For every goal set out, a specific kind of motivation backs it up. Motivation is a fuel that drives the accomplishment of a goal. Without motivation, achieving anything in life becomes a challenging task. There are different types of motivation that help people achieve numerous things in life.
So, the term ‘motivation’ describes ‘why’ a person does something! Motivation initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. This blog focuses on motivation and explores different types of motivation required in various situations.
So, let us commence our discussion!
What is Motivation?
Motivation is an internal process that instills a desire to accomplish goals. This process endows a person with the drive and direction to become adaptive and have mental clarity in the work environment.
The essence of motivation includes energized and persistent goal-oriented behavior. When motivated, we move forward to take action and turn our dreams into reality!
Significance of Types of Motivation
Motivation is a crucial element for people who wish to fulfill their goals. While directing a subordinate, a manager uses different types of motivation to instill the desire within the employees to work. Here is why motivation is crucial:
- High Efficiency
Motivation untaps the reservoirs of physical and mental capabilities. Several studies have shown that motivation plays a vital role in determining an employee’s work performance level.
Thus, motivation helps in enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the employees, resulting in better utilization of resources. After all, the higher the level of motivation, the greater the degree of goal accomplishment.
- Facilitates Change
Effective motivation helps to overcome resistance to change and negative attitudes in the workplace. When the team members are satisfied, they come forward and take an interest in achieving organizational goals. Moreover, they become receptive to changes that the management wants in order to improve the efficiency of operations.
- Human Relations
Efficacious motivation creates job satisfaction, resulting in cordial relationships between the employer and employees. As a result, motivation offers many benefits, including industrial disputes, turnover, labor absenteeism.
Motivation solves the central issue of management and uses human resources effectively. Without motivation, workers may not put in their best efforts and may seek the satisfaction of their needs outside the organization.
The success of an organization depends upon the optimum utilization of resources. Now that you know how important motivation is, let us get straight to the different types of motivation.
Types of Motivation
There are two primary types of motivation, i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation includes the internal rewards one receives, while extrinsic motivation comprises the external rewards an individual gets. Let us discuss them further in detail!
- Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the drive that motivates a person intending to be rewarded internally. It is primarily based on personal gratification. Intrinsic motivation influences our everyday activities. It includes going to the gym, learning new skills, playing different sports, helping someone, etc.
Basically, anything that makes you feel good about yourself is fueled by intrinsic motivation!
- Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation stands for the things that support an external drive. Punishment and compensation are two significant parts of extrinsic motivation.
Compensation might include salary, money, goods, bonus, appraisal, etc., while punishment can comprise fines, blames, judgment, and much more. Punishment is primarily a pessimistic kind of extrinsic motivation, but it has quite a lot of positivity.
Extrinsic motivation is shown when an employee does his job well and gets decently paid for it. At the same time, extrinsic motivation also includes an employee coming to work on time; otherwise, he will lose money or get fired.
Either way, extrinsic motivation comes from something or someone outside.
Types of Intrinsic Motivation
A careful look into the types of intrinsic motivation will offer you a broad insight into how they all stand out in varied forms. Take a look!
- Competence Motivation
Curiosity and willingness to know more primarily drive competence motivation. This kind of motivation is also called learning motivation because it involves building more expertise on the subject rather than competing with others.
For instance, competence motivation is seen when employees spare their free time to learn something and improve their quality of work. Thus, this kind of motivation encourages the employees to improve their efficiency and productivity as they work!
- Creative Motivation
Creative motivation is often prompted by a desire to express something. It could be in the form of song, words, art, production, or business, but it always begins with a person trying to express oneself.
Led by initial self-drive, creative motivation includes a person benefiting from creative expression. For instance, creative motivation can include someone having the urge to write a quote, book, or poem. Even if the writing doesn’t make sense, there is always a sense of fulfillment in penning those sentiments into words.
However, there are no tangible rewards in this case, but the results are definitely gratifying.
- Attitude Motivation
This type of motivation is based on a willingness to change and make something good out of it. It doesn’t matter what people say, how they feel, or what vibes seep from within.
Interestingly, attitude motivation is when a person tries to see something wrong and wants to fix it, help it, or transform it. This kind of motivation comes from culture, education, and certain aspects of an individual’s personality.
For instance, a person carrying the bags of an older woman and helping her reach home safely, regardless of the day’s stress and exhaustion. There is no substantial reward, but it offers a sense of gratitude and fulfillment.
Types of Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation stimulates daily actions and encourages us to move forward to accomplish our goals. Here are the types of extrinsic motivation. Take a look!
- Reward-Based Motivation
This is probably the only type of motivation we are aware of because of its popularity. Reward-based motivation is the easiest and most rapid way to get a motivational boost. For instance, promise employees a bonus in their salary and witness how they work hard to fulfill organizational goals!
The issue with this kind of motivation is that it doesn’t last long. However, the reward one gets is more than just an internal feeling and is substantial enough as compared to intrinsic motivation.
For instance, employees competing to sell a certain amount of goods. The more one sells, the more reward they get!
A reward-based motivation works hand in hand with achievement-driven motivation as both give a fulfilling sensation of achievement. Thus, with this kind of motivation, you will be rewarded externally and be gratified for doing what the company wants!
- Power-Based Motivation
As the title suggests, power-based motivation depends upon the human desire to have power over others.
We can say that controlling or changing the situations in life of other people gives a person the motivation to move ahead. Well, power-based motivation often has a negative connotation, but it is not always bad!
It doesn’t always mean control! For instance, power-based motivation can be associated with leadership. A leader motivates and leads people. After all, as it is said – with great power comes great responsibility!
Great leaders inspire people to overcome challenges and help them organize their work. Moreover, they also take responsibility for the actions and decisions made, whether good or bad!
- Fear-Based Motivation
This motivation type drives people to achieve something they otherwise won’t be able to do. However, it does not include any monetary reward but the fear of pain and awkwardness!
Fear-based motivation is often tagged as negative, but it isn’t! Though this kind of motivation involves a negative result in inspiring an individual, it usually ends up producing optimistic results.
For example, you are trying to reach the office on time. If you are late, the manager will impose a fine on you! To avoid this situation, you wake up early every morning and beat the traffic to reach work. This sudden transformation will be considered fear-based because you are scared to come late to the office.
Best Types of Motivation for Different Activities
Having looked through significant types and subtypes, here are the best types of motivation in various scenarios.
1. For Employees
In the corporate world, it is vital to stay motivated. Hence, here are some selected types of employee motivation to yield positivity and maintain an optimistic work culture.
- Attitude Motivation
- Fear-Based Motivation
- Reward-Based Motivation
- Creative Motivation
- Competence Motivation
2. For Managers
We need some specific types of motivation for the management to function efficiently. Here they are:
- Attitude Motivation
- Competence Motivation
- Achievement Motivation
3. For Education
In the educational sector, the types of motivation are practical as well as theoretical! Here are the types:
- Achievement Motivation
- Reward-Based Motivation
- Fear-Based Motivation
Conclusion
The different types of motivation fall under two major categories, i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic. And they have their specific rewards. Yet, one can blend them to get the best end result.
All you have to do is understand the goals you need to achieve and provide the right motivational boost by practicing suitable types of motivation for the situation.
Always remember – you cannot use every type of motivation in every situation. However, you aren’t limited to just one, either! So, what are you waiting for? Mix up the different kinds of motivation and achieve an excellent result!
