Motivation is the set of forces that cause people to behave as they do. Motivation starts with a need. People search for ways to satisfy their needs and then behave accordingly. Their behavior results in rewards or punishment. To varying degrees, an outcome may satisfy the original need.

A need is anything an individual requires or wants. Primary needs are things that people require to sustain themselves, such as food, water, and shelter. Secondary needs are more psychological in character and are learned from the environment and culture in which the person lives. A motive is a person's reason for choosing one certain behavior from among several choices.

The earliest view of motivation was based on the concept of hedonism, the idea that people seek pleasure and comfort and try to avoid pain and discomfort. Scientific management extended this view, asserting that money is the primary human motivator in the workplace. The human relations view suggested that social factors are primary motivators.

According to Abraham Maslow, human needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, from physiological to security to belongingness to esteem and, finally, to self-actualization. The ERG theory is a refinement of Maslow's original hierarchy that includes a frustration-regression component.

In Herzberg's dual-structure theory, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two distinct dimensions instead of opposite ends of the same dimension. Motivation factors are presumed to affect satisfaction and hygiene factors to affect dissatisfaction. Herzberg's theory is well known among managers but has several deficiencies.

Other important individual needs include the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. These needs are part of Murray's theory but have been more widely studied in isolation.