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Motivating Employees

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Motivating Employees in the Workplace
Aimee Ecton
South Texas College
HRPO 2301 Human Resource Management
Mr. Frank Gomez
December 12, 2012

Motivation helps guide people towards a specific goal and pushes people to push their efforts until they reach that goal and relates that wide range of psychological processes. It has been determined that employees who are motivated produce higher and greater quantities, work harder, and stay with organizations longer. People desire different things and have different satisfaction levels so it is important for an organization to consider many things when trying to motivate their employees. First of all there is the need based theory of motivation. Needs are the physical and psychological requirements that must be met to ensure survival and well-being. Abraham Maslow derived a hierarchy of needs that suggests that people are motivated by these needs. Then there are process theories and these theories are based on how people become motivated. Finally, of course there are the rewards. All motivation leads towards some sort of reward and they consist of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards.
Needs are the phsycological and or physical requirements that need to be met in order to ensure well-being and survival. A need that is capable of motivating behavior is called prepotent. Abraham Maslow came up with a hierarchy of needs that describes the fundamental theories of personal needs. He suggests that each need has to be satisfied a substantial amount in order to progress to each level. As needs are satisfied, it no longer becomes a motivator. The employee then moves on to the next level of needs one at a time. There are five basic needs that comprise Maslow’s hierarchy. These needs are identified as physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Many organizations use Maslow’s theory to help motivate and retain

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