What Really Motivates You? A Data-Driven Exercise and Discussion

Abstract

Why do I work? Despite instructors’ best efforts, students struggle to understand how different people answer this question differently. This exercise enables students to explore what motivates them in comparison to their peers and previous generations while reinforcing the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Students prioritize job reward factors, share their rankings to appreciate that people are motivated differently, and are given archival data to appreciate changes in workplace dynamics. This simple but thought-provoking exercise fosters rich discussions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self- and other-awareness, changes to the nature of the workplace, and differences in demographics, including generational age cohort, gender, and job level. This exercise is suitable for management or organizational behavior courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, using face-to-face and online formats, and synchronous and asynchronous modalities.