Human Motivation Essay Example for Free

Human Motivation Essay Need Theory Working relationships are a central portion of a person’s life. Motivation and dedication to any endeavor (e. g. work) and the pleasure from it are collective concerns of the organization and the individual. There are definite factors that generate satisfaction, the so-called â€Å"motivator† factors according to Herzberg. These factors push the worker to the highest levels of accomplishment possible. They are an inherent part of the work itself and consist of the nature of the work, the person’s sense of achievement, level of responsibility, and individual development and improvement. These motivator needs can only be rewarded by stimulating, challenging, and absorbing work. Consequently, the goal of motivation should be to enhance individual growth and advancement, develop sense of accomplishment and liability, and provide recognition (Franken, 1994). In a multinational company like National Panasonic, they practice and execute specific agenda for increasing motivation, one of which is Management by Objectives (MBO). They have faith in involving their employees in goal-setting and in decision-making. MBO works by integrating goal-setting into individual participation in decision-making in order to establish individual work goals to which the employee feels reasonably committed. At the motivational level, it is theorized that resistance to change is decreased if individuals participate in decisions regarding change and that individuals accept and are more committed to decisions in which they have participated in making. To further encourage and increase involvement, the company provides suggestion boxes and hold monthly contests where they give monetary rewards for the best three suggestions. These give the employee a sense of achievement and responsibility for its success. For this company, the employees receive incentives in the form of Ladder promotion, general salary increase annually plus performance rating salary increases, CBA – employees can expect a minimum of 15% increase in salary annually within three years; and welfare benefits which include group insurances, medical insurance, accident benefits among others Baron, 1983).  A company like this goes to such great lengths at least to assure that it does something for sustaining employees’ morale and motivation. Cognitive Theory Research on motivation is related to the overarching issue ‘What creates human action’ writes Franken (1994). While looking for more accurate scientific definitions, though, one finds a huge selection. Motivation theory, in addition, seems to necessitate an assumption of the human species, as various motivation theories formulate different assumptions about human nature. To presuppose that human beings are thinking creatures is of course not a contemporary breakthrough – the paradigm of the rational actor was based on such a conception – but due to the domination of behaviorist theory there are grounds to claim this once more. Cognitive scholars argued that to appreciate human behavior, one must also examine that which is not directly observable, that is, people’s thoughts. Widespread to cognitive theories is the assumption that people’s ideas about how the world came to be influence their behavior. The relevance of cognitive theory to motivation is the fact that it is not just one undeniable reality that influences behavior, but cognitions of reality. As these differ involving individuals, it entails that individual differences become central in motivation theory. A reward may signify something essential to one person and yet quite a different thing for another. Furthermore, history becomes significant. Because how a human being cognizes reality today relies on how she envisioned of it yesterday, and of how he/she imagines her future. Leading, early cognitive motivation theories were those of Kurt Lewin (1935) and Victor Vroom (1964/1995), where the authors made an effort to conceive of universal paradigms in order to understand human motivation, comprising such factors as how greatly a person rates a particular outcome, the possibility that the effect will be achieved, and other forces, termed driving forces and restraining forces (such as time, money, family obligations etc. ) that may influence an individual’s behavior (Baron, 1983). Cognitive theories lead motivation theory today. Universal models may have been discarded, but there is a huge amount of explicit ones, such as self-efficacy theory, equity theory, goal theory, control theory, attribution theory, the theory of reasoned action, or theories of how expectations of one-self and others affect motivation.. This may well be very applicable to adult learners in terms of individual learning abilities and attitudes. Individual differences are accounted for with this model. Adults’ perception and attitude towards learning or education are best explained when using the cognitive theories of motivation.