Importance Of Motivation

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Motivation is a broad and diverse area and can be defined as a psychological process that causes the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed. In terms of work motivation, Pinder (1998) describes it as the set of external and internal factors that initiate work related behaviour, and determine its form, direction, intensity and duration. This definition allows for factors both inside of a person’s mind and in the environment and the impact that they have on a person’s work behaviour. The topic of work motivation is important for managers because as a manager one of the primary tasks is to motivate the employee to perform to the best of their ability (Moorhead and Griffin, 1998). An employer must know their…show more content…
Alderfer in 1969. It simplified Maslow’s earlier Need Hierarchy theory from five needs to three needs by placing each need within a larger heading. Alderfer’s three categories of needs were; existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. Existence needs included all physical and material wants such as food, water, clothing and safety. Relatedness needs consisted of the desire for interpersonal relationships, such as those with family, friends, coworkers and employers. The third category of needs, the growth needs were concerned with the desire to use one’s skills to be creative and…show more content…
This theory was first devised by Latham and Locke in 1991. It is a Process motivation theory that suggests that work motivation in influenced by the relationship between goal difficulty, goal specificity and knowledge of results.It’s basic premise is that people set goals and strategize ways to attain them based on needs, values and the situational context. Latham and Locke (1996) suggested that specific difficult goals led to better performance when compared with easy goals or general goals such as ‘do you best’. Goals must be challenging yet attainable and commitment to the goal is especially important. Self-efficacy is another important feature, If a person feels like they have participated in setting the goal they will be more accepting of it and be cause they have power over it will be more motivated to achieve the goal. According to the theory goal setting is most efficient when there is feedback provided showing one’s progress towards the specific goal. Feedback can be outcome orientated or process orientated. Outcome feedback is concerned with the end product or outcome of the goal and offers no information on how to attain the goal. Process feedback provided specific tasks which must be completed in order to attain the goal. Feedback allows individuals/teams to spot weaknesses in their goals and make modifications to adjust them. (Smith and Hitt,
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