Key Factors in the Motivation of Employees in the Institute of Physics - Coursework Example

We can differentiate between needs and wants. While needs are more comprehensive and include desires- physiological or psychological, wants are expressed in a narrow sense and include only those desires for which a person has money and also the desire to spend money for satisfying the wants. There are many psychological needs, e.g., to get status in the organization, which do not come under the category of wants.

Thus human behavior (activities) is caused by motives or needs, and motivation is the process of inducing persons to experience needs for certain desired behavior so that organizational efficiency is achieved. Various persons1 have defined motivation in their own words; however, the basic contents are the same. Motivation is a psychological phenomenon, which generates within an individual. Needs are feelings in the mind of a person that he lacks a certain thing. Such feelings affect the behavior of the person. 2. Person in totality, not in part, is motivated.

Person in totality, not in part, is motivated. Each individual in the organization is a self-contained and inseparable unit and his all needs are interrelated. These affect the behavior in different ways. Moreover, the feeling of needs is a continuous process; as such these create continuity in human behavior. 3. Motivation is the product of anticipated values from an action and the perceived probability that these values will be achieved by the action.

The anticipated value is called 'value' and it is defined as the strength of a person's preference for one outcome in relation to others. The perceived 1Victor H. Vroom, Work and Motivation, New York: John Wiley, 1964.probability is called 'expectancy' and it is defined as the strength of belief that a particular act will be followed by a particular outcome. Thus, the motivational relationship can be expressed in the following formula.Motivation = Valence x ExpectancyMotivation and BehaviorMotivation causes goal-directed behavior.

The feeling of a need by a person causes him to behave in such a way that he tries to satisfy himself so that he does not feel the lack of that particular thing. This can be expressed in the following figure. Motives (needs) Tension Wants Tension Behavior (Release of tension) Environments Incentives Fig.1. Needs cause behavior
A need, that is, the feeling that something is required, creates tension in the mind and transforms itself into want depending upon the environment. This tension is released when this particular need is satisfied by certain behavior again in the environment, that is, incentives exist to satisfy the needs.

Behavior ends the moment tension is released. However, the satisfaction of one need leads to a feeling of another either of a different need or the same need after the lapse of a certain time. Thus this process is a continuing one. However, if the need is not satisfied because of some reasons the person may feel frustration which can be defined here as the accumulation of tension because of non-fulfillment of needs.