Extrinsic and Intrinsic Factors as Motivators

Over the past decade, research studies on motivation have provided insights into the roles of extrinsic and intrinsic factors as motivators. One of the more interesting results reported in these studies is that humans can be significantly more driven to perform at a higher level by non-incentivized rewards, suggesting that higher performance can be expected for subjects who are intrinsically motivated.

In this project, you will locate three primary research articles that examine the differential effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Then follow the assignment directions below. All three articles should have been published after 2000. Example keywords for your literature search might be: motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reward, and human. Provide full APA citation for each article.

Your project should be between 15 and 20 pages long, not including the cover page, abstract, and reference page, in APA format.

Assignment directions:

1. Analyze and summarize the findings in the articles regarding the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

2. In your own words, briefly describe the research methods used in each of the three articles you obtained. Remember to compare and contrast methods across all three papers. How are they similar and how are they different?

3. For each research article, do the following

o Discuss the kind of data collected, how it was collected, and how it was presented (graphical or table format).

o Explain which aspects of the data best support the conclusions of the author.

o Provide at least one representative graph or table that best reflects the conclusions drawn by the author(s). Describe the findings in this graph or table.

4. For each “person” in each scenario below, assess and discuss each situation for (a) possible intrinsic versus extrinsic motivators, (b) possible emotions that might be present in the scenario, and (c) the possible motivation for the behavior from an evolutionary perspective.

o Storeowner: A storeowner knowingly lies about the winning lottery numbers to a customer who has a winning lottery ticket. The store owner stealthily pockets the customer’s lottery ticket.

o Mother: Following an earthquake, a mother hurriedly writes a note and pins it to her baby's clothing. The note declares her love for the child. She then places her body between her baby and the falling debris from the ceiling.

o Nurse: A nurse volunteers to travel to a flood and earthquake-prone place for 30 days to help with a recent disaster that has crippled that region of the world. She is receiving no compensation for the work and is leaving her spouse and two children behind.

Attach the articles in PDF or HTML format with your Project submission if possible. If you are not able to attach the full articles, be sure your APA citation reflects sufficient information for your three articles to be retrievable.

Write your project in a Word document and submit it to the dropbox.

Compose your work in a .doc or .docx file type using a word processor (such as Microsoft Word, etc.) and save it frequently to your computer. For those assignments that are not written essays and require uploading images or PowerPoint slides, please follow uploading guidelines provided by your instructor.

Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Upload Submission.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer, and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.”

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Factors as Motivators

Abstract

Motivation is a critical factor because it is the driving force to which inspires people to do what they do and how they do it. Psychologists have researched on various theories about motivation and the factors that influence it and during these researches, outside factors (extrinsic), and inside factors (intrinsic) have particularly captured the attention of researchers as they could have various effects on individual behaviors and how people pursue goals. This paper will review three research studies on extrinsic and intrinsic factors as motivators in order to understand the external and innate factors can contribute to human behavior at work and in life scenarios. To begin with, extrinsic motivation occurs when an individual is motivated to perform a task so as to avoid punishment or to get a reward. Intrinsic motivation occurs when one is engaging in a behavior or activity that is personally rewarding.

Summary of Findings

According to (Wang, & Sun, 2017) Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation simply put is a broad concept focused on giving insight into why people do the things they do. Intrinsic motivation more specifically is a type of motivation that arises from an individual when the person does something for the sake of doing it. The person proceeds in said activity with no expectation of a separable outcome. Extrinsic motivation differentiates from intrinsic motivation by being quite the opposite. Extrinsic motivation is classically defined as the motivation to perform an action in order to attain a separable outcome usually with the expectation of a desired reward or the avoidance of a negative consequence. A simple example to clarify would be a boy playing baseball for the love of the game (intrinsic motivation) vs. a man playing professional baseball for financial compensation (extrinsic motivation). This concept is frequently in concurrence with the Self Determination Theory (SDT). The Self Determination Theory proposes that in order to create an innovative and proactive work force, organizations need to adopt methods that encourage employee’s autonomous work motivation. Unfortunately what is meant by autonomy is generally implicit and is expected to be an intuitive concept. Plainly defined for the purposes of this paper autonomy is “self-rule that is free from both controlling interference by others and from limitations, such as inadequate understanding, that prevent meaningful choice”. We focus on autonomy as inspiring intrinsic motivation in the workplace resulting in more creative, proactive, and ultimately productive organizational behaviors. Empowerment is thus used as a tool to give more autonomy to employees. Empowerment is approached by a dual concept structural and psychological. Structural empowerment is the empirical approach where employees are granted legitimate authority while psychological is more abstract in nature and pertains to enhancing feelings of self-efficacy. Other ideas and theories intertwined in the web of motivation and the relation to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation will be discussed.

As mentioned by (Bergström & García, 2018), the Self Determination Theory (pertaining to organizational behavior) is one that promotes autonomy to create a more desirable workforce. Using structural equation modeling performed a one year study on just that. Structural equation modeling is defined “a class of methodologies that seeks to represent hypotheses about the means, variances, and covariance’s of observed data in terms of a smaller number of structural parameters defined by a hypothesized underlying model”. In this study the parameters consisted of 126 elderly in 11 senior nursing homes ages between 65 and 96 years old with the underlying model of the Self Determination Theory. The preliminary information required to perform this study was amassed from an interview of a trained research assistant with a head nurse at each nursing home. The study used the elderly to examine the impact on the actual environment and the changes it brings to psychological changes it brings to them overtime. This study is supportive of the Self Determination Theory because it focuses on intrinsic motivation of the participants in major life domains and can be attributed to the work place. The interview was conducive to the study by providing information on several aspects of autonomy support and the degree to which these nursing homes provided. The results from the study provided empirical evidence that supports the Self Determination Theory. It provided that autonomy supportive environments impact people’s psychological adjustment to their surroundings. The nursing homes that had this type of environment reported being more intrinsically motivated to engage in activities and being more productive regarding the important aspects of their life. Participants in the more autonomy supportive environments also reported feeling less hopeless, more adequate, and overall more satisfied with their situation. This can be attributed to the work place because it supports the widely researched Self Determination Theory and provides that a person intrinsically motivated to do something typically does so better if not.

In the study by (Baylor, 2010), the Self Determination Theory was examined as the sole focus. The theory however is not adequate on its own regarding motivation and the desired organization behavior of a work force. Emotional Labor is critical for integrating functional and successful autonomy in that respect and vice versa. Emotional labor is the management of emotions or communication of one’s emotion through verbal or nonverbal communication. Concerning organizations it is the expected to display emotions appropriately. Consequently this expectation results in numerous pernicious effects including job burnout and lack of authenticity. This is where the Self Determination Theory and emotional labor are interdependent. There two are processes of emotional labor. Surface acting is where an individual displays the expected appropriate emotion on a “surface” level without necessarily feeling it. Deep acting in contrast is feeling the displayed emotion. The truth is regarding organizations the bulk of emotional labor is surface acting. Unfortunately this form of emotional labor is taxing on employees in longevity and can cause deleterious effects on their productivity. Employees become exhausted over time when emotions aren’t authentic and it ultimately diminishes their motivation. It is important for organizations to acknowledge the importance of autonomy and intrinsic motivation for this reason. Employees with more autonomous environments and are more empowered tend to perform their duties with an inherent motivation to do so. This can be done through various methods. For example, when recruiting employees organizations should search for people who have values in congruence with the underlying work activity. This would improve the chances that the employee will inherently be motivated to perform their tasks and naturally engage in deep acting rather than surface acting. Also, having management with high emotional intelligence that can identify surface acting and can provide employees with training to improve their competence would encourage autonomy.

Competence was previously mentioned as a construct related to intrinsic motivation alongside autonomy. Competence is applicable in a very general scope of levels. This ranges to concrete actions to particular outcomes, recognizable patterns of skill and ability, comprehensive traits, and compilation of experiences. The need for competence is believed innate in human beings who require the development of capabilities. Competence is a primal need because it is fundamental for survival (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Furthermore humans strive toward active exploration and mastery of their surrounding environment. It is important that competence and autonomy are synchronous in order to promote intrinsic motivation. Competence improves an employee’s confidence and is therefore more comfortable performing a task. When an employee is given autonomy in performing a task and is competent in doing so the employee’s internal desire to complete the task effectively significantly increases. As a result the employee is enjoying the work while simultaneously being more effective. By being more effective it benefits the organization in the short-term with day to day success. Keeping the employee performing via intrinsic motivation benefits the organization in the long run by preventing job burnout and inauthenticity (Bergström & García, 2018). Successfully maximizing employee competence can be achieved using different applied methods. Using these methods jointly is preferable. Two methods that are highly recommended to apply together are, providing clear expectations on performance, and non-controlled positive feedback. It is important to use non-controlled feedback as opposed to controlled feedback because it encourages intrinsic motivation.

Using controlled feedback introduces a concept called the “undermining effect”. The undermining effect was introduced refers to decreases in intrinsic motivation for an activity or task that is coupled with a social control, like extrinsic rewards. There are tremendous amounts of empirical evidence of the existence of the undermining effect. In one study of 61 students with the average age of 19 participants were put into two groups, a rewards group and a non-rewards group (Baylor, 2010). The method used was to have both groups to engage in several interesting tasks, including more of the target task, for a brief period when participants are unaware they are being observed. This method is referred to as the free-choice paradigm. The results show that participants in the non-reward group engage in the free choice task for a significantly longer duration. This shows that when tasked with interesting tasks that an individual performs with intrinsic motivation is promised an extrinsic reward, the individual’s intrinsic motivation is diminished or “undermined” (Wang, & Sun, 2017). There are several studies that have used the free-paradigm method that have accumulated empirical evidence that reach the same conclusion. Debilitating the undermining effect is a concept organizational leaders should keep in mind. Implementing some of the previously discussed concepts such as competence-enhancing feedback that is non-controlled rather than controlling with respect to the reward may diminish this effect. Expanding on the previously discussed method of recruiting employees with values aligned with the work activity, organizations should also seek out autonomy causality oriented employees (Bergström & García, 2018). Autonomy causality orientation refers to the tendency to perceive actions as coming from one’s self. Achieving this would be possible through the General Causality Orientations Scale that provides the degree of one’s orientation.

A widely studied facet of motivation included in several theories is the need for relatedness. It is in the famous Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy, learned need theory, and the four drive theory. The underlying concept that is consistent among these notable works is they all recognize a person’s need to bond. In order to be happy, people from all cultures must have constant and enjoyable interactions with others in the context of a mutually beneficial relationship. This is a principle that is more loosely incorporated with autonomy and competence. Employees can still experience healthy levels of intrinsic motivation when they are just as interested in their work when they work alone. Although relatedness is less essential in certain circumstances it still proves to be an essential facet of motivation (Baylor, 2010). Having positive relationships with subordinates and coworkers contributes to the enhancement of organization citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Establishing positive relationships must be healthy and responsibly done. Showing favoritism to any employee can have adverse effects to other employee’s autonomy. Similarly when having low relatedness with an employee the same effects can occur. In either case employee seek favoritism by performing tasks in the way they perceive their superiors expect or desire. It is important to be wary when establishing these relationships (Bergström & García, 2018). Increasing relatedness in organization can be done through involvement. Involvement encourages appropriated relatedness by including employees in decisions. This process not only sets a desirable platform to establish a positive relationship with employees, but it also empowers the employee and enhances competence and autonomy. As relatedness increases in concurrence with empowerment, competence, and autonomy, intrinsic motivation levels rise. The employee is motivated to do the task with an inherent desire with little to no undermining effect.

Through the content analysis it can be concluded that there is a direct relationship between motivation and performance. Thus, according to the authors, managers can increase job performance of workers, in addition to being motivated. In this regard the employees are required to be satisfied and committed to their work (Baylor, 2010). The negotiation of job satisfaction in relationship between motivation and organization commitment of workers in organizations is aligned with the revenues too. The results showed that the average worker satisfaction partially effects the motivation of employees and affective organizational commitment. It was suggested that the motivation of volunteer work partially influences the level of organizational commitment, and that workers who are motivated work with a better performance (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Employees would be more satisfied with their volunteer experience, impacting consequently a greater commitment to the organization.

Research Methods

The objective of the research study by (Wang, & Sun, 2017) was to measure the consequences of intrinsic reward on employee attitudes and organizational culture. Organizational culture acted as mediating variable to effect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment level. A questionnaire based on items covering intrinsic, organizational culture, and job satisfaction and organization commitment with creativity was checked with complete inspection. The Research was conducted in XXXX. Targeted population wills private and public institutions employees of XXXX companies. Employees will be contacted for collection of their responses regarding job satisfaction, employee attitude and their perception about the organization. All levels of management employees were taken into account for the data collection including, employees etc.

The study by (Bergström & García, 2018) presupposes a comparison between what is expected of the individual in terms of completion (expected result), its activeness (work done) and the existence of a monitoring mechanism that allows correct deviations to ensure that the execution corresponds to what was planned. The literature found several goals for the evaluation of individual performance, which vary according to the approach of the authors, presented in the theoretical framework. Finally, there is the external regulation which is to make an activity to obtain rewards or avoid punishment. Organizational commitment has been studied; however its scientific definition still vacillates in relation to its uniqueness. This is due mainly to two factors: the multiple approaches taken by researchers, analyzed the phenomenon through perspectives from different disciplines such as Social psychology, Organizational Theory and Sociology.

The multiplicity of objects to which the commitment can be directed, is referred as a career, profession, group, union and organization is dependent on employee performances. Due to the erection of different approaches and theories, there are different concepts and different measurement methods. In, research on commitment has enough depth and quality, thanks to jobs and its members, since 1994, focusing on commitments to the organization, the career and the union. They stand out in the literature-dimensional model prepared and the multidimensional conceptualizes the definition of the three components organizational commitment as an attachment affective or emotional with the organization commitment perceived as costs associated with leaving organization.

The study by (Baylor, 2010) is justified by the fact that the theme of motivation at work lacks theoretical implications. Mainly building measures and prediction models tests, such as the theoretical and methodological competence demonstrated by surveys of study of objects as values, psychological contracts, learning, perception of justice and equity. In addition, an organization has favorable and unfavorable factors specific to common personal motivation to public organizations. On the positive side, motivation factors are the fact that workers are simultaneously citizens and employees too. In this context, identification with organizational objectives is easier and the ability to take satisfaction with the results, in principle, more direct. As for the negative factors is the fact that material incentives arising from a better or worse performance are not considered or are diffused without real meaning.

Kind of Data Collected

In general it is observed that the three studies have been devoted to investigate the relationship between motivation, commitment, job satisfaction and performance (Baylor, 2010). In this sense, the evidence found in this literature has suggested that motivation influences organizational commitment levels, determining the performance of the individual at work. However, the theories also observed the analysis of the relationship between the type’s motivation and types of organizational commitment. Moreover, the influence of individual variables and job characteristics of such relationships are also analyzed, which indicates group’s diversity of effects (Bergström & García, 2018). The study of motivation at work receives considerable interest in the literature presented along with theoretical framework, probably due to their close relationship with the individual performance and organizational commitment.

According to the presented theoretical framework of employee motivation, many employees at work are paralyzed due to the complexity of the approaches that make up the psychology of the individual in depth for critical analysis (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Hence, it relates to the behaviorist ideas and authors presenting theories on organizational studies for employee motivation. The theory and literature warns that the effect of motivation on individual performance employee is debatable. Motivation has been linked as an antecedent of satisfaction and commitment, which gives more importance to study of the subject, for both job satisfaction as the organizational commitment and performance. Their results showed that the motivation is correlated with organizational commitment (Baylor, 2010). Essentially, it was found that the intrinsic motivation relates to the instrumental commitment and intrinsic motivation also relates to the affective commitment.

In this case, when the employees have motivation caused by the benefits of carrying out their activity tends to have commitment to the organization based mainly aversion to costs due to the exchange work. But when the employees have motivation caused by the satisfaction of carrying out their activities, they have impaired affective, that relates to the employee’s involvement with the company. The theoretical framework presented, examined the organization’s culture influence on worker performance. Their results showed that satisfaction and organizational commitment act as moderators in the relationship between culture organizational and individual performance of employees (Baylor, 2010). Thus, the managers of human resources working to improve the motivation of workers and the commitment of these, they can also influence the culture of the organization, encourage individual performance thereof.

The impact that motivation generates job satisfaction associated to organizational commitment in the long productivity term business and performance. The studies investigated by the researcher constitute a social work organization in the western United States. The results showed that organizational commitment is related to the satisfaction of job, reflecting in employee performance (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Studies examined the relationship between motivation and job performance, mediated by organizational commitment. The types of organizational commitment dimensions, which refer to affective commitment, are normative and instrumental.

This study is based on the presented theoretical framework, whose commitment is a force that relates to an individual sense of actions and has great importance for the realization of a goal. It has been described that the normative aspect of commitment indicates a centralized focus on controls and standards for companies, or an intense mission and widely distributed within it (Baylor, 2010). The compromise is instrumental referring to the degree to which the employee remains in the organization by reason of spending. It is involved with its output, not beliefs and conditionings, but for only one specific gain of reward. In turn, the organizational commitment refers to the degree to which an individual feels emotionally attached to the company (Wang, & Sun, 2017). This approach is defined by the integration of the individual goals with those of the organization. Thus, the emotional involvement generally denotes link between emotional worker and the company (Bergström, & García, 2018). Since the instrumental compromise relates to the permanence the individual in the company in order to not incur costs that may apply to leave organization. In contrast, normative commitment concerns the requirement that the employee has to stay in business. As explained two predictive characteristics affecting commitment of collaborators in a business environment, which are the variety of performed skills and meaning of tasks that individuals attribute.

Storeowner

In accordance to the literature and theoretical framework, it was observed that, there is a direct relationship between motivation, commitment and honesty, which does not occur between motivation and performance job (Baylor, 2010). The main contribution of this scenario lies in the fact that, unlike the expected, motivation, commitment and honesty exert little influence on the storeowner (Bergström & García, 2018). That is, there need to understand what are the other aspects that affect storeowner performance. However, it is necessary to emphasize that the results may have been influenced by the limitations of this scenario. The research was carried out through literature in theories, according to which job performance is not an important factor for growth professional or honesty.

Performance in lottery is measured solely by self- assessment and has not been used any other quantitative information or assessment external. In short, it is considered that the results found in the paper present a new perspective for understanding the motivation at work, especially with the presentation a new scale of measurement and the analysis of behavior impacted by this motivation (Bergström & García, 2018). To evaluate the performance of storeowner at work implies knowing the dynamics own behavior of each work to be performed and the organizational environment where these actions take place. One difficulty, however, is the delimitation of individual collaboration of people to the organization’s results. To evaluate means to compare results achieved with those who were expected / planned, so that only the previously planned work should be the subject evaluation.

Mother:

It is therefore possible to observe the diversity of behaviors that can be found within the same the scenario environment. Given this diversity in organizations, an institutional change in people management practices and the scenario environment characteristics has been implemented with some frequency in some companies (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Especially in the way the organization behaves towards its employees, matters quite essentially.

These changes aim to encourage better performance of the mother at work, so that they can achieve better results. Motivation at the scenario by internal factors that drive the action and external factors that encourage their action (Baylor, 2010). The intrinsic motivation, which stems from internal factors, relates to the spontaneous satisfaction of the mother in certain activities. Already extrinsic motivation, due to external factors not related to the satisfaction of carrying out the activity, but with the consequences or tangible or verbal rewards that stem from activity performed. Besides the motivation intrinsic and extrinsic factors, there is also the motivation internalized (Bergström, & García, 2018). The internalized motivation is the result of the employee’s willingness to perform a certain task, due to the appreciation of their personal values, caused by extrinsic factors of activity. The internalized motivation differs from the intrinsic since the intrinsic, who is motivated to accomplish the task and internalized available to carry out their activities, by meeting their personal values, made possible by the task.

Knowledge of the factors that lead to motivating the mother is governed as opportunity for organizations. This approach helps them to intervene in personnel management process in order to reconcile the productivity of the mother with the scope of the organizational commitment (Baylor, 2010). Motivated Employees tend to be more committed to the organization, performing exceptionally well. For the scenario to meet their first personal needs and in the background increase the profit of the mother, secondly. Thus, if the mother does not find the scenario in ways to meet your expectations, you will not feel motivated, and report on an exploration of the relationship and not return. Motivation at the scenario has a direct relationship with the mother and organizational productivity. It should be borne interaction between the organization’s interests with the interests of the employee, in order to solve motivation problems at work (Bergström, & García, 2018). The success of the mother depends on the staff of this, since in competitive business market. The spread of business is to attract and retain talented the mother who can leverage the organization’s performance.

Nurse:

The organizational commitment relates to the behavior and values of all employees as well as stakeholders, associated to the company. The commitment of the Nurse results in improvement levels of attendance, punctuality and individual performance. More motivated workers tend to have more behavior commitment to the organization (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Thus, it becomes an opportunity for the business development actions in order to encourage factors that may motivate the Nurse in order to make them engaged and productive in the workplace, conciliating its performance expected by the company. Despite such expectations human diversity can induce individuals to react differently in the workplace (Baylor, 2010). Individuals are different and, therefore, react differently in the context of work, which may explain the existence of influence of different factors such as age, gender and education in the types of motivation for work and organizational commitment prevailing in the same environment. Soon, such factors should be observed when carrying out further studies in order to understand the differences in groups of individuals who work in the same organizational context. Given the above, this study investigated: What is the influence of the intrinsic rewards for work on the organizational commitment of employees in the administrative sector a large industrial organization.

Moreover, it should be ensured that the employees who work in large industrial organization, observing the differences in gender, age, education, working time and job exercised should be treated justly (Wang, & Sun, 2017). Limited time openings, fulfillment with periphery advantages and work condition are outward rewards while criticism and preparing as an inherent reward was found as an indicator of emotional, duration and regulating duties, while pay fulfillment and supervision was most certainly not (Bergström, & García, 2018). This research work would encourage readers to think about the reward framework and methodologies in hypermarket are prescribed to guarantee more prominent authoritative responsibility. The motivation to work has related to individual productivity and organizational commitment.

Thus, it receives considerable attention in studies in psychology and organizational management. Employee motivation is a psychological process related to momentum and the tendency of individuals to perform with some persistence behaviors. Motivation to work differs from the worker’s behavior (Bergström & García, 2018). Employee motivation can be measured through their needs. Hence, the managers should be aware about the priorities and needs an employee own. Through this they will be able to motivate them with adequate rewards. One of the factors determining the individual’s behavior towards work is their willingness. The motivation can also be considered as one of the factors that determine the behavior the individual working, and this behavior relates to the commitment organizational. The commitment of workers refers to the belief to accept goals and values organization, willingness to exert effort in favor of this and conduct their activities in accordance with the decisions of the company.

References

Baylor, K. (2010). The Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Job Satisfaction Factors and Affective Commitment on the Intention to Quit for Occupations Characterized by High Voluntary Attrition. Nsuworks.nova.edu. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=hsbe_etd

Bergström, E., & García, M. (2018). The Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Employee Engagement. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:944047/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Wang, P., Lu, Z., & Sun, J. (2017). Influential Effects of Intrinsic-Extrinsic Incentive Factors on Management Performance in New Energy Enterprises. Retrieved 24 April 2018, from