Introduction to People, Organisations & Management: Individual Behaviour & Personality - Essay Example

Analysis of Relevant Literature Simply defined, motivation is “the set of factors that cause people to behave in certain ways” (Schwartz 2006, p15). Based on this definition, motivation is the phenomenon that drives behaviour. Kalat (2011), however, rescinds the idea that motivation directs behaviour in certain ways because this description is true for many things such as light directing plants to grow in a certain direction or behave in a certain way. A more complete definition would be that motivation is “the process that determines the reinforcement value of an outcome.

” (Kalat) Or more simply, it is the factor that increases your want for something at a particular time than another. For example, a student is motivated to work on his vocabulary before he sits for his SAT than when does not have to sit for the exam. Robert Beck (2003) says that the ‘motivational problem’ is changes in our choices of things at different points in time. In an organizational setting, motivation works in a certain process which has been described by Aswathappa (2005) in his Framework of Motivation, depicted in the diagram.

The first step is to identify a need within oneself and then to seek various options that might satisfy that need. That is followed by behaviour that will lead to the intended goal. Motivation Theories Buchanan and Huczynski (2010) describe that there are three main types of motivation theories that affect workplace behaviour: content theories, job enrichment theories and process theories. Content theories are concerned with why human needs are not constant and the needs change as time passes.

Job enrichment theories are related with the workplace behaviour and motivation of employees specifically. Examples include designing of reward systems and job rotations. Process theories are those that concern with motivation as a process of input and output: in other words, a certain amount of input is expected to reveal a certain expected output. Some of these theories are looked at below. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Schwartz, 2006; McLeod, 2013; Mullins, 2010) states that human beings have a set of inherent needs that they strive to appease and these needs are arranged in a “hierarchy” which starts with the most basic needs and moves on to higher degree needs.

The very bottom of the pyramid1 starts with the physiological or the most basic needs such as food and water and moves on to Safety, Belonging, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization needs. In an organizational setting, these needs are: Physiological needs include appropriate lunch hour, resting time, work hours, etc; Safety needs in the workplace can be ergonomics, safe and healthy work environment, appropriate care for extreme conditions such as heat and cold; Belonging needs include camaraderie and association with the company and other employees; Self-esteem needs include sense of accomplishment and achievement, rewards, field specialisation, empowerment, status, etc.

The final set of needs of Self-Actualisation include a sense of fulfilment and completeness in the workplace that extends beyond the documented needs and allows