Introduction

Man is goal-oriented and his behavior is motivated by a desire to attain some

goal. To predict behavior, a manager, a manager must know what motivates
people. Keith dais says, “There are no simple, cookbook formulas for
working with people. “ Motivation is a basic element of all human behavior.
Motivation explains why some people work better and others perform
poorly. Allen had said, “Poorly motivated people can nullify the soundest
organization.” The primary task of managers is knowing” what leads people
to do things, what motivates them. “Likert also regards motivation as the
core of management. Today, a worker is not a “small cog in the wheel” who
is motivated only by money, but is mainspring of the concern motivated by
challenges, achievements and responsibilities.

What is Motivation?

The term motivation derives from the Latin word movere, which means
“to move.” Thus, motives are movers or goods to action. Motivation is the
process by which behavior is mobilized and sustained in a particular
direction. It is in fact impossible to determine a person’s motivation until he
behaves or acts.

Motivation is a general term which applies to the entire class of drives,

needs desires, and similar forces. To understand the motivating situation, its
components should be explained. It involves the following factors-

1. Motives- These are needs, wants, drives, or impulses opening within

the man. Motives are “whys”, of behavior. The initiate activity and
determine the direction of the behavior.

2. Goals- These are outside the individual and often called incentives or

rewards.

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3. Goal –directed activity- It is a motivated behavior directed at

reaching a goal. Or, there may be goal activity which means engaging
in the goal itself.

Thus, the motive along with goal products behavior which may be either
goal- directed or goal activity. The relationship between motives, goals,
and activity in a motivating situation is shown:-

Activity
Directed
Goal
Motive
(Hunger)

Behaviour

food)
(Eating
Activity
Goal
Goal
(Food)

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Definitions

1. In the words MC Farland , ‘ Motivation refers to the way in the

which urges drives, desired, aspirations, strivings, or needs
influence the choice of alternatives in the behaviour of human
beings.”
2. According to M.R. Jones, “Motivation is concerned with how
behaviour gets started, is started is energized, is sustained, is
directed, is stopped and what kind of subjective reaction is present
in the organism while all this is going on.”
3. In the words of Craig Pinder, “Work motivation is a set of
energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an
individual’s being, to intimate work related behaviour, and to
determine its form, direction intensity and duration.”
4. According to Stanley Vance, Motivation implies “ any emotion or
desire which so conditions one’s will that individual is propelled
into action”
5. Breach defines motivation “as willingness to expand energy to
achieve a goal or a reward.”

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Nature or Characteristics of Motivation

The following key points illustrate the nature of motivation-

1. Energetic force O – Motivation energizes, directs and sustain human

behaviour. It is the activation and direction of energy. It is a desire
and enthusiasm to act. David Hold says “This force can originate
“Within’ or “beyond” an individual”. It is an urge to accomplish a
task.

2. An Internal feeling- Motivation is maintain psychological . It relates

to those forces operating within individuals that impels them to act in
certain ways. It is related with needs, drives, desire, tensions and
motives, which are mental states.

3. Goal-directed behaviour- Shartle says, “Motivation is a reported urge

or tension to move in a given direction to achieve a certain goal.” It
harnesses human energy to organizational requirements.

4. Either positive or negative – Motivation can be either positive or

negative. Positive motivation is based on rewards such as pay, praise,
pride, participation, etc. Negative motivation uses punishment. It is
based on force of fear. Depending on the situation, each type has its
place in organization.

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5. Person in totality, not in part, is motivated- Each employee is a self-
contained and inseparable unit and his all needs are interrelated. He
can be motivated with totals zeal and enthusiasm.

6. Individuals differ in their motivation- A man has variety of needs and

desired. He has different motives. As a result, man is motivated by
different factors.

7. Motivation is not always conscious and visible- Freud uncovered this

fact that mans mind is like iceberg. Only a small part is conscious and
visible. This explains why man cannot always verbalize his
motivation to achieve certain goals.

8. Motivation change – Motivations of each individual change from time

to time as one need is satisfied, it is replaced by other unsatisfied
need. People are beings who want whose wants influence their
behaviour.

9. Process- oriented- M.R. Jones says that motivation is process oriented

and concerns behavioral choice, direction, goals, and the rewards
received for performing.

10.Individual Phenomenon- Motivation is highly individualistic. No

Two people are alike. Different people, having different need,
aspirations, and backgrounds, rank the things differently. Thus,

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 management’s role is to create a work climate in which persons with
different needs and personalities can remain motivated.

11.More than mere techniques – Motivation is more inclusive than the

mere application of specific techniques to increase output,. In fact. It
is a philosophy, or way of life, founded on the needs and desires of
employees.

12.Complex process- Motivation is a complex process. It is difficult to

explain and predict and the behaviour of employees. In order to
motivate people, a manager has to understand and satisfy multiplicity
of human needs. It is complex due to the following reasons-
• Motive is hypothetical construct, it cannot be seen.
• Individuals may have a host of needs that are changing
continuously sometimes in conflict with each other.
• People satisfy their needs in different ways.
• Goal-directed behaviour does not always lead to need
satisfaction.
• Motivations are expressed does not always lead to need
satisfaction.
• Motivations are expressed differently. The ways in which needs
are translated into action also vary considerably.

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Process of Motivation

The motivational process may be described as circular, because it is

repeated in a circle. It is diagram and involves the following steps-

1. Need Deficiencies- Needs a deficiency within a man. It

Provides The spark which begins the sequence of behaviour. An
unsatisfied need causes physical or psychological tension within
the individual. It is an energizer or trigger or behavioural
responses.

2. Search of means- People seek means to reduce need

deficiencies and thereby reduce the tension.

3. Goal the behaviour- Their activity is directed towards a

goal. They select a course of action and , thus outcome-directed
behaviour occurs.

4. Assessment- After a period of time, managers assess that

behaviour.They evaluate the goals accomplished.

5. Rewards or punishments- the performance evaluation

results in some type of reward or punishment. Manager offers
something valuable to the person for good work. On the other

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 hand, he provides negative motivation, if performance is
unacceptable.

6. Re-evaluation of situation- The process is completed

when the person weighs the outcomes and re-evaluates the need
deficiencies. He evaluates the extent of satisfaction obtained and
makes decisions about the behaviour that is to follow. Discovery of
new needs also starts and this, in turn, triggers the process. Thus
the circular pattern is started once again.

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 Need
Need deficiencies
Deficiencies reassessed by
(1) the employee
(6)

Search for
Rewards or
ways to The
Punishments
satisfy needs Employee
(5)
(2)

Goal- Peroformance
directed (evaluation of
behaviour goals
(3) accomplished)
(4)

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Objective of motivation

The primary purposes of motivation in an organization are as follows :

1. To stimulate employees to perform effectively.

2. To channelise behaviour into a specific course.
3. To understand individuals motives, needs, aspirations.
4. To encourage employees to stay with the organization.
5. To predict, to change and even to control future behaviour.
6. To create enthusiasm, initative, and loyalty.
7. To direct and sustain behaviour towards the accomplishment of
organizational goals.
8. To effectively utilize the resources- financial, physical and human
of the organization.
9. To raise the morale and level of satisfaction of employee.
10.To build good human relations and team work.

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General Principle of Motivation

Basic principles of motivation exist that are applicable to learning in any

situation.

1. The environment can be used to focus the student's attention on

what needs to be learned.

Teachers who create warm and accepting yet business-like

atmospheres will promote persistent effort and favorable attitudes
toward learning. This strategy will be successful in children and in
adults. Interesting visual aids, such as booklets, posters, or practice
equipment, motivate learners by capturing their attention and
curiosity.

2. Incentives motivate learning.

Incentives include privileges and receiving praise from the instructor.

The instructor determines an incentive that is likely to motivate an
individual at a particular time. In a general learning situation, self-
motivation without rewards will not succeed. Students must find
satisfaction in learning based on the understanding that the goals are
useful to them or, less commonly, based on the pure enjoyment of
exploring new things.

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3. Internal motivation is longer lasting and more self-directive than

is external motivation, which must be repeatedly reinforced by

praise or concrete rewards.

Some individuals -- particularly children of certain ages and some

adults -- have little capacity for internal motivation and must be
guided and reinforced constantly. The use of incentives is based on
the principle that learning occurs more effectively when the student
experiences feelings of satisfaction. Caution should be exercised in
using external rewards when they are not absolutely necessary. Their
use may be followed by a decline in internal motivation.

4. Learning is most effective when an individual is ready to learn,

that is, when one wants to know something.

Sometimes the student's readiness to learn comes with time, and the
instructor's role is to encourage its development. If a desired change in
behavior is urgent, the instructor may need to supervised directly to
ensure that the desired behavior occurs. If a student is not ready to
learn, he or she may not be reliable in following instructions and
therefore must be supervised and have the instructions repeated again
and again.

5. Motivation is enhanced by the way in which the instructional

material is organized.

In general, the best organized material makes the information

meaningful to the individual. One method of organization includes
relating new tasks to those already known. Other ways to relay

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 meaning are to determine whether the persons being taught
understand the final outcome desired and instruct them to compare
and contrast ideas.

None of the techniques will produce sustained motivation unless the goals
are realistic for the learner. The basic learning principle involved is that
success is more predictably motivating than is failure. Ordinarily, people
will choose activities of intermediate uncertainty rather than those that are
difficult (little likelihood of success) or easy (high probability of success).
For goals of high value there are fewer tendencies to choose more difficult
conditions. Having learners assist in defining goals increases the probability
that they will understand them and want to reach them. However, students
sometimes have unrealistic notions about what they can accomplish.
Possibly they do not understand the precision with which a skill must be
carried out or have the depth of knowledge to master some material. To
identify realistic goals, instructors must be skilled in assessing a student's
readiness or a student's progress toward goals.

1. Because learning requires changed in beliefs and behavior, it

normally produces a mild level of anxiety.

This is useful in motivating the individual. However, severe anxiety is

incapacitating. A high degree of stress is inherent in some educational
situations. If anxiety is severe, the individual's perception of what is
going on around him or her is limited. Instructors must be able to
identify anxiety and understand its effect on learning. They also have
a responsibility to avoid causing severe anxiety in learners by setting
ambiguous of unrealistically high goals for them.

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2. It is important to help each student set goals and to provide

informative feedback regarding progress toward the goals.

Setting a goal demonstrates an intention to achieve and activates

learning from one day to the next. It also directs the student's activities
toward the goal and offers an opportunity to experience success.

3. Both affiliation and approval are strong motivators.

People seek others with whom to compare their abilities, opinions,

and emotions. Affiliation can also result in direct anxiety reduction by
the social acceptance and the mere presence of others. However, these
motivators can also lead to conformity, competition, and other
behaviors that may seem as negative.

4. Many behaviors result from a combination of motives.

It is recognized that no grand theory of motivation exists. However,

motivation is so necessary for learning that strategies should be
planned to organize a continuous and interactive motivational
dynamic for maximum effectiveness. The general principles of
motivation are interrelated. A single teaching action can use many of
them simultaneously.

Finally, it should be said that an enormous gap exists between knowing

that learning must be motivated and identifying the specific motivational
components of any particular act. Instructors must focus on learning
patterns of motivation for an individual or group, with the realization that
errors will be common.

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Theories of Motivation
Since motivation influences productivity, supervisors need to
understand what motivates employees to reach peak performance. It is
not an easy task to increase employee motivation because employees
respond in different ways to their jobs and their organization's
practices. Motivation is the set of processes that moves a person
toward a goal. Thus, motivated behaviors are voluntary choices
controlled by the individual employee. The supervisor (motivator)
wants to influence the factors that motivate employees to higher levels
of productivity.
Factors that affect work motivation include individual differences, job
characteristics, and organizational practices. Individual differences are
the personal needs, values, and attitudes, interests and abilities that
people bring to their jobs. Job characteristics are the aspects of the
position that determine its limitations and challenges. Organizational
practices are the rules, human resources policies, managerial
practices, and rewards systems of an organization. Supervisors must
consider how these factors interact to affect employee job
performance.

Simple Model of Motivation

The purpose of behavior is to satisfy needs. A need is anything that is
required, desired, or useful. A want is a conscious recognition of a
need. A need arises when there is a difference in self-concept (the way
I see myself) and perception (the way I see the world around me). The

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presence of an active need is expressed as an inner state of tension
from which the individual seeks relief.

Many methods of employee motivation have been developed. The

study of work motivation has focused on the motivator (supervisor) as
well as the motivatee (employee). Motivation theories are important to
supervisors attempting to be effective leaders. Two primary
approaches to motivation are content and process.

The content approach to motivation focuses on the assumption that

individuals are motivated by the desire to fulfill inner needs. Content
theories focus on the needs that motivate people.
Maslow's Theory
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs identifies five levels of needs, which
are best seen as a hierarchy with the most basic need emerging first
and the most sophisticated need last. People move up the hierarchy
one level at a time. Gratified needs lose their strength and the next
level of needs is activated. As basic or lower-level needs are satisfied,
higher-level needs become operative. A satisfied need is not a
motivator. The most powerful employee need is the one that has not
been satisfied. Abraham Maslow first presented the five-tier hierarchy
in 1942 to a psychoanalytic society and published it in 1954 in
Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper and Row).

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Level I - Physiological needs are the most basic human needs. They
include food, water, and comfort. The organization helps to satisfy
employees' physiological needs by a paycheck.

Level II - Safety needs are the desires for security and stability, to
feel safe from harm. The organization helps to satisfy employees'
safety needs by benefits.

Level III - Social needs are the desires for affiliation. They include
friendship and belonging. The organization helps to satisfy employees'
social needs through sports teams, parties, and celebrations. The
supervisor can help fulfill social needs by showing direct care and
concern for employees.

Level IV - Esteem needs are the desires for self-respect and respect
or recognition from others. The organization helps to satisfy
employees' esteem needs by matching the skills and abilities of the
employee to the job. The supervisor can help fulfill esteem needs by
showing workers that their work is appreciated.

Level V - Self-actualization needs are the desires for self-fulfillment

and the realization of the individual's full potential. The supervisor
can help fulfill self-actualization needs by assigning tasks that
challenge employees' minds while drawing on their aptitude and
training.

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Herzberg's Theory
Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory describes needs in terms of
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Frederick Herzberg examined
motivation in the light of job content and contest. (See Work an the
Nature of Man, Crowell Publications, 1966.) Motivating employees is
a two-step process. First provide hygienes and then motivators. One
continuum ranges from no satisfaction to satisfaction. The other
continuum ranges from dissatisfaction to no dissatisfaction.

Satisfaction comes from motivators that are intrinsic or job content,

such as achievement, recognition, advancement, responsibility, the
work itself, and growth possibilities. Herzberg uses the term
motivators for job satisfiers since they involve job content and the
satisfaction that results from them. Motivators are considered job turn-
ons. They are necessary for substantial improvements in work
performance and move the employee beyond satisfaction to superior
performance. Motivators correspond to Maslow's higher-level needs
of esteem and self-actualization.

Dissatisfaction occurs when the following hygiene factors, extrinsic or

job context, are not present on the job: pay, status, job security,
working conditions, company policy, peer relations, and supervision.
Herzberg uses the term hygiene for these factors because they are
preventive in nature. They will not produce motivation, but they can
prevent motivation from occurring. Hygiene factors can be considered
job stay-ons because they encourage an employee to stay on a job.

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Once these factors are provided, they do not necessarily promote
motivation; but their absence can create employee dissatisfaction.
Hygiene factors correspond to Maslow's physiological, safety, and
social needs in that they are extrinsic, or peripheral, to the job. They
are present in the work environment of job context.
Motivation comes from the employee's feelings of accomplishment or
job content rather than from the environmental factors or job context.
Motivators encourage an employee to strive to do his or her best. Job
enrichment can be used to meet higher-level needs. To enrich a job, a
supervisor can introduce new or more difficult tasks, assign
individuals specialized tasks that enable them to become experts, or
grant additional authority to employees.

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McGregor Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and

developed by Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of
Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource
management, organizational behavior, and organizational development.
They describe two very different attitudes toward workforce
motivation. McGregor felt that companies followed either one or the
other approach.

Theory X
In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will
avoid work if they can. Because of this workers need to be closely
supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical
structure is needed with narrow span of control at each level. According to
this theory employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive
program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can.

Many managers (in the 1960s) tended to subscribe to Theory X, in that they
take a rather pessimistic view of their employees. A Theory X manager
believes that his or her employees do not really want to work, that they
would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager's job to structure
the work and energize the employee. The result of this line of thought is that
Theory X managers naturally adopt a more authoritarian style based on the
threat of punishment.

One major flaw of this management style is it is much more likely to cause
Diseconomies of Scale in large businesses. Theory Y allows a business to

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expand while making more profit because factory-floor workers have their
own responsibility.

Theory Y
In this theory management assumes employees are ambitious, self-
motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control
and self-direction. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and
physical work activities. It is also believed that employees have the desire to
be imaginative and creative in their jobs if they are given a chance. There is
an opportunity for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to
be their best.

A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people
will want to do well at work and that there is a pool of unused creativity in
the workforce. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a
strong motivation in and of itself. A Theory Y manager will try to remove
the barriers that prevent workers from fully actualizing themselves .

McGregor and Maslow's hierarchy

McGregor's work was based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He grouped
Maslow's hierarchy into "lower order" (Theory X) needs and "higher order"
(Theory Y) needs. He suggested that management could use either set of
needs to motivate employees

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Criticisms
Today the theories are seldom used explicitly, largely because the insights
they provided have influenced and been incorporated by further generations
of management theorists and practitioners. More commonly, workplaces are
described as "hard" versus "soft." Taken too literally any such dichotomy
including Theory X and Y seem to represent unrealistic extremes. Most
employees (and managers) fall somewhere in between these poles.
Naturally, McGregor was well aware of the heuristic as opposed to literal
way in which such distinctions are useful. Theory X and Theory Y are still
important terms in the field of management and motivation. Recent studies
have questioned the rigidity of the model, but McGregor's X-Y Theory
remains a guiding principle of positive approaches to management, to
organizational development, and to improving organizational culture

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