Motivation is an important driver of success. To the extent that teachers and employers can motivate students and workers, their classes and businesses can succeed. Of course students and workers also bring their own motivation to the classroom and workplace. Motivation can be defined as the factors that energize, direct, and sustain behavior in pursuit of a goal (Perry & Porter, 1982). This can be further subdivided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Ormrod, 2012). Intrinsic motivation is the quality inside a person that causes them to desire to pursue a goal. It may be interest and enjoyment in that pursuit, or a sense of duty or obligation, or a belief in an ideal such as excellence or perfectionism. For example, one might be motivated to play a video game because of enjoyment, take a course because of interest in the topic, study for high grades or play for high scores out of an innate sense of competitiveness, or care for an ill loved one out of a sense of family needs and obligations. Extrinsic factors include monetary gain, professional advancement, praise from others, and so on.
Many factors have been found to affect motivation. Perry and Porter (1982) break motivational factors in the workplace down to four broad areas: Individual, job characteristics, work environment, and external environment. Individual factors include attitudes, need for affiliation and/or approval, desire for status/reputation and/or security. Job factors include measurability of success, goal clarity, job content and job challenge. Conflicting or diffuse job demands tend to decrease motivation. The clearer are the expectations, the better. Jobs also should seem worthwhile, making a contribution to the “social mission” (Koudelkova & Milichovsky, 2015). Work environment factors include the ways in which workers are treated by coworkers and supervisors (Perry & Porter, 1982). Organizations may attempt to motivate with systems rewards or individual rewards. Managers should reinforce workers’ sense that they are making a contribution. Quality of supervision makes a big difference in motivation. Supervisors need human relations skills and technical competence. A failure of either will decrease worker motivation. External environment factors include socionormative, political, demographic, economic, and technological factors. For example, if society believes work should be fulfilling, workers will bring different expectations, attitudes and values into the workplace. Expectations for citizen involvement in government can affect motivation among government workers, as can the prospect of one’s work encounters being recorded.
Affective and cognitive factors both play a large role in intrinsic motivation (Ormrod, 2012). Cognitive thoughts that increase motivation are similar at school and at work, including interests, values, belief in one’s abilities, belief in effort, and desire to reach a goal. So, for example, classes may seem easy because they are interesting. Others may require more effort because of new subject matter, but when one considers oneself a “good student,” effort is applied willingly. Some classes are uninteresting but required for the degree, so effort is put in to meet the requirements. In general, classes or work that is challenging is preferred so that it does not become boring. But if it is so challenging as to seem impossible, then motivation decreases because success seems unlikely.
A variety of affective factors also influence motivation (Ormrod, 2012). While motivation is mostly enhanced by positive emotions, such as interest and desire and optimism, negative emotions can also motivate. For example, sometimes we study hard just before the test or rush to get the project done primarily out of fear of a bad grade or a negative evaluation. Anger can also motivate; for example if someone says, “You can’t do that,” we often are motivated to try harder, “I’ll show them.” Nevertheless, negative emotions can also demotivate; and in the majority of situations, positive affective responses will motivate better than negative, and certainly make for a happier life.
Strategies to improve motivation include money rewards, goal setting, flextime, job enrichment, behavioral modification, award programs, discipline, and counseling (Perry & Porter, 1982). The most studied four have been monetary incentives, goal setting, job design, and participation. Of course these are not mutually exclusive as for example, monetary rewards are usually tied to reaching specific goals. Performance improvements as a result of money incentives such as merit pay or performance bonuses have actually shown mixed results, so have not had great popularity in businesses concerned about the bottom line and perceptions of unfairness.
However, if workers are not valued monetarily, it is important that they feel valued via other means, such as praise. With goal setting, specific achievable standards are established and employees are provided feedback regarding progress. Achievement of goals provides employees with an increased sense of worth. Job design may increase motivation through such changes as increasing responsibilities, varying tasks, providing more independence or more team cooperation. Participation allows workers to share in decision making. Other motivators that may be attempted include strict mandatory rules and working standards (Koudelkova & Milichovsky, 2015), but while these may motivate behavior, they could harm morale if they are administered too strictly and without empathy. For example, time off may need to be more flexible for an employee with a serious medical diagnosis.
Business surveys by these authors found that the most popular motivators were appreciation, financial reward, and investment in education; even so, they were applied only approximately 50% of the time. The major desired incentive that was not applied was time off. Elliot and Harackiewicz (1994) offer a word of caution regarding motivation strategies, however. They found interactions between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While people with high achievement motivation responded extremely well to performance goals, people with low achievement motivation responded poorly to them. Both groups responded well to mastery goals. Most likely, the low-achievement-motivation group felt that the performance goals were too demanding and unlikely to be met. In actuality, however, the research was designed so that the goals were the same, as far as the level subjects ultimately achieved in the game. Ideally, one could choose different goals for differently motivated individuals.
Research on motivation is important to improve performance in school and work. Every person needs the opportunity to reach their potential. Too many have become discouraged due to their inability to master certain situations in the past. Thus appropriate encouragement from teachers and employers that stimulates motivation can increase opportunities for success.
