expect your friend to pay you if you volunteer to drive her to the airport. In fact, the
offer of pay might diminish your pleasure in doing a favour for your friend.
Why would such an outcome occur? The popular explanation is that the individual
experiences a loss of control over his or her own behaviour when it is being rewarded by
external sources. This causes the previous intrinsic motivation to diminish. Extrinsic
rewards can produce a shift—from an internal to an external explanation—in an indi-
vidual’s perception of why he or she works on a task. If you are reading a novel a week
because your contemporary literature instructor requires you to, you can attribute your read-
ing behaviour to an external source. If you stop reading novels the moment the course ends,
this is more evidence that your behaviour was due to an external source. However, if you
find yourself continuing to read a novel a week when the course ends, your natural incli-
nation is to say, “I must enjoy reading novels because I’m still reading one a week!”
RESEARCH FINDINGS Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards
Although further research is needed to clarify some of the current ambiguity, the evidence
does lead us to conclude that the interdependence of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards is
a real phenomenon.^58 A large body of research shows that large external rewards can
undermine the positive performance of employees.^59 When employees work for a large
reward, they will explain their behaviour through that reward—“I did it for the money.”
However, in the absence of large rewards, employees are more likely to reflect on the inter-
esting nature of the work or the benefits of being an organizational member to explain
their behaviour. When an organization provides employees with intrinsically interest-
ing work, they will often work longer and harder than one might predict from the actual
external rewards.
In studies dating back to the 1940s, employees have always ranked other items, such
as being shown appreciation for work done, feeling “in” on things, and having interesting
work, as being more important to them than their salaries.^60 Employees at both
Southwest Airlines and AES, an independent producer of electrical power with offices in
the United States, Argentina, China, Hungary, and other countries, indicated that they
appreciated the positive working climates of these organizations more than the finan-
cial rewards they received.^61
Increasing Intrinsic Motivation
Our discussion of motivation theories and our discussion of how to apply motivation
theories in the workplace focuses mainly on improving extrinsic motivation. Recently
Professor Kenneth Thomas of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has
developed a model of intrinsic motivation that draws from the job characteristics model
and cognitive evaluation theory.^62 He identifies four key rewards that increase an indi-
vidual’s intrinsic motivation:
- Sense of choice.The opportunity to select what one will do, and perform the way
one thinks best. Individuals can use their own judgment to carry out the task. - Sense of competence.The feeling of accomplishment for doing a good job.
People are more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment when they carry out
challenging tasks. - Sense of meaningfulness.The opportunity to pursue worthwhile tasks.
Individuals feel good about what they are doing, and believe that what they
are doing matters. - Sense of progress.The feeling of accomplishment that one is making progress
on a task, and that it is moving forward. Individuals feel that they are spend-
ing their time wisely in doing their jobs.
Chapter 4Motivating Self and Others 123