Motivation Theory

What is motivation theory?

Meaning of Motivation Theory: – Motivation theory is the study of understanding what drives a person to work towards a particular goal or outcome. It’s relevant to all of society but is especially important to business and management. Motivation theory is a way of looking at the motivation of a person and how this influences their behavior, whether for personal or professional reasons. It’s important to every aspect of society but is especially relevant to business and management. Motivation is the key to more profitable employees, as a motivated employee is more productive.

Motivation is one of three key performance elements. In fact, research shows that performance is a function of ability, motivation, and opportunity: –

Performance = Function {Ability × Motivation × Opportunity}

Ability refers to the capability of an individual or team to perform a task;
Opportunity refers to the time and situation surrounding the task;
For example, if a hospital is known to have successful heart transplants, it must have a team of surgeons who are skilled in performing the transplant (capacity), and must have sufficient space and equipment to perform the transplant, as well as Patient what they (opportunity) need. Managers have little influence on competence, and they can influence opportunity only to a certain extent.

What is Motivation?

Meaning of Motivation: – Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the people’s behavior can be – Desire for money, Success, Recognition, Job-satisfaction and Team work, etc.

People often compare lazy people with being lazy. Do you think this is really true? For example, consider Danny, a student who gets bad grades in history. He is not interested in his textbooks; he does not want to read. He’s intelligent, sure, but he doesn’t do the readings necessary to get an As or Bs.

You could say that Danny has no motivation about reading or that he is lazy. But when the latest comic book in his favourite series arrives, he’s the first in line to buy it, and he reads it from cover to cover to get the first chance he gets and twice as much before finally putting it down. They’ve memorized lines, carefully considered the story, and sent messages to friends about where they think the story is going.

What are the features of motivation theory?

Motivation theory results when a person interacts with a situation. It is a state of mind where one determines the level of desire, interest and energy that will translate into action.

Motivation = Intensity + Direction + Persistence of Effort

Intensity refers to how hard a person works to achieve his goal. Danny clearly enjoys reading and does a lot—he has a high intensity for reading, but a low intensity around history.
Direction refers to the area on which a person focuses his efforts, and the quality of those concentrated efforts. Danny’s reading direction – that is, reading comic books instead of textbooks is poor. When he reads his textbooks, Danny’s efforts at the activity are also of poor quality. He doesn’t commit lines to memory or absorb themes like he reads comic books.
Persistence of effort, or the amount of effort a person maintains to achieve a goal. Danny is an avid reader and will continue to read as long as his favourite writers and artists create new book and series. He is firm about it, but it remains to be seen whether he will return to his textbooks and try to read them. Right now, Danny opens his textbooks and tries to read, but he doesn’t try for very long.

What is the importance of motivation theory?

A manager guides the people in a desired manner to achieve organizational objectives. Two important things are necessary for any work to be done; People should have the ability and willingness to work. Unwillingness to work is of no use. Therefore, motivation theory is needed to create a desire to work in the minds of workers.

Optimum Use of the Means of Production: – Workers work honestly with the motivation. It creates the possibility of optimum utilization of the factors of production such as labour and capital.

Desire to Work: – Motivation affects people’s willingness to work. A man is technically, mentally and physically fit to work but he may not be ready to work. Motivation creates a desire on the part of the workers to do the job better.

Reduction in Absenteeism: – Financial incentive schemes force workers to work more. The financial incentive plan is designed in such a way that monetary benefits are given based on the number of hours worked. It reduces absenteeism.

Low Labour Turnover: – Motivation has both financial and non-financial incentive schemes. It helps in retaining the existing laborers. The enterprise can plan its activities on long term basis with the help of low labour turnover.

Availability of Right Personnel: – Financial and non-financial incentives not only retain existing employees but also attract employees from outside the enterprise. In other words, the right people are attracted from outside to work for the enterprise.

Building Good Labour Relations: – Motivation helps in solving labour problems of absenteeism, labour turnover, indiscipline and grievances. This ensures the creation of good labour relations.

Increase in Efficiency and Production: – Both the workers and the management have benefited from the motivational schemes. On the one hand, the wages of workers increase commensurate with the increase in production and efficiency. On the other hand, the concerted efforts of motivated people increase the productivity of the organization and its profits.

Sense of Belonging: – A proper motivation plan fosters a close relationship between the enterprise and the workers. Workers begin to feel that the enterprise belongs to them and regard their interests as theirs. Thus, there is no difference between workers and enterprise.

Basis of Cooperation: – Cooperation increases efficiency and production. Cooperation cannot be achieved without motivation, so motivation is the basis of cooperation.

Motivation Improves the Performance of the Employees and the Organization: – Through motivational techniques a manager fulfils the needs of the employees. A satisfied and motivated employee is able to make better use of his energy and potential thereby leading to higher levels of performance. The better performance of individual employees contributes to the performance of the organisation.

Motivation Develops Positive Attitude: – Motivational techniques like rewards, praise, recognition etc. instil in the employees the desire to perform to the best of their potential. In the absence of motivation, employees may be indifferent to organizational goals and perform at a minimum level. Motivation eliminates this negative attitude and develops positive attitude towards work which leads to effective achievement of organizational goals.

Motivation Helps to Bring About Change Easily: – A motivated employee is open-minded and able to understand that adapting to environmental changes is vital for the future success and growth of the business. They can easily accept the change as they can see the additional rewards that they get as a result of the change.