Definition and Purposes of Work Motivation

Flipo (1984) theorized that motivation is a direction of employees in an organization to cooperate in achieving wishes of the employees in order to achieve organizational success. According to Terry G (1986), motivation is a desire contained in an individual encouraging him to perform action (behavior).

In a person, there is a need or desire (wants) of situation outside the object, then how one connects between the needs and the situation outside the object in order to meet the needs intended. Therefore, motivation is a reason (reasoning) of a person to act in order to meet the needs.

In general, the goal of motivation is to move or inspire someone in arising the desire and willingness to do something so as to obtain results or achieve certain goals.

The success of an institution or organization is determined by two main factors; human resources, employee or labor, supporting facilities and infrastructure or work facility. Human resource or employee is more important than supporting infrastructure. Motivation in the organization has very broad intent and purpose.

The purposes of motivation

1. Encourage passion and spirit of employee 

2. Improve employee satisfaction which ultimately will improve the performance

3. Improve employee productivity

4. Improve employee loyalty and integrity

5. Improve employee discipline

6. Improve employee attendance

How to Measure Motivation

There are several ways to measure motivation:

1. Projective Test

One of projective techniques widely known is Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). In this test, client is given a picture and the client is asked to make a story out of the picture.

In theory of Mc Leland, it was explained that humans have three needs: need for achievement (n-ach), need for power (n-power), and need for affiliation (n-aff). From the content of the story, we can examine a client's underlying motivation based on the concept needs.

2. Questionnaire

The trick is asking client to fill out a questionnaire containing questions that can provoke the client�s motivation.

For example is EPPS (Edward's Personal Preference Schedule). This questionnaire consists of 210 numbers which each number consists of two questions. Client is asked to choose one of these two questions that is more representative of him. From filling the questionnaire, it will be known the motivation of the client.

3. Observation

Another way to measure motivation is creating a situation so that the client can bring the behavior that reflects his motivation.

For example, to measure the desire to excel, the client is asked to produce origami in a certain time limit. The behavior observed is, whether the client uses the feedback given, takes risky decisions and concerns with the quality rather than quantity of work.

Definition and Purposes of Work Motivation

Flipo (1984) theorized that motivation is a direction of employees in an organization to cooperate in achieving wishes of the employees in order to achieve organizational success.

According to Terry G (1986), motivation is a desire contained in an individual encouraging him to perform action (behavior).

In a person, there is a need or desire (wants) of situation outside the object, then how one connects between the needs and the situation outside the object in order to meet the needs intended. Therefore, motivation is a reason (reasoning) of a person to act in order to meet the needs.

In general, the goal of motivation is to move or inspire someone in arising the desire and willingness to do something so as to obtain results or achieve certain goals.

The success of an institution or organization is determined by two main factors; human resources, employee or labor, supporting facilities and infrastructure or work facility. Human resource or employee is more important than supporting infrastructure. Motivation in the organization has very broad intent and purpose.

The purposes of motivation

1. Encourage passion and spirit of employee 

2. Improve employee satisfaction which ultimately will improve the performance

3. Improve employee productivity

4. Improve employee loyalty and integrity

5. Improve employee discipline

6. Improve employee attendance

Factors Affecting Employee Performance

A labor or employee will always be demanded to have good and high performance by the company. It is very reasonable because the company has high targets to be achieved, for example, maximum profit, satisfactory customer service, and maintaining the company existence. 

Many experts express about the factors affecting the performance of a person, including employees. Factors that affect performance according to Sutermeister (1999) consist of motivation, ability, knowledge, skills, education, experience, training, interests, personality attitudes, physical conditions and physiological needs, social needs and the needs of egoistic.

Mangkunagara (2002), for example, argued that there are two factors affecting performance achievement. 

The two factors are ability and motivation factors:

Ability of a person consists of the ability of potential (IQ) and the ability of reality. Reality ability is a merger between knowledge and skills. Based on these abilities, then --- in work context --- staffing must be in accordance with the expertise (The right man in the right place, the right man on the right job).

Motivation is formed of an employee attitude in a work situation that drives him directionally to achieve his work objectives in order to achieve organizational goals. For that, it is needed self-motivation that will encourage him to do an activity well to achieve good performance or work achievements. That's called a positive relationship between achievement motive and the achievement of performance as proposed by McClelland (in Mangkunagara, 2002).

Teori Motivasi Prestasi David McClelland

David McClelland atau nama lengkapnya adalah David Clarence McClelland ini adalah seorang ahli teori psikologi dari Amerika Serikat yang lahir pada 20 Mei 1917 di Mt. Vernon, New York.

Karya David McClellad antara lain :

1. The Achievement Motive - Tahun 1953

2. The Achieving Society - Tahun 1961

3. The Rootsof Consciousness - Tahun 1964

4. Toward A Theory Of Motivation Acquisition - Tahun 1965

5. Power : The Inner Experience - Tahun 1975

6. Managing Motivation to Expand Human Freedom - Tahun 1978

7. Human Motivation - Tahun 1987

Mc Clelland mengemukakan 6 karakteristik orang yang mempunyai motivasi berprestasi tinggi, yaitu :

1. Memiliki tingkat tanggung jawab pribadi yang tinggi

2. Berani mengambil dan memikul resiko

3. Memiliki tujuan realistik

4. Memiliki rencana kerja yang menyeluruh dan berjuang untuk merealisasikan tujuan

5. Memanfaatkan umpan balik yang konkrit dalam semua kegiatan yang dilakukan

6. Mencari kesempatan untuk merealisasikan rencana yang telah diprogramkan.[1]

Dalam Mc.Clelland�s Achievment Motivation Theory atau teori motivasi prestasi,  McClelland mengemukakan bahwa individu mempunyai cadangan energi potensial, bagaimana energi ini dilepaskan dan dikembangkan tergantung pada kekuatan atau dorongan motivasi individu dan situasi serta peluang yang tersedia.

Teori motivasi prestasi ini memfokuskan pada tiga kebutuhan yaitu :

1. Kebutuhan akan Prestasi

2. Kebutuhan Kekuasaan

3. Kebutuhan Afiliasi.

Berikut ini penjelasan teori diatas :

a. Kebutuhan akan Prestasi 

Kebutuhan akan prestasi adalah dorongan untuk mengungguli, berprestasi sehubungan dengan seperangkat standar, bergulat untuk sukses. Ciri-ciri inidividu yang menunjukkan orientasi tinggi antara lain bersedia menerima resiko yang relatif tinggi, keinginan untuk mendapatkan umpan balik tentang hasil kerja mereka, keinginan mendapatkan tanggung jawab pemecahan masalah.

b. Kebutuhan akan Kekuasaan 

Kebutuhan akan kekuasaan adalah kebutuhan untuk membuat orang lain berperilaku dalam suatu cara dimana orang-orang itu tanpa dipaksa tidak akan berperilaku demikian atau suatu bentuk ekspresi dari individu untuk mengendalikan dan mempengaruhi orang lain.

McClelland menyatakan bahwa kebutuhan akan kekuasaan sangat berhubungan dengan kebutuhan untuk mencapai suatu posisi kepemimpinan.

C. Kebutuhan untuk Berafiliasi 

Kebutuhan akan afiliasi atau bersahabat adalah hasrat untuk berhubungan antar pribadi yang ramah dan akrab. Individu merefleksikan keinginan untuk mempunyai hubungan yang erat, kooperatif dan penuh sikap persahabatan dengan pihak lain. Individu yang mempunyai kebutuhan afiliasi yang tinggi umumnya berhasil dalam pekerjaan yang memerlukan interaksi sosial yang tinggi.

McClelland mengatakan bahwa kebanyakan orang memiliki kombinasi karakteristik tersebut, akibatnya akan mempengaruhi perilaku karyawan dalam bekerja atau mengelola organisasi.

Karakteristik dan sikap motivasi prestasi menurut Mcclelland adalah :

a. Pencapaian adalah lebih penting daripada materi.

b. Mencapai tujuan atau tugas memberikan kepuasan pribadi yang lebih besar daripada menerima pujian atau pengakuan.

c. Umpan balik sangat penting, karena merupakan ukuran sukses (umpan balik yang diandalkan, kuantitatif dan faktual).[2]

Daftar Pustaka : 

[1] Anwar Prabu Mangkunegara, 2005, Evaluasi Kinerja SDM, PT. Refika Aditama, Bandung

[2] Stephen P. Robbins, 2001, Psikologi Organisasi, Edisi ke-8, Prenhallindo, Jakarta

Behavior in Group

Behavior in Group 

In social life, for example in a community, in the office, at school we certainly will form or be involved in a group, therefore we must be good at selecting groups aiming positive and beneficial for the development of ourselves, lest we join a group that has negative effect on ourselves. 

Group behavior is response of the group members to the groupsocial structure and the norms adopted.

Collective behavior is a person's action at the same time, place, and behave. 

Which is better, group performance or individual performance? The question often arises because there is the adage that says "two heads are better than which done by an individual". The adage is true in some cases, because the group allows people to exchange information and opinions. 

Interaction within the group can generate ideas and new solutions. The group has extensive knowledge and greater probability that a person in the group will have specific knowledge relevant to the group issue. However, a group also does not always produce a better decision. Not everyone in the group contributes simultaneously, but the individual must wait their turn. Turn result in expressing the opinion, among the group members often have production blocking, distraught or loss of motivation to participate (lazy). Individuals sometimes do not want to share (sharing) in providing the information. 

Although the performance of agroup is often better than the average performance of individuals, performance is often below standard of individuals, especially when members of the group generally have relatively weak ability. In the group, it also canoccur social impact (Latane&Nida, 1981) that is a classification of members in a group. Ifthe group is major, the decision-making will be very effective. If the group is minor, then often people experience disappointment, because they feel disregarded.