ABSTRACT
Motivation, or work motivation, is a topic which has not lost its relevance in today’s climate. Obviously, questions about how to foster work motivation are not a means in itself, but a means to an end: improving company performance. Work motivation contributes to company performance, because of the fact that highly motivated employees put all their efforts into the achievement of a task and therefore reach higher performances. Because of this, managers need to have an understanding of motivation and should be familiar with the basic motivation theories. Therefore, the central motivation theories will be described in this entry. Generally, these can be divided into process-and content-oriented theories.
