Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation within project management

The ultimate goal of a project leader is to create a project environment with intrinsically motivated people only. The process of creating this form of motivation can be a very difficult job since a project leader has to deal with many different and complex personalities. There is no formula for creating intrinsic motivation for your stakeholders. Key to arising intrinsic motivation within a project team is the combination of a project leaders’ self-determination, competence, fairness and transparent way of working. For a project leader it is difficult to satisfy everyone individually with his way of managing and leading. Over time some persons are going to need more attention in order to foster new intrinsic motivation. It is easier to destroy the stakeholders working spirit than to encourage it. An intelligent way to foster new intrinsic motivation if needed are extrinsic ad-hoc rewards. Project leaders can use the instrument of short-term extrinsic rewards in order to lift up the team spirit again. Setting up new unknown goals to motivate the stakeholders to fulfil deliverables on time can be key to keeping the moral high. An example for that can be a project team after-work activity on the projects’ costs if certain expected deliverables are met on time. The project leader is willing to pay a price for its team to be extrinsically motivated to fulfil their deliverables. But the reward is much bigger than a high probability of on-time deliverables. A team gathering can lift up the team spirit and make stakeholders realize that being part of the team is bigger than the pain in fulfilling tasks on time.

Annotated Bibliography

The annotated bibliography describes the most relevant references used in this article. These references can be used for a deeper understanding in the subject of Intrinsic Motivation within project management.

1. E. L. Deci, Intrinsic Motivation, New York: Springer US, 1975. This book offers an insight into the topic intrinsic motivation in general. It is based on psychological facts and theories detected by Edward L. Deci. Though the book does not give insights into intrinsic motivation in the project management aspect, many striking parallels can be found between Edward L. Decis’ examples in the book and motivation within project management.

2. Bruno S. Frey, Margit Osterloh, Successful Management by Motivation: Balancing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Incentives, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2002. This literature gives in-depth insights into project management styles by motivation. The reader is able to understand why intrinsic and extrinsic incentives are key to successfully leading companies, projects, programs or portfolios. It explains the importance of intrinsic motivation as a function of management and why extrinsic motivation is nevertheless indispensable.

3. Project Management Institute, A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) (6th edition), 2017. This book is a fundamental resource for effective project management in any industry. It explains how over the years, business has changed considerably, but projects remain critical drivers of business success. The guide includes The Standard for Project Management. The standard is the foundation upon which the vast body of knowledge builds, and the guide serves to capture and summarize that knowledge. It also explains solutions for project delivery professionals across the entire spectrum of approaches — from predictive to adaptive.

4. E. Deci, R. Flaste, Why We Do What We Do: The Dynamics of personal Autonomy, New York, 1996. This book is about human motivation and is organized around the important distinction between whether a behavior is autonomous or controlled. The aims of this book are to examine the relation between autonomy and responsibility and to reflect on the issue of promoting responsibility in the project management world.