Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

Defining Motivation

Motivation is the inner state that causes an individual to behave in a way that ensures the accomplishment of some goal.2 In other words, motivation explains why people act as they do.3 The better a manager understands organization members’ behavior, the more able that manager will be in influencing subordinates’ behavior to make it work toward the accomplishment of organizational objectives. Because productivity is a result of the behavior of organization members, motivating organization members is the key to reaching organizational goals.4

Several motivation theories have been proposed over the years. Most of these theories can be categorized into two basic types: process theories and content theories. A process theory ...