subject: Business Training Courses [print this page] Identify the ways in which you can contribute to their motivation. Motivation is the extent to which people apply effort to achieve goals so that their needs can be satisfied. Needs are complex and can be satisfied both inside and outside the workplace.
Needs also tend to be very individualistic. The glib answer to the question "Why do you work?" is "I work for the money", but this is a very crude and incomplete explanation for why people work.
Money is undeniably an important factor in influencing a person's motivation. Not only does it provide the means of satisfying many material needs but it is also a symbol of achievement and recognition. It is, however, wrong to overstate the role of money as a motivator, particularly when financial rewards are not directly related to performance and achievement.
In many situations money does get people to work but does not necessarily get people to work harder. Motivation has only been seriously studied during this century. Up to then, it was assumed that threat of starvation and meagre rewards were sufficient to keep workers motivated.
