Motivation is a very important aspect of our everyday life, as our motives are major determinant of our behaviour in work, at home, everywhere. The subject of motivation covers many question from different areas e.g. areas associated with business: ‘What stimulates people at work?’ ‘What drives people to do the things they do in their job?’, to questions about our regular life: ‘Why am I going to People and Organization lectures?’, ‘Why did I choose to write my essays on this topic?’. There are many answers for all of those questions but in all of them we will be able to find motivation as the main force of our course of action.
If motivation is so important, to what does it then refer? Motivation derives from the latin verb ‘movere’, meaning ‘to move’. Movement implies action and, in order to act, energy and effort are required from the individual, therefore the level of motivation is depended on the amount of effort and energy people put into their work. In order for a person to generate energy and effort, they need to be stimulated by the work they, environment they work in. Most of people are highly motivated when they are well matched to their job. It is the fit between people and their jobs which determines an individual’s level of motivation.
The fit of job to an individual is not the only motivating characteristic of work. Accordingly to Huczynski and Buchanan there are other important characteristics in form of work motivation theories, which can be divided into three distinct but related perspectives, from which we can explore motivation: content theories, process theories and job enrichment theories .
First perspective from which we can examine motivation charact ...