Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation - Essay Example

Intrinsic Motivation is more Meaningful for Adult Employees than Extrinsic Motivation al Affiliation) INTRODUCTION As the central principle of economics indicates, individuals respond to incentives. These incentives are pre-requisite to motivation. Motivation is an individual’s inner force to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Rewards and punishments are counterproductive as they undermine intrinsic motivation. Performance incentives offered by an informed principle impact an agent’s perception and performance of the task at hand or that of their (agents) abilities. Intrinsic motivation seeks to find enjoyment within an individual, while extrinsic motivation is a result of tangible rewards. The major elements of intrinsic motivation include; competence, interest, self-determination, and enjoyment, while those of extrinsic motivation include; recognition, concerns with competition, and evaluation. Individual differences in these two characteristics are assessed by a Work Preference Inventory (WPI). The scores from this system are related in meaningful ways to other behavioral measures of motivation such as personality characteristics. Intrinsic motivation is more meaningful for adult employees than extrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated employees are ego involved and committed to their work due to the fact that they have a say about what they do and how they do it. External rewards may decrease the task interest on individuals engaged in intrinsically interesting tasks. Job satisfaction may be lost if intrinsically motivated behavior is backed by external rewards. However, a good mix of motivation may be propelled individuals work for intrinsic and extrinsic rewards simultaneously. DISCUSSION Individual passionate interest of work is the backbone of motivation. When intrinsically motivated, employees find a deep level of enjoyment and involvement in their income generating activities and that is what leads to success (Thomas 2009). Adult employees find passion in what they do due to their level of maturity as compared to the younger employees. This is the reason as to why they, adult employees, are not necessarily motivated by tangible rewards but that inner driving force to achievement. To them, monetary rewards are as a result of striving to accomplish specific goals and not merely as a result of pleasing the principals. The labor of love is crucial for success when an employee is propelled by curiosity. This is the driving human behavior that engages employees in work basically because it is interesting, fulfilling and satisfying (Johnson 2009). The cognitive component of self-determination and competence bound up with the affective component of excitement and interest are the hallmarks of intrinsic motivation. Recently, various trends have indicated why intrinsic motivation is more meaningful for adult employees compared to extrinsic motivation. Adult employees seem to be motivated by their own curiosity rather than doing work to please others or to earn a reward. Job satisfaction cannot be merely defined in terms of rewards earned but by the state of enjoyment that an employee earns from the job. The engagement between doing work and earning satisfaction without an apparent award manifests itself early in life but not until one is able to understand that the value of satisfaction comes from in within. This is why adult employees appreciate intrinsic motivation after the realization that a task should not be performed for pay but for accomplishment of a goal and the satisfaction that accompanies it. Adult employees want to enjoy what they do and that is why external rewards cannot match up with intrinsic motivation. It is a fact that external rewards have an adverse effect on interest, performance and motivation when an intrinsically motivated employee sets to achieve a goal (Yidong & Xinxin 2013). Employees who have rewards as their incentives shift their focus from performance and the desire to learn to the earning of the reward. Adult employees have learnt on how to work independently and how to take full responsibility for their work rather than relying on others. When applying for jobs, job seekers usually site in their curriculum vitae (C.V) that they can work under minimum supervision. It is also an ethical issue to be accountable for any action that an individual undertakes. Being accountable to one’s job means no reliance on others for individual actions. This ethical behavior among adult employees brings about the urge of independence so as to be accountable for all actions undertaken. This ethical behavior of accountability is accompanied by job satisfaction which leads to enjoyment. Extrinsic motivation may erode the urge to be independent as an employee will tend to rely on others so as to earn a reward and bring about competition for recognition among employees. Relying on others cannot lead to the fulfillment of an employee’s objective. No employee has ever earned job satisfaction by being dependant on other employees. In fact, it is through independence that one earns satisfaction and enjoyment in a task. It has become a norm for employees nowadays to self-evaluate themselves on their periodic performance. Intrinsic motivation serves as an internal gauge for the employees to inform themselves of their personal success or failure. Extrinsic motivators cannot serve this purpose of self-evaluation. For example, comparisons with other employees tend to give a false impression of an employee’s achievement (Johnson 2009). An employee’s self-presentation behavior is a function of the social situation and the enduring orientation towards self-actualization. Employees evaluate their performance from values such as; enjoyment, interests, and job satisfaction, which are all intrinsic motivators. Self evaluation on performance using intrinsic motivators has become a trend that is being adopted by most employees and it serves as a clear indicator as to why intrinsic motivation is more meaningful to adult employees as compared to extrinsic motivators. The prevailing attitude as to why intrinsic motivators are more meaningful to adult employees as compared to extrinsic motivators is that, as much as intrinsic motivation is important, all employees are human beings regardless of their age. The human definition of job satisfaction is that job whose pay is able to sustain life (Yidong & Xinxin 2013). All employees aim at improving their standard of living and their general image and this means that their motivation to work is pay. This brings about a false impression of what the employee really want to achieve at the place of work. At a more mature level, it becomes clear to the employees that it is the inner force of achievement that compels them to wake up each new day and go to work and not the salary at the end of the month. This topic has its various strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages. Employee motivation is crucial in every organization. By delegating an organizational task to employees, the employers should provide a conducive environment for them to carry out their duties effectively. Intrinsic motivation has been backed by numerous studies which try to prove if it is practical or just theoretical among employees. Everyday intuition suggests that employees differ systematically and reliably in their motivation to work. Intrinsic motivation is inborn. The desire to earn satisfaction from every activity comes from in within and is not subject to change despite the external influences, like monetary rewards. Although this topic is backed by research, employees’ behavior of challenge seeking and exploration, brought about by intrinsic motivation, lacks a clear external reinforcement. It is not certain that all adult employees will be motivated by intrinsic motivators. There should be a good mix of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators to enhance employee performance. The advantages of intrinsically motivating adult employees are that, employees will be motivated by their curiosity, they will tend to be independent, and they will prefer challenges that increase their learning regardless of whether there is pay or not. The major setback of intrinsically motivating adult employees is that, it cannot be effective on all of them. Some individuals are best motivated by tangible benefits. An employee may be passionate about his/her work but the pay would not motivate him/her to perform. In general, intrinsic motivation cannot work independently but requires a perfect mix with extrinsic motivation (Thomas 2009). Though this topic holds sufficient grounds about adult employee motivation, one cannot completely block out the benefits of extrinsic motivation. This topic is rather ambiguous in the sense that, as much as intrinsic motivation is more meaningful to adult employees than extrinsic motivation, it cannot be ascertained that it serves as the major employee motivation tool in any organization. One cannot work without a monetary incentive which includes salaries and rewards. Research should be carried out to reduce the ambiguity and ascertain that, although a perfect mix of these two motivators is required, intrinsic motivation holds more water than extrinsic motivation for adult employees. After it has become certain that intrinsic motivation is more meaningful than extrinsic motivation for adult employees, relevant research on whether this is applied practically in the blue-chip firms for the billions of dollars that they generate. CONCLUSION Principals tend to feel more energized in their work when they build intrinsic motivation among adult employees. Adult employees need intrinsic motivation which saves them from expending too much energy trying to push themselves. Principals find their own motivation increase when they take time to build relationships and a safe and supportive working atmosphere among the agents. References Johnson, M. (2009). Intrinsic Motivation at Work What Really Drives Employee Engagement.. MCM Univeristy: McMillan. Thomas, K. W. (2009). Intrinsic motivation at work what really drives employee engagement (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Thomas, K. W. (2009). Intrinsic motivation at work building energy & commitment. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Yidong, T., & Xinxin, L. (2013). How Ethical Leadership Influence Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior: A Perspective of Intrinsic Motivation. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(2), 441-455. Read More