Business
The speaker Tony Robbins is a famous life coach who talks on business and specifically talks about “why we do what we do”. The speaker in the video highlights that there are invisible forces that shape us and drive action. For instance, the effective leaders are those who motivate themselves and others to action because they understand about internal motivational forces affecting human thought processes and cognitions. In addition, the resourcefulness that comprises of creativity, determination, curiosity, love, passion and resolve is more important than resources (time, money, knowledge, technology). Tony Robbins stresses his core argument that decisions make destiny and that every individual must focus on three decisions such as what to focus, what does it mean and what will the future action be? The life coach also specifically emphasizes the importance of emotions as an invisible force, which shapes goals, performance and achievements. In other words, performance is linked with emotions and internal drive to work because the speaker disregards the commonly presented reason of lack of resources behind any failure (Robbins).
The researcher would now like to elaborate on four business motivational theories that are known as Reinforcement Theory, Expectancy Theory, Equity Theory and Goal-setting Theory. Reinforcement theory emphasizes that ‘individuals develop contingent relationships between actions and their consequences’, which then shape behavioral patterns, instincts and internal drives that result into decision-making. Secondly, John Adams has developed his Equity Theory that specifically talks about employee behaviors and reactions to unfair attitude, discrimination, disparate treatment and prejudice. In other words, the theory throws light over importance of organizational justice and code of conduct for employees to avert negative consequences such as lack of motivation for work, low job commitment and poor employee confidence over employers (Steers, Mowday & Shapiro, 2004). The foundations of Equity theory proved quite helpful for extension of organizational justice, which now receives considerable importance under business law. Expectancy Theory is a contribution of different scholars and researchers such as Vroom, Porter and Lawler who argue that individual behaviors are an outcome of personal intentions, life goals and objectives. The scholars and theorists relate Expectancy Theory to employee motivation by pinpointing that workers assess job roles / behaviors and compare with efforts involved in completing those tasks after which they tend to focus on actions that will generate maximum career benefits, job rewards and future growth. Hence, motivation is solely based on perceived outcomes of work efforts in an organization. Goal-setting Theory focuses on the relationship between setting specific, challenging, realistic goals and employee goal commitment with work performance and result-orientation. These goals could be both individual and group goals that may generate different task achievements under differing circumstances (Steers et al, 2004).
In conclusion, the expectancy, equity and goal-setting theories are also known as process theories that are based on the principle of causal relationships between employee behaviors and actions over time. These theories elucidate that employee motivation evolves from multiple sources such as job roles and actions, job efforts, job goals, career advantages and organizational justice. Mr. Robbins refers to Reinforcement theory by stressing that motivation results from perceived outcomes and consequences of an individual’s life decisions. Also, the speaker uses goal-setting theory by highlighting that ‘decisions make destiny’ and goals are part of one’s decision-making and future planning about what and how to accomplish by grappling with challenges.
References
Robbins, Tony. “Why We Do What We Do”. Online Video clip: Ted Talks. Feb. 2006. Web. November 28, 2014.
Steers, R., Mowday, R. and Shapiro, D. (2004). The Future of Work Motivation Theory. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 29, No. 3, 379–387 [Accessed – November 25, 2014].
