The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

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The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Introduction
Motivation is defined as the inner drive that explains behavioral change. On the other hand, a motivator is a force that acts either on or within an individual to drive behavioral change. Motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation arises from internal factors, whereas extrinsic motivation arises from external factors such as money and promotion. Incentive theory argues that people are majorly extrinsically motivated, which means that extrinsic sources drive motivation among most people.
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
All intrinsically motivated behaviors are largely due to the inner drive to attain personal satisfaction. People engage in activities for the sake of inner fulfillment. For example, one will stay in college because of the desire to learn new things and expand their pool of knowledge. Extrinsically motivated behavior arises from the need to achieve something extra such as money, or emotional incentives such as attention or praise (Singh 197). Carrot and stick motivation theory is an approach that offers carrots as rewards for good behavior and a stick for bad behavior.
Carrot and stick are forms of extrinsic behavior and through which employees learn to stick to set goals. As long as rewards are attractive and punishments undesirable, this me...