Motivation as everyone knows is the act of moving and it is also a driving force within us that gives rise to certain behavior that moves us in a particular direction. Thus, all the various motivation theories that you may have come across each deals with the processes that help explain the whys and how they is of human behavior and the directions that they make you take.

None Universally Accepted

There no doubts that such motivation theories are very important to mankind especially when it comes to studying organizational behaviors, and primarily such motivation theories are divided into two types which are content theories and the other is process theories. What's more, despite the presence of many diverse motivation theories, none of them have been accepted universally.

When one considers the motivation theories of the content type, one is thinking primarily of motivation that is focused on internal factors that contribute to energizing as well as directing the behavior of humans and good examples of such content theory are Maslow and his hierarchy of needs and even Alderfer and ERG theory. No doubt, the content theory propounded by Maslow is the most well known as far as content motivation theories go, and he delved on five elementary basic needs that are psychological, safety as well as security, need of love, need for self esteem as well as self-actualization needs.

On the other hand there is the ERG motivation theory that is quite like that of Maslow and which help to explain relatedness, existence as well as needs for growth. Its propounded, Herzeberg elaborates on some factors in the workplace that help workers achieve satisfaction in their work and he used a technique known as Thematic Aptitude Test or TAT in which people are evaluated according to three needs: achievement, power and also affiliation. Furthermore, according to these motivation theories, there were some people that had a greater need of power and who would thus take action so as to influence the behavior of others.

On the other hand there is the motivation theory that are the process theories through which it is hoped to understand how people think and how such thoughts influences their behaviors. Of special interest as far as these motivation theories go is the one known as Adam's equity theory, while another process theory worth looking at is the one known as Vroom's expectancy theory, while others that can be studied from among the different types of process theories are goal-setting theory and also reinforcement theory.