MOTIVATION

Concept of motivation.....
In psychology, motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behavior (Geen, 1995). Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion. Motivation is having the desire and willingness to do something. A motivated person can be reaching for a long-term goal such as becoming a professional writer or a more short-term goal like learning how to spell a particular word. Personality invariably refers to more or less permanent characteristics of an individual's state of being (e.g., shy, extrovert, conscientious). As opposed to motivation, emotion refers to temporal states that do not immediately link to behavior (e.g., anger, grief, happiness).

Intrinsic motivation::

Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake, without some obvious external incentive present. A hobby is a typical example.

Intrinsic motivation has been intensely studied by educational psychologists since the 1970s, and numerous studies have found it to be associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students.

There is currently no "grand unified theory" to explain the origin or elements of intrinsic motivation. Most explanations combine elements of Bernard Weiner's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy and other studies relating to locus of control and goal orientation. Thus it is thought that students are more likely to experience intrinsic motivation if they:

* Attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (eg. the amount of effort they put in, not 'fixed ability').
* Believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (eg. the results are not determined by dumb luck.)
* Are motivated towards deep 'mastery' of a topic, instead of just rote-learning 'performance' to get good grades.

Note that the idea of reward for achievement is absent from this model of intrinsic motivation, since rewards are an extrinsic factor.

In knowledge-sharing communities and organizations, people often cite altruistic reasons for their participation, including contributing to a common good, a moral obligation to the group, mentorship or 'giving back'. This model of intrinsic motivation has emerged from three decades of research by hundreds of educationalists and is still evolving. (See also Goal Theory.)

[edit] Extrinsic motivation::

Traditionally, extrinsic motivation has been used to motivate employees:

* Tangible rewards such as payments, promotions (or punishments).
* Intangible rewards such as praise or public commendation.

Within economies transitioning from assembly lines to service industries, the importance of intrinsic motivation rises:

* The further jobs move away from pure assembly lines, the harder it becomes to measure individual productivity. This effect is most pronounced for knowledge workers and amplified in teamwork. A lack of objective or universally accepted criteria for measuring individual productivity may make individual rewards arbitrary.
* Since by definition intrinsic motivation does not rely on financial incentives, it is cheap in terms of dollars but expensive in the fact that the inherent rewards of the activity must be internalized before they can be experienced as intrinsically motivating.

However, intrinsic motivation is no panacea for employee motivation. Problems include:

* For many commercially viable activities it may not be possible to find any or enough intrinsically motivated people.
* Intrinsically motivated employees need to eat, too. Other forms of compensation remain necessary.
* Intrinsic motivation is easily destroyed. For instance, additional extrinsic motivation is known to have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation in many cases, perceived injustice in awarding such external incentives even more so. (See also work by Edward Deci and Bruno Frey who discusses crowding theory.)
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Re: 2 MUSTS FOR EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION !!!

What Organizations Can Do About Employee Motivation

Minimize Rules and Policies
Every person is motivated. The challenge at work is to create an environment in which people are motivated about work priorities. Too often, organizations fail to pay attention to the employee relations, communication, recognition, and involvement issues that are most important to people. The first step in creating a motivating work environment is to stop taking actions that are guaranteed to demotivate people. Identify and take the actions that will motivate people. It’s a balancing act. Employers walk a fine line between meeting the needs of the organization and its customers and meeting the needs of its internal staff. Do both well and thrive.

An attention-getting Gallup Poll about disengaged employees was highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal.


Gallup found 19 percent of 1,000 people interviewed "actively disengaged" at work. These workers complain that they don't have the tools they need to do their jobs. They don't know what is expected of them. Their bosses don't listen to them. Based on these interviews and survey data from its consulting practice, Gallup says actively disengaged workers cost employers $292 billion to $355 billion a year. Furthermore, Gallup concluded that disengaged workers miss more days of work and are less loyal to employers. With this in mind, let’s look at a couple of areas in which balance is critically needed for employee motivation in organizations today. Rules and Policies
Want to be a cop? That’s how some supervisors feel in organizations that operate on the assumption that people are untrustworthy. You’ve seen the company handbooks that list pages and pages of rules. Step out of line? Fifty-seven potential infractions, with resultant punishment, are listed on page 74. Need time off for your grandma’s funeral? You get three paid days off to travel 600 miles. Have a question? We have answers. In fact, we’ve got policies that answer almost every question.

Supervisory discretion? What’s that? We’ve got employees who, left to their own devices, will choose to do bad things. You can’t trust supervisors to treat employees fairly and consistently either. John in Accounting is a softy. People who work for him get away with anything, everything. If you work for Beth in Sales however, you can count on the rulebook guiding every decision.

Sound familiar? I‘ve heard these reasons and many more to justify the need for hundreds of rules and policies in organizations.



Guidelines for a Motivating Work Environment
# Make only the minimum number of rules and policies needed to protect your organization legally and create order in the work place.

# Publish the rules and policies and educate all employees.

# With the involvement of many employees, identify organizational values and write value statements and a professional code of conduct.

# Develop guidelines for supervisors and educate them about the fair and consistent application of the few rules and policies.

# Address individual dysfunctional behaviors on a “need-to” basis with counseling, progressive discipline, and performance improvement plans.

# Clearly communicate work place expectations and guidelines for professional behavior.


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