Motivation Essay

Motivation is essential to almost any aspect of life. Nature has an intrinsic motivation; it does what it does in and out of itself, without further reflection. What difference with human activity! There are few humans on this planet who don’t question or reflect on their motivation for certain tasks every day. And yet, it’s such an underdeveloped field of research. There are many theories, but from their diversity we can gleam their inability to capture the complexity of human motivation in a simple, natural way. Maybe it’s because the word ‘motivation’ is most often used in reference to work. While activity is an innately human activity, work is not necessarily. Our modern-day work arrangement is a large-scale system aimed (amongst many other things) at creating global productivity and scalability. We participate in it out of free will, but also because there is little other choice. No work; no pay! This is where human motivation comes in: how do you motivate people that aren’t really doing it because it’s their birthright and they feel subconsciously compelled to it? That’s what motivation theories are all about, and what this publication aims to map out. I want to stress that this is not an academic work. It’s my personal summary of material that I’ve collected and ordered for my own clarity and understanding. It’s aimed at managers, business owners, entrepreneurs, HR-people that want a simple and concise overview of motivation theory. I’ve aimed at fast and easy reading, and focused on explaining the theories.