MOTIVATION, BEHAVIOR, AND PERFORMANCE IN THE WORKPLACE

I. INTRODUCTION
Motivation is a subject that has long interested researchers and practitioners seeking to understand human behavior and performance. Over the course of the 20th century and into the new millennium, scholars have developed sweeping theories and have amassed large bodies of applied research investigating motivation across a variety of settings. Motivation has been studied in schools, the workplace, government, and athletic competitions, to name but a few contexts. It has been studied at the level of the individual, the group, and the organization. Some motivation researchers have employed cognitive models, which emphasize the role of thought processes in determining motivation and behavior, while other researchers have adopted non-cognitive paradigms, which focus on factors such as personality traits, affective states, and environmental determinants. This paper focuses specifically on research about motivation and behavior in the workplace. It discusses motivation theory, which has broad applicability across contexts, as well as the empirical research conducted in workplace contexts. In reviewing this literature, particular emphasis is placed on research about motivation and behavior as they relate to individual performance. A central aim of motivation research is to explicate the complex relationships that exist among motivation, behavior, and performance—such knowledge is critical for managers tasked with getting the most out of their employees, as well as for educators charged with engendering student success. Indeed, an important objective of this paper is to identify insights in the research about workplace motivation that may be transferrable to non-workplace contexts such as postsecondary education. Although a vast literature exists about motivation and behavior in educational contexts,