Explain analytically, how motivation theories could help managers elicit ‘discretionary effort’ from employees. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples of HR practices.

One of the most interesting fields of study in human resource management is that of motivation. Researchers have always tried to determine what motivates people's actions and, as a result, different motivation theories have emerged. But before these theories are examined, it should be made clear what motivation means. Lots of academics, including Beardwell and Clayton(2007), define motivation as willingness to exert effort for the realization of specific goals. When a person is motivated, his behaviour is based upon his or her individual needs. Many different factors affect human behaviour, so motivation could be described as a psychological process between the individual and the environment. According to Steers(1996), motivation is extremely important for understanding organizational behaviour. Herzberg also notes that specific attention should be turned to motivation, as it plays an essential part in work organizations. However, human behaviour varies from person to person, which means that people are often motivated by completely different factors. This variation in motivational variables means that it is difficult for managers to predict exact human behaviour or to manipulate employee's psychological willingness. That is the reason why there is no one best motivation theory or framework that can be applied to all people in all work situations. There are different sources of motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic. Van Yperen(2003) defines intrinsic motivation as „the motivation to perform an activity for itself, in order to experience the pleasure and satisfaction inherent in the activity“. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is guided by factors such as pay, security, supervision and