Medical Humanities Commons^™

What Motivates You?, Mohamad S. Saad

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

For over 100 years, we have tried to understand how human motivation works. Although various theories have been developed and different experiments have been conducted to explain motivational drive, we have realized that extrinsic motivation factors, such as rewards and punishment, and financial incentives are not the answers. More important and central to motivation is nourishing our innate human need to be autonomous, competent, and to relate to our organizational culture. All of us need to understand the story of motivation because, as dire as our need for high-quality motivation is, high-quality motivation remains an asymptote.