motivation

Motivation

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9 May 2006

Over the last few decades various professional commitments have led this author to look at the field of motivation from both a theory-research perspective as well as a practical or applied perspective . The analysis of the theoretical and research literature has resulted in detailed and comprehensive review s (Mitchell , 1979 . The attempts to deal with applications and implications were prompted by field research endeavors (Latham , Mitchell Dossett , 1978 ) and the writing and revision of a textbook (Mitchell , 1978 . Several

ideas have emerged from these activities

First , from the reviews of motivation theory and research (Campbell Pritchard , 1976 Korman , Greenhaus Badin , 1977 , it became clear that some shifts in the field were occurring . The overwhelming percentage of current s are concerned with information processing or social-environmental explanations of motivation (Salancik Pfeffer 1977 , 1978 ) rather than need-based approaches or approaches that focus on individual differences . These latter approaches , represented by people like Maslow , have almost disappeared in the literature

The information processing approaches are illustrated by the large amount of work on expectancy theory , goal setting , and equity theory Theories focusing on the job environment , such as operant conditioning or job enrichment , and theories emphasizing social cues and social evaluations also have been important . These approaches have all been helpful in increasing the understanding of motivation

In many ways the study of motivation is the study of psychology itself It is concerned with explaining all forms of behaviour , from why you have decided to study psychology , to why some people take up bungee-jumping . Motivation is an attempt to explain the 'why ' of behaviour . Essentially , when we ask why a person or animal acts in a particular way , we are asking about their motivation (Mook , 1996

Many nonacademics would probably describe motivation as the degree to which an individual wants and tries hard to do well at a particular task or job . Dictionary definitions describe motivation as the goad to action . The more technical definitions given by social scientists suggest that motivation is the psychological processes that cause the arousal , direction , and persistence of behavior (Atkinson , 1964 Campbell , Dunnette , Lawler Weick , 1970 Huse Bowditch , 1977 Kast Rosenzweig , 1979 . Many authors add a voluntary component or goal directed emphasis to that definition (Ryan , 1970 . Thus motivation becomes those psychological processes that cause the arousal , direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed

Although there is some disagreement about the importance of different aspects of this definition (e .g , whether arousal or choice is more important , there is consensus about some underlying properties of this definition . First , motivation traditionally has been cast as an individual phenomenon . Each individual is unique and all of the major motivational theories allow in one way or another for this uniqueness to be demonstrated (e .g , different people have different needs expectations , values , attitudes , reinforcement histories , and goals Second , motivation usually is described as intentional . That is motivation supposedly is under the employee 's control . Most behaviors that...