Human Resource management: Performance-related pay literature review - Essay Example

“Motivation is the drive or impulse that arouses interest and sustains it to attain a given end” (Calderon, 2003 p61). Motivation relates to what pushes a person to prefer to do one thing instead of another. In the organisational context, motivation relates to ways of getting workers and managers interested in meeting laid down organisational objectives rather than their own personal desires and expectations. Motivation is often attained in an individual where there is an incentive available for the person to do a given activity (Calderon, 2003 p61).

This therefore means that there should be some important things that drives a person to attain a given end rather than another. Motivation can be viewed from two facades: the first is intrinsic motivation and the second is extrinsic motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation relates to activities that come with inherent satisfaction because there is no separate outcome that the individual expects (Mwenda, 2009). On the other hand, extrinsic motivation relates to external stimulus that incites a person from the external environment rather than the internal (Ryan and Deci, 2000).

Maslows Hierarchy of needs places human needs in five stages (Maslow, 1943). In this quest, each person finds himself or herself on one level of the scale. However, at any given leve [except the topmost level], people normally strive to go further up the scale (Maslow, 1943). In every organisation, there is the need to identify what is important to individuals at every point in time. Based on this, appropriate motivational systems can be identified and this can be incorporated into an ideal motivational package.

Herzberg identified different forms of motivating factors amongst people. He classified them into hygienic factors and motivators (Akridge et al, 2012 p357). Hygienic factors are those factors that make life healthier and without them, there is