Extrinsic motivation seems to deliver more “ands” followed by a “bad outcome”. This outlook also leads to more conflict between work and family lives, and a higher likelihood that people will leave their jobs. “Employees who are intrinsically motivated experience control over their own behavior and are therefore more likely to be able to balance their work and family lives.”Ĭonversely, the research has showed us that extrinsic motivation makes us not only worse at creative tasks, but it also leads to worse outcomes in our family lives: “An extrinsic work-value orientation has negative associations with life satisfaction and life happiness”. The positives of cultivating intrinsic motivation in yourself and your team extend well beyond the workplace.
INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION OUTSIDE OF WORK Intrinsic motivation does the same for our psychological well-being. It’s like exercise not only do you get all the positive mental chemical benefits while you are exercising, the higher endorphin levels, but you also strengthen your body’s ability to ward off sickness. Not only does intrinsic motivation deliver all of the good promised in the intrinsic motivation definition - enjoying a task for its own pleasure - but you avoid a whole lot of stress and bad outcomes. And it is inversely related to notorious workplace baddies such as burnout, work-family conflict, continuance commitment, and turnover intention. Intrinsic motivation is linked to positive emotions and attitudes. The benefits of intrinsic motivation are extensive. But (it is an important but that should be underlined), and especially for the creative classes, extrinsic motivation incentives have a “small but significant negative effect for interesting tasks.” The research is showing a lot of positive associations for intrinsic motivation at work, and fewer for extrinsic motivation.īut it wouldn’t be much of a debate if there were not some positive aspects to the use of extrinsic motivations to drive performance.Įxperiments with “simple and standardized” tasks, do show higher levels of performance when extrinsic motivation is used. On top of that we can add creative work: “intrinsic motivation has also been shown to have positive associations with contextual work performance and creativity.” Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes with a lot of good stuff, being “linked to high energy levels and persistence… intrinsic motivation is positively associated with enthusiasm and engagement, thriving, and well-being.” Managers should think twice before reaching for that extrinsic incentive again. Many managers usually reach for their bag of incentives to inspire their team, but unwittingly they are signaling to the team that the task being asked is not inherently pleasurable. The authors knock back the need for incentives saying that, “incentives signal that the task at hand needs additional reinforcement to be completed - presumably because it is not an enjoyable task.” INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION AT WORKĮxtrinsic motivation is connected to outside incentives. The research finds that “increasing extrinsic motivation” is not “advantageous to either individuals or organizations.” The key conclusion is that “organizations should focus on increasing employees’ intrinsic motivation”. They are “separate motives”, and need to be addressed differently. The base idea of this paper is that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are different. KEY TAKEAWAY: FOCUS ON INTRINSIC MOTIVATION “Do intrinsic and extrinsic motivation relate differently to employee outcomes?”įrom Journal of Economic Psychology 61 (2017) 244-258Īuthors: Bard Kuvaas, Robert Buch, Antoinette Weibel, Anders Dysvik, Christina G.L. extrinsic motivation, and understood when each was most useful, they could make work a more meaningful part of life. Why are we doing this? Well, if more managers knew the difference between intrinsic motivation vs. intrinsic motivation, and try to make it more accessible. So here, we are going to break down an important research paper about extrinsic vs. Even with all the extra time we have during the pandemic, not having to commute (or go anywhere else), picking up a dense academic paper, where you often have to re-read sentences to get the meaning, is not the first thing hands reach for. It’s just something we do.īut we know that reading academic research is not joy-inducing for everyone. Maybe it’s because Progress and Rationality are two of the highest intrinsic motivators among our team. Reading academic research about intrinsic motivation is something we do on our team.