Hunan Resource - Does Motivation Come from within a Person or Is It the Result of the Situation - Essay Example

Does Motivation come from within a person or is it the result of the situation? Name of the Student: Professor: Date of Submission: Motivation is a kind of behaviour, which manipulates the actions of a person either in the work place or in the academics. There have been many controversial debates among many researchers regarding the question whether motivation comes from within a person or the result of a situation. Psychological investigations relating to the real tempt of motivation says that motivation arouses in a person due to the requirements of the situation urging the person to do so. Few others argue in terms of the influence of the incentives or rewards provoking the person to get motivated. However, motivation seems to arouse out of any of the discussed situations and it has to be considered that motivation cannot be seen in majority of the people as external or internal influence as a whole. Motivation can be classified into two types they are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation are engender within a person as a result of factors such as liability, autonomy to act, capacity to point out and apply the skills and an enthusiasm to face challenging works. Where as Extrinsic Motivation is created in people by outside influences such as rewards, backing, sponsorship, endorsement etc. However, most of the researchers observe Motivation as a behavioural intervention influenced wither by external forces or forces necessitated within the person. It is very important to analyse the reasons every action of human beings as that would help in giving the exact background for motivation. The reasons to get motivated could be sketched out at two levels they are, individual exhibiting certain activity in addition to how these activities came about. There lies a background for every action performed under motivation. The background of motivation might have come from the influence two forces that might be either a positive or a negative force. However, any kind of motivated action constitutes a goal within inside. For example, Toates’s [1980, 1986] observed motivation as involving a goal-oriented pattern, in which an organism is motivated to behave in a particular way; this behaviour might get changed completely after the organism achieves the goal. Therefore, any motivated behaviour is an influence of some conditions, which are required by the organism. Where as McFarland [1989] has a contradictory observation which says that motivation under the influence of a goal would continue even after the goal has been achieved. From this observation, it appears that McFarland’s notion about motivated actions results either from a change, which happens internally, or from the person’s relation with the external world. Wong [2000] observes motivation from a behavioural aspect of a person. This behavioural involvement will help in understanding the particular reason behind the motivated behaviour. Many theorists have observed psychological intrusion of motivation from the perspective of behavioural outcomes rather than the other external influence. Wong [2000] recounts an example to study the motivation in terms of psychological influence. He says, “no one has ever seen thirst. We can observe how long a person has gone without water and then assess how much he drinks, or how hard she will work or pay to get some water. However, we can never see thirst itself. Even if we probe inside the person’s head, we could see only brain cells, not motives”. Therefore, from this we are supposed to assume that motivation depends on internal factors such as human psychology along with the necessity of the situation. Goals play a vital role in provoking the extrinsic Motivation. So they are considered as “powerful motivator”[ O’Neil and Drillings 1994]. Employee motivation has been considered as a representative of motivation created through implementing a goal based working system. The effectiveness of goals is exhibited in an improved performance level of the person, so goals could be considered as important factor of motivation. Locke and Latham [1994] concerning motivation identified and analysed three prominent theoretical approaches. They are: 1. Drive Theory: This theory was proposed and experimented by Hull [1952]. Hull observed the aspect of motivation from a psychological point of view. The theory looks at motivation as psychological drive, which drives the organism to perform an action. If the requirement was fulfilled, the drive eminence of motivation is reduced. This theory further observes that organisms or human beings are engaged in a motivated activity, which in turn increase the tension of the situation rather decrease. [. Locke and Latham [1994] 2. Reinforcement Theory is the second way of analysing the motivation and Skinner formed it in 1953]. This theory is another form of behaviourist approach. This states that human actions should be analysed without giving preference to the consciousness. However, it was proved a failure as the consciousness of human beings is found to have a close link with the motivation observes [Locke and Latham [1994]. 3. Subconscious Motives is the third theory formed by David Mc Clelland [1961]. It states that Human actions are guided in components by hidden motives such as attainment motive, which controls human action taking place through a long period. Based on this theory [Locke and Latham [1994] observed that “People with a strong achievement motive, for example were said to choose activities in which: They can control the outcome through their own efforts, they believe the risks are moderate, they obtain clear feedback concerning their progress, and they can experience the successful attainment of standards of excellence”. In addition to that McClleland’s theory of motivation created by an achievement point of view play a role in determining the success of the people. Therefore, he study states that a number of motives have to be observed to make the predictions on actions under different situations to find out which actions were influenced by external and internal influences. In the sense, external influence would be goal achieving and internal would be the pressure of the intention of achievement registered in the subconscious mind. Motivations identified in employees and in schoolchildren appear same because, both are necessitated by a goal in majority of the cases. The Human Resource finds motivation from the perspective of encouragement underpinning the notion of achieving best work from the employees. The productivity of the workforce constitutes the major requirement of employers. Authorities concentrate on a peaceful and profitable working atmosphere therefore they look for different ways of motivating their employees by introducing reward system, providing a likely working atmosphere, stressing the goals as frequently as possible and adding incentive values to a considerable amount. “As staffing needs will vary with the productivity of the workforce (and the industrial peace achieved) so good personnel policies are desirable. The latter can depend upon other factors (like environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc.) but unless the wage packet is accepted as fair and just there will be no motivation,” observes The ACCEL TEAM [2007]. The aspect of motivation is experimented in employees in most of the work places. To be precise the human resource management treats motivation as a compulsory requirement to enhance the workers underpinning the development of the organisation. Any organisation for instance considers their employees as their main source of development and improvement. Therefore, the duty of human resource department is to concentrate on finding the possible ways for the employees to get all their needs fulfilled in their workplace. The employees are expected to provide their maximum ability to increase the productivity of the concerned organisation. In order to do so the authorities and human resource department concentrate in boosting their employees in terms of accomplishing the goals of the organisation, announcing rewards and incentive schemes etc. The csb.gov.hk [2007] observes motivation as follows, they say, “Through motivation, we seek to secure staff commitment; develop and manage them to give of their best support departmental aims and objectives, and archive the ultimate aim of serving the community better by providing quality service which our community deserves”. Here they refer to community in two places but identifying with different things, the first community refers to the employees and the second community refers to the authoritative members of the organisation. Motivation in the workplace is considered as a very strong driving force, which leads to the success of an organisation. So many authorities believe in motivating their employees by emphasising their goals, aims that as a result would bring about a rewarding work experience. Lee [2005] observes motivation in workplace environments as a powerful tool to achieve a successful work experience. In addition to that Lee points out some of the key drives which constitutes motivation oriented work experience they are 1. Pride in one’s work and one’s employer- the employees should be motivated to realise the feeling of pride in one’s own work and their authority. 2. The power to contribute and make a difference- The employees should be motivated to contribute his ability to compete with the one another and show their maximum talent and make a difference. 3. The opportunity to learn and grow- the employees should be motivated to make use of all the possible opportunities to learn about his work through each experience he gains. 4. The experience of mastery- motivation given to master the shills of the employees 5. Clear expectations and feedback – employs should be motivated to reveal their expectations so that the organisation would arrange to fulfil the needs of their employees. 6. Personal and professional respect- motivation concerning respect for the respective profession 7. Flexibility- motivation in terms of making the employees understand the ways of balancing their work load 8. Appreciation – it is considered as an important motivating tool which will result in improved performance level 9. Recognition- recognising the hard work of the employees is yet another powerful drive that motivates the employees. [Lee, 2005] Lee’s observation reflects the notion that motivation come from outside force in majority. His analysis is based underpins the aspect of setting a goal and motivating the employees accordingly. He seems to point out the concept that higher authorities have a big role to play in motivating the employees, and by doing so, it would be easy to attain a better work experience and profit. However, a psychological analysis might also be done in connection with Lee’s observation. All the driving forces of motivation have ample chances to affect the employees in terms of their better performance, but it has to be understood that unless the employees accept the driving forces inside it will be difficult to expect their cooperation. Therefore, Motivation has a two way force which functions under the rule of the externally driving force along with the reception of the employees or individual’s necessity too urges him to accept. References: 1. Accel Team . “Human Resource Management Function 3:Employee Motivation:. Online available from http://www.accel-team.com/human_resources/hrm_03.html 2. F.M.Toates (1986) Motivational Systems. Cambridge University Press [Spanish-language edition published in 1990] 3. F.M.Toates (1980) Animal Behaviour - A Systems Approach. Wiley, Chichester. 4. Lee, David. “Motivating Employees The Fad –Free Way”. Spring 2005. Northeast HR Association .online available from http://www.humannatureatwork.com/fad-free.htm 5. Locke, A. Edwin and Latham, Gary. P “Goal Setting Theory”. O’Neil, Harold.F. and Drillings, Michael. “Motivation: Theory and Research”. 1994. Lawrance Erlbaum Associates. 6. “Motivation and You”. Online available from http://www.csb.gov.hk/hkgcsb/hrm/e-motivation/e-motivation.htm 7. O’Neil, Harold.F. and Drillings, Michael. “Motivation: Theory and Research”. 1994. Lawrance Erlbaum Associates. 8. Wong, Roderick [2000]. “Motivation: A Biobehavioural Approach” .2000. Cambridge University Press. 9. McFarland, D.J., 1989. “Problems of Animal Behaviour”. Longman Scientific and Technical, Harlow. Read More