Motivation*
Motivation is defined as “a human psychological characteristic that add to a person’s degree of commitment. It is the management process of inquencing employees’ behavior”. (Badu, 2005).
Motivation is the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and comitted to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.
Motivating people is about getting them to move in the direction which is required in order to achieve a result.
What is intrinsic motivation?
Intrinsic motivation is a drive that comes purely from within; it’s not due to any anticipated reward, deadline, or outside pressure.
What is extrinsic motivation?
Extrinsic motivation is any reason someone does work other than the joy of doing the work itself. Anything promised for completing the task or received as a result of completing the task are extrinsic motivators.
Nature and Importance of Motivation
Helps organization to survive
Motivated employees are more productive
Increases the output of the firm
Approach of belongingness of the firm
Three main goals:
Providing qualified, well-trained employees for the organization
Maximizing employee effectiveness in the organization
Satisfying individual employee needs through monetary compensation, benefits, opportunities to advance
Process of motivation
Needs create wishes and desires to achieve or obtain something.
Goals are established based on these desires and wishes.
Actions are taken based on goals in order to attain it. If the goals are not achieved, the same action is likely to be repeated. This process of repeating successful behaviour or actions is called reinforcement.
Methods for Motivation
Rewards
Challenging Jobs/ job enrichment (means building motivators like opportunities for achievement into the job by making it more interesting and challenging).
Using Merit Pay( a merit raise is a salary increase,usually permanent)
Using Spot Awards ( a spot award is one given to an employee as soon as the laudable performance is observed)
How to increase Motivation?
Some people may find themselves completely stymied by a project; others may simply want to pack a little more productivity into their timeline.
Connect to your values.
If you can connect the work you do to your values, even in small ways, you can change your game.
Find your WHY.
Figure out a compelling purpose.
Change your HOW.
You can instantly find your tasks more enjoyable by shifting from getting them done, to doing them right.
Find a meaningful metaphor.
Find a metaphor that fuels you.
Link it to good feelings.
Find a way to link things to good feelings.
Impress yourself first.
Change your question.
Sometimes you need to change your focus. To change your focus, change the question.