Work motivation is a person's internal disposition toward work. To further this, an incentive is the anticipated reward or aversive event available in the environment.Deckers, L. (2010). Motivation; Biological, Psychological and Environmental. (3rd ed., pp. 2–3). Boston, MA: Pearson. While motivation can often be used as a tool to help predict behavior, it varies greatly among individuals and must often be combined with ability and environmental factors to actually influence behavior and performance. Results from a 2012 study, which examined age-related differences in work motivation, suggest a "shift in people's motives" rather than a general decline in motivation with age. That is, it seemed that older employees were less motivated by extrinsically related features of a job, but more by intrinsically rewarding job features.Inceoglu, I., Segers, J., & Bartram, D (2012). Age-related differences in work motivationJournal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 85(2), 300-329. Work motivation is strongly influenced by certain cultural characteristics. Between countries with comparable levels of economic development, collectivist countries tend to have higher levels of work motivation than do countries that tend toward individualism. Similarly measured, higher levels of work motivation can be found in countries that exhibit a long versus a short-term orientation. Also, while national income is not itself a strong predictor of work motivation, indicators that describe a nation's economic strength and stability, such as life expectancy, are. Work motivation decreases as a nation's long-term economic strength increases.Klonoski, R. (2011). Work motivation, culture, and economic development: Is work motivation shaped by its socio-economic context? International Journal of Management & Information Systems, 15(4), 91-97. Currently work motivation research has explored motivation that may not be consciously driven. This method goal setting is referred to as goal priming.
It is important for organizations to understand and to structure the work environment to encourage productive behaviors and discourage those that are unproductive given work motivation's role in influencing workplace behavior and performance.Jex, S.M. & Britt, T.W. (2008). Organizational Psychology. Hoboke, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Mitchell, T.R.; Daniels, D. 2003. Motivation. Handbook of Psychology, Vol. 12. Industrial Organizational Psychology, ed. W.C. Borman, D.R. Ilgen, R.J. Klimoski, pp. 225–54. New York: Wiley. Motivational systems are at the center of behavioral organization.Emmons 1999; Steers, Mowday & Shapiro, 2004; Schein, 1980; and Knopf, 1967 Emmons states, “Behavior is a discrepancy-reduction process, whereby individuals act to minimize the discrepancy between their present condition and a desired standard or goal” (1999, p. 28). If we look at this from the standpoint of how leaders can motivate their followers to enhance their performance, participation in any organization involves exercising choice; a person chooses among alternatives, responding to the motivation to perform or ignore what is offered. This suggests that a follower's consideration of personal interests and the desire to expand knowledge and skill has significant motivational impact, requiring the leader to consider motivating strategies to enhance performance."Casteli, P., Castronova, F, Stavros, J. Galloway, J.(2007) Leaders and Followers: The Role of Achievement Motives and Their Effects on Motivating Strategies for Enhancing Performance, pg. 3. There is general consensus that motivation involves three psychological processes: arousal, direction, and intensity. Arousal is what initiates action. It is fueled by a person's need or desire for something that is missing from their lives at a given moment, either totally or partially. Direction refers to the path employees take in accomplishing the goals they set for themselves. Finally, intensity is the vigor and amount of energy employees put into this goal-directed work performance. The level of intensity is based on the importance and difficulty of the goal. These psychological processes result in four outcomes. First, motivation serves to direct attention, focusing on particular issues, people, tasks, etc. It also serves to stimulate an employee to put forth effort. Next, motivation results in persistence, preventing one from deviating from the goal-seeking behavior. Finally, motivation results in task strategies, which as defined by Mitchell & Daniels, are "patterns of behavior produced to reach a particular goal".
Theories A number of various theories attempt to describe employee motivation within the discipline of industrial and organizational psychology. At the macro level, work motivation can be categorized into two types, endogenous process (individual, cognitive) theories and exogenous cause (environmental) theories. Many theories fit simply into one type, but hybrid types such as self-determination theory attempt to account for both. It can be helpful to further divide theories into the four broad categories of need-based, cognitive process, behavioral, and job-based.
Need-based theories Need-based theories of motivation focus on an employee's drive to satisfy a variety of needs through their work. These needs range from basic physiological needs for survival to higher psychoemotional needs like belonging and self-actualization.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943) was applied to offer an explanation of how the work environment motivates employees. In accordance with Maslow's theory, which was not specifically developed to explain behavior in the workplace, employees strive to satisfy their needs in a hierarchical order.
At the most basic level, an employee is motivated to work in order to satisfy basic physiological needs for survival, such as having enough money to purchase food. The next level of need in the hierarchy is safety, which could be interpreted to mean adequate housing or living in a safe neighborhood. The next three levels in Maslow's theory relate to intellectual and psycho-emotional needs: love and belonging, esteem (which refers to competence and mastery), and finally the highest order need, self-actualization.
Although Maslow's theory is widely known, in the workplace it has proven to be a poor predictor of employee behavior. Maslow theorized that people will not seek to satisfy a higher level need until their lower level needs are met. There has been little empirical support for the idea that employees in the workplace strive to meet their needs only in the hierarchical order prescribed by Maslow.
Building on Maslow's theory, Clayton Alderfer (1959) collapsed the levels in Maslow's theory from five to three: existence, relatedness and growth. This theory, called the ERG theory, does not propose that employees attempt to satisfy these needs in a strictly hierarchical manner. Empirical support for this theory has been mixed.
Need for achievement Atkinson & McClelland's Need for Achievement Theory is the most relevant and applicable need-based theory in the I–O psychologist's arsenal. Unlike other need-based theories, which try to interpret every need, Need for Achievement allows the I–O psychologist to concentrate research into a tighter focus. Studies show those who have a high need for achievement prefer moderate levels of risk, seek feedback, and are likely to immerse themselves in their work. Achievement motivation can be broken down into three types: Achievement – seeks position advancement, feedback, and sense of accomplishment Authority – need to lead, make an impact and be heard by others Affiliation – need for friendly social interactions and to be liked. Because most individuals have a combination of these three types (in various proportions), an understanding of these achievement motivation characteristics can be a useful assistance to management in job placement, recruitment, etc.McClelland, D. (1965). Toward a theory of motive acquisition. American Psychologist, 20, 321–33.
The theory is referred to as Need for Achievement because these individuals are theorized to be the most effective employees and leaders in the workplace. These individuals strive to achieve their goals and advance in the organization. They tend to be dedicated to their work and strive hard to succeed. Such individuals also demonstrate a strong desire for increasing their knowledge and for feedback on their performance, often in the form of performance appraisal .
The Need for Achievement is in many ways similar to the need for mastery and self-actualization in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and growth in the ERG theory. The achievement orientation has garnered more research interest as compared to the need for affiliation or power.
Cognitive process theories
Equity theory
Equity Theory is derived from social exchange theory. It explains motivation in the workplace as a cognitive process of evaluation, whereby the employee seeks to achieve a balance between inputs or efforts in the workplace and the outcomes or rewards received or anticipated.
In particular, Equity Theory research has tested employee sentiments regarding equitable compensation. Employee inputs take the form of work volume and quality, performance, knowledge, skills, attributes and behaviors. The company-generated outcomes include rewards such as compensation, praise and advancement opportunities. The employee compares their inputs relative to outcomes; and, then, extrapolating to the social context, the employee compares their input/outcome ratio with the perceived ratios of others. If the employee perceives an inequity, the theory posits that the employee will adjust their behavior to bring things into balance.
Equity Theory has proven relevance in situations where an employee is under-compensated. If an employee perceives that they are under-compensated, they can adjust their behavior to achieve equilibrium in several different ways: reduce input to a level they believe better matches their level of compensation change or adjust the comparative standard to which they are comparing their situation cognitively adjust their perception of their inputs or the outcomes received withdraw ask their employer for increased compensation engage in employee theft
If the employee is able to achieve a ratio of inputs to outputs that they perceive to be equitable, then the employee will be satisfied. The employee's evaluation of input-to-output ratios and subsequent striving to achieve equilibrium is an ongoing process.
While it has been established that Equity Theory provides insight into scenarios of under-compensation, the theory has generally failed to demonstrate its usefulness in understanding scenarios of overcompensation.Ambrose, M. & Kulik, C. (1999). Old friends, new faces: Motivation research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25(3), 231–92. In this way, it could be said Equity Theory is more useful in describing factors that contribute to a lack of motivation rather than increasing motivation in the workplace. Concepts of organizational justice later expanded upon the fundamentals of Equity Theory and pointed to the importance of fairness perceptions in the workplace.
There are four fairness perceptions applied to organizational settings: Distributive justice, or the perception of equality of an individual's outcomes Procedural justice, or the fairness of the procedures used to determine one's outcomes Interactional justice, or the perception that one has been treated fairly with dignity and respect Informational Justice, or the perception that one has been given all the information one needs in order to best perform their jobs