THE CONCEPT OF MOTIVATION
In Nigeria today, the concept of motivation can be traced to the latin word movere, which means to move. A motive is a state that activates or move. Hence, motivation is an action that stimulates people to take a clear course of action. The course of action is concerned with individual, but it is not always possible to know what motives are, because they are not noticeable and can only be seen in behaviour. This is because behaviour is directed towards goal and when such goal is achieved, the motive is satisfied. Motivation seeks to explain the motive for work and to find out ways and means by which this realization can helped and encouraged. The behaviour of an individual at work is centered on a matter of trying to satisfy their needs and wants. However, it is not easy to recognize the cause of people’s behaviour but one may attempt to explain the difference among individuals. Also developing classification into which human beings fall and the efforts to classify individual are psychologically postulated by Smith (2005), “That all individuals are differentâ€Â. So, in order to understand the behaviour of people in a dynamic work situation, it is necessary for one to find out why human being act the way they do.

Dawson (2005) sees motivation as “the main spring of behaviour which explains why individuals choose to expand a degree of effort towards achieving a particular goalâ€Â.

According to Amana (2005) in his paper “leading and motivating peopleâ€Â delivered at the 30th Annual National Management Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Managementâ€Â stress that “when we say that we motivate a person, we are saying that we have provided some external stimuli which start off a voluntary process which incites the individuals to action which may be short-lived or may last longâ€Â.

Webster dictionary (2005) defines motivation as “the process of providing power within the person which incites him to actionâ€Â.

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines motivation as “the process of stimulating the interest of somebody to do somethingâ€Â.

Stoner and Freeman (2005), saw motivation as those factors that cause channel and sustain behaviour.

Millins (2005), observed that managers by their nature or lack of training are insensitive to the needs of their workers to improve motivation in their areas. Some feel that their priority as a manager is to ensure that their workers are at all times kept working hard on the job at hand to achieve the goal.

In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the important role motivation plays in getting employees to give their best to achieve higher performance. It is now recognized more than ever before, that people are the pivot upon which any organization depends, therefore achieving higher performance depends on the effective mobilization of the effect of all people who make up the organization. Hence, much attention to day is being paid to motivation. It is established that the job of a manager is to achieve higher performance through people. Therefore, the employees must be motivated to achieve such performance in global Polythene Industry, Kaduna.

Motivated behaviour has these basic characteristics. According to Nwachukwu “Management Theory and Practiceâ€Â (2005), these are:

It sustained: It is maintained for a long time until it is satisfied.
It is goal directed: It seeks to achieve objective.
It results from a fact need: An urge directed towards a need.
Thus, there can be no motivation without goal. The task of goal setting by management is therefore, and all important task because without setting clear goal we have no right to talk of motivating the staff. The stronger the motivation, the better the chances of success in attaining that stated goal.

Furthermore, Korma (2005) defines motivation as a strong and persistent internal stimulus around which behaviour is organizedâ€Â. This simply implies that motivation involves effort, persistence and goals.

Donnelly (2005) defines motivation as all those inner striving conditions described as wishes, desire, drives. It is said to be an inner state that activate or movesâ€Â. This means that, it is only an individual’s behaviour that determines how to motivate him from a manager’s perspective, a person who is motivated.

Sustain a pace of hard work
Works hard
Has self-directed behaviour toward important goals.
Thus, motivation involves effort, persistence and goals. It involves a person’s desire to perform. The actual performance in what managers can evaluate to determine indirectly depend on the person’s desire.

According to Eyre (2005), defines motivation as “the degree to which an individual wants and chooses to engage in certain specified behaviourâ€Â which implies that motivation is a drawing force within individuals through which they achieve higher productivity.

Olatunde in his lecture notes (2006), defined motivation as “all those inner striving conditions described as wishes, desires, drives, etc. It is an inner state that activates or moves and directs behaviour toward goalsâ€Â.

Human motives are based on needs whether consciously or sub-consciously felt. Some are primary needs may be regarded as secondary such as self-esteem status.

Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic derive within the individual to behave in a way while extrinsic makes individuals to behave in a way because of some external inducement. Hence, the intrinsic motivation is derived from the job content rather than the job context.