Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA

Abstract

How can organizations motivate employees to engage in crowdsourcing? Should they use incentives that are congruent with their established hierarchical structures, or incentives that are aligned with the aspirational, peer-based approach to innovation that crowdsourcing represents? We partnered with NASA for a qualitative study and a field experiment (N=7,455) to understand employees’ motivations to engage in crowdsourcing, and to study the effectiveness of different recognition incentives. First, we find that the perceived incongruence between crowdsourcing and organizational hierarchy disincentivizes employees by creating concerns about the legitimacy of peer-based innovation. Second, we find that managerial recognition, the incentive that is congruent with the established hierarchy, significantly increases engagement. We do not find support for the overall effectiveness of peer recognition, the incentive that is congruent with the peer-based approach to innovation. But this result masks an interesting heterogeneity by job function: Workers in support functions, who are otherwise less visible, report being highly motivated by it. Our study contributes to the literatures on crowdsourcing and incentives, and it yields direct implications for organizations seeking to adopt peer-based innovation.