Meaning, Definition, Types and Nature of Motivation

Nature of Motivation

The nature of motivation is as follows:

1) Psychological Concept

The person’s activation depends upon the perceived needs and expectations. The process of motivation, which is mainly concerned with desires, needs, expectations, satisfaction, and confidence, is a psychological phenomenon. The psychology of every person is different from others and therefore it is very difficult to ascertain in practice what methods and purposes will motivate a person towards desired goals.

2) Continuous Process

Human wants are unlimited. With the satisfaction of one want, another want of the higher order is created. Thus, new wants arise when the present wants are fulfilled. Moreover, all the wants cannot be satisfied at the same time, they are to be satisfied one after another continuously. So, it is an ongoing and never-ending process.

3) Dynamic and Situational

The ideas, performance and aims all are dynamic. The things that motivate a person today may not motivate him tomorrow. His drives, expectations, needs, and value judgment keep changing and hence the process of motivation is extremely dynamic.

Inspiration is also situational in a set of organizational structure, climate, physical facilities, and nature of work, a person may be deeply motivated, but any change in them may affect his stimulus.

4) Not Easily Observed Phenomenon

The actions of a person can be observed and then we try to understand the actions which constitute his behaviour in terms of his underlying motivations and fulfilment. In this analysis, there can be many misunderstandings.

5) Goal-Oriented Process

Proper and effective stimulus inspires people to contribute their best towards the realisation of their individual goals as well as organisational goals.

6) Influenced by Social and Cultural Norms

Social and cultural norms, customs, values, and traits play an essential role in stimulation. If society attaches respect, acceptance, and recognition to a job or organisation, a person is motivated toward that job or organization.

Motivation Meaning

Motivation is derived from the word ‘motive’. Motive refers to the drives, needs, impulses, and wants within a person that induce him to continue in the course of action enthusiastically.

It may be defined as the complex process of stimulating a person to achieve desired goals and to perform actions by using his maximum capabilities for the achievement of certain objectives. Stimulation includes promoting desires and needs in individuals to initiate and direct their behaviour in a purposive manner. It is a psychological phenomenon that arises from the feeling of the needs and wants of individuals. It causes goal-directed behaviour.

Motivation can be described as the driving force within people that drives them to perform actions. This driving force is generated by tension, which exists as a result of unsatisfied needs. Consciously and subconsciously people try both ways to reduce their tension through behaviour that they anticipate will fulfil their needs and thus free them of the stress they feel.

Related Article:- Nature of Organisational Behaviour

Motivation Definition

According to Dalton E. McFarland, “Motivation refers to how urges desires, drives, strivings, aspirations or needs direct, control or explain the behaviour of human beings”.

As per S.P. Robbins, “Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organisational goals, conditioned by the effort and ability to satisfy some individual need”.

According to Likert, “Motivation is the core of management which shows that every human being gives him a sense of worth in face-to-face groups which are most important to him. A supervisor should strive to treat individuals with dignity and recognition of their worth”.

Types of Motivation

Generally, there are two types of motivation.

Positive motivation and
Negative motivation

Stimulation can be classified on the following bases, some of the important types of motivation are as follows:

Positive and Negative Motivation
Rational and Emotional Motivation
Primary and Secondary Motivation
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Financial and Non Financial Motivation

1) Positive and Negative Motivation

i) Positive Motivation

It tries to create an optimistic and supportive environment in the organization. Positive motivation is that such type of stimulus involves identifying an employee’s potential and making him realise the possible result by achieving his potential. People are said to be positively motivated when they are given a reward and shown the way to achieve it, compensation can be both financial or non-financial.

ii) Negative Motivation

An individual can get the desired work done by instilling fear in the minds of other people. In this method of inspiration, the fear of results always keeps the worker in the desired direction. This method has several limitations. Fear produces frustration, a hostile state of mind and an unfavourable attitude towards the job which hinders productivity and efficiency. So the use of it should be kept to its lowest.

2) Rational and Emotional Motivation

i) Rational Motivation

Traditionally the term rationality is associated with persons who carefully weigh the pros and cons of all the alternatives and then choose the one that gives them the greatest utility. In the marketing context, we can say that consumers who are ‘rational’ will select the goals after learning many objective criteria such as weight, size, price, etc.

ii) Emotional Motivation

As against this emotional motive are those goals, which are selected based on emotion’s involvement. Usually, such goals are selected purely on personal or subjective criteria such as a desire for recognition of status, fear, pride, esteem, love, etc.

3) Primary Motivation and Secondary Motivation

i) Primary Motivation

Primary motive also known as biological motive has a definite physiological basis and is biologically necessary for the survival of the individual or species. These arouse the behaviour of the organism in directions that lead to the required change in the internal environment.

The sources of biological motivational needs include increased/decreased stimulation (arousal), activating senses (taste, touch, smell, etc.), and decreased hunger, thirst, and discomfort.

ii) Secondary Motivation

Secondary motivation is a learned stimulus and is sometimes known as the psychobiological rationale. They are not physiologically based. These are the reasons for the development of a personality. Secondary motives originate during our lifetime. They are gained and learned through our interaction with people. They are classified into two types which are social motives and psychological motives.

Social motive is those which motivates us to go out, interact with people and do things that give a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction psychological motives are individualistic as they are related to self-security, self-freedom, self-exhibition, self-esteem, self concept and self-assertion.

4) Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation

i) Intrinsic Motivation

It refers to a motive that comes from inside of an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades. People may work at a job because it gives them feelings of competence and a sense of personal control, the job is a subject of pride, doing the job is fun, the tasks are challenging, and so on. In this situation, the person is intrinsically motivated to do work.

Therefore, intrinsically motivated behaviours are ones for which there is no clear reward except the activity itself. People may be motivated by intrinsic needs, for example, the need for the satisfaction that accompanies performing meaningful, interesting, enjoyable or challenging work, a desire to belong to a social group, a sense of responsibility, self-esteem, success, creativity and making a difference in some way.

ii) Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by external rewards and comes from the outside world. The tangible motivating factors are rewards such as grades or money and intangible rewards are praise or fame. These rewards provide happiness, fulfilment and job satisfaction that the job itself may not provide. Extrinsic stimulus drives the performance of an activity to gain a particular externally offered or required result. The stimulus that leaders or managers create in people through their actions is extrinsic. People are motivated to do something or not to do it as a result of a leader’s or manager’s behaviour.

Motivation is not just a result of good leadership. People may be motivated to achieve the required results through bullying or instilling fear in others, as a means to avoid unpleasant consequences. This is negative reinforcement. People may be motivated by the hope of extrinsic rewards, such as money recognition and other externally provided rewards and benefits. Extrinsic motivation entails a feeling of compulsion to do things for an external source to achieve a result that satisfies usually lower-order needs like money for survival.

Extrinsic motivation entails securing and seeking a reward to work. It occurs when an activity is rewarded by incentives that are not inherent in the task, i.e., extrinsic stimulation is external to the individual; rewards such as money are presented for engaging in tasks.

5) Financial and Non Financial Motivation

The term ‘incentive’ means a temptation, which excites or motivates one to act in the desired direction. An incentive has a motivational power, it influences the decisions of people about putting efforts toward task completion. In modern organisations, various incentives are used to motivate people.

These incentives are of two types, as given below:

i) Financial Motivation

These are monetary as they involve the flow of money from the organisation to staff. Examples of pecuniary benefits are wages, salaries, allowances, bonuses, fringe benefits, etc.

ii) Non Financial Motivation

Non financial incentives do not involve many financial commitments on the part of the organisation. They do not add to the monetary benefits of those who receive them. They take the form of job enrichment, participative management, praise, an opportunity for growth, etc.