My wife checked out a book from our library for me on motivation. The book is by Dan Ariely, a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. I have read other books by him.
The title of this book is PAYOFF The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations. One of the interesting things I learned from this book is that people have a different motivation when they plan an activity than when they actually do the planned activity. This makes it hard to predict how to motivate others to complete a task. For example, going to the gym. When planning the main motivations are loosing weight and just getting/staying in shape. However, when at the gym the motivation changes to enjoying the task or satisfaction in completing the task.
Another interesting section deals with an experiment with shift workers - what motivates them when they come back after a few days off. A cash bonus was offered if first day production met the stated goal. While in the short-term a cash bonus to increase production worked better than nothing, over the course of their new shift, cash actually decreased production in the days after the target date.
I found the book quite interesting. Motivation is a complex issue and much of the thinking of the corporate world does not fit with data from experiments on motivation. The book is a quick read, a bit more than 100 small 7" x 5" pages.

Russell Malley
StockCentral Community Leader