WORK AND PRIVATE LIFE

Motivation and Stress

Motivation and Stress

Introduction

Motivation is composed of needs, desires, tensions, discomforts and expectations which are a prerequisite to learning. The lack of motivation makes the achievement of objectives complicated. Motivation is what makes a particular act and behaves in a certain way, to fully deploy, the resources and personal strengths towards a goal. It is a combination of intellectual processes, physiological and psychological affect towards a given situation. In humans, motivation encompasses both conscious impulses as unconscious (Eskildsen et al., 2003, 122-136). The concept of motivation is prerequisite in management; therefore, it is important to analyze the factors that contribute most towards the work stress and organizational behavior.

Stress

Most adults in Europe are a part of the workforce. It is important for people to have a good balance between work and their personal lives. Unless a person is a telecommuter, taking work home is not a brilliant idea. Therefore, there should be a clear separation of work and home life. People need motivation both in their personal lives and at work, since a lack of motivation in life can lead to depression and in the workplace, it can manifest itself in subpar and lacklustre work performance. The two topics that are going to be discussed in this paper are motivation and stress at work. Motivation can be defined as forces within an individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of the effort expended in work (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003, pg. 102). The person responsible for motivating employees in the workplace is the manager or supervisor. The use of reinforcement can help managers keep employees motivated. The reinforcement theory of motivation states that individual behavior is a function of its consequences (Managementstudyguide, 2011). The use of positive reinforcement can give an employee confidence. According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, a state of stress occurs when there is an imbalance between the perception that a person with constraints is imposed by the environment and the perception that there are enough resources to cope with these factors. Although the assessment process and resource constraint are psychological, effects of stress are not only psychological in nature. Stress also affects physical health, welfare and productivity of the person (Thomas, 2000, 12-19)". Three points emerge from this definition:

Sources of stress at work are the constraints (psychological and physiological).

The state of tension or stress is the imbalance between resources and constraints.

The consequences or effects of stress affect employee health and productivity of the company.

There are various implications of stress in private life and the workplace productivity. The first reaction is the helplessness that comes as the response and adaptation in the form of emotional reactions of anger or inhibition, avoidance reactions and finally the search for solutions. If these reactions prove ineffective, then the stress becomes chronic, threatening the physical and mental integrity of persons. Faced with stressful situations, each individual selects emotional and tangible strategies in order to protect his inner balance (Bogler, 2007, ...