Types of Employees, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors of Employee Motivation - Thesis Example

The paper “Types of Employees, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors of Employee Motivation” is an inspiring example of the thesis on human resources. Even before the word “motivation” was coined, business people were already aware of the importance of swaying or influencing workers to accomplish their assigned tasks for the organization. In the absence of systematic techniques of motivating workers, the early businessmen clung to the carrot-and-stick method (Andrews, 2004, p. 341). To entice workers to work harder, economic “carrots” were regularly offered. To physically, socially, and financially punish the workers, “sticks” were brandished on them (Govindarajan & Natarajan, 2005, p. 102). With the progress of the discipline of psychology, business people were afforded an opportunity to look for new ways to motivate people (Statt, 2000). What began was the departure by the management think tanks from the thinking that employees were just cog of the machine and input into the production of goods and services. Although Sigmund Freud and his input on motivation arising from his psychoanalysis school were initially rejected by the business people of his age (McCalley, 2002, p. 166), Elton Mayo was able to show the inadequacy and ineffectiveness of the pure carrot-and-stick method of motivating employees (Mackay, 2007, p. 41). Mayo and the Hawthorne Studies that he spearheaded gave birth to the human relations approach to management, which taught the managers to primarily focus on the needs and motivation of employees (Bedeian, 1993).

2.1.1Defining Motivation
Observably, there is an absence of consensus on the definition of motivation among scholars and researchers. This is evidenced by the many definitions and theories that have been advanced on the subject (Cuirrie, 2007, p. 2-3). But, just to have a point of departure in defining motivation, its etymology may be mentioned. Motivation is derivative of the Latin word movare (Rainey, 2009; Gunkel, 2005, p. 21) – i.e., to move, to disturb, to set in motion, to dislodge, or to change (Collins Latin Dictionary, 1996). Consistent to this, Webster’s II New College Dictionary (2001) defines motivation as “an impulse … emotion, desire or psychological need, acting as incitement to action … causing or able to cause motion”.