Motivation!

Mullins (2008) states that motivation is ‘the driving force within individuals by which they attempt to achieve some goal in order to fulfil some need or expectation’.

Mullins (2008) also states that content theories of motivation ‘attempt to explain those specific things which actually motivate the individual at work and are concerned with identifying people’s needs, the strength of those needs and the goals they pursue in order to satisfy those needs’.

The content theory which has been most relevant to me in my life is ’Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’.  This theory is about satisfying a person’s needs at different levels. There are 5 levels to this, and they are each of different importance.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological needs are somewhat essential for life, safety, to a degree, is also an essential to live a healthy life. Love is another essential feature of life as everyone needs ‘caring’ or ‘belonging’ to a cause. Esteem and Self-actualisation is brought about through achievement and success and is something individuals want, rather that need. This is also referred to the ‘highest point’ of a person’s life. To achieve the top needs, a person must have the lower levels of this hierarchy.

Motivation was a key aspect for my decision to start Business & Sports Management at degree level. It really fills out the Esteem part of this theory. The reason for me being at university is so I can achieve the qualification of a degree, which in turn will help me to self-actualise. Achieving the degree will be beneficial to my future as it will help me to get a good job, and have a successful career. This is my motivation for seeing out the 3 year course. The idea of self-actualising, and reaching the highest point in life really is my motivation for doing this degree course.

Along with the university course, I also have a part-time job at Tesco. There was an opportunity for me to advance in my role at Tesco, and taking a role in the Phone Shop, however a corporate decision to eliminate this position meant that I could not take up the role and this left me de-motivated. When I was denied this opportunity, my esteem was lost, I felt less confident, not very respected, and I didn’t gain the achievement.  According to Hertzberg’s two factor theory, http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_herzberg_two_factor_theory.html , this would have damaged my ‘motivators’ at the time, affecting my confidence, and especially my own growth and advancement. To regain the motivation for work, my manager re-assured me that if the position became available once more, I would get the first opportunity in taking it. This helped motivate myself once again. There isn’t much that I could have done differently, as it was an external reason for my de-motivation.

Doing this research on my own personal motivation, I have realised that every aspect of my university course and my part-time work relates to motivation in one form or another. The idea of Maslow’s self-actualisation is realistic, everyone needs to be safe, and loved, however everyone wants to achieve the best that they can, and this is also what I feel like I want from this degree. To achieve the highest that one can achieve, they must be motivated to doing it; otherwise it will not be achieved.