The Generation of Intrinsic Motivation: From the Perspectives of “What”, “How” and “Why”
Introduction
During our recent courses of Organizational Behavior Theory, we have learned a lot about the definitions, content, process, and relevant theories of motivation. Despite the slight differences in academic definitions of motivation, there are commonalities in its core qualities. Tao (1993) describes it as a supportive force, Robbins (2005) regards it as a thought, and Kage (2021) defines it as a process, but they all emphasize the attribute that people subjectively orient themselves towards goals in order to satisfy their specific needs and build actions to achieve these goals ultimately.
This article mainly discusses about (1) What motivates people (content), (2) How a motivation is generated (conditions), (3) Why an intrinsic motivation, in combination with my personal experience, as it is always helpful to view theorized knowledge in the context of real-world experience.
What motivates people?
According to the content theory of motivation, the content of motivation refers to “what” motivates people, and there is a strong causal relationship between the generation of motivation and the satisfaction of needs. Although I am currently a university student and have not had any experience of working in a company as a full-time employee, I have experienced generating motivation intrinsically in the process of conducting my master’s degree research. This research project is about digital innovation for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) within the apparel manufacturing industry in China. The aim is to establish a framework for service innovation and to help build a bridge between theory and practice in the implementation of digital transformation strategies for SMEs by co-working on the development of a vertical SaaS software business with partner-enterprises in this industry and theorizing the tools and methods used in the process of design, prototyping, development, and marketing. The research project has already finished most of the user and market research and an academic paper, and will be working on the development, testing and subsequent market release of the service in the following two years.
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1943), from low to high, the hierarchy of needs can be divided into, physiological needs, security needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and need for self-actualization. Firstly, for myself, to get a master’s degree, I need to be recognized by the peers in my research field through the richness of my research outcome. This is an esteem need that I am eager to be recognized by others. In addition, at the beginning of this project, such operant resources of me, both in terms of knowledge and skills, were lacking, and completing this research project is a self-actualization need that I want to achieve growth in my abilities and access to future development opportunities. Driven by these two needs, I tried my best to formulate the direction of subsequent actions and gained the motivation to reach my goals. For example, I started to learn about how to enrich my knowledge and skills through literature review, case studies, user research, and course work. In addition, I also begin to explore how to build a team to compensate for my lack of expertise in other fields, so that I can offset the bias that might arise in this practical research.
How is a motivation generated?
Having identified the factors that generate motivation, it is also particularly important to know what conditions and process support the formation of a motivation. According to Expectancy Theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964), the degree of motivation depends on the Valence, the Instrumentality, and the Expectancy. Of these, the Expectancy refers to the relationship between individual effort and performance, the Instrumentality refers to the relationship between performance and outcomes, and the Valence refers to the relationship between reward and need satisfaction. The theory explains that if individuals believe there is a positive correlation between effort and performance, outcome of a favorable performance will lead to desirable rewards, outcomes from performance will satisfy an important need, or the outcomes will be sufficient to satisfy their needs and make the effort worthwhile.
The expectancy of the relationships between effort, performance, outcome, and need satisfaction necessary condition for me to generate and maintain a high motivation. For example, at the stage of this research project where I was focusing on finishing my first research paper, as I have already set my research purpose (testing a hypothesis) and the research methods (interview and questionnaire) according to the purpose, I can have expectations about the research data that my efforts (the time, money and energy invested) will be able to obtain. And how this data, when analyzed, will empirically prove the initial hypothesis of the study. Finally, this research paper as part of a research project that will help me to obtain a master's degree and enhance my personal competencies is enticing for me.
Why is it an intrinsic motivation?
In addition, as for the reason why it is more of an internal motivation than an external motivation is basically determined by one’s values. From my perspective, the value of being able to push the limits of one's abilities and achieve new breakthroughs through this research project is more important than an external motivation for the purpose of receiving monetary rewards or verbal praise from one's supervisor.
According to Deci (1975), the two necessary elements for intrinsic motivation are one's perceived competence and autonomy.
The sense of competence comes from the effective interaction between the self and the environment. This brings me to my upbringing. My family has been operating in the relevant industry for more than thirty years, and as I grew up in this environment, I realized the existing problems in the industry and the importance of digital transformation strategy for the future development of SMEs. This became a seed within me that kept taking root and supported me in wanting to carry out this research and hoping that my findings would feed back into the industry my family works in.
At the same time, autonomy means that I believe that I can achieve my goals by following a predetermined plan and putting in the effort. In fact, as I was a foreign student, I had already spent a year as a research student before becoming a master program student. During this year, I conducted some preparatory research, and after much trial and error and much discussion with my supervising professor, I established a research plan for my master's program. As two years is a very short period of time, it is significant that the research plan is highly implementable and has clear objectives, so I am currently using the OKR method to manage my research progress by setting up 3-monthly milestones and monthly OKRs.
Conclusion
To summarize, this article combines authors’ personal experience to explain that the generation of intrinsic motivation requires needs as initial incentives, with the expectancy of the relationships between effort, performance, outcome, and need satisfaction as a necessary condition, and personal values as a measure of whether it is an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivation.
References
田尾雅夫(1993).『モチベーション入門』日経文庫。
Robbins,S.P.(2005).Essentialsoforganizationalbehavior.PrenticeHall.(高木晴夫 訳 『入門から実践へ新版 組織行動のマネジメント』ダイヤモンド社, 2009 年)。
鹿毛雅治(2022).『モチベーションの心理学-「やる 」と「意欲」のメカニズム』中公新書。
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50 (4) 370–96.
Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation.
Deci, E. L. (1975). Conceptualizations of intrinsic motivation. In Intrinsic motivation (pp. 23-63). Springer, Boston, MA.
During our recent courses of Organizational Behavior Theory, we have learned a lot about the definitions, content, process, and relevant theories of motivation. Despite the slight differences in academic definitions of motivation, there are commonalities in its core qualities. Tao (1993) describes it as a supportive force, Robbins (2005) regards it as a thought, and Kage (2021) defines it as a process, but they all emphasize the attribute that people subjectively orient themselves towards goals in order to satisfy their specific needs and build actions to achieve these goals ultimately.
This article mainly discusses about (1) What motivates people (content), (2) How a motivation is generated (conditions), (3) Why an intrinsic motivation, in combination with my personal experience, as it is always helpful to view theorized knowledge in the context of real-world experience.
What motivates people?
According to the content theory of motivation, the content of motivation refers to “what” motivates people, and there is a strong causal relationship between the generation of motivation and the satisfaction of needs. Although I am currently a university student and have not had any experience of working in a company as a full-time employee, I have experienced generating motivation intrinsically in the process of conducting my master’s degree research. This research project is about digital innovation for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) within the apparel manufacturing industry in China. The aim is to establish a framework for service innovation and to help build a bridge between theory and practice in the implementation of digital transformation strategies for SMEs by co-working on the development of a vertical SaaS software business with partner-enterprises in this industry and theorizing the tools and methods used in the process of design, prototyping, development, and marketing. The research project has already finished most of the user and market research and an academic paper, and will be working on the development, testing and subsequent market release of the service in the following two years.
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1943), from low to high, the hierarchy of needs can be divided into, physiological needs, security needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and need for self-actualization. Firstly, for myself, to get a master’s degree, I need to be recognized by the peers in my research field through the richness of my research outcome. This is an esteem need that I am eager to be recognized by others. In addition, at the beginning of this project, such operant resources of me, both in terms of knowledge and skills, were lacking, and completing this research project is a self-actualization need that I want to achieve growth in my abilities and access to future development opportunities. Driven by these two needs, I tried my best to formulate the direction of subsequent actions and gained the motivation to reach my goals. For example, I started to learn about how to enrich my knowledge and skills through literature review, case studies, user research, and course work. In addition, I also begin to explore how to build a team to compensate for my lack of expertise in other fields, so that I can offset the bias that might arise in this practical research.
How is a motivation generated?
Having identified the factors that generate motivation, it is also particularly important to know what conditions and process support the formation of a motivation. According to Expectancy Theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964), the degree of motivation depends on the Valence, the Instrumentality, and the Expectancy. Of these, the Expectancy refers to the relationship between individual effort and performance, the Instrumentality refers to the relationship between performance and outcomes, and the Valence refers to the relationship between reward and need satisfaction. The theory explains that if individuals believe there is a positive correlation between effort and performance, outcome of a favorable performance will lead to desirable rewards, outcomes from performance will satisfy an important need, or the outcomes will be sufficient to satisfy their needs and make the effort worthwhile.
The expectancy of the relationships between effort, performance, outcome, and need satisfaction necessary condition for me to generate and maintain a high motivation. For example, at the stage of this research project where I was focusing on finishing my first research paper, as I have already set my research purpose (testing a hypothesis) and the research methods (interview and questionnaire) according to the purpose, I can have expectations about the research data that my efforts (the time, money and energy invested) will be able to obtain. And how this data, when analyzed, will empirically prove the initial hypothesis of the study. Finally, this research paper as part of a research project that will help me to obtain a master's degree and enhance my personal competencies is enticing for me.
Why is it an intrinsic motivation?
In addition, as for the reason why it is more of an internal motivation than an external motivation is basically determined by one’s values. From my perspective, the value of being able to push the limits of one's abilities and achieve new breakthroughs through this research project is more important than an external motivation for the purpose of receiving monetary rewards or verbal praise from one's supervisor.
According to Deci (1975), the two necessary elements for intrinsic motivation are one's perceived competence and autonomy.
The sense of competence comes from the effective interaction between the self and the environment. This brings me to my upbringing. My family has been operating in the relevant industry for more than thirty years, and as I grew up in this environment, I realized the existing problems in the industry and the importance of digital transformation strategy for the future development of SMEs. This became a seed within me that kept taking root and supported me in wanting to carry out this research and hoping that my findings would feed back into the industry my family works in.
At the same time, autonomy means that I believe that I can achieve my goals by following a predetermined plan and putting in the effort. In fact, as I was a foreign student, I had already spent a year as a research student before becoming a master program student. During this year, I conducted some preparatory research, and after much trial and error and much discussion with my supervising professor, I established a research plan for my master's program. As two years is a very short period of time, it is significant that the research plan is highly implementable and has clear objectives, so I am currently using the OKR method to manage my research progress by setting up 3-monthly milestones and monthly OKRs.
Conclusion
To summarize, this article combines authors’ personal experience to explain that the generation of intrinsic motivation requires needs as initial incentives, with the expectancy of the relationships between effort, performance, outcome, and need satisfaction as a necessary condition, and personal values as a measure of whether it is an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivation.
References
田尾雅夫(1993).『モチベーション入門』日経文庫。
Robbins,S.P.(2005).Essentialsoforganizationalbehavior.PrenticeHall.(高木晴夫 訳 『入門から実践へ新版 組織行動のマネジメント』ダイヤモンド社, 2009 年)。
鹿毛雅治(2022).『モチベーションの心理学-「やる 」と「意欲」のメカニズム』中公新書。
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50 (4) 370–96.
Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation.
Deci, E. L. (1975). Conceptualizations of intrinsic motivation. In Intrinsic motivation (pp. 23-63). Springer, Boston, MA.