The self-regulation concept of motivation at work

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing interest in activity theory. The systemic–structural theory of activity is an outgrowth of the general activity theory, which has been employed to develop practical approaches and methods for the study of human work. The most important of these approaches are the morphological and functional analyses of activity. The basic concept within the morphological analysis is action. On the other hand, in the functional analysis of activity the functional mechanism or function block is the major concept. This functional analysis approaches activity as a self-regulating system. In this work we will use the functional analysis to study motivation. From the perspective of the functional analysis, motivation is not a unitary process, but rather consists of different stages, which may be either in agreement or in conflict with each other. Here we will attempt to demonstrate that contradictions between the different stages of motivation can be reduced to increase work motivation and productivity.