Extrinsic Motivation in the Workplace

Abstract

This article explores the concept of extrinsic motivation that are used by companies and organizations to increase the performance and productivity of the employees through external punishments or rewards. In order to better understand extrinsic motivation, the article also debates the self-determination theory’s three psychological needs for intrinsic motivation: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Following this, the article covers the categorization of the four types of extrinsic motivation, based on the degree of self-determination. These types are analyzed, and examples are provided to show how a company’s performance can be optimized. The article concludes that companies should be careful when making use of extrinsic motivation as this might impact the intrinsic motivation of the employees. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation is only a short-term solution and should not be the only motivational factor, thus making it important that the company also tries to fulfil the employee’s psychological needs in order to maintain the intrinsic motivation of theirs.

Introduction

In the realm of project, program and portfolio management, motivation plays an impactful role as to whether an initiative is successful or not. Motivation refers to the forces that drive individuals to take actions towards a specific goal or objective. While motivation can be either intrinsic or extrinsic, extrinsic motivation is particularly relevant to advanced project, program, and portfolio management. Extrinsic motivation refers to the external factors that influence an individual's behavior, such as rewards, recognition, or punishment. In project, program, and portfolio management, extrinsic motivation is often used to incentivize and reward team members for achieving specific milestones or delivering excellent results. By aligning individual incentives with project objectives, organizations can create a culture of high performance and thus create better results.

Extrinsic Motivation

To understand extrinsic motivation, one must first understand where the term becomes relevant. In the 1930s, the American psychologist and behaviorist B. F. Skinner, began studying reinforcement theory. The reinforcement theory builds upon the assumption that an individual’s behavior can be shaped through the consequences of its actions. Behaviors or actions that lead to positive consequences are more likely to occur again, whereas those leading to negative consequences are less likely to be repeated. This phenomenon is also referred to as the law of effect and aims to understand and predict the impact of the consequences. The consequences that reinforcement theory aims to predict the outcome of, can be referred to as extrinsic motivation. The external factors, reward or punishment, can be used in different ways. The rewards can be classified into two categories: intangible rewards and tangible rewards. Intangible rewards refer to emotions and psychology and are non-physical. Examples of this would be recognition, sense of accomplishment or praise. Tangible rewards refer to items or objects and are physical. Examples of this would be salary, bonusses or gifts. To decrease the likelihood of a certain action repeating itself, one can apply the other category of extrinsic motivation, punishment. As with rewards, there are also two main categories for punishment: positive punishment and negative punishment. To apply positive punishment, one must add something unpleasant to decrease the undesired behavior. This could be assigning an employee with extra work or simply assigning them an unpleasant task. Moving on to negative punishment, it involves removing something desirable, also with the goal of decreasing an undesired behavior. This could be things such as taking away an employee’s bonus or privileges.

Self-Determination Theory

When applying extrinsic motivation, one must consider how it affects the individual's intrinsic motivation. To understand the impact of extrinsic motivation on intrinsic motivation, the self-determination theory (SDT) was developed by Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan. According to SDT, an individual has three different psychological needs to be intrinsically motivated : autonomy, competence, and relatedness . If one of these basic needs are not met, it might result in frustration, loss of interest or being disengaged in their work, thus reducing their intrinsic motivation. A lack of autonomy in one's work can be caused by having little to no control over tasks, decisions, or schedules. This could be a consequence of being micromanaged, thus taking away the individual’s room for independent thoughts and actions. Following this, the employee might start feeling like they have no impact, and the work is becoming less meaningful. An example of lack of competence at work could be that an employee is assigned to a task that they cannot solve, which could be due to a lack of training or them being unfamiliar with the task. This can cause the employee to doubt their abilities and feel like they are underqualified for the task, which can lead to frustration and feeling insecure. An example of lack of relatedness could be if an employee feels disconnected from their coworkers or organization. This can lead to loneliness and a feeling of doing work that is meaningless as they are not part of the “community”. When looking at the different forms of extrinsic motivation, SDT specifies four different forms that are shown on the self-determination continuum on figure 1 . These include external regulation, introjection, identification, and integration. To the far left in the black box, amotivation is located. Here, the individual is not motivated and few to none of their basic needs are met. To the far right in the green box is the opposite situation, an individual entirely driven by intrinsic motivation. When moving from left to right on the continuum, the form of motivation becomes gradually more intrinsic.

Figure 1: Continuum of self-determination

External regulation

External regulation is located the furthest to the left of the four different forms of extrinsic motivation, on figure 1. This means that it is the one with the lowest degree of self-determination and is often referred to as extrinsic motivation. The idea behind external regulation is to make the individual either chase a reward or avoid a negative consequence. An example of a reward would be if an employee worked extra hours to receive their bonus, whereas a negative consequence would be working extra hours to avoid getting laid off.

Introjected regulation

Introjected regulation is a type of extrinsic motivation that makes the individual perform certain actions by internalizing external pressure. This could be things such as the desire to avoid feeling guilt, shame, or fear. As with external regulation, introjected regulation is also driven by pressure, but with external regulation the pressure comes from the “outside” as contrary to internal where the pressure comes from the inside in. An example of this could be an employee taking on additional tasks as they may feel like they are letting down their colleagues or organization if they do not. This creates a fear inside the individual, thus pressuring them internally.

Identified regulation

Identified regulation occurs when a behavior has been regulated through identification. This means that the behavior of an individual has been regulated through certain actions and now the individual is identifying itself with the given behavior. When this occurs, the individual is still extrinsically motivated because they are trying to reach a goal, but as they start valuing the activities, that must be completed to reach the goal, they start identifying themselves with the behavior, resulting in self-determination. An example of this could be an employee who is working on a project understands how important the project is for the goal of the company. The employee could also see the project as an opportunity for developing competences that could help them advancing in their career.

Integrated regulation

This type of motivation is the furthest to the right on the continuum on figure 1, thus making it the type of extrinsic motivation with the highest degree of self-determination. With integrated regulation, the individual’s behavior is not only regulated, but the individual has also integrated the behavior and thrives in it. An example of this could be that an employee who is very passionate about sustainability is allocated to a sustainability project. This would align their personal values with the project, thus seeing the project as an opportunity to contribute to a cause that they are passionate about.

Application in the workplace

Limitations

Overjustification effect

When an organization is looking into the motivation of their employees and how they should use extrinsic motivation, the overjustification effect must be considered. The overjustification effect refers to a reduction in intrinsic motivation due to external rewards thus representing a potential negative consequence. In 1971 , Edward Deci documented this effect through experiments . The overjustification effect arises when an individual is externally rewarded for something that they previously found interesting and exciting without receiving anything. Once this happens, it will become more difficult for the person to perform the given activity without being externally motivated. This makes it even more important that organizations are careful when making use of extrinsic rewards as a motivator. In the long run, research shows that an employee that receives extrinsic rewards for completing a task they find enjoyable, leads to a decreased intrinsic motivation for the task in the future.

Timing of reward

An organization can attempt to minimize the overjustification effect in several ways. First, the organization must consider when the timing is right for the rewards. Many organizations choose to pay out bonusses for successful projects after they are completed. This might seem logic, however, it is offering an employee a reward after completing a task, is more likely to decrease their intrinsic motivation than if they are rewarded during the task, which could for example be as a progress payment. This is due to the fact that the employee might view the task as being completed for the reward rather than the enjoyment of the task. If the reward is given during the task the employee is more likely to interpret it as an encouragement to keep up the good work instead of being the primary goal for the task.

Purpose of reward

Another thing an organization must pay attention to is the purpose of the rewards. The rewards should be given to increase the overall success of the company. However, one should not tie the rewards to a very narrowly defined target or goal, which could be giving the employees an individual sales target. Instead, the companies should connect the rewards with broader goals, thus incentivizing teamwork instead of the employees only focusing on their own sales. An example of this being done wrong occurred in 2016 when the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal took place. The company tried to utilize extrinsic motivation by implementing a performance-based salary, which rewarded the employees for opening new credit cards and checking accounts, however, the sales quota was set so high that the employees started opening accounts for customers without their consent. Furthermore, the initiative resulted in individually rewarded performances, incentivizing the employees to think of themselves rather than their colleagues and the company.

Purpose of reward

One more important thing to consider when making use of extrinsic motivation, is that the reward should be aligned with the employee’s interests, which makes the reward seem more supportive rather than controlling, thus avoiding a reduction in intrinsic motivation. A mistake made by countless companies is to award the employees under the assumption that they all desire the same thing, money. Some people will be motivated by having more flexible hours of work or being granted extra vacation days while others will be motivated by step-up opportunities. If an organization takes time to align the type of rewards with the employees, it will make them feel appreciated and not just like a small cog in a large wheel.

Risk of creating a bribing mentality

When a company makes use of extrinsic motivation by giving out rewards to employees, there is also the risk of creating a bribing mentality. The employee will be happy with the reward which could be a bonus, whenever they complete the given task. However, after some time the employee might start to expect a reward every time, they complete a task. When this expectation is present, the employee might stop striving to deliver a great piece of work and instead only deliver the bare minimum required for them to obtain the reward as extrinsic motivators does not create passion. To avoid creating a bribing mentality a company can assure that the rewards are given out in a consistent way and at the same time is aligned with the values of the employees. Extrinsic motivation should first of all be used when the productivity of an employee needs to be increased or when an employee is not naturally motivated for the task. Another way to apply it is to make a repetitive and uninteresting task more engaging for the employee, by offering them a reward for completing the task. Overall, one should not solely depend on extrinsic motivation as the employee will also need the rewards to become bigger with time. Extrinsic motivation should be combined with intrinsic motivation for the best outcome.