Motivation:

Motivation, the extent to which persistent efforts is directed towards a goal.

(Gary Johns)
Reference: (Page#159, Author: Gary Johns, Edition: Fourth, Publishers: Harper Collins College, Published Year: 2009, Book name: Understanding and managing life at work, Source: Library of Hailey College of Commerce)

Motivation at Individual level:

Porter and Miles believe that system consists of those set of affecting motivation of an individual in the organization .Each individual employee when join organization bring skills, interests, needs, attitudes, and other personality traits. According to Individual psychology each person develops certain drives and desires as a result of the experiences he goes through and thus you can hardly motivate two people using the same method unless they have both passed through similar experiences. The degree and strength of an individual's personal motivation is the single most important factor in determining the extent to which he or she will commit to do what needs to be done to achieve a desired result. People may be motivated by factors in the external environment such as pay, supervision, benefits, and job perks. It appears that Individuals, with more rewards or motivators move from the external environment to an internal need. It also becomes more difficult to influence motivation, since material rewards become less relevant and internal rewards become more difficult to identify and address. In order to enhance organizational performance, it is important that the organization recognize the individual need and provide opportunities for satisfaction. . However, much current theory and research motivation focuses on individuals beliefs, values, and goals as primary influences on motivation. This implies that the processes influencing motivation are cognitive, conscious, affective, and often under control of the individual. People will be motivated to do the things to reach a goal if they believe in the worth of that goal and if they can see that what they will do help them in achieving it. Individual can be motivated by proper work design for their work environment and praise for their performance. The area of individual needs and external influences always overlap because a person is living in a society and his or her desire is strongly related to external factors such as family, status, religion, and so on. The relationship is a fundamental condition for the individuals motivation to perform. Motivation is based on individual needs, not external

influences. When an individual himself wants to do something for his needs, motivation occurs automatically.
Reference: (Page#112, Edition: First, Published Year: 2005, Book Name: Motivation: Theories and Practical Applications, Author: Nirmal Singh, Publishers name: Deep and Deep Publications Pvt Ltd) (Symbiontperformance.com)

Motivation at group level:

People want to have a sense of belonging. The smaller the group or team, the greater the loyalty, motivation and effort. Extra-curricular activities can be used to draw people together. Leaders are those that inspire others to action. Leaders are willing to take risks, are continually looking for new challenges and opportunities. People are much more likely to be motivated when there is inspired leadership. Leaders will defend others in their group and take full responsibility for criticism. One of the first steps to motivating a group is identifying the goals and purpose of the team and making them clear from the beginning. This first step has proven true for many group leaders and members. Managers and nonorganizer team members can see success when it is used and dysfunction and failure when not used. The goal was to break the larger group into cross functional teams of three to five members and give them time to brain storm on these ideas. Each group would have certain rules and direction. The team leader brought the entire group together and explained what they would be doing. Knowing the goals and understanding, and supporting them were huge contributing factors to the success of these particular teams. In contrast members of a team where no goal is clearing identifiable are not usually as successful. As time passes with no overall group goal nor an understanding for the goal; each group member begins to realize and push towards individual goals. The lack of motivation towards a common goal may break the team apart and provide minimal success. This is of course based on the types of rewards or motivators the organizer is willing to provide. If it is just going to be one reward, the same reward for the entire group, it will be extremely important to have team members who would be happy with that reward/motivator. Determining each group members types and levels of motivation requires the organizer to know each member. Before you are able to motivate a team who has a negative view on a project, you must first understand what caused the negative view to be held. It is best to directly talk with each team member to determine the root cause. Once it is known where the negative view comes from, actions can be taken. To begin with, the root cause should be examined.
Reference: (Book Name: Motivate to win, Book Writer: Denny,Richard ,Edition:3rd ,Published Year: 2005, Publisher Name: Kogan Page Limited )

Motivation at Organizational level:

The reward system in most organizations is to attract, retain, and motivate employees. The organizations compensation structure must be equitable, consistent and compliance with law and all these components play an important role in employees better perf ormance. The organization motivate the employees by giving them compensation Packages, i-e Base pay ,incentive system and indirect compensation i-e life and health insurance, pension, retirements plans and perquisites. When an employee is highly motivated they feel free to express their views and ideas since they are passionate about their jobs. They know that they are an important part of the organization and want to contribute more towards the betterment of the organization, this makes them more creative. For increasing the creativity among the employees, managers has to design a leadership style in such a way that is encourages employees to provide more suggestions, new ideas and new cost effective ways of delivering better performance. Employees who are internally motivated may be more valuable in the long term because they tend to take their success and the company's success personally, whereas the externally motivated employee may only be loyal so long as the reward meets his expectations and so long as it is offered. Removal of the external reward may result in the employee seeking external reward elsewhere. Employees can have a clear understanding regarding company or organizational goals, but they must have some reason themselves to be personally motivated by those goals. Without such motivation they will have no vested interest in pursuing company goals or meeting organizational goals. The first step in diagnosing motivation is determining what personal stake each employee will have within the larger goals of the company.
Reference: (Book Name: Organizational Behaviour: Managing People and Organization, Edition: Ninth, Published Year: 2009, Author Name: Gregory Moorhead/Ricky W.Griffin, Publisher: Biztantra , Page# 153)