Individual Motivation Motivation is the desire within a person causing that person to act. People usually act for one reason: to reach a goal. Thus, motivation is a goal-directed drive, and it seldom occurs in a void.12 The words need, want, desire, and drive are all similar to motive, from which the word motivation is derived. Understanding motivation is important because performance, reaction to compensation, turnover, and other HR concerns are affected by and infl uence motivation