Handbook of Human Performance Technology: Principles, Practices, and Potential, Third Edition

Chapter 20. Motivating Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

Richard E. Clark

	Motivation is [defined] in terms of selection of pursuits from competing alternatives, intensity of effort, and persistence of exertion.
	--Bandura, 1991, p. 158

Solid evidence supports both the need for and the benefits of motivational programs at work. For the past two decades the most comprehensive surveys of attitudes toward work demonstrate a disturbing but consistent lack of motivation among employees at all levels in all types of organizations. Approximately 50 percent of North American workers confess that they do only the minimum to avoid being fired, and about 80 percent admit that they could work "much harder" (Spitzer, 1995; Buckingham and Coffman, 1999). ...