Motivation can be described as a psychological process that causes the arousal, direction, and persistence of intended goal-directed actions (Mitchell, 1982). In other words, motivation is the internal strength of an individual that initiates, directs and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Morgan (1961) describes the following words as synonymous with motivation and these include desires, efforts, desires, needs, motivations, objectives, aspiration, drive and goals. Motivation is the desire that helps an individual to do certain things based on wants and needs. If an individual wants to satisfy these goals and needs, in that case it is necessary for the person to motivate himself to make certain moves. Morgan (1961) illustrates that motivation is behavior instigated by the individual's needs and directed toward goals that can satisfy the needs. Motivation is the determined power that will help the employee work up to his or her level of efficiency. It is commonly expected that well-motivated employees will perform better than other employees. As indicated by Berelson and Steiner (1991), motivation is the procedure of motivating the workforce to take action to achieve the organization's objectives. Work motivation is a combination of external and internal power that initiates work-related behavior and creates its direction, shape, duration, and intensity (Pinder, 1998). External forces can be identified as the nature of the work to be done and the reward system of the organization. Internal forces can be described as the individual's motivations and demands on work-related behaviors. According to Moorhead and Griffin (1998) motivate employees with the intention of working to their maximum ability and… middle of paper… t. Considering the daily responsibilities of a manager, motivating his employees is the most important and difficult function (Handy, 1944). Content theories attempt to describe and classify the needs that influence behaviors. Perry (2006) explains that content theories are the most influential theories because they analyze the behaviors of individuals. Motivation is the force that helps a person do certain things based on wants and needs. Investigating the definition of motivation, content theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's dual factor theory are the most powerful theories that describe motivation works as motivation is controlled by people's wants and needs. Maslow's (1943) hierarchical theory of needs suggests that human beings strive to reach the highest levels of their abilities with the goal of satisfying their desires.
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