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INSTRINSIC MOTIVATION & EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION - PART I

Figure 1: Types of Motivators.

(Source - Kumar & Herger, n.d)

“Motivation refers to the reasons underlying behavior” (Parashar, 2016, p. 8) .Motivation is the energy that moves employees forward towards performing a certain action; motivation will strengthen the willingness of employees to work, and in turn it will increase the organization’s effectiveness and competence (Parashar, 2016).Two broad classes of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, have been defined and researched across a range of contexts throughout the years (Lin, 2007; Amabile, 1993; Ryan & Deci, 2000). That is, they vary not only in level of motivation (i.e., how much motivation), but also in the orientation of that motivation (i.e., what type of motivation) (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Orientation of motivation concerns the underlying attitudes and goals that give rise to action—that is, it concerns the why of actions (Ryan & Deci, 2000). 

Motivation of the employees can be divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation (Reiss, 2012). Gerhart & Fang (2015) mentioned that individuals high in intrinsic motivation seeks to perform more challenging work so that they can test themselves in a greater way. On the other hand, Gillet, Vallerand and Lafrenière (2012) described employees are extrinsically motivated when they try to engage in different works so they can achieve some goals, which are not related to the work itself.

Intrinsic Motivation

‘Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external products, pressures or reward.’ (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p. 56).

Employees also feel motivated when their opinions or advises are followed by senior management (Cherry, 2016). According to Sen et al. (2014) intrinsic motivation helps in fulfilling the needs of the employees while they are continuing with the task so that they can learn on a regular basis while the task is being performed. Intrinsic motivation helps in fulfilling by,

• Maximum Satisfaction -  In order to compete effectively in the global marketplace, companies should design jobs  so  that  stress  can  be  reduced,  and  the  motivation  and  satisfaction  of employees and their performance can be increased (Garg and Rastogi, 2006).

• Innovating New Systems - Employees will continuously strive to complete the task within the organization in an easier way so that they can develop their career and make it more valuable. It will also help in satisfying the accomplishments that they consider meaningful within the organization (Sen et al. 2014).  

• Increasing Knowledge – The service sector should invest in training and developing their workforce to keep them up-to-date with the latest innovations and well-equipped to deliver quality services in a highly- competitive environment (Hammond & Churchill, 2018; Jaworski, 2018). The sense of accomplishing the target helps the employees in feeling satisfied when they perform the task, which also results in improving their level of motivation (Yousaf, Yang and Sanders, 2015).

• Reduce Labor Cost –The employees who are motivated intrinsically will try to solve their own problems so that the assistance from the managers can be reduced (Benedetti et al., 2015).

Decades of research shows that intrinsic motivation involves three essential factors: Autonomy, Mastery and Connection as described in below. (Ben-Hur & Kinley, n.d.)

Autonomy refers to the feeling of having a choice in what one does and not being controlled by others

Mastery is about feeling competent in one’s abilities mixed with the right level of challenge and achievement

Connection has to do with experiencing a sense of purpose in what one does as well as how one relates to other people

There is strong evidence suggesting that satisfying this trio of inner needs contributes to intrinsic motivation, which in turn leads to sustained behavior change over time (see Figure 3).

Figure : Combination of Elements in Intrinsic Motivation


(Source – Ben-Hur & Kinley, n.d.)

Video 1: Intrinsic Motivations

(Source – Ben-Hur & Kinley, n.d.)

Reference

Amabile, T. M., (1993), Motivational Synergy: toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. Human Resource Management Review, 3(3), pp.185-201.

Benedetti, A.A., Diefendorff, J.M., Gabriel, A.S., and Chandler, M.M., (2015), ‘The effects of intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation on well-being depend on time of day’: The moderating effects of workday accumulation, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, pp. 38-46.

Ben-Hur, S. & Kinley, N., (n.d.), Intrinsic motivation: The missing piece in changing employee behavior, Viewed on 19 April 2021, <https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/intrinsic-motivation-the-missing-piece-in-changing-employee-behavior/>

Cherry, K., (2016), Cognitive Psychology, What is Extrinsic Motivation, Viewed on 22 April 2021, <https://www.verywell.com/what-is-extrinsic-motivation-2795164>

Garg, P., Rastogi, R., (2006), ‘New  model  of  job  design:  motivating  employees performance’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 572-87.

Gerhart, B., and Fang, M., (2015), Pay, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, performance, and creativity in the workplace, Revisiting long-held beliefs, Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav, 2(1), pp.489-521.

Gillet, N., Vallerand, R. J. and Lafrenière, M.A.K., (2012), Intrinsic and extrinsic school motivation as a function of age, The mediating role of autonomy support, Social Psychology of Education,15(1), pp.77-95.

Hammond, H., & Churchill, R.Q., (2018), the role of employee training and development in achieving organizational objectives: A study of Accra Technical University, Archives of Business Research, 6(2), pp. 67-74.

Kumar, J. and Herger, M., (n.d.), Chapter 5: Motivation, Gamification at Work: Designing Engaging Business Software, Viewed on 10 April2021, <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/gamification-at-work-designing-engaging-business-software/chapter-5-58-motivation>

Lin, H. F., (2007), Effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on employee knowledge sharing intentions. Journal of information science, 33(2), pp.135-49.

Parashar, B. K., (2016), Significance of Theory Z in Indian Scenario, International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research, 5(2), pp.8-16.

Reiss, S., (2012), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Teaching of Psychology, 39(2), pp.152-6.

Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L., (2000), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, pp. 54–67.

Sen, A.P., Huffman, D., Loewenstein, G., Asch, D.A., Kullgren, J.T., and Volpp, K.G., (2014), Do financial incentives reduce intrinsic motivation for weight loss, Evidence from two tests of crowding out, In 5th Biennial Conference of the American Society of Health Economics (ASHEcon 2014), pp. 23-5.

Yousaf, A., Yang, H and Sanders, K., (2015), ‘Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on task and contextual performance of Pakistani professionals’: the mediating role of commitment foci, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(2), pp. 133-50.

Comments

  1. Pernalla VincentMay 8, 2021 at 9:35 AM

    Well said Indeevari, Adding further to your view motivating and maintaining the motivative level is a great challenge these days because organizations are under pressure in implementing motivational activities to improve employee effectiveness. Increasing salaries and expecting high performance does not seems to be success any more these days (Levy, 2013).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeevari RatnayakeMay 17, 2021 at 1:42 AM

      Indeed Pernalla, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not additive but instead are interactive. That is, the addition of extrinsic motivators may either diminish or enhance intrinsic motivation. Whereas intrinsic motivation is often associated with the involvement in complex tasks, extrinsic motivation is claimed to be important in relation to unattractive and simple tasks (Osterloh & Frey 2000; Gagné & Deci 2005). This shows how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation give different impacts when employees are performing the task.

      Delete
  2. Harsha WijesingheMay 14, 2021 at 7:27 AM

    A good acritical. The company should give good wages, compensation, appreciation, career assurance and build an excellent professional background to improve worker motive and performance. Directors want to fulfill hygienics and motive factors to motivate subordinates (Dartey-Baah and Amoako, 2011).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeevari RatnayakeMay 17, 2021 at 1:43 AM

      Very well Harsha, Further, Turner (2017) mentions, existence of both Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors is vital to the organization, as employees with lower level income, would be significantly motivated with the extrinsic motivational factors such as rewards and as a result, would be more enthusiastic and productive in the job execution.

      Delete
  3. E.SujeendranMay 14, 2021 at 11:59 PM

    Well said Indeevari, Intrinsic motivation capabilities of employees can be further increased by providing good learning culture and empowerment, which enable employees to learn from mistakes, getting regular feedback, solving problems and overcoming challenges through continues learning and training programs (Sansone, 2000).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeevari RatnayakeMay 17, 2021 at 1:40 AM

      Yes, But Intrinsic motivation is often associated with the involvement in complex tasks, extrinsic motivation is claimed to be important in relation to unattractive and simple tasks (Osterloh & Frey 2000; Gagné & Deci 2005). Hence, both types of motivation are indeed required in organizations.

      Delete

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