An Introduction to Motivation.
In the current
information focused era, society is moving towards embracing technology to day
to day life more than ever before (Shroff and Vogel, 2009). Hence, there is a
greater importance given to information technology industry, where each and
every aspect of modern world, such as healthcare, power and energy, business,
transportation and almost anything, heavily relies on valid information, as per
Sanyala and Biswas (2014).
Any information technology company needs to be innovative to be able to sustain
and success with competitor challenges, being highly demanded service (Sanyala and Biswas, 2014).
Regardless of the size of
the company, keeping the employees and even partner companies or individuals,
motivated to strive for the growth of the company’s business, makes an
organization sustain in the long run, as described by Baddoo, Hall and Jagielska (2006).
Thus, it is vital to evaluate the motivation with regards to the information
technology industry companies, in order to identify the accurate applicability
of the motivation to the growth of the industry as a whole and of the
individual companies (Baddoo,
Hall and Jagielska, 2006).
Hence, this blog is created for the purpose of evaluating motivation as factor applicable to information technology industry companies to showcase the applicability.
Hence, this blog is created for the purpose of evaluating motivation as factor applicable to information technology industry companies to showcase the applicability.
Figure 1: Motivation
Source: Nickel (2018)
The urge in a person or set of people to achieve satisfiable outcome, by utilizing the energy and direction can be identified as motivation, as per Cofer and Appley (1964);Heckhausen(1991) cited in Elliot, Gable and Mapes (2006). Further, the motivation can be described as the desire, the drive or the need of a person or group of people to peruse a target (Shroff and Vogel, 2009). It could be even explained as the influential process of taking actions to achieve the desired goals as per Ryan and Deci (2000). Motivation evolves around the psychological factors such as recognition, feel of success and satisfaction (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Therefore, as described by Ryan and Deci, (2000) the motivation can be identified as a psychological phenomenon where desires of an individual or group of people, are catered with provided incentives as a stimulation.
Needs
Motivation can arise due to any needs of social, economic, mental or
biological reasons or combination of such reasons (Sheldon and Gunz, 2009). Any
organism to live healthily it has needs as explained by Sheldon and Gunz,
(2009) and they further mention, those needs can be either physical and objective
such as food and water, or subjective psychological needs such as happiness or
pride in oneself. An individual’s needs should be satisfied in the society for
that individual to perform his or her duties satisfactorily (Sanyala and Biswas, 2014).
Drives
On the other hand, Sheldon and Gunz, (2009) describe, drive is more of a
psychological factor which makes a human to be obliged to take necessary steps
to restore balance in the homeostatic state of him/herself. Drive is believed
to be energizing the behaviors of humans oppose to directing the behaviors
(Berridge, 2004). Unsatisfied drive increases the strength of the drive as per
Berridge (2004) and he describes that such drive will forces more actions to
bring the balance back. The drive reduction theory explains that the drive to
take actions or strengthen a behavior gets reduced as the factors of drive
being satisfied (Kringelbach and Berridge, 2017). For example, consumption of
food reduces the hunger which reduces the drive of the actions to prepare food
to eat according to Kringelbach and Berridge (2017).
Motives
An individual or a group of people having a hypothetical state, which is
initiating the behaviors that gives the momentum to the actions of the person
or the group, to achieve a target can be identified as a motive (Elliot,
Gable and Mapes, 2006). In other
words, motive is the cause of an action or a behavior as per Ryan and Deci
(2000). There are primary motives which are innate or biological motives and
the secondary motives which are acquired or social (Manzoor, 2012). Although
all the animal species have primary motives which are essential to the survival
of oneself, humans are the only species having secondary motives, which are
developed with the interaction between individuals according to Robinson and
Gammon (2011). Secondary motives such as achievement and power are not essential
factor for survival, however, the secondary motives are vital for emotional
improvement (Robinson and Gammon, 2011). Motives are determining the
intensity and the reasons of a given motivational behavior (Manzoor, 2012).
Therefore, motivation is the psychological process or the behavior itself,
where motive is the cause of taking of actions (Manzoor, 2012).
Figure 2: Motivational Cycle
Figure 2: Motivational Cycle
Source: Shrestha (2017)
Intrinsic Motivations
The psychological impulse to get involved and participate in something
to make an achievement where such achievement itself is the reward is
considered as intrinsic motivation (Buckworth et al., 2007). Curiosity
and creativity are main factors of intrinsic motivations and are driven by
pleasure or passion of the action itself as per Buckworth et al. (2007). Individuals who are motivated intrinsically
are achieving better results, giving better performance and improving
themselves with more skills as the motivation comes within oneself (Hung et
al., 2011).
Extrinsic Motivation
When an external stimulation determining the behavior of an individual
it is considered as extrinsic motivation (Hung et al., 2011). Therefore, it can
be further described as the environmental factors influencing the behavior or
actions taken as the responses to the stimuli. Extrinsic motivation may come
from positive factors such as rewards or compensation and negative factors such
as fear of punishment (Hung et al., 2011). Buckworth et al. (2007) says
that the social context of an individual is deterministic in the extrinsic
motivations.
Nevertheless, in realistic perspective the motivations are combination
or mix of both extrinsic and intrinsic types as described by Buckworth et
al. (2007). For an example, a student may be playing cricket as a sport in
his school days, with an intrinsic motivation of enjoyment and later,
he may become a professional cricketer where his compensation, rewards
and fame would be key extrinsic motivations, while pleasure of
self-achievements may still influence him as intrinsic motivation for being
successful as a professional cricketer.
Emotions are a personal state of mind which may intricately connected
with the motivations of oneself (Mega,
Ronconi, and Beni, 2014). While
the motivations explain the needs and desires, according to Mega, Ronconi, and Beni (2014) and they further state emotions are fundamentally different from motivations
and commonly identified as feelings of an individual. However, emotions of an
individual may influence behaviors as a motivator, for example feeling of fear
may cause an individual to follow certain rules or complete the demanded work
by the employer (Sheldon and
Gunz, 2009).
List of References
Baddoo, N., Hall, T and Jagielska, D. (2006) Software Developer
Motivation in a High Maturity Company: a Case Study. Software
Process Improvement and Practice, 11(1), pp.219-228.
Berridge, K. C. (2004)
Motivation concepts in behavioral neuroscience. Physiology
& Behavior, 81(1), pp.179-209.
Buckworth, J., Lee, R.E., Regan, G., Schneider, L. K and DiClemente, C.
C. (2007) Decomposing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for exercise: Application
to stages of motivational readiness. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8(1), pp.441-461.
Hung, S. Y., Durcikova, A., Lai, H. M and Lin, W. M. (2011) The
influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on individuals’ knowledge
sharing behavior. International
Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69(1), pp.415-427.
Kringelbach, M. L and Berridge, K. C. (2017) Neuroscience of Reward, Motivation, and Drive. Advances
in Motivation and Achievement,
19(1), pp.23-35.
Manzoor, Q. A. (2012) Impact of Employees Motivation on Organizational
Effectiveness. European
Journal of Business and Management, 3(3), pp.36-44.
Mega, C., Ronconi, L and Beni, R. D. (2014) What Makes a Good Student?
How Emotions, Self-Regulated Learning, and Motivation Contribute to Academic
Achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(1), pp.121-131.
Nickel, S. (2018),Seven simple ways to motivate your employees. [online Available at: <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/asia/features/business-strategy/seven-simple-ways-to-motivate-your-employees-104084.aspx>.].[Accessed on 14th May 2020].
Robinson, T and Gammon, S. (2011) A Question of Primary and Secondary
Motives: Revisiting and Applying the Sport Tourism Framework. Theories & Applications the International
Edition, 1(1), pp.58-71.
Ryan, R. M and Deci, E. L. (2000) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic
Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 25(1), pp.54-67.
Sanyala, M. K and Biswas, S. B. (2014) Employee Motivation from
Performance Appraisal Implications: Test of a theory in the Software Industry
in West Bengal (India). Procedia Economics and Finance, 11(1), pp.182-196.
Sheldon, K. M and Gunz, A. (2009) Psychological Needs as Basic Motives, Not Just Experiential
Requirements. Journal of Personality, 77(5), pp.1467-1492.
Shrestha, P. (2017) Motivational Cycle? [online
Available at: <
https://www.psychestudy.com/general/motivation-emotion/motivational-cycle>.].[Accessed
on 29th April 2020].
Shroff, R. H and Vogel, D. R. (2009) Assessing the Factors Deemed to
Support Individual Student Intrinsic Motivation in Technology Supported Online
and Face-to-Face Discussions. Journal of Information
Technology Education,
8(1), pp.59-85.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your views. Motivation is the experience of desire or aversion. As such, motivation has both an objective aspect and an internal or subjective aspect (Reeve, 2009). Motivation might be extrinsic where by a person is inspired by outside forces, other people or event that transpire. Motivation can also be intrinsic where by the inspiration comes from within a person the desire to improve at a certain activity. Intrinsic motivation tends to push people more forcefully and the accomplishments are more fulfilling (Bernard, 2000).
Agree with your view. Further, the intrinsic motivation creates happiness and feel of achievement which result in passion for the job within an individual (Sanyala and Biswas, 2014). Hence, passion is significantly impacting work in information technology industry and therefore, intrinsic motivation is a necessity to have in tech employees for the success of the firm (Baddoo, Hall and Jagielska, 2006).
DeleteAgreed with your views. In a complex and dynamic environment, leader of the organization used to create the environment in which employee feel trusted and are empowered to take decisions inthe organization which leads to enhance motivation level of employee andultimately organizational performance are enhanced (Smith, Rupp 2003). Luthans and Stajkovic (1999)stated that performance is a role of individual motivation, organizational strategy, andstructure and resistance to change, is an empirical role relating motivation in the organization.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Such empowerment and feel of trusted in an employee in the IT sector, generates passion towards work in an individual to go beyond the normal duties and make additional impact to create improved client satisfaction (Asghar and Usman, 2013).
DeleteAgree with your views.adding further to your post , Benabou and TIirol (2003) cited Deci (1975) argued that extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation and he stated that If a person's feelings of competence and self-determination are enhanced, his intrinsic motivation will increase. If his feelings of competence and self-determination are diminished, his intrinsic motivation will decrease... We are suggesting that some rewards or feedback will increase intrinsic motivation through this process and others will decrease it, either through this process or through the change in perceived locus of causality process
ReplyDeleteAgree, additionally Jovanovic and Matejevic (2014) say, rewarding for an interesting work for oneself could lead the individual for the job due to the reward rather than the interest of the work, diminishing the intrinsic motivation and attribution theory explains this phenomena as decreasing of interest or intrinsic motivation due to a prominence of extrinsic reward.
DeleteAgree with your views. Adding further motivation is defined as the psychological force that defines the manner and direction of the behavior of an individual which could keep an employee engaged without much hassle. it is further defined as a n individual's level of effort of how good and hard he can engage in the job and an individual's level of persistence in facing challenges that may come their way. for instance of a Customer Service officer the manner in which the officer deals with a customer, high satisfactory customer service experience and dealing with a situation that may need thinking out of the box to satisfy the customer could be highlighted as motivation (Lauby, S. 2005).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and agree. Further, the process which starts, directs and sustains a set of actions until the required psychological needs are met can be defined as motivation as per the psychologists, which essentially giving the idea that the motivation is guiding an individual to accomplish a goal (Manzoor, 2012).
DeleteAgreed with your views.Adding to that, as Singh (2016) argued, the extrinsic motivators are advantageous in situations where employees have initial interest in performing a task, or where basic skills are lacking. However, these rewards must be kept minimal and tightly coupled with the performing specific activity or a behavior. Once intrinsic interests are generated, and the essential skills are established the extrinsic motivators should be slowly fade away (Singh, 2016).
ReplyDeleteTrue. Intrinsic motivation is natural and enjoyable which will help individuals to feel pleasure in the actions taken to meet job responsibilities (Legault,2016). Further, Legault (2016) argue, an individual who is motivated intrinsically, might get demotivated by extrinsic motivational factors such as money and awards given that those are not to the level of satisfaction of the individual, where the person may tend to reduce the intrinsic motivation due to the unwanted manipulation by an external factor.
DeleteI agree on your views. According to Lorincová et al. (2019), employee productivity/performances are influenced by the level of employee motivation and organizations must create a favorable working environment to address the employee aspirations, needs and interests in-order to stimulate employee action in a desirable way towards motivation. Further, financial rewards are considered as the most effective form of motivational factor in employee motivation (Taylor cited in Lorincová et al. 2019).
ReplyDeleteTrue. Agbenyegah (2019) argues, extrinsic motivational factors such as financial rewards are considered as the most effective, however, the importance of the rewards depend on each individual’s perception. Further, Agbenyegah (2019) says, there can be situations where managers considering some extrinsic factors are important than other factors, can lead to conflicts between management and employees, which will influence employees to leave the organization.
DeleteAn interesting topic. Robert (1991) explains, a person who is intrinsically motivated will work with any issues arise in the organization because it is enjoyable or he will find a solution to the issue. because it is challenging and will give him a feeling of pleasure after solving it.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Intrinsically motivated individuals are willing to take on challenges due to the feel of pleasure in solving problems, hence, such employees are valuable asset to the company as per Buckworth et al. (2007).
DeleteAgreed with your views, motivation can be further described as an act or a process that provides an employee a aim to do something in a specific way, or an explanation for the repeated behaviors, needs, and desires (Ellliot 2001). According to Ryan and Deci (2000), when someone feels energized and activated towards something, he or she can be recognized as motivated person.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Further, Murayama (2018) says, motivation is a significant aspect of each behavior of an individual, which is influencing the decisions made by the person to take actions towards an expected outcome.
DeleteYes, indeed. Further, employee's motivation is the degree of power, commitment and creativity that organization's employees relate to their jobs. Then again, a motivating employee for advance commitment can sometimes be mostly challenging for many organizations if proper motivational factors/policy the mix is not in position (Aborisade and Obioha, 2009).
ReplyDeleteAgree, the organization should consider the personalities of the employees when introducing motivational factors, since a factor which motivate one employee may demotivate another due to the differences in the attitude or behavioral perspectives of individuals (Varma, 2017).
DeleteAgree with you, According to Pinder (2008) Motivating employees is very much important on driving the organization towards the success since it is measured as a key driver of performance where performance is a combination of motivation, ability and environment.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Further, the organization should introduce motivational factors belong to financial and non-financial categories to motivate employees, as presence of only the financial factors would not motivate employees for longer period (Dobre, 2013).
DeleteMaria, (2012) also supports the view considering the uniqueness of individual behavior and attitude with variety of expectations and needs that can affect performance in a variable way. Higher management may not be due to external motivation factors, but may be due to dissatisfaction with the tasks and output achieved.
ReplyDeleteSingh (2017) says, modern workforce is belonging to different generations and age categories which has huge differences in knowledge, dreams, strengths and weaknesses, therefore, making the selection of right motivational factors for the organization a challenging job for HRM.
DeleteThe word Motivation is the derivative of the Latin term “movere or movement” and it can be defines as a psychological influence on people to behave towards a predetermined direction (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Ryan and Deci (2000) also emphasized that there are two types of motivation which intrinsic and extrinsic.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Further, each individual has the self-motivation capability which need to be enhanced by introducing suitable motivational factors, to assure encouragement of employees to give the fullest contribution to achieve organizational goals (Saad, 2018).
DeleteLocke (as cited by Saari and Judge, 2004, p396) defined motivation as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job experiences”. According to David and Anderzej (2010), motivation can be understood as cognitive decision making in which the intension is to make the behavior that is aimed at achieving a certain goal through initiation and monitoring.In every employee, motivation maybe because outside factors (extrinsic) such as rewards or within an individual (intrinsic), desire to do better.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Motivation is willingness to work without forcing, which makes the job duties pleasurable and enjoyable, causing natural improvement of the performances of the employees (Dobre, 2013).
DeleteAgree with your views. Further, As suggested by (Kalimullah, 2010), a motivated employee has aligned their goals with the organization's goals and directs their efforts in that direction.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Further, the organization should introduce correct motivational factors to motivate employees, each individual has the self-motivation capability which need to be enhanced by introducing suitable motivational factors (Dobre, 2013).
DeleteAgree with you. Also (Morrison,Burke and Greene,2007) stated that, Motivation can describe as perspective of employees further, Finding meaning in life and work is the main thing Motivation of human existence.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe post have given good introduction regarding motivation. Considering on Extrinsic Motivation which small section from the blog but very important. This motivation occur due to the external environment of the the person. Examples like incentives, pay, praise, promotion and punishments. The motivations from external environment give extra bit of energy to the work. However employee to employee the motivation factors are differ. Having attractive motivation factors in a organization can help to uplift employees productivity (Armstrong, 2010).
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Pushpa, further With rapid change, increasing complexity and the need to exploit knowledge,employee motivation is increasingly important to performance. Under these pressures, promoting self-control and personal motivation can be an effective means of control, influencing the quality of employee input without direct intervention (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington 2005).
ReplyDeleteAgreed with you Pushpa, as stated by Vasques & Buehler (2007) both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors are progressively using by the all type of organizations. Providing with peoples physical and psychological needs, the organizations are influenced employees to their targets. And also these factors could affect people’s personal life and as well as their long –term goals.
ReplyDelete