging and adds to the employee’s motivation.
Discussion related to work as well as personal life help make a friendly bond at
workplace.
Advantages of Motivation
There are several advantages of an employee being motivated at work. Some of the main benefits
of motivation for employees and companies are as follows:
1. Feeling of belongingness and self-respect.
2. A motivated employee is excited to learn and contribute more.
3. Higher productive output due to positive motivation.
4. Reduced absenteeism and lower attrition.
5. Employees high on motivation help reduce costs & improve profits.
6. Reduce stress & anxiety at workplace.

Disadvantages of Motivation
Despite several advantages, there are some probable drawbacks as well. Some of them are:
1. It is a relative feeling and hence there is no way of ensuring that everyone would feel the
same way.
2. Motivating employees in a company requires additional efforts, money and time on
employee related activities.
3. It among people is mostly a short-term feeling. Afterwards a person become demotivated
or even uninterested about a particular task.

Examples of Motivation
Motivation is relevant in every field of life for any individual. There can be many examples
based on type, situation, field of work etc. Some examples are as follows.
1. Consider a person who has joined a university. After a lot of hard work, he or she gets
admission in their preferred course. Hence the intrinsic motivation for the individual would be
perform well in academics, get a good score, learn new skills and get a job opportunity with a
good company. Since this is an internal feeling, the driving motives are achieving a personal
goal.
2. An example of extrinsic motivation can be seen from a footballer, cricketer or any other
sportsperson. Any sportsperson wants to excel in their sport not only for themselves but to also
become a crowd favorite and get their attention. Hence, he or she gets highly motivated by this
external factor which drives them to perform better in their sport.
The Motivation Process
In its simplest form, the motivation process begins with a need; an individual’s
perception of a deficiency .For instance, an employee might feel the need for more challenging
work, for higher pay, for time off, or for the respect and admiration of colleagues. These needs
lead to thought processes that guide an employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a
particular course of action. If an employee’s chosen course of action results in the anticipated out
come and reward, that person is likely to be motivated by the prospect of a similar reward to act
the same way in the future. However, if the employee’s action does not result in the expected
reward, he or she is unlikely to repeat the behavior. Thus, the reward acts as feedback
mechanism to help the individual evaluate the consequences of the behavior when considering
futures action.

Core Phases of the Motivational Process:

1. Need Identification: First phase of motivation process is need identification where the
employee feels his/her some unsatisfied need. The motivation process begins with an
unsatisfied need, which creates tension and drives an individual to search for goals that, if
attained, will satisfy the need and reduce the tension.
2. Searching Ways to satisfy needs: Second phase is finding the different alternatives that
can be used to satisfy the needs, which were felt in first stage. These needs lead to
thought processes that guide an employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a
particular course of action.
3. Selecting Goals: Once if the need is assessed and employee is able to find out the way to
satisfy the need than next phase is selection of goals to be performed.
4. Employee Performance: These needs lead to thought processes that guide an
employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a particular course of action in form of
performance.
5. Consequences of performance Reward/punishments: If an employee’s chosen course
of action results in the anticipated out come and reward, that person is likely to be
motivated by the prospect of a similar reward to act the same way in the future. However,
if the employee’s action does not result in the expected reward, he or she is unlikely to
repeat the behavior
6. Reassessment of Need deficiencies: Once felt need is satisfied through certain rewards
in response to performance than employee reassesses any deficiencies and entire process
is repeated again.
Motivational Theories

Motivation theories seek to explain why employees are motivated by and satisfied with one type
of work than another. It is essential that mangers have a basic understanding of work motivation
because highly motivated employees are more likely to produce a superior quality product or
service than employee who lack motivation.
Motivational Theories are:
1. Maslow – hierarchy of needs.
2. Alderfer – ERG theory: Existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs.
3. McClelland – Need for achievement, affiliation and power.
4. Herzberg – Two factor theory.
5. Skinner's reinforcement theory.
6. Vroom's expectancy theory.
7. Adams' equity theory.
8. Locke's goal-setting theory.

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy

Abraham Maslow organized five major types of human needs into a hierarchy, as shown in
Figure. The need hierarchy illustrates Maslow’s conception of people satisfying their needs in a
specified order, from bottom to top. The needs, in ascending order, are:

1. Physiological (food, water,and shelter.)

2. Safety or security (protection against threat and deprivation)
3. Social (friendship, affection, belonging, and love)
4. Ego (independence, achievement, freedom, status, recognition, and self- esteem)
5. Self-actualization (realizing one’s full potential; becoming everything one is capable of
being.)

According to Maslow, people are motivated to satisfy the lower needs before they try to satisfy
the higher need. Also, once a need is satisfied it is no longer a powerful motivator. Maslow’s
hierarchy, however, is a simplistic and not altogether accurate theory of human motivation. For
example, not everyone progresses through the five needs in hierarchical order. But Maslow
makes three important contributions. First, he identifies important need categories, which can
help managers create effective positive rein forcers. Second, it is helpful to think of two general
levels of needs, in which lower-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become
important. Third, Maslow sensitized managers to the importance of personal growth and self-
actualization. Self-actualization is the best-known concept arising from this theory. According to
Maslow, the average person is only 10 percent self-actualized. In other words, most of us are
living our lives and working at our lives and working at our jobs with a large untapped reservoir
of potential. The implication is clear: Create a work environment that provides training,
resources, gives people a chance to use their skills and abilities in creative ways and allows them
to use their skills and abilities kin creative ways and allows them to achieve more of their full
potential.
 Productivity and Motivation

It is necessary for motivation of the workers in organization to be enhanced in order to

increase productivity. Productivity literally means the rate of power to produce, but productivity
from the management or economic point of view is the ratio of what is produced to what is
required to produce it.

The general assumption is that an adequately motivated worker will in turn give in his or
her best towards the attainment of a general goal. Consequently when a worker is motivated the
question of poor performance and inefficiency will be forgotten issue in an organization. Eg -A
good number of workers are adequately paid in their jobs so as to work hard and achieve high
performance or productivity.
Job Satisfaction + Motivation = Productivity

The Effect of Motivation on Employee Productivity

Motivated employees are inclined to be more productive than non-motivated employees.

Motivation and productivity have direct relationship. Higher the motivation of employees leads
to higher productivity and lower the motivation of an employee leads to low productivity.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PRODUCITIVTY

1. MOTIVATED EMPLOYEES ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE : If employee will be satisfied

and happy then he/she will do his /her work in a very impressive way, and then the result
will be good, on the other hand motivated employee will motivate other employees in
office.
2. DECISION-MAKING AND PRACTICAL EXPECTATIONS: It is important to engage
employees in the decision-making process, but create realistic expectations in the
process.
3. JOB DESCRIPTION AND WORK ENVIRONMENT: Employee doing the right job for
his personality and skill set, and performing well at the job greatly increases employee
motivation and satisfaction; A safe and non-threatening work environment is necessary to
maintain a high level of employee motivation.
4. PAY AND BENEFITS: Employees must be entitled to good pay and benefits because
these attract the best workers, keep those workers happy and motivated leading to
increased productivity
5. COMPANY CULTURE: Creating a positive and employee-friendly company culture is a
great motivational tool which will eventually lead to increased productivity.