Motivation

Meaning of Motivation:
Motivation is a process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals. Motivation is a personal and internal feeling. Feeling arises from needs and wants. Human needs are unlimited. Fulfillment of one set of needs give rise to other needs. So Motivation is a continuous process.

Definitions of Motivation:
- The process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
- A process that starts with a physiological or Psychological deficiency or need that activates behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive. (Fred Luthas)
- Motivation is some driving force within individuals by which they attempt to achieve some goal in order to fulfill some need or expectation. (Mullins)
- The willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals, conditional by the effort ability to satisfy some individual needs. (Stephen P. Robbins)

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Need Theory):
Hypothesis: In every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs:
Physiological: need for hunger, thirst, shelter & other bodily needs.
Safety: security & protection from physical & emotional harm.
Social: love & belonging needs i.e. need for love & needs to belong.
Esteem: Internal esteem (self-esteem) such as self-respect, achievement & External esteem(esteem for others) such as status, recognition & attention.
Self-actualization: Highest level of need. Drive to become what one is capable of becoming. Includes growth, achieving one’s potential & self-fulfillment.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory of Motivation (Diagram):