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Motivation

"How to get the horse to drink"
(An overview of motivation)
By Corey Hays
Limestone College

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." True, but you can encourage him to drink. You can provide him an environment that allows him to feel comfortable while drinking at. You can show him the rewards of drinking and make him feel that he is in control. Yes, you can't make him drink, but you can sure make it seem like the best course of action.
But why motivate? No matter the size of the company, employees at all levels have the ability to make or break it. Satisfying the needs of employee's can greatly increase their productivity. Studies have shown that heightened motivation leads to an increase in effort, persistence, and response. (Corsini and Auerbach 579)
Motivating workers has become a major undertaking by managers in recent years. The idea that people are just another input into the process has gone by the wayside and has been replaced with the realization that human beings are unique and can bring much more to a business than simple task accomplishment. The key to unlocking this potential is through good management practices that establish an environment in which both the employee and the company can prosper.
To understand how to motivate, you need to have an understanding of the study of motivation. First we must know what motivation is. Simply put, motivation is an urge or a need that leads to a goal-oriented behavior (Thomas-Cottingham 62). Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association (Kazden 314), the study of motivation involves the creation of principles to explain why people initiate, choose, or persist in specific actions in specific circumstances.
According to most experts in the field of Psychology, there are two concepts that describe why people behave the way they do. First, people act in order to increase pleasure and decrease pain. Many managers use this concept to structure their motivational...