The Power of Motivation :: leadership, motivation theories

Inside an organization, people are expected to their best work. Best work is easier to achieve when there’s the help of motivation. Motivation is one of the important factors to create effective management inside an Organization (Wood et al., 2006). Every person inside a company is motivated by different kind of things. According to Dawson (1986 cited in Thompson & McHugh 2002) motivation is a behavior, which can drive someone to act towards their goal. A motivated person will perform at maximum capacity in their jobs. The sense of purpose and money are the important factors that motivated people the most. Later on, this paper will evaluate the statement that people are doing their best work if they are motivated by a sense of purpose rather than the pursuit of money, and also this paper will cover motivation theories by Maslow and Herzberg. The term motivation is related with the process that explains how and why human behavior is directed and affected (Latham, 2007). Sasone, Carol and Harakiewicz (2000) stated that there are 2 types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation was described as a motivation which dependent on internal factors such as the desire to work hard and the satisfaction of accomplishing something (Wood et al., 2006). For example, an employee was motivated to become employee of the month, so he always submits his work before the deadline. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation was described as a motivation that depends on external factors such as money. Someone can be classified as extrinsic motivated if he/she was satisfied with external factors (Osterloh & Frey, 2000 p.539). Deci (1975 cited in Latham, 2006), believe that external factors such as money have negative effect on behavior. Deci also believed that if someone perform activities based on external factors, they will ha ve less and less motivation towards the activity, however if they were not driven by external factors, they will tend to be in control and hence intrinsically motivated (Cited in Latham, 2006). From Deci’s statement, it can be concluded that external factors can reduce intrinsic motivation. However, Bandura (1977) argued the statement that intrinsic motivation was only affected by internal factors. Bandura stated that it is almost impossible to find situation where the presence of extrinsic factors are none. An expert named Locke (1990) was disagreeing Deci’s concept about intrinsic motivation. Locke noted that Deci hasn’t distinguished the different between liking an activity of its own sake, and liking activity because it makes someone feel challenged.