Finding the key to motivating employees is not a lesson easily learned, nor is it a lesson which, once learned, can be considered mastered. Instead, individual employees respond to different types of motivation in different ways, and successful supervisors develop comprehensive understanding of each of their employees and the corporate environment in which they operate. This research examines types of motivation and the components the go into successfully motivating employees to meet their goals and objectives.
Understanding motivation and performance begins with understanding that the workers are not necessarily to be blamed if their performance or motivation is not what the supervisor envisions. Instead of assuming that the workers in question are lazy or unskilled or unwilling to perform the task at hand, the wise manager seeks to understand why the workers are not performing to his expectations. While it may be that the workers do not possess the requisite skills (which can be remedied through training), there may be other factors involved which are more complicated and which reach to the heart of effective management. Assuming that the workers are being willfully disobedient or unproductive is to put responsibility where it does not belong (McGregor, 1985, p. 10).
There are a number of different approaches to work motivation, most of which can be broken down into either content theories or process theories. Content theories focus on what motivates people to perform, and are concerned with identifying the different rewards that people seek in their work. Process theories focus on how rewards control behavior. These theories are concerned with the dynamics, or process aspects, of work motivation (Gordon & DiTomaso, 1992, p. 783).
One of the first attempts at developing a motivational theory focused on the principle of hedonism, which finds that people will seek pleasure and avoid pain. Advocates of this approach ho...