"Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time."
This topic provides an overview of major motivational theories, such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, and Expectancy Theory, which explain how and why people are motivated to perform certain actions.
Definition of Motivation: Understanding what motivation is and how it affects behavior in organizations is a fundamental starting point.
History of Motivation Theories: The field of motivation is full of ideas and theories that have evolved over time. This topic helps to understand the evolution of these motivational theories.
Psychological Theories of Motivation: This topic reviews the foundational psychological theories that account for why people behave as they do in organizational settings.
Social Theories of Motivation: This topic delves into the social dimension of motivation, exploring how social influence shapes behavior and group dynamics.
Cognitive Theories of Motivation: This topic deals with the role of mental processes in human motivation.
Biological Theories of Motivation: This topic examines the biological factors that contribute to human motivation.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory: This theory provides insight into the various levels of human needs and how they interact with motivation.
Alderfer's ERG Theory: This theory examines the frustration-regression process and how it affects human motivation.
Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: This theory explores the distinction between hygiene factors and motivators and how they affect employee satisfaction.
McClelland's Acquired Needs Theory: This theory highlights three types of needs that people acquire over time and how they affect their motivational orientation.
Equity Theory: This theory investigates the relationship between the inputs and outcomes of work in terms of its impact on motivation.
Expectancy Theory: This theory looks at how effort, performance, and outcomes are related and how they influence motivation.
Reinforcement Theory: This theory examines the role of rewards and punishments in shaping behavior and motivation.
Self-Determination Theory: This theory is based on the idea that when individuals feel competent, autonomous, and connected, they are more motivated.
Job Design: This topic explores how job design can impact motivation, job satisfaction, and productivity.
Employee Engagement: Employee engagement refers to employee involvement, enthusiasm, and commitment to work. This topic examines the factors that contribute to employee engagement and its impact on organizational outcomes.
Goal Setting Theory: This theory examines how specific and challenging goals can enhance motivation and performance.
Empowerment: Empowerment refers to the process of granting employees more control and responsibility over their work. This topic explores how empowerment can enhance motivation and job satisfaction.
Motivational Techniques: This topic covers various techniques that organizations use to motivate employees, such as incentives, recognition, feedback, and training.
Cross-Cultural Motivation: This topic explores the differences in motivational factors across cultures and how they affect motivation in global organizations.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory: This theory suggests that individuals have a hierarchy of needs, which must be fulfilled in order, beginning with physiological needs and ending with self-actualization needs.
Alderfer's ERG Theory: This theory suggests that individuals have three basic needs: existence needs, relatedness needs, and growth needs.
Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: This theory suggests that factors that lead to job satisfaction (motivators) are separate from those that lead to job dissatisfaction (hygiene factors).
McClelland's Theory of Needs: This theory suggests that individuals have three needs: achievement, affiliation, and power, and that these needs can determine an individual's motivation.
Expectancy Theory: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated by their beliefs about the likelihood of achieving a reward, their belief in the value of the reward, and their belief in their ability to perform the necessary task.
Equity Theory: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated when they perceive that they are being treated fairly in comparison to others.
Goal-Setting Theory: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated by setting specific, challenging, and achievable goals.
Self-Determination Theory: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated by fulfilling the innate psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Reinforcement Theory: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated by rewards and punishments.
Job Characteristics Model: This theory suggests that individuals are motivated when their job provides them with opportunities to experience meaningfulness, responsibility, and knowledge of results.
"Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior."
"This means that we can be motivated to do something without actually doing it."
"The paradigmatic mental state providing motivation is desire."
"But various other states, such as beliefs about what one ought to do or intentions, may also provide motivation."
"Motivation is derived from the word 'motive', which denotes a person's needs, desires, wants, or urges."
"It is the process of motivating individuals to take action to achieve a goal."
"The psychological elements fueling people's behavior in the context of job goals might include a desire for money."
"Content theories... aim to describe what goals usually or always motivate people."
"Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs... posit that humans have certain needs, which are responsible for motivation."
"Behaviorist theories try to explain behavior solely in terms of the relation between the situation and external, observable behavior without explicit reference to conscious mental states."
"Motivation may be either intrinsic if the activity is desired because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable."
"Motivation may be... extrinsic if the agent's goal is an external reward distinct from the activity itself."
"It has been argued that intrinsic motivation has more beneficial outcomes than extrinsic motivation."
"Motivational states can also be categorized according to whether the agent is fully aware of why he acts the way he does or not, referred to as conscious and unconscious motivation."
"Motivation is closely related to practical rationality."
"Failing to fulfill this requirement results in cases of irrationality, known as akrasia or weakness of the will, in which there is a discrepancy between our beliefs about what we should do and our actions."
"In the field of business, a central question concerns work motivation, for example, what measures an employer can use to ensure that his employees are motivated."
"Motivation is also of particular interest to educational psychologists because of its crucial role in student learning."
"Specific interest has been given to the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in this field."