The role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation organizational success Abstract

In any organization, it is essential to keep the employees interested in whatever they are doing at all times as long as they are within the organization. It is the one thing that the HR department needs to keep alive by all means since the decline of motivation among the staff members will directly affect the productivity of the whole team and jeopardy to the continuity of the organization.

Monetary compensation is one the most common form of compensation for skills, time and energy used by employees in most organizations. It helps in showing appreciation for a job well accomplished to the agreed upon standards and over a given period of time. Money comes out as the most widely acceptable form of extrinsic motivation. However, there are levels of rewards systems that bring about intrinsic motivation.

The research herein concentrates on the role of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the success of organization. The experiment will investigate what role the money reward system as a form of intrinsic motivation plays in employee satisfaction, hence commitment and performance, and what role the intrinsic motivation plays and how this affects the satisfaction of employees, hence their performance. The experiment will seek to know which of these two motivation approaches gives forth a more motivated employee body and higher performance as a consequence.

Hypothesis

The intrinsic motivation among employees will lead to better performance of the employees hence higher production.

Intrinsic motivation is commonly described as the willingness of a person to make some decision or take an action depending not on the material rewards but the possible satisfaction that they may derive from the experience or the action.

The decision to engage in the activity is motivated by the pleasure or the learning experience that he may derive from engaging in the activity. The intrinsically motivated people derive pleasure from completing a task, the job itself or recognition. They are the category of people who do not look for any kind of tangible rewards or incentives in order to motivate them but are motivated from within. They may be getting recognition from their leaders or not but it does not dampen their spirit to keep working.

One of the most renowned theorists whose theory inclines more towards the intrinsic motivation is McClelland. McClelland’s theory presumes that there are some needs that are learned and socially acquired as the person grows up and interacts with the environment. In his theory he has three categories namely the Need for Power, Need for affiliation and Need for achievement (Management Study Guide, 2011). These are the major intrinsic motivations that drive employees and people in general to act the way they do in undertaking their assignments.

(a). Need for power indicates the urge by the person to control and influence the behaviors of the other person. Here the person likes to compete with others...

There are two ways of use of power here; positive and negative power. The positive power is when the manager or a team leader wants to use the effort of others to achieve results. Negative use of power is when one uses power for personal gains and aggrandizement.
(b). Need for affiliation indicates ones desire to establish friendship and sense of belonging. Such people prefer tasks that enable them to interact with other people. They are more likely to be team players and will thrive more in a customer service engagement in most organizations.

(c). Need for achievement is the stage where one desires to succeed in a very competitive environment. He sets achievable goals though may be difficult and accepts a given amount of risks in order to have the sense of achievement. The reason why such a person sets realistic goals is due to the knowledge that the unrealistic goals will pretty much depend on chances rather than his personal contribution and skills that he has.

Both Maslow’s and McClelland’s theories agree that it is the individual input and the job context that motivates the person to strive towards achieving the goal and not the participation of the manager or the supervisor. It is the personal ethics, own reward system, skills and knowledge that count in the motivation of the employees as discussed by Hinzie Media (2011).

Variables in the experiment

The behavioral concept that will be under investigation in their research is the employee satisfaction levels and how this is affected by the two types of motivation; the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The two independent variables that will be used in this research are the intrinsic rewards/motivation and extrinsic motivation. These will be varied in the experiment to see how the levels of motivation and commitment to work and general satisfaction of the employees. This experiment will be highly qualitative in nature since it will be collecting personal views and not necessarily variables that can be numerically quantified.

Methodology

The research utilized two main sources of information and data. The first was the literature review from already existing research works and theories that helped shape the direction and tone of the research report. The other more important method was the use of questionnaires on focus groups to help gather the information and the views of the employees from different categories of jobs.

There were questionnaires created and administered to employees from three different categories of organizations. The first group of respondents consisted of 16 employees who had spent less than 5 years in the employment sector after finishing their college degrees. The second lot of respondents was 16 employees who had spent at least 10 years in employment and the last lot of respondents were 16 employees who were on part time employment as they did their class work. The majority of the questions in the questionnaire are the scale questions where the needed answers measured…