McClelland's Trichotomy of Needs and other Concepts of Motivation Essay

McClelland's Trichotomy of Needs and other Concepts of Motivation - Essay Example Several scholars define motivation and present their own theories on how employees can be motivated to act. Motivation is the willingness to exert a high level of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to satisfy some individual need (Ribbins, 1993 cited in Nasri and Charfeddine, 2012). It is a set of energetic forces that originate from within as well as beyond an individual’s being (Latham and Ernst, 2006). Most employees would work up to a certain point but to stretch beyond, they need some kind of stimuli. These stimuli are the motivating factors that induce an individual to exert extra effort. Thus an increase in motivation results in higher productivity and enhanced profits, which is the ultimate goal of any organization. Thus managers must have knowledge of the motivation theories which will help create a motivational atmosphere.   People have different kinds of motivation and human motivation can vary not only in level but also in typ e. Accordingly, Mirabela-ConstanÈ›a and Maria-Madela (2011) elaborate on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivations are those activities that give rise to inner satisfaction and are not based on expectations of some extrinsic gains such as monetary compensation.  Ã‚   Extrinsic motivation is said to exist when an activity is performed to obtain some separable outcome. The term ‘separable’ suggests that it is an objective gain whereas intrinsic motivation provides a subjective experience, subjective gain and is not separate from the individual. This is definitely superior to extrinsic motivation and Ryan and Deci also confirm that extrinsic rewards can decrease intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation reflects external control whereas intrinsic motivation provides an opportunity for self-direction.   Threats of punishment also decrease intrinsic motivation whereas verbal praise or some similar external reinforcement may increase intrinsic motivati on.