What is motivation?

Motivation is the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.

Intensity describes how hard a person tries. This is the element that most of us focus on when we talk about motivation.

Direction is high intensity effort that is unlikely to lead to favourable job-performance outcomes unless the effort is channelled in a direction that benefits the organisation.

Persistence measures how long a person can maintain effort. Motivated individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal.

Early theories of motivation. 
The 1950s were a fruitful period in the development of motivation concepts. Three specific theories formulated during this period - although heavily attacked and now questionable in terms of validity - are probably still the best-known explanations for employee motivation.
- Hierarchy of needs theory
- Theory X and theory Y
- Two-factor theory

You should know these early theories for two reasons:
1. They represent a foundation from which contemporary theories have grown
2. Practising managers still regularly use them and their terminology in explaining worker motivation.

Hierarchy of needs theory
The best-known theory of motivation is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow hypothesised that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs:
1. physiological: includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex and other bodily needs
2. safety: security and protection from physical and emotional harm
3. social: affection, belongingness, acceptance and friendship
4. esteem: internal factors such as self-respect, autonomy and achievement, and external factors such as status, recognition and attention
5. Self-actualisation: drive to become what we are capable of becoming: includes growth, achieving our potential and self-fulfillment.