Gouws defined motivation as an inner wish or urge that originates with an individual, either consciously or unconsciously, to complete a task successfully because it is enjoyable, and not necessarily for what will be received in return.
Petri also regarded motivation as the forces acting on or within a person to initiate and direct behaviour. It explains differences in intensity of behaviour, and why behaviour occurs in one situation, but not in another. The concept of motivation is therefore particularly useful in its ability to increase general understanding and prediction of behaviour.
The term motivation is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’, which means ‘to move’.
A great many definitions of the motivation construct have been postulated over the several decades during which this multi-faceted concept has been researched. The rich variety in perspectives on the topic of motivation is illustrated below.
Schultz and Schultz, for example, regarded motivation as simply the personal and workplace characteristics that explain why people behave the way they do on the job. Beck expressed a similar view, and stated that motivation is concerned with explaining the variation in behaviour, such as why some people work harder than others. Work characteristics in this regard refer to specific characteristics of a person’s job, for example its task variety, whereas personal characteristics include those determined by a person’s personality, for example an intrinsic need for achievement.
Some authors take a slightly more intrinsically oriented stance, with work characteristics playing a lesser role. Spector saw motivation as an internal state that induces a person to engage in particular behaviours, and held that motivation may be viewed from two angles. On the one hand, motivation encompasses direction, where a particular behaviour is selected from a choice of behaviours, intensity, referring to the amount of effort put into a task, and persistence, which denotes the person’s continuing engagement in the selected behaviour. On the other hand, motivation is also concerned with a desire to achieve a certain goal, which derives from the particular individual’s own needs and desires.
The term motivation is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’, which means ‘to move’.
A great many definitions of the motivation construct have been postulated over the several decades during which this multi-faceted concept has been researched.
