ABSTRACT
216Inside Tips
MOTIVATION WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Two areas of I/O psychology involve a tremendous amount of theorizing: motivation and leadership (the topic of leadership will be discussed in Chapter 13). Because both motivation and leadership are extremely complex and important topics in the work world, they have historically been given a great deal of attention by I/O psychologists. This chapter introduces a variety of theories of motivation. Rather than viewing these as isolated models, consider the ways in which they are similar. Some of these similarities are reflected in the grouping of theories into categories, such as need theories and job design theories, as shown in the chapter outline. Other similarities can also help draw related concepts together. For example, the need theories emphasize the satisfaction of basic human needs as a key to motivation, whereas reinforcement theory argues that motivation is caused by work-related rewards, or reinforcers. However, the satisfaction of human needs can also be seen as the experience of a reward. By understanding similarities such as these, you can begin to synthesize what at first appears to be an overwhelming mass of abstract and unrelated theories.
Besides looking for similarities among motivation theories and noticing topics that were previously discussed, pay close attention to the last section of the chapter, which emphasizes that motivation is only one of the many variables that can affect work outcomes. This is an important point because it reminds us to consider the “total picture”—the interrelationships among many organizational variables—when studying work behavior.
