What is motivation? The simplest and most accurate definition of this concept is formulated in the literature as follows: “impulse to action”. For example, if an employee is trying his best to exceed the plan in order to receive a significant increase in his salary this month, in this case we can say that he is “motivated”. Moreover, the impetus for action came from his leadership and resulted in the appointment of interest on the transaction.
Role of needs
In the same way, you can motivate any person, relying on important needs for him. But you need to know which ones. Salary is not important for every employee; someone will fulfill his duties more and better if he is constantly praised. And all because the recognition of others, and even more so of such an important person as a leader, is more important for him at a given moment in time. However, human needs tend to change, and not always a pleasant word addressed to an employee will give the same effect. As soon as the motive (motivation) has ceased to work, it is time for the employer to change his tactics.
The same applies to parents who want to improve the grades of the child, and spouses who seek more help from each other, and friends, friends, girlfriends, other relatives. It is clear why the question of what is motivation interests everyone.
Motivation is a powerful force that allows you to control people. And to find out what exactly will bring it into effect is quite simple. It is only necessary to carefully observe the person, listen and remember. In large enterprises, for this purpose, they even conduct surveys and psychological tests, and after finding out the actual needs of employees, they draw up a plan of motivation to work.
Defining features
The concept of motivation in expanded form includes all the above subtleties. It allows you to break down the psychological phenomenon into the following criteria:
- emotionally colored state;
- the presence of need, due to which there is a change in the state of the body (for example, from passive to active);
- the relevance of the need for a given period of time (otherwise the nascent emotion would not develop into the commission of specific actions).
From these related elements (conditions), an understanding of what motivation is is formed.
Self motivation
Impact can come from the person himself. Then we are already talking about self-motivation. It is thanks to this phenomenon that we act even when we absolutely do not want to: it is only worth changing the attitude to the problem. For example, many people want to quit smoking, but no weighty argument prompts them to give up this bad habit. Those who nevertheless managed to quit call so individual motives that one can only be surprised. For example, young girls give up smoking only when they realize that men with whom they could start a family prefer ladies without bad habits ...
Motivation to work
The most studied today is labor motivation, since theoretical information in this area is really necessary for practical application. There are already many theories about motivation, within which specific recommendations have been developed on the impact on employees in order to increase productivity or profit.
In this area of knowledge, motive is often confused with stimulus. Social payments, benefits, fines, penalties for violation of discipline - all this is just an incentive, and whether it will grow into a motive is not known. And yet, at each enterprise, not only the employee motivation system (in accordance with any theory) should be developed, but also the incentive system to maintain an appropriate standard of living for employees.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand what motivation is, given the versatility and complexity of the phenomenon. But it’s very important to come to a common term so that a difference of understanding does not harm the main goal - to learn to motivate ...