Motivation In The Workplace
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Motivation In the Workplace
Motivation can be properly thought of as a process whereby people take certain available resources- their time- talentand energy, and distribute them as they choose. (Maehr, Braskamp, 1986).
The objective of this paper is to explore the relationships between the individual, the external environment and the business environment and examine how they interact with each other to effect the amount of motivation an employee exhibits on the job. As with most other models we must take into account the Basic Needs Theory of Maslow (Vroom and
Deci, 1970) and after satisfying those needs we intend to mold our model after the Expectancy Theories of Vroom. The Expectancy Theory is a subjective-expected-utility model. It states that the force exerted towards a given act will be a product of the individuals belief that he or she can perform at a certain level (Kleinbeck, Quast, Thierry
Hacker, 1990). The Equity Theory concerns the workers perception of how she is being treated. The basic idea is that an employ first considers her input (effort) and then her outcomes (rewards). The employee then compares her personal ratio of effort to reward to the ratio of a referent (Invancevich, Lorenzi, Skinner, and Crosby, 1994).
We would also like to point out that Motivation is a “continuously changing variable” as well as a vector quantity. It involves an infinite number of magnitudes and can be exerted in an infinite number of directions. This makes an accurate measurement of motivation very difficult to accomplish (Morris, 1968)a comprehensive model that measures motivation through statistical analysis.
Understanding our model is assisted by the use of circles to exemplify the various categories affecting motivation.
Individual
External environment
Business environment
The individual includes such characteristic as personality,
education, experience, work ethics, religious and ethnic
background, goals and past achievement, etc.
The external environment includes such characteristics as
family and financial needs, social contacts and political
beliefs, etc..
The business environment includes wages and benefit
packages, corporate culture, training programs, child-care
facilities, pension and retirement programs, flex-time
scheduling and family care leave time, etc(Kondo, 1991).
As these three different categories begin to interact with
each other you begin to obtain some overlapping. The more
overlapping of the three categories, the higher the degree
of motivation. When all three circles are separated you
have no motivation what-so-ever. When all three circles
overlay each other completely you would have the most
intense motivation possible. We recognize neither scenario
has much probability of occurring but recognize that some
interaction of all three circles is realistic.
Model Explanation
We intent to explore the policies and programs that
businesses can promote to assist in bringing these three
categories, closer together, thereby increasing the amount
of motivation experienced in the workplace. We will also
explore methods of measuring and predicting the amount of
motivation indicated by the overlapping
intersection(Cranny, Smith, Stone, 1992).
Our motivation model consists of three circle areas. Each
circle is perceived by an individual to represent
individual needs, external influences, and business
management.
The area of individual needs and external influences always
overlap because a person is living in a society and his or
her desire is strongly related to external factors such as,
family, status, religion, and so on. The relationship is a
fundamental condition for the individuals motivation to
perform.
The overlapping area of individual needs and external
influences indicates the individual motivation to perform
in the society. Size of the area indicates a degree of the
relationship between the various factors (Figure 1, Model
1). The larger the overlapping area becomes, the larger the
degree of interaction and subsequent relationship.
Managements primary goal is to intervene in the already
existing relationship between individual needs and external
influences in order to boost an employees motivation with
regards to its core operation.
Motivation is based on individual needs, not external