According to New World Encyclopedia, motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior. Motivation is not the same thing as personality or emotion. It involves having the desire and willingness to do something. Motivation is considered essential in learning and also in the performance of learned responses. That is, learned appropriate responses to situations will not necessarily produce expected behavior. The incentive to produce the behavior is motivation. As motivation correlates with the workforce, management should consider employees as the building blocks of the organization. Organizational success depends, heavily, on the collective efforts of the employees. Studies have shown that employees will collectively contribute to organizational growth when properly motivated. The dilemma then becomes what motivates the individuals that are a part of a work team.
In 1963, fifty years ago, workplace motivation was driven by the need for equality in treatment, consideration and pay. Though always considered a melting pot, the American workforce of 1963 was not nearly as diverse as it is today. People of that time were not expecting of the reassurance and encouragement that the employee of today looks for. In those times, you went to work, performed assigned tasks and your paycheck constituted reassurance, stability and acceptance. Today, managers face many challenges in motivating employees as opposed to fifty years ago. Three specific challenges faced by managers in 2013 include diversity, retention and subordinate qualifications.
Nelson wrote that diversity encompasses all forms of difference among individuals, including culture, gender, age, ability, religion, personality, social status and sexual orientation. Diversity has become a challenge for managers because today’s workplace requires them to be sensitive to each