Organizational Behavior Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Organizational Behavior - Research Paper Example Motivation Defined and Famous Theories The origin of the word ‘motivation’ was examined to have originated from the Latin word ‘movere’ or ‘motum’ which reportedly means ‘to move’ (Webster's collegiate dictionary, 1941). Motivation is defined as â€Å"a whole class of drives, needs, and similar forces that prompt a person to feel, think, and act in certain ways or to develop tendencies for specific behavior† (Martires & Fule, 2004, p. 570). From the definition, it could be deduced that there are complex forces that evidently interact and impinge on the individual or a group of persons to influence them towards a specifically defined direction or goal. These forces are hereby explored in greater detail through an examination of the motivational theories which evolved through time. What makes motivational theories challenging to be applied in the work setting is the diversity within which each person is designed according to ne eds and drives that rationalize their decisions to work. As such, the most competent people who are expected to design strategies that would be deemed most effective in motivating people are leaders or managers. ... onal theories include those that were conceptualized by Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs theory (Maslow, 1954); Herzberg’s motivation – hygiene theory (Herzberg, 1974); McGregor’s Theory X – Theory Y (McGregor, 1985); as well as the Expectancy Theory by Vroom (Vroom, 1964). However, in contemporary times, although some of these theories seem to be still applicable, there were research studies which were conducted that revealed practitioner applications in clearly identifiable scenarios in an academic setting. The results of the study were presented by Kroth (2007) and shown in Table 1, presented as an Appendix. From the tabular presentation, it could be deduced that motivational theories are deemed to be effective depending on factors which include the kind of working environment, the situation at hand, the personalities of the subordinates, as well as the personality and style exuded by the leader. Motivational Techniques There were identified motivationa l strategies or techniques that could be considered more effective than others. Although it was asserted that the effectiveness in application of the preferred strategies would actually depend on the situation, on a more general facet, five high performance employee motivation techniques were revealed, to wit: (1) provision of challenging and meaningful work; (2) setting clear standards or targets and expectations and being able to effectively measure the performance against these standards; (3) according direct, regular, and supportive feedback; (4) designing roles, tasks, and responsibilities according to the strengths of the employees; (5) empowering people to undertake performance of their duties (Holmes, 2013). It is also important to acknowledge that leaders should be able to first make an accurate