Motivation in the 21st century

 

This week we are talking about a topic that I really like because it is a very transversal topic, it not only makes you reflect in the workplace, on the contrary, it makes us start to question different aspects of life, motivation,  "refers to the forces either within or externally to a person who arouses enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action.” (Daft & Marcic, 2020).

For past generations, the motivation was most likely purely economic with the aim of meeting basic needs, that is, providing food, housing and education to the family or in some cultures or countries only food and housing, education was a luxury of people with a good economic position, in the case of my country "Colombia" in fact the first person with an undergraduate degree in my family's generation was my mother who began studying a career at the age of 30 years old, which she paid it while working and raising two children, but my grandparents only studied until elementary school, they had to work in adolescence to help financially at home.

The labor market is currently very competitive, and retaining people for companies has become a challenge; workers, especially generations such as millennials and centennials, who represent an important workforce, do not only see salary as a motivating factor. Let's understand that the motivations are based on two criteria, intrinsic, which refers to the satisfaction received in the process of carrying out a certain action more focused on feelings of fullness, the extrinsic ones that are granted by another person, such as a manager, and include pay raises, promotions, and praise.

Personally, I believe that in order to feel motivated I must find a combination of the two criteria, that is, I am clearly looking for a well-paid job that helps meet my basic needs and can also pay for activities such as traveling, but I am also looking for a job that I like according to my studies, that I feel included in a healthy work environment, where schedules are respected, that help me grow professionally and recognize my achievements, not necessarily economically.

Reference: Daft, R., & Marcic, D. (2020). Understanding Management (11th ed.). cengage mindtap.