The importance of motivation to teachers in public schools

Introduction
The psychology textbooks and reflect the general consensus that motivation is an internal state or
condition sometimes described as a need, desire, or want that serves to activate or energize
behavior and give it direction (Smith, Mackie & Claypool, 2014).
Motivating people to do their best work, consistently, has been an enduring challenge for
executives and managers. Even understanding what constitutes human motivation has been a
centuries old puzzle, addressed as far back as Aristotle. Now brain science is giving us some new
insights into motivation.
Strengthening or diminishing certain employee behaviors is extremely important when developing
a highly effective team. This can be achieved with a basic understanding of operant conditioning.
Essentially, the concept describes how the effects of praise and reward can be used to refine
behavior. While this can be seen throughout life, managers can apply the concept when motivating
there workforce.
After a while, positive reinforcement will become less effective as they will become accustomed
to the praise. Withholding the reward unless performance is continually improved upon will help
shape the productivity.
It turns out that people are motivated by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility
intrinsic factors. People have a deep-seated need for growth and achievement. Herzberg's work
influenced a generation of scholars and researchers--but never seemed to make an impact on
managers in the workplace, where the focus on motivation remained the carrot-and-stick approach,
or external motivators.

Motivating your employees is one of the most challenging things you do as a manager. Motivation
is directly linked to job performance so it directly affects you, your team and your company.
Learning how to motivate your employees will unlock their potential and lead to higher
performance and a more productive employee.

The importance of motivation to psychology

Motivation is defined as the desire and action towards goal-directed behavior. This is an important
concept in psychology as well as in business, schools, and other areas. For example, we want our
children to behave and do their homework. Businesses want to get the population to buy their
products (McInerney, 2013). Adults may want to change the behaviors of romantic others. All of
these situations are examples of times that we may want to motivate someone else to do what we
want them to do. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic.

Intrinsic Motivation: A person is intrinsically motivated if the desire for change comes from
within the individual. The person may want to learn something because he or she is interested.
Another person may want to accomplish a goal or task because it is something he or she feels
competent at and enjoys doing (McInerney, 2013).
Extrinsic: On the other hand, extrinsic motivation comes from outside the person. They are bribed
to do something or they earn a prize or reward. Paychecks are extrinsic motivators. Fear of
punishment and coercion are also extrinsic motivators (McInerney, 2013).

Motivation is the force that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is what
causes us to take action, whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enroll in college to earn a
degree. The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social, emotional, or cognitive in
nature (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2013).
However, it is widely accepted that motivated employees generate higher value and lead to more
substantial levels of achievement. The management of motivation is therefore a critical element of
success in any business; with an increase in productivity, an organization can achieve higher levels
of output (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2013).

Research has shown that motivated employees will:

Always look for a better way to complete a task

Be more quality-oriented

Work with higher productivity and efficiency

In summary, motivated employees will retain a high level of innovation while producing higher
quality work more efficiently. There is no downside, the opportunity cost of motivating employees
is essentially zero, assuming it does not require additional capital to coach managers to act as
effective motivators.