Types of Employee Motivation
Over the years, psychologists have done a lot of research to
understand why people behave the way they do. The field of study was mainly
limited to two areas of explanation of behavior; basic biological needs related
to survival and external rewards or punishments. Both of these explanations
were supported by the fact that human behavior is motivated by the desire to
achieve certain results. Thus, motivation is a factor that feeds and directs
behavior towards the achievement of a specific goal. In modern organizations,
making employees motivated to perform the desired work is an integral part of
management objectives
Below is a brief exploration of the two main types of employee
motivation.
Intrinsic
Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the most autonomous form of
motivation and the driving force behind participation in activities out of
sincere interest and pleasure
At work intrinsic rewards come to workers directly from the
work they do; satisfactions such as pride of workmanship or the sense that they
are helping a customer. The work itself energizes employees who are
intrinsically motivated, and they feel passionate about it. They see that their
work makes a significant difference and believe in what they are trying to
achieve. Usually, they see themselves helping people in some way. They get
satisfaction from handling situations well and take pride in creative
innovations and ideas they come up with. Although there are obstacles and
challenges, but overall, they are fulfilled, and rewarded by the work they do.
They do not need to drag themselves to work, perhaps they take the work home
physically or by thinking about it. In fact, it is often necessary for them to
ration the time they allow themselves to work, so as not to sacrifice other
areas of their lives
Intrinsic motivation requires the satisfaction of three
innate psychological needs: the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
The fulfillment of these needs provides the influence of social context factors
on individual growth-oriented processes and well-being
In the below video Dr. Edward Deci explains about different types of motivation and emphasizes especially on intrinsic motivation.
(Intrinsic Motivation with Dr. Edward Deci, 2015)
Extrinsic
Motivation
This is the most controlled form of motivation. When a
person is externally motivated, he or she is driven by externally controlled
circumstances such as rewards (e.g., financial incentives or social
recognition) and punishments (e.g., financial sanctions or social exclusion)
rather than values or interests. Extrinsic motivation, although not
autonomous, can be felt powerful as extrinsic rewards and punishments tend to
elicit strong affective responses through reward activation in the brain and
threat centers (Lang & Bradley, 2010).
External motivation requires an instrumentality between
activity and some separable consequences, such as material or verbal rewards,
so satisfaction does not come from the activity itself, but rather from the
external consequences to which the activity leads
Activities that are not interesting (i.e., not intrinsically
motivating) require external motivation, so their initial implementation
depends on the perception of contingency between the behavior and the desired
consequences such as implicit approval or tangible rewards. When behavior is so
motivated, it is said to regulate from the outside - that is, to initiate and
maintain contingencies that are outside the person.
When extrinsically motivated, people act with the intention of achieving a desired consequence or avoiding an undesired one, so that they are motivated to act only when the action is relevant to those goals (e.g., Working when the boss is watching).
(Edward Deci on
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation, 2015)
Porter & Lawler III (1968)
argued for structuring the work environment in such a way that effective work
would lead to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which in turn would result in
total job satisfaction.
This was to be achieved by following job enlargement to make them more interesting and thus more intrinsically rewarding, and by making extrinsic rewards such as higher wages and promotions clearly dependent on effective performance. Implicit in this model is the assumption that they are intrinsic and extrinsic the rewards add up and ensure total job satisfaction.
References
Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M., 2000. The
"What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the
Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), pp.
227-268.
Edward Deci on Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation, 2015
(video file) Available from; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2KLdnYH_js
(Accessed on 16th of August 2022).
Gagne, M. & Deci,
E. L., 2005. Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 26(4), pp. 331-362.
Intrinsic Motivation with Dr. Edward Deci, 2015 (video
file) Available from; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ba7bpEUONM (Accessed
on 14th of August 2022).
Lang, P. J. &
Bradley , M. M., 2010. Emotion and the Motivational Brain. Biological
Psychology, 84(3), pp. 437-450.
Porter, L. W. &
Lawler III, E. E., 1968. Managerial attitudes and performance. Illnois:
Irwin-Dorsey.
Ryan, R. M. &
Deci, E. L., 2000. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions
and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 25(1), pp.
54-67.
Sansone, C. &
Harackiewicz, J. M., 2000. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search
for Optimal Motivation and Performance. New Jersey : Academic Press.
Schultz, P. P. &
Ryan, R. M., 2015. The “Why,” “What,” and “How” of Healthy Self-Regulation:
Mindfulness and Well-Being from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective. Handbook
of Mindfulness and Self-Regulation, pp. 81-94.
Thomas, K. W., 2000. Intrinsic Motivation at Work: Building Energy & Commitment. 1st ed. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Agreed, if employees are not motivated, their performance levels decreases which in turn would affect the organisations success (Rothberg, 2005). No organisation can succeed with successful or motivated employees (Adi, 2000).
ReplyDeleteYes Isham, to motivate employee's money can be used. Employees want to earn reasonable wages, because money is the most important incentive, when speaking of its influential value (Sara et al, 2004).
DeleteWell explained.Organization can accelerate the employee performances by giving them stimulations such as Travelling,Medical and Budgetary allowances etc.Job security is an another motivation element which help to increase the productiveness of employee (zameer et al 2014).
ReplyDeleteBaughman, DiNardi and Holtz-Eakin (2003) examined employer survey data and found that employers decreased wages once after a few years, various benefits were offered to employees. Woodbury (1983) found that workers also view benefits and wages as substitutes, willing to give up wages in exchange for more benefits.
DeleteAgreed. Also, In Kerry Goyette’s TEDx discourse on motivation, she reveals that unleashing an
ReplyDeleteemployee’s internal motivation comes down to understanding if the individual is either a pleasure
seeker or a pain avoider (Goyette, 2016). Reinforcement theory addresses both and proposes that a manager can reward and punish employee behavior to achieve future desired results predictably (Lussier, 2017).
When discussing about reinforcement theory it should be noted that it is one of the oldest theories of motivation that describe behavior and how we act. This theory can be called “behaviorism” or “operant conditioning” that is taught in today's world of psychology. This theory is all about: "an individual's behavior is function of its consequences" (Banaji, 2011).
DeleteHi Reshan,
ReplyDeleteSince you are describing about the motivational factors, I would like to let you know about total reward concept. Total Rewards concept had been developed since early 1990s, but a Total Rewards Model was first unveiled in the year 2006. The model had 5 reward types including compensation, benefits, work life balance, performance and recognition, and development and career opportunities (Diankenda, 2015). According to Diankenda (2015), target of any reward system is to,
i. Motivate employee
ii. Retain employee
iii. Attract employee.
However according to Armstrong and Murlis (2007), transactional rewards (like monetary rewards) can be easily replicated by the competitors but not the relational rewards (like work experience), those attract, retain and motivate the employees to provide there maximum for the organization.
Hi Dulshan, to add more to your contribution, Thompson (2002) also defines total reward to include not only traditional and quantifiable elements such as compensation and benefits, but also more intangible elements such as scope for achieving and exercising responsibility, career opportunities, learning and development, the intrinsic motivation provided by the job and the quality of working life provided by the organization.
DeleteYes Indrajith, Over the past four decades, economists have given job satisfaction increasing attention. Job satisfaction is negatively related to job turnover (Freeman, 1978, McEvoy and Cascio, 1985, Akerlof et al., 1988, Weiss, 1984), absenteeism (Clegg, 1983), and positively related to productivity (Mangione and Quinn, 1975).
ReplyDeleteIn Kerry Goyette’s TEDx discourse on motivation, she reveals that unleashing an
ReplyDeleteemployee’s internal motivation comes down to understanding if the individual is either a pleasure
seeker or a pain avoider (Goyette, 2016). Reinforcement theory addresses both and proposes that
a manager can reward and punish employee behavior to achieve future desired results predictably
(Lussier, 2017).
According to reinforcement theory, our behavior can be explained by environmental consequences and therefore need not be sought cognitive explanations. Instead, the theory relies heavily on a concept called the law of effect, which states that behaviors having pleasant or positive consequences are more likely to be repeated and behaviors having unpleasant or negative consequences are less likely to recur (Bartol and Martin, 1998).
Delete