Synthesis on Motivation from Concepts to Applications

The bridge between theory and practice is not a clear-cut bridge, and as important motivation as a
reality is—one cannot say that applying motivation theories to actual life is an easy thing to do.
Motivation in the context of the individual and in the context of the organization is important for the
understanding of people involved in motivating employees. The question is how do I get these people
motivated such that we all achieve organizational goals? One important factor of course is the job itself.

Now, the job characteristics model exemplifies the qualities that a job has or does not have that can
either derail or harness motivation potential. Certain practices like job rotation, job enrichment and
relational job design have been strategized to harness that potential. Alternative work arrangements are
also another aspect that can be tweaked in various ways through flexible timing, job sharing, and
telecommuting—and tweaking this can contribute to motivation.

Moreover, no motivation practice goes without what we call extrinsic rewards especially the pay and the
benefits—and of course, one also has to acknowledge the reality of intrinsic rewards and how these can
be instrumental for motivating good behavior. Among the theories that apply to motivation,
behaviorism, goal setting theory, expectancy theory, and self-determination theory are among those that
significantly impacted the application of motivation concepts.

Furthermore, job design, job redesigning, employee involvement, and employee participation are certain
direct applications of motivation concepts vis-à-vis organizational behavior. Ideally though, everyone in
the group must know how motivation is harnesses, how employees are satisfied, how workplace conflict
is avoided, and how conflict-ridden turnover is reduced. If one is to manage people in the future, one
must know how to craft a job such that burnout and boredom are avoided, how to weigh the advantages
and disadvantages of work arrangements, how to consider employee safety in certain environments, and
how to foster among employees the view that being able to produce good work is in and of itself a good
reward.

Applying motivation concepts are not easy even if one has memorized all the various pay arrangements
and schemes that can apply to various organizations. One must reach to the depth of the human psyche
to see how motivation plays its role in a group. One must see the difference between motivational
pushes that simply drives a person to survive and motivational pulls that moves the person to achieve a
goal—as if the goal is pulling him to move. Understanding motivation in a really deep way would indeed
go a long way.