Motivating Employees:
Internal Motivation vs. External Influencers
Rosa M. Espinal
Axia College University of Phoenix
Motivating Employees:
Internal Motivation vs. External Influences
What is motivation and how can we inspire motivation in our employees? Good leaders ask themselves these questions each day, and attempt to answer them through specific actions. Often it is assumed that people are motivated by the same things and the truth is people are motivated by a wide range of factors. According to Lindner (2008), understanding what and how employees are motivated, has been the focus of many researchers, he states that Maslow found that employees have five levels of needs that have to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Lindner also mentions that Skinner’s theory states that employee behaviors that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated. Encyclopedia Britannica defines motivation as ‘forces acting either on or within a person to initiate behavior.’ Ultimately, two important factors affect employee behavior, internal motivation based on what drives them and external influences from other sources. Jim Ryun said, ‘Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.’ Thinking that one theory of motivation can possibly cover all the reasons people do anything do is a huge fallacy. There is a difference between internal motivation and external influence and both must be addressed to inspire motivation in employees. By understanding employee needs and building a company culture that fosters a great work environment, and inspiring employees to be self motivated and produce results, leaders provide external influences that motivate employees.
Understanding employee needs is
critical to motivating employees.
Everyone does not have the same motivators. Money, job security, recognition, promotions, learning...