The study of motivation aims to facilitate understanding of what prompts employees to initiate action, what influences their choice of action and why they persist in such action over time. Motivation is important to business practitioners since it assists in seeking high performance within organisations. While effective employee motivation improves productivity, it also generates challenges for managers to channel motivation towards the accomplishment of organisational goal. This essay intends to examine several motivation theories with reference to the film the Devil wears Prada, and then discuss some challenges managers may face when attempting to motivate employees in the contemporary world of work.
Following this introduction, three motivation theories including ERG theory, two-factor theory and reinforcement theory are exemplified by the film the Devil wears Prada in the findings part. Then, conclusions generating from findings as well as recommendations suggesting implications for managers will be given evolutionarily.
Findings
Motivation refers to the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. The rationale behind theories of motivation is to provide a framework through which organisations can better influence their employees’ drive to work and increase their enthusiasm with their roles. Theories of motivation mainly contain content theories focusing on the underlying needs that motivate, process theories explaining the way employees select behavioural actions and reinforcement theories examining the relationship between behaviour and its consequence. Among so many theories concerning motivation, the ERG theory, two-factor theory and reinforcement theory are selected to be discussed in this essay. Besides, using film to simulate and examine organisational behaviours is considered to be an effective way to assist students in applying management theories, and