Essay by KrisBGUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, March 2004

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Since motivation is one of the most important factors of organizational success a lot of people as professionals and scientists have tried to evaluate concepts how to get and keep the individuals of organizations motivated.

There are two different kinds of motivation. The first is what makes a person do something on his own by internal needs and drives. For example the need for food makes a person hungry and as a result the person will be motivated to eat something. Or if he/she feels to be too thick or not fit he/she will be motivated to do some sports. This kind of motivation is called intrinsic. The other kind of motivation is how one gets another person to do something what is not caused by intrinsic motives. To work because one is paid therefore still will be an intrinsic motive, because without money one is not able to buy food and other things within our society.

But what is about to get people to do their work in a special way or to work more for the same amount of money? One will have to give those people additional stimulation to their intrinsic motivation. This kind of stimulation is called extrinsic motivation. As seen above the insight that people could expect more from work than just money came relatively late to the scientists and professionals so that they started to develop theories about motivation and to conduct studies about the possible effects of motivation.

There are many theories to motivation. These theories consist of combinations of needs, incentives, goals, and reinforces. An interesting and useable framework that helps explain the strength of certain needs was developed by Abraham Maslow. Maslow hypothesizes that people have a set of five needs which are arranged in a hierarchy.

"ÃÂ«Physiological needs: These are...