So what motivates? I'll try to put what takes books into a few short paragraphs--what's inside you and what's outside you motivates. Money is outside and if you need it, it will make you work to get it. If you have enough, it will not.

What makes one stay at a particular job or to be a member of a certain organization? What makes you stay may range from the excitement of being able to do your own thing, to the support of exciting people, the uniqueness of its community, and the companionship of friends.

Motivation which makes me and most others do what we do outside the work setting comes from inside--we enjoy autonomy and self-determination. We do what we like to do, whether it be painting, theatre, photography, golf, or making love because we like what it does for us--the good feelings we have while doing what we do and the feedback that re-enforces that good feeling. This not to say that some individuals are not motivated by hate, greed, envy, revenge, and many of the other baser evils. Perhaps the most understood motivation is social exchange. We each have a sense of justice. We believe in tit for tat, a fair amount of work for a certain amount of pay and benefits. Social exchange becomes altruistic when one acknowledges that we are who we are not of our own doing but by chance. And if chance put us in unfortunate circumstances then that uneven playing field needs leveling. The rules of the game need to be made not knowing into what we will be born.

We are each stakeholders in various organizations, and we want fair treatment, and to have our voices heard, or at least our opinions represented. We are motivated and become boosters of organizations that find a way to invite our input and that reward our participation in some form of payoff, stock, options, bonus, etc.

At the lowest, yet necessary, level workers and students calculate whether to go or stay in an organization. They compare the benefits of staying or changing jobs and schools. At the highest level, they identify with the goals and mission of their organization--they feel that they are a part of something good, something that self-actualizes, something that contributes to their sense of what is the good, the true, and the beautiful. Some organizations have found certain rites and rituals, such as communion, to symbolize that identification process, the "becoming a part of. . ."

In my co-authored book, We Mean Business (Harper/Collins, 1993), motivation is discussed more fully. Also use the several business computer search sources. In them you will find many sources in such journals as The Harvard Business Review, Business Horizons, Journal of Business Ethics, Vital Speeches, etc.

Ego Is That Feeling You Are Apart of Something That Matters,

Doc Gorden, The Workplace Doctors