Everybody is motivated BY some factors or the other. In this study we aim to find the motivational drives that are most significant when deciding upon a career goal. A very significant part of every person’s life is spent at his workplace. So enjoying what he is doing there is very important for his well being. Hence the factors that motivate and individual are very important to be existing in his work place. So, with the guidance and help of Dr. Fenn, we have tried to find the motivational profile of students in XLRI and link then with their career objectives.
This helped to reveal interesting findings regarding people with different motivational profiles selecting different careers and why? The study gave us an insight on the current nature of the industry due to the impact of people with different motivational profile going for those sectors. The term motivation was originally derived from the Latin word movere, which means to move. However this one word is obviously an inadequate definition for our purposes here. What is needed is a description which sufficiently covers the various aspects inherent in the process by which human behavior is activated.
Cambell and Pritchard have said that “motivation has to do with a set of independent/dependent variable relationship that explain the direction, amplitude and persistence of an individual behavior , holding constraints the effects of aptitude , skill, and understanding of the task, and the constraints operating the environment. ” These definitions appear generally to have three common denominators which may be said to characterize the phenomenon of motivation.
Each of these three components represents an important factor in our understanding of human behavior at work. First, this conceptualization points to energetic forces within individual s that drive them to behave in certain ways and to environmental forces that often trigger these drives. Second, there is a notion of goal orientation on the part of the individuals; there behavior is directed towards something. Third this way of viewing motivation contains a systems orientation i. e.
it considers those forces in the individuals either to reinforce the intensity of the drive and the direction of their energy or to dissuade them from their course of action and redirect their efforts. The general model of the motivational process appears fairly simple and straightforward such is not the case however. Several complexities exists which tend to complicate the theoretical simplicity. Dunnette and Kirchner, (1965) and four others have identified four such complications. First, motives can only be inferred they cannot be seen.
In fact at least five reasons have been identified as to why is it difficult to infer motives from observed behavior:A second complication centers around the dynamic nature of motives. Given the changing nature of an individual’s particular set of motives and their often conflicting nature it becomes exceedingly difficult to observe or measure them with much certainty. Third, considerable differences can exist among individuals concerning the manner in which they select certain motives over others and their intensity which they pursue such motives.
The final complication of the model is the impact of goal attainment on subsequent motive and behavior. In conclusion, it must be remembered that the above the above description of motivation processes represents a general model of human behavior. An important construct in many early philosophical writings was hedonism. The principle of hedonism states that individuals seek pleasure and avoid pain – they pursue things that bring comfort & satisfaction and avoid things that bring pain & discomfort.
Towards the end of 19th century, motivation theory began moving from the realm of philosophy towards the science of psychology. Several theories of motivation began evolving which attempted to formulate empirically verifiable relationships among sets of variable which could be used to predict behavior. The earliest such theory centered on the concept of instinct. Instinct theory Psychologist like James, Freud, McDougall have proposed that two additional variables were crucial to understand behavior: instinct and unconscious motivation.
These theorists visualized behavior as being instinctive rather than rational. However, while McDougall saw instinct as purposive and goal-directed, other instinct theorists defined the concept in more in terms of blind and mechanical actions. The second major concept associated with instinct theories is that of unconscious motivation> Freud (1915) ardently advocated the existence of such a phenomenon. He argued that the most potent behavior al tendencies were not necessarily those that the individual consciously decided in their best interests.
