Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

I got fascinated recently by the many causes of perception differences between people. One of the most misunderstood “properties” of people is their motivation. This is important. Motivation is considered to be a key economy driver, certainly in a knowledge society, where the internal motivation, the drive, the passion are needed to make progress. Recruiters do not only assess a candidate’s knowledge and experience, but also his/her motivation to do the job. And motivation is also understood as an important factor of well-being and happiness at work, therefore essential to keep the employee in a positive, constructive mode.

Yet the Harvard Business Review published in 2003 an interesting article  entitled "Why we misread motives". We are very bad at  assessing what drives somebody else. We all know our own intrinsic drivers: creativity, pride about our work results,  recognition, new challenges, … Yet when it comes to understanding the drivers of other people, we believe they are driven by salary prospects, yearly evaluations, work result control, etc. We claim we are driven by intrinsic motivation whereas others need extrinsic motivation to get going. The study casts justified doubt on the usefulness of evaluation conversations and points out that the way we run our businesses today, with a lot of control, leaves a lot of potential unused. Control needs effort from both the controller and the one who is being controlled. Moreover, the article suggests the controlled one may even lose his intrinsic drivers if you chase him/her with external drivers.

I believe this finding is not only valuable for companies. It is also valuable in the education of children. Perhaps even for our politicians: are they really motivated to improve our society? How can they be motivated if they know that once elected, they will almost certainly be defeated by the opposition around four years later, when the next elections take place?  When we complain about politics, perhaps we should think of more “spirit” and a more inspiring way for politicians to communicate with the public and for the public to communicate with politicians.

Picture: sculpture made by Wouter Mulier near the Leuven railway station.