How can work be designed to be intrinsically rewarding? Qualitative insights from South African non-profit employees

Michelle Renard,Robin J. Snelgar

doi:10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1346

Abstract

Orientation: Intrinsic rewards are personal, psychological responses to the work thatemployees perform, which stem from the manner in which their work is designed.Research purpose: This study sought to discover in what ways non-profit employees arepsychologically rewarded by the nature of their work tasks. The use of a qualitative approachto data collection and analysis ensured that in-depth responses from participants were gained.Motivation for the study: Intrinsic rewards are of particular importance to non-profitemployees, who tend to earn below-market salaries. This implies that their motivationoriginates predominantly from intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic rewards; yet, research into thisarea of rewards is lacking.Research approach, design and method: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conductedusing a sample of 15 extrinsically rewarded non-profit employees working within South Africa.Thematic analysis was utilised in order to generate codes which led to the formation of fiveintrinsic rewards categories.Main findings: Intrinsic rewards were classified into five categories, namely (1) MeaningfulWork, (2) Flexible Work, (3) Challenging Work, (4) Varied Work and (5) Enjoyable Work.These rewards each comprise of various subcategories, which provide insight into why suchwork is rewarding to non-profit employees.Practical/managerial implications: Traditional performance management systems shouldbe re-evaluated in the non-profit sector to shift focus towards intrinsic rewards, asopposed to focusing only on the use of extrinsic rewards such as incentives to motivateemployees.Contribution/value-add: The study provides a qualitative understanding of how extrinsicallyrewarded non-profit employees perceive their work to be intrinsically rewarding, whichbridges the empirical gap pertaining to intrinsic rewards within this sector.

Highlights

In order to improve the strength of an organisation’s value exchange for its employees, organisations should develop reward systems that emphasise both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards (Calvert & Stiles, 2010)
Participant G acknowledged that her work serves a bigger purpose through the direct impact it has, such as its influence on the 100 000 South Africans who have been placed on anti-retroviral drugs in less than 1 year as a result of her input
Participant C, who fundraises for an non-profit organisations (NPOs) that provides care to cancer patients, feels that the end result of her work is her greatest reward, because she can see a direct line-of-sight between the money that she raises for the organisation and the way in which this funding is put to use:

Summary

Introduction

In order to improve the strength of an organisation’s value exchange for its employees, organisations should develop reward systems that emphasise both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards (Calvert & Stiles, 2010). Intrinsic rewards are personal, internal, psychological responses to one’s work that employees receive from doing work that is meaningful, and performing such work well (Thomas, 2009; Tippet & Kluvers, 2007). They are selfadministered rewards that are associated with the job itself (Meyer & Kirsten, 2012; WorldatWork, 2007), as opposed to being provided by an external source such as management. Intrinsic rewards include opportunities to perform varied and diverse activities; to do work that is interesting; to enjoy opportunities to grow personally; to take greater responsibility; to participate in decisionmaking; and to enjoy freedom and discretion in one’s job (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, 2010; Swanepoel, Erasmus & Schenk, 2008).

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