The Role of Leaders in Harnessing the Individual Qualities of Members Research Paper

The Role of Leaders in Harnessing the Individual Qualities of Members on a Team - Research Paper Example Motivation has been explained to be a reactive mechanism to a reinforcement that people receive in a workplace context (Kerzner, 2003). This means that motivation is a way that people respond to reinforcement to give off their best at work. Motivation, therefore, needs to be triggered by something. In most organizational settings, the word motivation is used to refer to the desire that people should have to put up their best to ensure improved productivity. A worker who is result oriented and normally seen to be on top of his or her job and delivering up to expectation or beyond is therefore seen to be a highly motivated person. It is in this direction that Cherry (2011) explains that â€Å"motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours.† From her definition, it can be seen that motivation actually sets the pace for success as it initiatives goal-oriented behaviours. Motivation also serves as roadmap or yardstick to success a s it guides goal-oriented behaviours. Motivation also acts as an agent of preservation of success as it maintains goal-oriented behaviours. The absence of motivation is, therefore, tantamount to haphazardness at the workplace as it eliminates clear cut focus and goal-oriented behaviour from the organisation. All organisation and institutions are set up with a basic principle of achieving something positive. It is in line with this that there are often mission statements and vision statements for all well-meaning organisations. But in order to achieve the overall mission or vision set by any given organisation, it is very important that a series of projects and tasks are delivered.