Motivation:

Some people work for love; others work for personal fulfillment. Others like to accomplish goals or feel as if they contribute to something larger than themselves. Whatever your personal motivation for working, the bottom line, however, is that almost everyone works for money. Find out the latest thinking and research about what people want from their work - employee motivation.

According to Abraham Maslow there are five categories of needs and these five categories can be divided into two levels, lower level needs and higher level needs.

Self Actualization
Esteem
Social (Need for love, affection)
Security or Safety (Job Security)
Physiological Need (Food, Shelter, Drink, Sleep)

A general term applying to the entire class of drives, needs, wishes and similar forces. Motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want or goal.

Performance = Motivate (desire to do job)+ Ability (capacity to do the job) + Work environment (tools, materials, information).

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." (Albert Camus, 1913 - 1960, French author & philosopher)

"If you're not part of the solution you must be part of the problem." (the commonly paraphrased version of the original quote: "What we're saying today is that you're either part of the solution, or you're part of the problem" by Eldridge Cleaver 1935-98, founder member and information minister of the Black Panthers, American political activist group, in a speech in 1968 - thanks RVP


Need / Importance of Motivation:

Motivating factors definitely do not exit a vacuum. Even individual's desires and drives are conditioned by physiological needs arising from a person's background. But what people are willing to strive for is also affected by motivations; at others time it may arouse them.

Motivating factors are also applicable for the managers of large organizations. According to Abraham Maslow there are five categories of needs and these five categories can be divided into two levels, lower level needs and higher level needs. As the leaders and managers satisfy or fulfill the needs of the followers to motive them, the managers also have some need and these needs works as a self-motivator. The employees will be satisfied and motivated only when their two lower level need of physiological and safety need must be fulfilled. But managers' part, to motivate them higher level needs like social, esteem and need like self-actualization may be considered. People who start and develop a business showed very high need of achievement and high need for power drives. Managers generally showed high on achievement and power and low on affiliation, but not set so high or low as entrepreneurs. In large companies chief executives to be only average in achievement motivation and often stronger in drives for power and affiliation.

Managers in the upper-middle level of management in such companies rated higher in achievement motivation. Managers who do rate high tend to advance faster than those who do not, because so much of managing requires other characteristics beside achievement drive. Every large company probably have many managers who possessing fairly strong achievement motivation, also have a high need for affiliation.

Any motivation done by the top management requires some motivators important for managerial motivation. Patton identifies motivators important for the motivation of managers. These factors work as a self-motivators for the managers. They are as follows-

1.Challenging work.

2.Status

3.Leadership

4.Competition

5.Fear-loss of job, reduction of bonus, increment etc.

There is variance among the motivator in application mentioned above. According to some top managers Status is the important motivator among the five. Because every human being look for social status and this urges for social status drives them to motivate internally. Desire for leadership is also an effective motivator as part to be a leader . fear of loss or reduction of financial payments from the organization creates an impression to work effectively and attentively.