CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF MOTIVATION
The complex nature of the concept of motivation has given rise to many definitions
The International Encyclopedia of Business and Management (2nd Edition) as edited by Malcolm Warner (2002: 4581) describe motivation and satisfaction as soft factor, that “these soft factors constitute hidden realities in organization which cannot be measured in a direct, objective wayâ€. They further posited that this is with respect to organizational culture, identify and managing effectiveness and quality.
Mullins (2002: 418) describes motivation as “the direction and persistence of action. It is concerned with why people choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue with a chosen action, often over a long period and in the face of difficulties and problemsâ€.
Ferret, Hirt and Ferrell (2008: 297) defines motivation as “an inner drive that direct a person’s behaviour toward goal.†That a goal is the satisfaction of some need, and a need is the difference between a desired state and an actual state.
Ivancevich and Matteson (2002: 147) identified the three main components of motivation as direction, intensity and persistence and pointed out that direction “relates to what an individual chooses to do when presented with a number of possible alternativeâ€, where as persistence means “ the staying power of behaviour or how long a person can continues to devout effortâ€.
For Gibson, Ivancevich and Donnelly (1997: 126) motivation means that concept employed in an attempt to describe “the forces acting on or within an individual to initiate and direct behavior†.According to these authors, the concept of motivation is employed in the explanation of the differences in the intensity of behavior with more intense behaviour referring to the result of higher level of motivation and also to indicate the direction of behaviour. For Stoner, freeman and Gilbert Jnr. (1995: 442) motivation referred to “a human Psychotical characteristic that can contribute to a persons degree of commitment and stated that it encompasses the factors that cause, channel and sustain human behaviour in a particular committed directionâ€.
These authors elucidated further on the motivational concept by positing that it is the management process of influencing peoples behavior based on the knowledge of what makes people “tickâ€.
Robbins and Judge (2009: 176) defines motivation as “the process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal,â€
Generally motivation is concerned with effort towards any goal, narrowing to organizational goals in order to reflect our singular interest in work related behaviour.
Motivation explain why people behave as they do. Similarly, a look at motivation explain at times, why people avoid doing what they should do. A person who recognizes or feels a need is motivated to take action to satisfy the need and achieve a goal. The above conceptualization pictures motivation as the impelling power behind all human actions.
2:2 BASIC ASSUMPTION ABOUT MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATING
Stoner etal. (2005)
There are some basic assumptions about motivation and motivating. They are:
i. Motivation is commonly assumed to be a good thing. People generally like motivation and it has one type of impact or the other on their lives
ii. Motivation is one of the several factors that go into a person’s performance
iii. Motivation is in short supply and in need of periodic replenishment
iv. Motivation is a tool with which managers can arrange job relationships in organisation
If managers know what drive the workers, job assignments and rewards will be appropriately tailored towards what make people “tickâ€
Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert Jnr. (1995: 442-443)
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION:
Classical Theory of Motivation:
The birth of the study of human relations theory can be traced to time and motion studies of Frederick Taylor and Frank and Lilian Gilbreth. Workers performing task work for increase productivity leading to the application of scientific principle of management. Money is the sole motivator for workers. To improve productivity these recommendations were made
• Breakdown task (specialization)
• Determine best way to perform each task
• Specify output to be achieved.
Taylor believe in the incentive of tying of workers pay to output. Develop piece – rate system. Workers to be paid certain amount per output. Those who achieved their output are paid a higher rate per unit for all the units produced. Taylor idea is still in practice today in the use of mathematical models, statistics, incentives and relating pay to performance. Satisfactory pay and Job security are motivators.
THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES
Elton Mayor experimented on the impact of light and noise in workplace to motivate workers for higher productivity
Researched from 1924 – 1932 at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company. Elton Mayor measured their productivity under various physical condition the Hawthorne effect.
