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Employee Motivation, Rewards, and Driving Forces Motivation Term Paper
Pages:2 (638 words)
Sources:1+
Subject:Business
Topic:Employee Motivation
Document Type:Term Paper
Document:#17124560
Employee Motivation, Rewards, And Driving Forces
Motivation is the study of what makes us do things. Every day we are faced with many decisions. What choice we make is the study of motivation. There are several theories of motivation, the theory of opportunity-cost is the most widely recognized. This paper will discuss the major forces that drive us and influence our decisions.
The advent of the industrialized age forced many companies to study what motivates their workers in an attempt to boost production. It was believed that money was the key motivational factor in driving employee performance. It was later found that other factors besides money effect their attitudes and work ethics (Lindner, 1998). This led to further studies in an attempt to understand the factors that motivate employees. These included Maslow's need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory, Vroom's expectancy theory, Adam's equity theory, and Skinner's reinforcement theory (Lindner, 1998).
All of these theories centered on one factor. Modern motivational theory believes that all of these theories are summarized in one idea, opportunity-cost (Lindner, 1998). This idea is centered on the idea that every action has a cost.
This cost may be time, money, or emotional. In making our decisions we weigh the potential gain from the action against the cost (Lindner, 1998).
Motivation is important. For employers motivation means production. For students, motivation means the ability to achieve the end goal. Lorraine and associates conducted a survey of students in both high school elementary school and found that the degree of motivation in these students was directly associated with their ability to learn and perform certain tasks (Lorraine et.al., 2001).
In practical application, in order for employers to increase production and teachers to increase the ability for students to learn. Leaders must increase the benefit of the action and reduce the opportunity cost in relation ship to the gains involved. It is often easier to raise the reward than…
Sample Source(s) Used
Works Cited
Lindner, James R. Understanding Employee Motivation. Piketon Research and Extension
Center. The Ohio State University. Journal. June 1998, Volume 36, Number 3. http://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.html. Accessed May 2002.
Lorraine, Sherry, Shelley Billig, Daniel Jesse, and Deborah Watson-Acosta. Assessing the Impact of Instructional Technology on Student Achievement. The Journal. February 2001. http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3297.cfm. Accessed May, 2002.
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