Motivation

Motivation is  a tool that is used to keep a person actively engaged in something.  Motivation has a strong impact on what people do, how strongly people do something and how long someone will do something for. It can be derived internally, but it can also come from social influences, externally. Motivation can improve organizational performance, reduce the amount of employees that leave the company and boost the workforce morale.

There are alot of theories discussing how motivation can be improved. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, employees' needs consist of social, safety, esteem, physiological and self actualization needs. To be able to motivate an employee you must first know how high the employee is on the hierarchy and from there offer him the adequate needs to become more motivated. A theory from Herzerberg named the two-factor theory  suggests that salary and recognition are vital to keep satisfied employees. 

While motivation has its upsides, it also has its downsides, especially when it comes to maintaining it. Motivation can be fleeting, meaning it will come and go. Organizations need to find a way to keep the motivation consistent. The way organizations can keep motivation consistent is by creating standardized systems around motivation. This reduces the need of constantly having to come up with temporary motivation techniques. 

In my own experience I have noticed that short term motivation frequently appeared when I was close to an academic deadline. This is due to the fact that I am aware that the event is around the corner and if I didn't act then the consequences would be severe. If I wanted to motivate myself for the long term I found that I needed to set short term goals so that I could feel a sense of accomplishment which in turn  motivated me to move on to the next task. What also helped to sustain long term motivation for me was to incorporate feedback loops where I reflected on the strategies that worked and didn't work to efficiently complete a task. My experience highlights that continuous positive reinforcement through small goal achievements coupled with helpful feedback improves motivation for the long term.

Organizations can also create constructive feedback loops that are aligned with organizational goals across the entire organization.  By implementing this you remove communication barriers as feedback loops are an advocate for open communication. It also helps to identify conflicting goals early on, preventing problems from becoming bigger in the future.