To begin we should look at what motivation actually is, Taylor (2010) defines it as “A set of processes that arouse, direct & maintain human behaviour toward attaining a goal.” In the context of an organisation the human behaviour referred to is concerning the behaviour of the employees and the goal that they are trying to attain is an objective or task set by management. The processes vary significantly, they can range from a salary to a sense of safety and will be explored in more detail throughout. Clearly from the definition we can see how important it is for a manager to understand motivational theory as they could then apply it to the workforce in order to achieve the goals they have set.
When understanding these theories it is important that managers are first made aware that there are two main contrasting approaches to motivation; namely the process theories and the content theories. Process theories focus on how people are motivated and how their behaviour is a result of rational thought processes. The main theories within the process approach are Adam’s
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