Motivation) the Success of Any

¶ … Motivation)

The success of any endeavor, either business or personal, depends on how motivated an individual is. The Fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defined it as 'an inducement or incentive,' which by the definition itself can be thought of as either tangible or intangible. However, no matter the form, a motivation's purpose is to move a person towards another state, which can be deduced as either pleasing or rewarding for it to be effective.

As defined and on a personal level, motivation helps a person achieve his wants and goals in life. These can be through simple things like acquiring an object or experiencing a dream vacation or achieving a more difficult goal like receiving a doctorate degree or becoming a CEO.

In a workplace, motivation helps employees work hard in their duties and responsibilities. Their efforts may propel their company to be accredited or it may reach a targeted sales and profits figure that will help secure the company and provide it more prestige.

The absence of motivation is a danger to ones' productive and satisfying life. Without it, an individual may never achieve his/her dreams or in the end suffer discontent and despair.

On the other hand, lack of employee motivation is also a threat to a company. Dissatisfied employees may only come up with mediocre performances that may result to company losses or breakdown and closure.

Therefore, be it in a personal or professional level, motivation is important to look at and its uses has to be directed and maximized to be able to help people achieve more in life and contribute more to workplaces.

Background

Specifically, this review of literature will focus on motivation to human resources in the workplace. It will present ideas and theories on motivation and later on come up with conclusions on what really motivates people in their work.

Whiteley (2002) shared that the motivation of an individual in his workplace centers on why he is doing the work and how it relates to his personal directions. On a managerial level, it focuses on how the supervisor harnesses his team's capacities and potentials and how it will contribute to the goals of the company. Whiteley further provided that researches nowadays show motivation to be constantly linked to the company's success. The more motivated employees are in working for the company's goals, the more chances their companies will have in succeeding. Some have even associated employees' aims like 'high quality and strong ethics' with their philosophy so it will become more realistic and achievable in the workplace.

Kerr (1997) shared that there are two types of motivation: the intrinsic and the extrinsic. According to him, intrinsic motivation is the 'enjoyment and challenge' that an individual will experience in accomplishing his tasks while extrinsic motivation is the reward or recognition that he will gain from the completed tasks.

Intrinsic motivation is how one sees his work. It is not focused on remuneration but rather on how one loves or enjoys what he is doing. Excellence, according to Kerr, is best achieved through intrinsic motivation. A technician who is not as highly paid as another may still provide quality output and services if he believes that his job is important and valuable to him and the organization.

Extrinsic motivation, meanwhile, comes in the form of an incentive or reward. It can be either an increase in pay or a promotion in post. A technician who receives an increase in pay or benefits package or is promoted to a higher position will aim at doing better as his previous hard work had been rewarded.

To further look at Motivation, Thad Green and Raymond Butkus (1999) informed about Viktor H. Vroom who developed the Expectancy Theory of work motivation in the 1960's. Vroom concluded that motivation at work depends on an employee's expectation or belief that his effort will lead to performance, that his performance will result to outcome and that the outcome will provide him satisfaction. Vroom also believed that an employee will be motivated if he is expecting an outcome and if the outcome will be valuable to him. In the absence of both factors, employee motivation will not work. Green and Butkus also shared that although Vroom's model had been widely accepted for a number of years, it lacked applicability that it cannot be used in practice.

Aside from Vroom, Green and Butkus (1999) also shared about Green's own Belief System model. This model was actually a practical application of Viktor Vroom's Expectancy Theory and was reported to be better utilized by the workforce. The Belief System Theory focused on using a structured and facilitated meeting between the supervisor and the staff. This meeting becomes a venue to discuss motivational problems on the areas that Vroom had developed and will provide the manager and the employee with a specific period to help address motivational issues in their workplace.

Discussion

Whiteley and Kerr's ideas focus on an individual's motivation and how it can be used to help him contribute more to his workplace. On the other hand, Vroom and Green provided a way in tangibly looking at motivation and in measuring it so it can be used in promoting supportive working environments.

Of these aspects of motivation, an individual's understanding of his goals in life comes into forefront. There can be those who are not very sure on what he wants that he/she move from one job to another. This situation may not be satisfied by remuneration or recognition as the primary source of performance is at a loss on how he/she will go about life. This absence of direction, regardless of lucrative offers or opportunities, will be at the expense and loss of the hiring company.

A rewards system, on the other hand, may also become ineffective if not properly and equitably employed. As known to everyone, workplace politics exists and if a manager is biased or is not on the top of things, rewards system might cause frustration and relationship break ups. Further, an increase in remuneration has its limits. A Staff who has reached his remuneration peak will have to either be promoted or be stuck in his current post and salary. If this happens, he will either resign from work at, again, the loss of the company or feel demoralized and disheartened, as his efforts are no longer being recognized.