Motivation 360

“ If one wishes to create a highly valid theory, which is also constructed with the purpose of enhanced usefulness in practice in mind, it would be best to look to motivation theories ... for an appropriate model” (Miner, 2003, p. 29). Job characteristics model The Job characteristics Model (JCM), as designed by Hackman and Oldham attempts to use job design to improve employee motivation. They show that any job can be described in terms of five key job characteristics: Skill variety – the degree to which the job requires the use of different skills and talents Task identity – the degree to which the job has contributed to a clearly identifiable larger project Task significance – the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people Autonomy – the degree to which the worker has independence, freedom and discretion in carrying out the job Task feedback – the degree to which the worker is prov...

Motivation is of particular interest to educational psychologists because of the crucial role it plays in student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the specialized setting of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of motivation studied by psychologists in other fields. Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and how they behave towards subject matter. It can: Direct behavior toward particular goals Lead to increased effort and energy Increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities Enhance cognitive processing Determine what consequences are reinforcing Lead to improved performance. Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates. If teachers decided to extrinsically reward productive student beh...

Work motivation and Organizational behavior At lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, such as physiological needs, money is a motivator, however it tends to have a motivating effect on staff that lasts only for a short period (in accordance with Herzberg's two-factor model of motivation). At higher levels of the hierarchy, praise, respect, recognition, empowerment and a sense of belonging are far more powerful motivators than money, as both Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation and Douglas McGregor's theory X and theory Y (pertaining to the theory of leadership) demonstrate. According to Maslow, people are motivated by unsatisfied needs. The lower level needs such as Physiological and Safety needs will have to be satisfied before higher level needs are to be addressed. We can relate Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory with employee motivation. For example, if a manager is trying to motivate his employees by satisfying their ...

It may appear that the reason some students are more engaged and perform better in class activities relative to other students is because some are more motivated than others. However, current research suggests that motivation is not concrete or quantifiable; it is “dynamic, context sensitive, and changeable.” Thus, students have the flexibility to, intrinsically, motivate themselves to engage in an activity or learn something new even if they were not intrinsically motivated in the first place. While having this type of flexibility is important, research reveals that a teacher's teaching style and the school environment also play a factor in student motivation. According to Sansone and Morgan, when students are already motivated to engage in an activity for their own personal pleasure and then a teacher provides the student with feedback, the type of feedback given can change the way that student views the activity and can even undermine their intrins...