Introduction“Motivation is often described in terms of direction (the choice of one activity over another), intensity (how hard an employee tries), and persistence (how long an employee continues with a behavior, even in the face of obstacles or adverse circumstances). Motivated employees work harder, produce higher quality and greater quantity of work, are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors, and are less likely to leave the organization in search of more satisfying opportunities” (Sadri and Bowen, 2011 p.44). “Motivation is a person's internal desire that drives him or her to act” (Mathis and Jackson, 2011, p.157). Motivation comes from within each of us in the form of: thoughts, beliefs, ambitions and goals; Motivation has fascinated researchers since the early 1900s. There are many theorists and theories that have been documented and studied over time in attempts to define, explain, understand, quantify, and influence motivation in the workplace. For the purposes of this article, content and process theories of motivation will be compared and contrasted, I will choose the most significant theory as it relates to reward design, I will describe intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, I will personally describe what motivates me, and finally , reward practices found to be demotivating. Compare and Contrast – Content and Process Theories Theories of motivation can be described in two categories, content theories or process theories. Content theories focus on “what” motivates people and deal with individual needs and goals. In contrast, process theories focus on “how” motivation occurs (Zan, 2011). Content theories include Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, Mu...... middle of paper......Sadri, G., & Bowen, R. C. (2011). Meeting employee requirements: Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff. Industrial Engineer: IE, 43(10), 44-48.Mathis, R.L., & Jackson, J. (2011). Human Resource Management (13th ed.). Mason, Ohio: Cengage. Zan, O. (2011, October). An introduction to motivation theory [blog post]. Retrieved from http://ozgurzan.com/management/management-theories/theories-about-motivation/Reitan, A. (2013, January 8). Maslow's theory of self-actualization, more or less updated [blog post]. Retrieved from http://brainblogger.com/2013/01/08/maslows-theory-of-self-actualization-more-or-less-actualized/Ke, W., Tan, C., Sia, C., & Wei, K. (2012). Inducing intrinsic motivation to explore the business system: The supremacy of organizational levers. Journal of Management Information Systems, 29(3), 257-290.