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The word "motivation" is often used to describe certain sorts of behavior. A student who studies hard and tries to get top grades may be described as being "highly motivated", while her friend may say that he is "finding it hard to get motivated" to study for an exam or to start an assignment. Such statements imply that motivation has a major influence on our behavior but they do not really tell us how. Motivation can be defined as a concept used to describe the factors within an individual that arise, maintain and channel behavior towards a goal.
Another way to say this is that motivation is goal-directed behavior. While it is easy to see the things that people do, it is much harder to guess why they are doing it. As an example let us look at our hard-working student. It may be that the mentioned above student is working hard because she wants to get high marks, but it might also be that she really enjoys learning that subject. She may be striving for high marks because she wants to impress her friends or because she wants a good job, so that the marks themselves are really a step toward another goal. It is dangerous to assume that you know what is motivating someone because you really can't "read their minds." As it was mentioned earlier, motivation can be defined as a driving force or a reason for a particular behavior.
This definition applies mostly to the internal motivation - motivation, which comes from within. We face a dilemma, see a couple of solutions to it and we give ourselves a reason for following one solution or another motivate ourselves within. Motivation can also be external. External motivation occurs when one person gives another person a reason for doing something. External motivation is only effective if it does not contradict internal motivation. In other words every external motivation has to be transferred into an internal one in order to be accepted by an individual.
Therefore, internal motivation is a primarily one, it is a foundation for all motivation. Motivation as such is applied everywhere - whether you are trying to motivate yourself, your employees or your friends. The concept of motivation and its usage in business is the topic of this research. The goals of it are 1) to follow the historical development of motivational theories from 19 th century to present, 2) to see the connection between concepts of motivation and their usage in business and 3) to define modern techniques of motivating employees to perform productively. People always wanted to know what makes them do things they do what motivates them. The 19 th century's scientists and philosophers contributed greatly to the development of internal motivation theories.
This internal motivation was viewed as a part of a human essence something universal for everybody. The three main approaches to explanation of motivation were Social Darwinism, Economic Motivation and Sexual Motivation. Applications of each of the theories will be demonstrated in this research on the example of why do people attend universities? Social Darwinism, developed by Charles Darwin, is a theory, which states, that all people are fighting with each other in order to survive. These fights are a part of our every-day life, and they are going on subconsciously.
The main reason for human behavior is the desire to be the best and the strongest of the kind. Darwin compares human society to evolution, which he explains as the survival of the strongest species. A Social Darwinist would say, that the fact that people desire to obtain good education is caused by their belief in increasing chances to survive. One goes to the university because it makes him stronger - gives him advantage over others. Sexual Motivation is another view on motivation, which was introduced by Sigmund Freud.
Freud insisted that everything people do is because they have sexual interest in it. Sexual motivation is the strongest of all: the reason why people do not realize it - is culture. Culture deprives sexuality, and this is why some people can never reach their full potential. Meeting an attractive person of an opposite sex or becoming sexually attractive for somebody motivates people to do everything, including attending universities. Karl Marx introduced a concept of Economic Motivation.
He believed, that the human society is divided into economic classes. These classes are constantly fighting, and the fight is caused by the human desire of obtaining an economic advantage over others. Our primary motivator is economic one. According to Economic Motivation, people want to get an education, because that will give them a change of making more money.
If you have more money than somebody else, you are economically stronger, and you have an economic advantage. Despite the fact that Social Darwinism, Economic and Sexual Motivations stimulated the development of motivational theories, it was proven that they failed in providing a full explanation of such a complex concept as internal motivation. According to later scientists, true nature of motivation lies in combination of those three theories. People have a mixture of internal motivators because they have different experiences and needs, which they want to satisfy. After the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution in 20 th century, the importance of motivation as having a direct influence on productivity was realized and the need for scientific explanation of this relationship appeared.
A number of motivational theories, which sought to explain external motivation (used in business), were developed. Their developers were more focused on motivations that individuals had on their workplaces, rather than on general, universal motivations of people. Around 1900, Frederick Taylor introduced a classical theory of motivation. He proposed, that money was the single motivator in the workplace.
He proved his theory in practice at the Bethlehem Steel works by increasing the wage from $ 1. 15 to $ 1. 85 a day. As a result, the productivity of workers raised so sharply that companys handing costs were cut by more than half. Taylors theory worked for its time, when most people were very poor and the only needs they had were food, shelter, clothes. Classical theory of motivation, however, failed to explain, for example, why some people work not wishing money for it (volunteer work). In 1943, next revolutionary step in the development of motivational theory was made. Abraham Maslow came up with the Hierarchy of Human Needs.
A human being, according to Maslow is a perpetually wanting animal, which has 5 levels of needs. In order to motivate someone, it would be necessary to determine on which level of needs the person is. Maslow believed that the lower needs (physiology and safety etc) had to be at least partially covered before the higher needs (such as ego and self actualization) could be activated. He believed that once one set of needs was at least partly satisfied people would begin to be motivated by needs from the next category.
Maslow also thought that people were often motivated by more than one set of needs at a time and that they placed varying importance on different needs. In 1960 s, Frederick Herzberg conducted a research to find out what things at workplace made people satisfied or unsatisfied. He called satisfactory factors motivators, and unsatisfactory - hygiene factors. Among motivators, Herzberg noted achievement, recognition, responsibility, personal fulfillment and promotion. Hygiene factors, on the other hand, were said to be company policies, supervision, working conditions, job security, interpersonal relationships, compensation, and job status. This theory was a continuation of Maslow's hierarchy, but with more application to managerial practices.
Knowing all the motivators and hygiene factors, managers were able to decide which category needed to be concentrated on in their practices. Once business leaders found out about the different levels of their employees needs, they wanted to know how they could satisfy those needs they wanted to have a strategy to keep workers motivated. Douglas McGregor was the first person that worked out two motivation strategies, which he believed were effective to motivate people. The first one named Theory X stated that workers could only be motivated by fear or by external rewards.
McGregor pointed out that Theory X only concerned Security and Physiological needs, and ignored higher-level needs. The other strategy theory Y - concerned higher needs of people. According to this theory, workers were motivated if given a space for creativity and self-direction. This theory was and still is widely used by managers. The most modern managerial motivational strategy is Theory Z. It is often called a Japanese style of management, because a Japanese American, William Ought, developed it.
Theory Z assumes that the best way to motivate employees is to make them feel like a family. This theory is considered to be the most complete one because it satisfies all levels of human needs. It satisfies lower-level needs by taking care of employees physiological need, and higher-level needs by giving people responsibilities and enabling them to take part in the decision making process. Although the impact of employee motivation is rarely disputed, a major problem is that motivation itself cannot be measured directly, but rather must be inferred. Most models of motivation have shown that highly motivated employees are highly satisfied with their jobs and their organization. The variety of organizations and managers is so tremendous, that it becomes quite a challenge to unite and analyze what motivational styles are most effective and what exactly makes them work.
Generally speaking, most common motivational techniques used by companies around the world are money, empowerment and appraisals. Money is the oldest known motivator. It is still used as one of the major tools for attracting most qualified individuals and for improving their level of productivity. Now, money is not being solely used to satisfy employees physiological needs. Money bonuses give employees a sense of achievement and fulfillment. A good example of such a motivation is promising a woman good salary for performing her tasks on a high level.
This woman will probably be motivated to perform her outmost not only because she will be able to afford her own house, buy food and clothes, etc. , but also because it will give her a sense of independence and self-actualization. Empowerment is the delegation of authority from high level to lower-level employees. It is a very strong motivational tool, because it gives employees a sense of belonging, it makes them feel important and needed. Empowerment is a very good tool to satisfy esteem and self-actualization needs. It is common, that low-level employees feel that they are nobodies in the company and any person could do the job they are doing. Such an employee is surely concerned for money.
However, if there were an alternative between working in a company where all the tasks were predetermined and a company that gave every employee a chance to participate in decision making (on their levels of jobs), make their contribution, the employee would certainly choose the latter company. Positive feedbacks or appraisals - is another way to keep the employees happy. Appraisals can be both written and oral; they can be given individually or publicly in front of other employees. Many companies use philosophy tell me what Im doing right, dont tell me what I am doing wrong, which helps to cultivate sense of loyalty and increase morale in their employees. People are aware that there are certain company goals, but in most cases, they do not know how they contribute to reaching those goals. Feedbacks and appraisals not only state the fact of good performance, which contributed to achieving goals and show companys appreciation for that, but also set standards for future performance.
The above research attempted to define, classify and investigate the development of the concept of motivation and its application in contemporary business world. It was said that motivation is a driving force, a goal-oriented behavior. There are two kinds of motivation: internal (motivation from within) and external (motivation that comes from other people). Internal motivation was a subject of philosophical thought in the 19 th century. Whereas, concept of external motivation was more developed in 20 th century. The 19 th century theories completely excluded each other, and they failed to recognize that there is no single motivator, but rather a combination of factors, described in all three theories.
Business motivation theories completed each other, and stimulated the appearance of motivational strategies. Most successful strategy is theory Z because it combines satisfaction of all-level human needs. Motivational techniques were always thought of as tools to increase productivity. Most widely used and the oldest one is money. However, in the recent years more attention is paid to satisfying esteem and self-actualization needs of employees, so appraisals and empowerment have become a common practice in many companies. Bibliography Business Today fifth editions, David J.
Rahman, 1987 Human Resource Management: Concept and Practices, David A. De Cent, 1994 Communicating For Results fourth edition, Cheryl Hamilton, 1993 Capital, Karl Marx, Moscow, 1983 Psychology of Unconscious, Sigmund Freud, Prosveschenie, 1989 web
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