Motivation

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that motivation is a drive, which enables a person to accomplish a specified task in a befitting manner by providing the purpose for striving towards a goal. The author reviews the motivation premises of Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, Abraham Maslow's needs pyramid and Douglas McGregor's theory X and theory Y. The paper stresses that keeping the workforce motivated is not only important for getting the best out of employees but is also important for generating job satisfaction among employees.

Table of Contents:
Important Theories of Motivation
Importance of Motivation in Business
Reasons for Low Levels of Motivations in a Business Environment
How to Raise Levels of Motivation
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The process of activating intrinsic motives is complicated. To activate the autonomous system, most significant approach is the task reconfiguration. After having identified an individual's innate motives, the task can be redesigned to trail the intrinsic motives of that person. In general, a common person would prefer autonomy, task significance, feedback, task identity, and skill variety as attributes of the tasks that are assigned to him/her. The work redesign provides a strategy for enhancing internal work motivation. The degree of autonomy would provide an opportunity to attribute outcomes, competencies and values in terms of the self concept."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Abraham Maslow." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com April 14, 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/abraham-maslow
• Freud, S. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990.
• Gellerman, Saul. W. Motivation in the Real World: The Art of Getting Extra Effort from Everyone-Including Yourself. New York: Dutton, 2002.
• Guay, Frederic & Vallerand, Robert J. "On the Assessment of Situation Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS)". Motivation and Emotions. 24.3 (2000): 890-898.
• Huitt, W. "Motivation to learn: An overview." Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta State University. April 15, 2006. http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate.html

More papers on Motivation:

• Case Study # 115207 : "Employee Motivation in a Dynamic Work Environment"
• Research Paper # 111257 : "Teachers' Influence on Primary School Motivation"
• Term Paper # 146418 : "Theories of Motivation for the Workplace"
• Essay # 138014 : "Human Motivation and Group Work"

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