Motivation

7 Pages 1675 Words

Motivation

Personal Motivation—The Individual’s View Understanding what motivates people is at the core of relating to people at all levels. According to Webster’s dictionary, (Webster, 1976) to motivate is to provide with, or affect as, an inner drive, impulse, or incentive that causes one to act. A motivation can be a cause, purpose, or idea according the Thesaurus. (Webster 1997). Motivation causes behavior, incites action. Personal motivational drives may include pride, desire for greatness, competitive spirit, serving others, doing the right thing, overcoming all odds. (Katzenbach, 1995, p.91) When studying motivation, the classic motivational theories of McGregor, Herzberg, and Maslow must not be forgotten, as illustrated in Figures 1,2, and 3. McGregor characterized people into two groups, labeled X and Y. Herzberg identified a two-factor theory regarding the motivation of employees. The motivation factors, when present, tend to create satisfaction or motivation in the minds of employees. The hygiene factors, when absent or perceived as inadequate, can create dissatisfied employees; yet, when present, do not add to satisfaction or serve to motivate. Maslow suggested people are motivated by a set of internal needs. They range from the lowest-order needs of Physiological to the highest-order need of Self-actualization. Individuals are motivated at their level of need, and once a lower-order need is satisfied, the next higher-order need becomes the individual’s motivational drive. Author Kenneth Van Sickle believes that the motivational theories represented by McGregor (Theory X, Theory Y) and Herzberg (Hygiene Seeker, Motivation Seeker) reflects two distinct personality types. These two personalities can be defined relative to Maslow’s Hierarchy, and he labels these personalities Low-order Need Person and High-order Need Person. The Low-order Need Person, or LONP, operates at the lower three levels of Maslow’s Hiera...