Work Motivation

What is work motivation? Work motivation is said to be a set of energetic forces  that come from both within us as well as beyond an individual's being. These forces or energy are important to us in that they help in initiating  work-related behavior, and determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration. Motivation is a person's internal disposition to be concerned with and approach positive incentives and avoid negative incentives. To further this, an incentive is the anticipated reward or something that you expect to receive in return, available in the environment.

 While motivation can often be used as a tool to help predict behavior, it varies greatly among individuals, and must often be combined with ability and environmental factors  to actually influence behavior and performance. Because of motivation's role in influencing workplace behavior and performance, it is key for organizations and individuals to understand and structure the work environment that encourages productive behaviors and discourage those that are unproductive.

There is a general understanding that motivation has three psychological processes: These are arousal, direction and intensity. Arousal is what initiates action. It is energized by a person's need or desire for something that is missing from him or her at that particular time or period, either totally or partially. Direction is the path you take in accomplishing the goals you set for yourself. Finally, intensity is the vigor and amount of energy you put into this goal-directed work performance. 

The level of intensity is based on the importance and difficulty of the goal. These psychological processes result in four outcomes. First, motivation serves to direct attention, focusing on particular issues, people, tasks, etc. It also serves to stimulate an employee or you to put forth effort. Next, motivation results in persistence preventing one from deviating from the goal-seeking behavior. Finally, motivation results in task strategies, which are  patterns of behavior produced to reach a particular goal.